Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: The 50th Anniversary of its Publication in October 1957
In the novels and the non-fiction writing of Ayn Rand, Dr. Charles Anderson, the founder and president of Anderson Materials Evaluation, found a firm philosophical foundation for his own understanding of reality and a vision of a moral society in which creative thinking and productive work would be admired and rewarded. Atlas Shrugged is an especially compelling vision of the true heroism of those who live by a code of reason, productive achievement, and the conviction that their own happiness is the moral purpose of their life. This is the only philosophy consistent with the requirements of human life on earth and with a respect for the lives of others. Other philosophies either reject the importance of life on earth or embrace the use of force to achieve collective goals repugnant to individualism, but apparently desired by those who always wish to be the children of the State or the masters of others.
Dr. David Kelley, the Founder of The Objectivist Center, has recently written an excellent article for The Wall Street Journal entitled Capitalist Heroes about the significance of Atlas Shrugged in a capitalist, free market society. Kelley writes, "We will know the lesson of Atlas Shrugged has been learned when business people, facing accusers in Congress or the media, stand up like Rearden for their right to produce and trade freely, when they take pride in their profits and stop apologizing for creating wealth." Dr. Edward Hudgins, the Executive Director of The Atlas Society, published an essay, Atlas Shrugged at 50, in The Washington Times. He emphasizes it as "an unapologetic defense of rational, responsible and principled individualism."
Professional Societies & Organizations
ACCCE - Association of Chemical Consultants and Chemical Engineers
Abacus Enterprises - Dr. Nancy Swanson, consulting services in light scattering, Mie theory, optical nanomaterials, surface plasmon resonance, low-e, radiative transport, remote sensing, LIDAR, imaging, expert witness, and other optical systems services
Applied Surface Technologies - Dr. Robert Sherman, carbon dioxide Snowjet cleaning equipment and surface cleaning consulting
Cleaner Image - provides SEM service and replacement parts
DACCO SCI, INC. - Dr. Chester M. Dacres, corrosion engineering, materials technology, and electrochemistry, with extensive field services
Geller MicroAnalytical Laboratory - products and services for microanalysis, including magnification, depth profiling, and ion sputter rate calibration standards and surface analysis instrument software upgrades
PLASMAtech, Inc. - offers microwave plasma surface cleaning, polymer surface modification, and thin film plasma polymerization equipment and processing services
Service Physics Inc. - offers excellent maintenance and upgrade support for Surface Science Instruments XPS/ESCA systems
Structure Probe, Inc. - offers sample preparation equipment and consumable supplies and accessories for microscopy and microanalysis labs and transmission electron microscopy services and sample preparation
Science & Technology
AVS Reference Guide - With buyer’s guide, conversion calculator, vacuum pump and gauge information, tables of optical emission spectra, vapor pressure, and units of measurement
Rolf Claessen’s Chemistry Index - list of chemistry websites, databases, journals, jobs, societies, software, books, patents, reactions, spectroscopy, and companies
SciCentral - gateway to the best scientific research news sources
Strange Matter Exhibit - Materials explained and illustrated to the non-professional, especially appropriate for students and those with broadband internet connections
WebElements - Periodic Table, extensive elemental property information
Enlightenment Philosophy - Individualism, Reason, Achievement & the Freedom to Work, Freedom of Choice & Limited Government, and Capitalism
These websites are personally selected by Charles Anderson. Only an enlightened society can support the modern industrial and technological culture which has any need for a materials analysis laboratory. Such a society is committed to the principle that reality is known through the senses of individuals who use their rational faculty to evaluate and integrate that huge flux of inputs into a self-consistent, life-affirming, and highly conceptualized understanding of our world. Without complete freedom to seek knowledge, to discuss and test ideas with others, to enter into contractual agreements with others to pursue activities of mutual self-interest, to build and market life-enriching implements, to earn and keep income generated by one’s mental and physical efforts, and to hold secure capital and property, Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc., and most of our customers could not exist. That we do exist is a legacy of the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment, which promoted rational, productive, individualist, and strict force-limiting values. This political philosophy was wonderfully implemented in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution of the United States of America. The Constitution made a magnificent attempt to limit the power of government and protect the privileges and immunities of the individual. Unfortunately, we have traded many of our individual rights for a false sense of convenience and security by more and more adopting the Nanny State of Government. We have become children who do not want to grow up and take on the responsibilities of exercising individual free choice and the management of our own lives. As a result, we are giving up the American ideal of life, liberty, and the pursuit or happiness.
The websites below will give the reader much to think about and aid those who do not choose to live life as a dependent child, but who delight in being a sovereign, self-managing individual. Some of the websites have interesting opinions with which I disagree, such as many of the defense and foreign policy ideas of the Cato Institute. It redeems itself, however, with very sound domestic and free trade policy ideas and research. Some sites, such as The Atlas Society, The Objectivist Center, The Institute of Justice, Robert Bidinotto’s EcoNOT.com website, and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) are so enlightened that they have earned my highest respect.
The Objectivist Center - Advancing Reason, Individualism, Achievement, and Freedom from Fundamental Philosophy to the Politics of Individual Choice. TOC welcomes those who seek truth with an appropriate understanding that even people fully committed to reason will have some significant disagreements. TOC works to develop Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, as a philosophy for living life on earth.
The Institute of Justice - Litigating for Liberty, The Premier Libertarian Public Interest Law Firm, working for such freedoms as the right to earn a living and to educate one’s children (school choice)
EcoNot.com - Individualism - NOT Environmentalism, by Robert Bidinotto, who affirms man’s need and right to rationally improve nature to enhance the life of mankind and exposes the widespread fraud of many central leaders of the environmental movement
The Atlas Society - Celebrating the Literary Works of Ayn Rand, particularly the thought-provoking and extremely influential The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged
The Atlasphere - an aid to networking with admirers of the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Columns
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Ayn Rand - Written by Professor Steven Hicks of Rockford College, this introduction to Rand’s philosophy includes a short biography and a summary of her ethics of rational self-interest.
FIRE - The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, supports freedom of speech, thought, and conscience of students and faculty oppressed by university speech codes and doctrines of political correctness
Reason magazine - a libertarian publication supporting reason, productivity, free markets, and limited government
The Cato Institute - a libertarian think tank devoted to Individual Liberty, Limited Government, Free Markets, and Peace, which generally does very good work on the first three-quarters of their mission and not so good on the last quarter, where they failed to learn the school yard lesson that the bully never stops bullying until brave men stand up to him
Virginia Postrel - articles, speeches, and books, former editor of Reason magazine, former columnist for Forbes magazine, now columnist in the business section of the New York Times, very good writer who appreciates innovation and technology, but dislikes physicists
Thomas Sowell - brilliant mind, offers insightful columns on society, politics, and economic issues, Fellow of the Hoover Institution, loves individual choice and the opportunity to work and prosper
Walter E. Williams - Professor of Economics at George Mason University, columns rich in brutal dissections of political and economic nonsense, Prof. Williams feels the pain each time we lose a personal choice and he has little patience with those who would return man to a state of slavery, a good man to have on my side in this battle. Links recommended by Walter E. Williams
The Future of Freedom Foundation - libertarian philosophy for individual liberty, free markets, private property, and limited government
The Bill of Rights Institute - to educate high school teachers and students about the liberties and freedoms guaranteed in our Founding documents and how the Framer’s principles shape a free society
The Commentary Section of the Washington Times - a mixture of libertarian and conservative commentators as counterweight to the viewpoints of the socialist commentators of most of the media
International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL) - the Free-Market.Net, to use the internet to encourage communication, cooperation, and positive action for freedom; news pertaining to the fight to be free
John Stossel - the best network reporter, his forum for discussions about liberty and unconventional wisdom
Foundation for Economic Education - the oldest research organization promoting individual freedom, private property, limited government, and free trade
American Law & Policy Foundation - an independent legal research and education nonprofit organization established to counteract anti-business, politically correct, and big government ideologies
Competitive Enterprise Institute - public policy organization dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government, a leading voice on regulatory issues ranging from environmental laws to antitrust policy to regulatory risk
Laissez Faire Books - rich online catalogue of individualist, libertarian, and Objectivist books fostering liberty
Capitalist Chicks - a news, articles, and columns site for young capitalists or entreprenuers, especially women, who see capitalism as the only moral and practical economic system. They are not afraid of NOW.
Capitalism.org - describes a moral society in which the rights of the individual are protected by a government which does not initiate the use of force
The Ayn Rand Institute - the center for the advancement of Objectivism, with much good information and interesting viewpoints by Objectivists, but a tendency toward orthodoxy.
Michelle Malkin - Blog by a Conservative-Libertarian hybrid.
David N. Mayer - MayerBlog, Professor of Law and History at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. Objectivist and Libertarian with a strong interest in The Constitution and its real meaning.
Kudlow's Money Politic$ - Pro-growth, strong defense, virtuous values, business, and stocks by Lawrence Kudlow, an economist, syndicated columnist, and CNBC host of Kudlow & Company. He understands how the economy works.
Rebirth of Reason - An Objectivist forum for wide ranging discussions.
Objectivist Living - Forum dedicated to Ayn Rand and the art of living consciously.
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