Ayn Rand and Rock Music - A Love Story

ein rand's cultural and political impact has been massive from businesses who were inspired by her characters to politicians who have incorporated a let's be honest misinterpreted version of her philosophy into their beliefs there's no question that rand and her books are still going strong but perhaps her greatest influence on popular culture was a rock and roll album that has captured the ears and hearts of music lovers since it came out in the groundbreaking rock and roll statement called 2112 by the canadian trio known to their die hard fans as the holy triumvirate rush so [Music] before we get into the music let's understand rand's own groundbreaking statement the philosophy she spent a lifetime developing and promoting objectivism hi my name is matt kibby i'm the president of free the people and i have been a libertarian since i was 13 years old i really value the moral principles that i get from rand particularly in her novels because i think she famously said that the most discriminated minority is the individual objectivism argues that human beings must be free to act on their rational judgment and because only force can prevent us from doing so we need a principle that eliminates force rand's first major novel the fountainhead published in 1943 lays a powerful foundation for individuality and objectivism and against collectivism the pseudo-morality employed by socialists in which people are compelled to serve the needs of a vaguely defined common good atlas shrugged published in 1957 applies those ideas to the real world but it was a lesser known and much shorter work of rand's anthem that most inspired rush anthem is a story about this dystopian future where the first tense the word i has been eliminated from language and the hero a guy who eventually calls himself prometheus discovers that he is in fact an individual that he doesn't fit in with the collective he's discriminated and targeted and he breaks away from that and it's really just a simple story about self-ownership about your right to be yourself about your right to pursue your own dreams and what can happen when when a centralized government and a philosophy of collectivism stifles everybody's individuality we don't want to spoil anything you can find it online and read it in one sitting but in many ways anthem was a forerunner to george orwell's 1984 and actually the year before russia's 21 12 arrived the band released a song called anthem it was the opener of their fly-by-night album and it echoes rand's heroes all of whom learn that to achieve anything great their first and top priority must be their own happiness but 2112 was their first commercial success and its mastermind was neil kurt one of the great drummers of all time steady up he saw as he describes it he saw all the cool kids in high school reading the fountainhead so he did the same and he always wanted to be a drummer he worked mightily hard failing quite often and so that that philosophy of of of the struggle of striving and of achieving and working towards that achievement that's always been built into russia's music in 1978 after 2112 had become a hit he spoke about the band's devotion to individualism and how rand's philosophy is the only one applicable to the world in every sense and while rand's name wasn't the lightning rod of controversy when 2112 debuted that it is now rush made it clear who had influenced their thinking and back then vinyl you would you would sit down you'd put the vinyl on and you'd read the liner notes and in those liner notes the album is dedicated to the genius of iron rands now the liner notes are cool and all but the music straight up rocks it was interesting because rush isn't really a heavy metal band they originated as a power trio and they're defined you know very progressive lots of complex time signature changes in their music and insanely technical musicianship all sort of wrapped up into one there was really nothing else like that in the market at the time side one of the album consists of a single 20-minute song again we don't want to spoil it for you but it roughly follows the plot of anthem except instead of being a prodigy in science and challenging the world council of scholars as prometheus does in the book 2112's main character discovers music but it falls on deaf ears when he performs before the priests of the temples of series [Music] is [Music] with today's media landscape and its intolerance of outside of the box thinking especially since march of 2020 both anthem and side one of 2012 are as relevant today as when they came out but rush wasn't done paying tribute to rand as she expressed through howard rourke her hero from the fountainhead it is in fact natural and proper for an individual to be fiercely dedicated to and protective of his or her achievements [Music] [Music] that's from the closing track of side two it's called something for nothing [Music] that simple idea that one must provide something of value in order to receive something of value is the heart of free market capitalism and the moral application of objectivist philosophy in the real world rand and rush will forever be linked by their uniqueness their love for individualism and their free thinking tell us some stories in the comments of when you thought differently from everyone else certainly in the modern internet connected world of literature and music just like other industries thinking for yourself is being rewarded like never before the days when neil pierce was sitting there thinking i'm going to lose my record deal unless i fall in line those days are gone so i'd like to believe that even in a hundred years if nobody knows who iran is or nobody knows who neil peer and rush are they will have inherited just a presumed right to think for yourself and as both expressed often if you can't think for yourself the powers that be will assume control of you [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Learn Liberty

Views: 177,502

Keywords: learn liberty, students for liberty, ayn rand, rush, 2112, 2112 rush, objectivism, atlas shrugged, the fountainhead, objectivist philosophy, individual rights, ayn rand philosophy, individual rights explained, ayn rand (author), ayn rand institute, ayn rand anthem, rush band, 2112 reaction

Id: E5S0QhTEgJI

Length: 8min 0sec (480 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 28 2021