Book Review: Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand

This is an surprising review for two reasons. The first is that this book was written 40 years ago and I'm just getting around to a review now. The second reason is that I'm not in the habit of reading garbage and I usually just set a book on fire if it doesn't meet some minimum standard. But I heard so many people saying that she was really bad without any substantive criticism that I assumed that they disliked her on idealogical grounds. But there is so much more.

To begin, I should state that I find her ideology repulsive. Of course, the main idea is that capitalism is the greatest system in history because it is in touch was man's nature as rational, self-serving being. Capitalism doesn't derive its justification from maximizing social welfare, which she also believes, because social welfare is not the salient issue. Furthermore, a rational, self-serving being cannot make the rational choice of altruism. Efforts to reach out to others is nothing more than the result of a degenerate Left, which had also crept into mainstream politics during the Johnson administration and resulted in a government's dubious assertion that it had the right to protect social welfare and which consequently refused to abandon the mixed economy which included elements of the welfare state, or statism as she called it.

Frankly there is so much wrong with her book that it would require a tome to do justice to her falicies alone. So I'll pepper over her frequent quoting of her other books, the fact that she uses her fictional charicters as empirical evidence to illustrate her hypothoses, her idea that "A=A" can be used as a proof of her theories and her incessant use of hyperbole, not as a rhetorical device, but as a logical gaff. There is plenty wrong with her more basic premises upon which, I believe her entire political ideology is based.

She frequently clamors for human freedom. She means it in a libertarian sense: governments should get out of the way of individuals, the only elements in society who have rights. Society is nothing more than an agglomeration of individuals who form groups which have no meaningful identities of there own and thus aren't entitled to rights. Though dubious, we'll move on.

These individuals have a right to life and to freedom, which most Westerners will grant, with a particular understanding of what this means. For Rand, freedom is nearly absolute. Society has no claim on the individual save that individuals do not kill others or violate their private property. This rather extreme view is based on human nature, according to Rand. The essence of man is his rationality, which can only function given the utmost of freedom. By essence, she further explains that she means "that which seperates us from the rest of living things". Very curious. She believes that we ought to base an entire system of philosophy and political ideology on the basis of humanity's unique traits, while completely ignoring the traits which we share with other creatures. By her premis, it would seem that computers would be entitled to greater rights than humans, or else humans wouldn't be entitled to any rights because rationality is no longer the sole possession of man. This is grotesque. A philosophy which claims to be in concert with human nature would do well to include a greater extent of man's experience of himself, ie, his non-rationality.

She goes on to claim that man cannot be free without the guarantee of property rights. She treats as equivalent (in her essay on anti-trust laws) the experiences of the Jews under Hitler, the Ukrainians under Stalin and the American businessman under Johnson. That is, a person's life has the same value as their property. And as a coralory, a person's right to property is greater than rights that any social grouping a person might belong to. This does not seem consistent with the view of rights deriving from rational capacity: surely there is a greater potential for rationality between persons than between person and thing.

There are so many other specific points of the book which deserve critism but this review is long enough. I'm putting this book on my index. I might even burn it tonight. Everything you've heard about it is true. Don't bother reading it.

The end of oil

I always love speculations about this because I believe it tells one a good deal about how fuzzy-minded people can be. According to The Economist (August 12-18), the company with the largest quantity of proven oil reserves, Aramco (with about 10 times the capacitly of Exxon), has enough proven reserves to supply the world for 70 years. Given the approximate current oil consumption of 80 million barrils per day (https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/xx.html), times 365 days per year, gives about 29 billion barrils consumed per year (assuming, for their benefit that consumption rates remain constant indefinately). The Economist's source declares Aramco's proven resourses at some 250 billion barrils. Divide that by 29 billion, and you get 8.6207, which apparently rounds up to 70. Hmm.

For the sake of interest, given a constant rate of oil consumption (again, for the sake of simplicity), given the proven oil reserves of the world, 1.35 trillion barrils (https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/xx.html), at 80 billion per year, our proven resources would be exhausted in 47 years.

The Economist has noted time and time again, however, that the "proven" reserves are of very little value for making such predictions. Again they note that Aramco is exploiting only 10 of its 70 wells, suggesting that they have quite a bit more potential remaining. But for the life of me, I can't figure out how they came up with 70 years.

Best Concert-Humanitarian Fundraiser Ever

I will be playing as part of La Guitarre Trio, with Rob Drew and Devin Krauskopf on Friday, August 18 at 8:00 at the Kirk of St James. The program includes Bach, Piazolla, my music and other standard repertoire. Tickets are at the door and cost $8. Half of the proceeds will be donated to the Mikinduri Children of Hope. See http://www.mikinduri.com/ for more of its details. See you all there!

Make Poverty History With Two Hours Traffic, Guest Speakers

A concert featuring popular Island performers Two Hours Traffic,
slated for June 29th at the Joe Ghiz Memorial Park, will celebrate
the anniversary of Live8 concerts and a year of Make Poverty History
activities.

One year ago, over 3 billion people watched as some of the world’s
most popular musicians took to the stage in ten cities including
Berlin, London, and Philadelphia. As the likes of Elton John,
Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Youssou N’Dour and Sarah McLaughlin sang
their songs, “Make Poverty History” was the message and the leaders
of the G8 nations who were gathering to meet in Gleneagles, Scotland
were the intended recipients. Later, those leaders would be
congratulated on their negotiations that led to promises on several
key issues: $50 billion more aid per year by 2010; Debt cancellation
for 38 countries; Primary education for every child by 2015; AIDS
drugs to all those who need them, and care for all AIDS orphans;
Help to double the size of Africa’s economy and trade by 2015.

Around the world, people involved in the Make Poverty History
campaign were buoyed, but not complacent. In 2005, thousands of
events were held to draw attention to the factors surrounding global
poverty. In Prince Edward Island, local organizers held a rally in
September, a walking tour of poverty on October 17, a poverty forum
for federal election candidates in January and in February public
information sessions and a concert were held during the ECMA’s.

According to Simone Stahel-Webster, "Organizers can look back on
many successes in 2005. Mobilization by Make Poverty History
committees nationwide raised the awareness amongst Canadians about
poverty issues in Canada and abroad. More than 215,000 Canadians
have signed on to the MPH campaign and 178 MP’s pledged their
support to MPH objectives."

Still, there is much to be done. G8 Finance Ministers will meet next
month in St Petersburg and Make Poverty History campaigners will use
that occasion to encourage the leaders to keep the promises made
last year and go further. Stahel-Webster says PEI organizers will
join activists around the world later in the year to keep public
attention of poverty issues; “We’ll be riding on the big wave of
support that has developed over the past year. The main focus of the
MPH campaign in 2006 will be the month before October 17th, the
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. MPH movements
around the world chose October 17th to be the International White
Band Day of Action in 2006.”

Two Hours Traffic will perform at the free concert on Thursday, June
29th from 7 to 9 p.m. at Joe Ghiz Memorial Park on Kent Street in
Charlottetown. The concert, also featuring Brielle Ansems and
Courtney Francis. Speakers will address the issues that are key to
the campaign - fair trade, elimination of debt to poor countries,
foreign aid and domestic poverty reduction. If it rains, the event
will be held at the Basilica Rec Centre on Richmond St.

Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson vs. PEI Health Care

I don't mean to criticize people who spend their own money on whatever harmless leasure activity they choose. But I do mean to criticize a government that spends the people's money on a leasure activity that is restricted to the ambit of the rich. Golf has almost no value to our society, as such, and so the government's sponsorship of it is a bit of a problem. People don't learn anything playing it and they don't get fit. It's kind of like sitting in a hot tub or watching a good movie. There's nothing wrong with these things, but it would be asinine to pay a couple of bathers $1.5 million to demonstate how efficiently they can do. I hope Mitch Murphy is enjoying the game, at least. By the way, I want my $10 in taxes back.

Charlottetown dithers on cosmetic pesticides

City council has just moved that they ask the province to ban cosmetic pesticides. It is an accomplishment of sorts since last month they decided that they wouldn't ask the province. But the request holds little promise since our environoment minister, Jamie Ballem, has repeated stated that he wouldn't do so. This is a token gesture from city council to deflect criticism that they are not listening to the citizens. Charlottetown can and should take the lead on this issue.

See http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=2903&sc=1 for the Guardian story.

Nova Scotia Election

Kudos to all the parties who picked up seats in the Nova Scotia election. NDP is up 5, Conservatives are down 2 and the Liberals are down 3. It's also nice to see the Greens make a decent showing in their run.