From: KAMCHAR@ibm.cl.msu.edu
Newsgroups: alt.music.rush
Subject: Re: Rush & Ayn Rand - HELP PLEASE
Date: 27 Aug 92 19:57:13 GMT
Organization: Kamchatka Charlie

ack@Ingres.COM (David Ackerman) writes:
>luther@i5160e.nrl.navy.mil (Luther) writes:
>>stu5s33@bnr.ca writes:
>>>ram@pecan.cns.udel.edu (Stormbringer) says...
>>>
>>>>I've heard many of their songs pertain to her themes.  I'd very
>>>>appreciate if some kind soul could mail me a list of the songs
>>>>(and their respective albums) which have lyrics pertaining to
>>>>Ayn Rand.
>>>
>>>I'm kinda interested too, why not post to this group ?
>>>
>>
>>I think this thread has shown up before, BUT... I'd like to resurrect
>>the discussion because I don't remember much of it, and since it 
>>appeared, I've dived into _Atlas Shrugged_, and I'll probably read
>>other Rand works in the near future. Now that I know a little bit
>>of what Rand is all about, I can appreciate the Rush/Rand connection
>>better. Bring it on!
>
>The obvious ones are Anthem and 2112. Anthem the song is more general, but
>2112 is a musical adaptation of Ayn Rand's book _Anthem_. It's a short book,
>any avid Rush fan should read it.
     Anthem gets its inspiration from "The Virtue of Selfishness."
     2112 is very similar to the story "Anthem."  There are enough differences
between the two, however, to consider them different stories.
     There is also Madrigal Man (off the A Farewell To Kings album), which
holds very Randian phrasing ("Because he was good...they judged him insane" and
"He held up his riches to challenge the poor..." amongst other places).
     Off "Hemispheres" we get The Trees, which (IMHO--NOTE--IMHO) tells a tale
of class struggle in the Randian viewpoint--the lesser Maples gain their
victory, but end up getting cut down as well, whereas they would have continued
if they'd left the oaks alone.

>_Atlas Shrugged_, on the other hand, is quite a piece of work. I spent half
>a summer reading it in the evenings when I was 15. It is quite powerful in
>the end (and plenty of points in between) if you can hang with it and not
>give up after the first hundred pages or so. Ack-bob says check it out.
     I agree.  I read the book in three weeks one summer--by going up to my
room after work and reading straight through 'till bedtime, and then forcing
myself to bed.  I've heard of people going through the book in five days
straight--no eating, sleeping, or bowel movements, just reading A.S.

Books I would suggest reading of Ayn Rand (both fiction and nonfiction):
     Atlas Shrugged
     The Fountainhead (whether you've read A.S. before or not.)
     Anthem
     The Virtue of Selfishness
     Capitalism--The Unknown Ideal
     Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (sp?)
     Philosophy--Who Needs It?  (avoid the anti-Kant ravings, IMHO.  I believe
that she raved against Kant so much in her later writings because her
epistemology ended up being so close to Kant's.)

>As the recent events in Eastern Europe and the former USSR demonstrate,
>I guess [Rand] was right [in saying Communism "sucked"]...
     I'm curious as to what would have happened if Communism would have taken
over in Germany or England first, instead of Russia.  Any reader of Marx SHOULD
have noticed his statement that society had to first go through a Capitalist
phase in order to gain both the productivity power and individuality foundation
that would make Communism work fully.  Russia was still in the Feudal age, thus
none of the basics for "True Communism" were in place.
     (He also said Communism had to be a world-wide system for it to work,
also.  Admission of weakness in the theory?  Probably...)

>That's the one thing I have found a bit inconsistent about Rush in recent
>years. Their earlier stuff was very "Ayn Rand"-ish. Their more recent tunes
>have a lot more of a "socially conscious" message. There's nothing wrong
>with that per se, but some of their lyrics imply that government should
>be doing some of these "socially conscious" things. In order to do these
>things, a government needs to redistribute wealth and do other things that
>amount to socialism. Ayn Rand was very much against that from everything
>I've read by (and of) her.

     People can change minds.  Also, ideas can develope.
(step on podium, begin pontification mode)
     Ayn Rand was a stallwart supporter of Lassez-faire (sp?) economics and
minarchist politics (government for defense against agressors and theifs ONLY).
 While I agree with her and a lot of individualists in Government's
wrongfulness in governing conduct, I find Lassaiz-Faire captialism (and the
degraded form which America is saddled with now) very flawed and unable to
deliver the goods when it comes to economic prosperity.  Also, her framing of
history as a fight between "collectivism" and "individualism" is, IMHO, blind
to the necessity of both to keep human society functioning.
     It is the flaws in Capitalism (it's fixation on money to the point of the
dissolution of everything not money-making in-and-of itself) that created the
theory of Communism, and will create a newer theory which (one will hope) will
insure individual rights while protecting those who need and deserve protection
(or "WE" to the degree that the "I" is raised).
(off podium, shift from pontification mode to suggestion mode)
     I would suggest that you check out the book "The New Left--The
Anti-Industrial Revolution" and read the chapter "Apollo vs Dionysis," then
listen to "Hemispheres" (the cut, althought the whole album is good).  Then ask
yourself--who would you rather pick on this-Rand or Rush.  I'm sure you'll
choose Rush on this matter.
     Enjoy.
Kamchatka Charlie          KAMCHAR@ibm.cl.msu.edu
Newsgroups: alt.music.rush