<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting essays ruined by wrong-headed analysis
Review: In some ways, this is the best collection of essays by Rand and her colleagues. It contains two of Rand's best essays (her "Apollo 11" and her somewhat prophetic "Global Balkanization") and some thought provoking essays by Leonard Peikoff on education and medicine. The rest of the essays are a bit of a mixed bag, and all of them suffer from that sort of bad mode of interpretation that afflicts nearly all Objectivist writings. The real problem is that, time and time again, Rand and her disciples derive conclusions about matters of fact through logical reasonings alone rather than through research and experimentation. Thus we find Rand blaming the phenomenon of "racism" on the mixed economy. On what basis does she make such an assertion? Purely on the basis of her own philosophical speculations. Never mind the fact that, during the nineteenth century, when the economy was far less "mixed" than it is today, racism was considerably worse. Another example is Rand's contention that suicides among the young are caused by the dismal state of contemporary culture. Again, no evidence is offered in support of this assertion. Not a single case study is examined or even referred to. For someone who, like Rand, claims to be a realist, this is inexcusable.But perhaps the principle objection to this book has to be Rand's inexorable tendency to exaggerate and distort. I am certainly no admirer of contemporary culture, but Rand's analysis of what she calls the "culture value deprivation" simply goes too far. She gathers a number of horrendous examples and then presents as if they were fully representative of contemporary culture as a whole. "If you wonder what is wrong with people today, consider the fact that no laboratory experiment could ever reproduce so thorough a state of value-deprivation [as does contemporary culture]," she concludes smugly. But is this really a fair and balanced assessment of the effect of culture on people today? Is the effect of culture really equivalent to the sort of sensory-deprivation experiments that Rand mentions earlier in her essay? No, of course not: this is stating matters way to strongly. What is wrong with people is not so much the culture, but the fact that people are human and therefore fail to meet Rand's impossible standards of what she believes they "ought" to be like. She would be dissatisfied with them no matter what age she lived in. And why? Because the overwhelming majority of them would never accept her philosophy--a philosophy which knows so little of the human heart.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best.
Review: Rand was not the greatest non-fiction writer. In fact, some of her non-fiction books are downright mind-numbing. _The Voice Of Reason_ sort of plies a thin line between being interesting and just plain pedantic. Rand was, in essence, a reactionary. She reacted -- and with good reason -- to the 1960s and 1970s, a rather insane period in our time. She makes some excellent points in "Apollo and Dionysis," contrasting the amazing human achievement of the Moon landing with the mud-wallowing revelry of Woodstock. But venomous polemics do not "reason" make. In the world of Randians, all is black and white. Balance does not exist. Either you are are an Apollonian creature of the mind -- a faceless John Galt -- or you're a craven Dionysian carouser. (Rand never figured out how to, as Hunter Thompson wrote, "wallow with the eagles at night and fly with the pigs in the morning.") This maddening tendency toward judgment leaches from every essay in this collection.... and is the prime reason why I can't give it a much better rating.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best.
Review: Rand was not the greatest non-fiction writer. In fact, some of her non-fiction books are downright mind-numbing. _The Voice Of Reason_ sort of plies a thin line between being interesting and just plain pedantic. Rand was, in essence, a reactionary. She reacted -- and with good reason -- to the 1960s and 1970s, a rather insane period in our time. She makes some excellent points in "Apollo and Dionysis," contrasting the amazing human achievement of the Moon landing with the mud-wallowing revelry of Woodstock. But venomous polemics do not "reason" make. In the world of Randians, all is black and white. Balance does not exist. Either you are are an Apollonian creature of the mind -- a faceless John Galt -- or you're a craven Dionysian carouser. (Rand never figured out how to, as Hunter Thompson wrote, "wallow with the eagles at night and fly with the pigs in the morning.") This maddening tendency toward judgment leaches from every essay in this collection.... and is the prime reason why I can't give it a much better rating.
Rating: 
Summary: Thought provoking, often prophetic essays
Review: These 31 pieces include magazine articles and lectures spanning twenty years, from 1961 to 1981. Four of the chapters are by Leonard Peikoff and one each by John Herman Randall and Peter Schwartz, and the book concludes with an epilogue by Peikoff. Part One: Philosophy, consists of chapters elaborating on Rand's Objectivist philosophy. These include a discussion of the ideas of Aristotle, discussions on ethics, psychology, the ethics of altruism and a criticism of religion. Part Two: Culture, investigates intellectuals, the culture vacuum, the flaws of liberal pragmatists, conservatives and businessmen. The death of Marilyn Monroe and the flight of Apollo 11 are discussed here. This section ends with a look at anti-Americanism in academia and the anti-conceptual methodology in the education system. Part Three: Politics, explores various political issues like antitrust legislation, foreign aid, socialized medicine, women in politics and includes a scathing attack on the political movement called Libertarianism. The epilogue is the editor's memoirs of his 30 year association with Ayn Rand. Each chapter begins with information indicating the original source of the article or lecture. In some instances there are references in brackets within the text itself or otherwise they appear as numbered footnotes at the end. In my opinion, the best pieces are The Sanction Of The Victim (Chapter 15), Apollo 11 (Chapter 17), Assault From the Ivory Tower: The Professors' War Against America (Chapter 19), Medicine: The Death Of A Profession (Chapter 30), while the worst is About A Woman President (Chapter 26) in which Rand claims that the office is no place for a woman. Perhaps Ayn Rand would have changed her mind had she lived long enough to witness the achievements of Margaret Thatcher. Whether one agrees with her philosophy or nor, Rand was a brilliant writer and prescient and original thinker. All her work remains stimulating today and much of it now seems prophetic. Not all of these pieces are great but they are all worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Typical Rand
Review: This book contains essays by Rand and some by her associates Leonard Peikoff and Peter Schwartz. The essays by Rand are not her best. The ones by Peikoff and Schwartz lack Rand's fiery prose. Nonetheless, it at least appears that they (unlike Rand) have read more than the New York Times. The one essay worth studying is "On Living Death," a typical Randian screed against the papal encyclical "Humanae Vitae." Rand writes: "In comparison to the moral and psychological importance of sexual hapiness, the issue of procreation is insignificant and irrelevant, except as a deadly threat . . . " It isn't surprising that Rand hated God and there are virtually no children in her novels. Do whatever you want, even if it means committing adultery.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Rand despite contributions of Peikoff and Schwartz
Review: This collection of Ayn Rand's essays includes some hard-to-find classics ("Global Balkanization," "The Sanction of the Victims," and "Apollo 11," for example) and a couple of duds (notably "About a Woman President").
The biggest duds, however, are the additional essays provided by Leonard Peikoff and Peter Schwartz, who apparently couldn't leave well enough alone. Peikoff's essays aren't terrible, but his placing them next to Rand's simply makes obvious what a pretentious and derivative thinker he really is. And Schwartz's ill-considered ravings against "Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty" (particularly his attacks on the late great Murray Rothbard, compared to whom Schwartz is a gnat), far from meriting description as the "voice of reason," do not deserve to be published here or anywhere else.
Buy this book for Rand's essays, but read around the extras thrown in by a couple of mediocre hangers-on.
Rating: 
Summary: Inspiring, thought-provoking, essential
Review: This collection of essaies is invaluable to those individuals who believe that "reason ... is the glory of our nature." In these essaies, Ayn Rand analyzes events in the world from the '60s and '70s, such as the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, and the American debacle in Vietnam. There is an incisive clarity to these essaies, and to Ms. Rand's philosophy in general. Her philosophy, that of Objectivism, is not a faith or a creed: it affirms the fundamental principle that man should be guided by his reason in an objective manner, to pursue his own self-interest. Personally, I felt this way about life when I was younger, but I was sidetracked during adolescence (when we all are vulnerable to "collectivist" ways of thinking due to our intense desire at that age to be accepted by our peers) by the prevailing philosophical ideas of the day: that reality is not knowable to us with any certainty, that one opinion is as valuable as another, that there is no objective reality, and that there is no basis for me to have strong convictions about anything. Reading these essaies (after reading The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged) is like coming home again to the reality that was there all along. Rand, despite the unwavering strength of her convictions, was despairing of the chances for America to retain any of the glory with which it was bestowed at its inception. She makes a convincing case that the birth of this nation was during a brief historical flash when the ideas of the enlightenement (e.g. that the distinctive feature of a man or woman is his power to produce earthly success by the power of his intellect, and that I have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of my own happiness) were transcendant, and that the US has been in intellectual (and hence, real) decline ever since. These essaies provide clear, practical instances of looking objectively at events in the world. Ms. Rand shows the rottenness of multiculturalism, while at the same time blasting racism. This is an example of how screwed up intellectual life is in this country: today you would be called racist if you are against the emphasis on multiculturalism in this society. But Rand's point is that people cannot be judged based on their race or other accidents of birth; we should be judged instead solely on the acheivements of our intellect--the products of our reason applied to our free choice. This is a beautiful book that has had a major impact on me. In fact, it has helped to save me from the cesspool of collectivist philosphy that threatens to overrun our world. Incidentally, this in fact may be the good that comes out of 9/11/01: that the people of the US and the world will see how years of appeasement and passivity has emboldened the enemies of reason. Buy this book and read it. You'll be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: Reflections of a Philosopher Artist
Review: This volume contains a selection of lesser known columns, articles and essays from Ayn Rand's impressive oeuvre. The essays, etc. are arranged into three broad sections: Philosophy, Culture and Politics. Page after page reveals profound insights into the intellectual atmosphere of the times. The writing is always informative and thought provoking, and quite often brilliant. In short, this volume is especially suitable for readers already familiar with the gist of Ayn Rand's philosophy and literary writing.
<< 1 >>
| 
