Ayn Rand: The Real Motive for the Socialist Mindset

whenever any issue is misrepresented for a long long time whenever you see people distorting facts refusing to abide by facts and not making any sense in their accusations you may be sure that the reasons they state are not their true reasons and that there is something deeper behind it which they do not care to admit this is particularly true in the case of capitalism capitalism has been misrepresented practically from its inception both by its enemies and its alleged offenders but the amount of distortion and misrepresentation which goes on today even though evidence to the country

is available and is accumulating year by year is truly staggering it is perhaps the single most misrepresented issue in cultural history therefore it is important to ask ourselves what are people's real reasons when people are blind to the truth obviously blind when the issue is not merely an error of knowledge is not a matter of ignorance but of psychological vested interests we have to ask what are the vested interests behind peoples Arijit and in the case of capitalism the very obvious psychological root is man's fear of independence fear of independence first of all and consequently

fear of rationality and anti rational mentality is necessary to be anti-capitalist and on a more formal level these psychological evils unite in support of the morality of altruism people are led to hate capitalism to the extent to which they subscribe to the ultra morality in many cases they would feel dimly because they would be evading the issue and trying not to admit it they would feel that there is a bad clash between the conventional morality which they have been taught to accept which are not independent nor brave enough to reject and a clash between that

and the nature of capitalism in that sense the nature of reality they are caught between the fact of false moral theory which they're not challenged namely altruism and the facts of reality which demonstrate over and over again that capitalism is the best the most practical and the most moral like the only moral system in human history people dare not face that dichotomy because capitalism is incompatible with the morality of altruism and also have accepted that morality have such a psychological vested interest in it that they take their inner conflict out on capitalism's they make capitalism

the whipping boy of their own inner contradictions they know instakill aaja consent subconsciously that they are wrong in regard to altruism and they therefore acquire a vested interest to try to prove that capitalism is evil if they can discredit capitalism they can consider themselves free to pursue their own impractical vicious morality that is in terms of moral considerations but deeper than that is of course the question what attracts them to the morality of altruism why has morality been perpetuated for such a long time in spite of its obvious evils and blatant country and here we

come to the issue I named first that is people's fear of independence fear of relying on their own judgment on their own mind and therefore feel fear of reason it is their subconscious and sometimes conscious desire to permit a loophole to their irrationality it is their reluctance and to be at the mercy of an absolute reality there's a desire to bypass reality in some way to cut corners and to have an escape clause for their whims their wishes their fears the irrational element within them what they fear when they fear capitalism is objectivity rationality and

reality mr. Rand we're discussing the anti-capitalistic mentality and we're doing that in this singular although you've just pointed out that many of the causes are plural would you say that the these plural causes do result in a singular anti-capitalistic mentality well not mentality in the sense of individual psychology if you mean are all anti-capitalist in effect psychologically I like I would say of course no but as in any evil there are as many different psychological variances that are people but certain basic premises they would have in common I would say the anti-capitalist mentality is the

mentality which is a parade of Independence afraid of reason afraid of reality but that isn't very broad fundamental terms within those broad abstractions there are all kinds of variations and combination of elements which would operate in any given individual so you may ascribe certain generalized principles to a type of mentality which would be opposed to capitalism and these principles would upper in various degrees in every man who opposes capitalism but it is not to say that everyone who opposes it is alike in all psychological essentials mr. hood miss Fran would you elaborate the relationship between

subjectivism the view that a reality is not perceived by consciousness but is created by consciousness and the idea of statism which seems to be in large degree based on the idea that if the government sets about to do something that it can automatically achieve its ends irrespective of the facts of reality but you have really named the essence of the question here those who want to escape from reason and reality can do so only by means of hoping that their hopes wishes or fears can somehow triumph over reality that one does not have to be

bound by facts that one's wishes can somehow succeed regardless of whether they correspond to the facts of reality or contradict them in such a case the only excuse not moral excuse but psychological some semblance of an excuse for such people is the fact that most of their desires in their rationality takes place in the social context and that if they wish something which is contrary to the facts society meaning other people will somehow provide it if they act irrationally other people will save them from the consequences of their irrationality if they demand the irrational or

the unearned other people will provide it as mr. Brandon said once anyone who introduces as somehow into his idea of the means of achieving his ends always means somebody and this is the clue to the status psychology they hope that by enslaving the producers of the goods in life the economic producers by creating an omnipotent state which will rue everybody's life they the Irrational's will somehow ride on the shoulders of the rational members of society the productive members those able to deal with the facts of reality properly not only in the issue of producing material

goods material wealth but in all issues if these providers are enslaved by the state then their energy and their productiveness will permit the irrationalist to gain the unearned the unearned in matter in the form of unearned wealth and the unearned in spirit in the form of unearned honors or government positions the sole means to achieve the unearned and not to achieve it because one can't but to attempt to achieve it is by means of physical force which is why the enemies of capitalism are status there is no alternative to a free society except the establishment

of a totalitarian state which is the rule of men by force when force is the standard of social relationships and the irrational man may hope that somehow by force his masters will provide him with what he wants will take care of him he is willing to give total obedience to the state in exchange for the state saving him from the problem which he dreads most that is the problem of facing life on his own the problem of taking the responsibility for his own life his own actions and his own judgment that is what he dreads

and his sole recourse since there is in fact no escape from reality is to hide behind those man whom he observes around him who are able to deal with reality who are not afraid to think who act on their judgment and produce all values that men have ever achieved intellectually or materially it is these men that the irrational is wants to enslave and porce somehow to provide for him this theme of course is clearly illustrated in Atlas Shrugged