Iran is in your Jesus and you may laugh
at it all you want go look at the
conference look at your guide I ran to
you as your God I was fully ready for
like 300 people protesting outside you
know with an R an anti capitalism you’re
in state of California so having said
that let me ask you a question I know
you got the book at 16 years old and you
were inspired when you read the book at
16 years old and you said okay this is
an interesting book you know can I
believe something like this exists and
then from there and Israel you go and
you go become a first sergeant a
military there and I don’t know a lot of
people know this or now you did very
well in the military you come out you go
to University of Texas Austin then you
go and teach at Santa Clara for seven
years economics and you go run ahead
sponsor you’ve had that transition from
a kid who is inspired by a book you’re
introduced to her and then yours later
you go teach finance in Santa Clara San
Jose and then you just start a hedge
fund based on the papers you’re writing
now you live in Puerto Rico because
you’re smart NEP 4% taxes and all this
other stuff with them right what part of
my rants philosophy do you disagree with
in terms of philosophy none of it none
of it none of it I mean nothing’s really
changed since so 16 except now I
understand it and then I didn’t first of
all I’m not a philosopher so a lot of
the technical stuff it makes sense to me
right but no there’s not a there’s not a
portion of the philosophy qua philosophy
that I would disagree with it’s a whole
it’s a system it’s logical it all makes
sense that’s all well connected together
and it you know it just it fits it works
it you know 40 years later and it’s 40
years I read in 77th of 41 years later
you know now I understand it and it in
and I’m still as dedicated to it as I
was back then more so so so one of the
things I like when I talk to a pastor
and I’ll say okay listen I mean I
understand your believer I understand
your you know your pastor and you
believe in a Bible you believe in the
Quran oh you believe in Scientology you
believe in whatever it is that you
believe is your book of Mormon and
maroney all this other stuff Karen crepe
I don’t know any philosophy that doesn’t
have any contradictions
I don’t know any religion and I know you
know the Iran community is not a big
community on religion some are not all
of them are but you mean to tell me
there are nope no single contradictions
and any of Iran’s philosophies Asian I’m
sorry I’m saying in no contradictions
I’m also saying there might be something
wrong there I even found it I’m not
saying that I know it’s philosophy is
the truth and will always be known as
the truth I mean certainly philosophers
in the future might discover that this
aspect is needs improving or this year
they might be you know disagreement
about this virtue of that virtue or this
idea and epistemology of that idea in
post apology but I suddenly haven’t
found any she was a genius I’m not and
when I look at her philosophy it’s it
all for right now based on the knowledge
I have today everything I see there is
true but I don’t treat it as a Bible I
don’t take it on faith it’s true because
what I see in reality what I test in
reality when when I when I live the
philosophy it works it’s it’s and I
haven’t found a contradiction and I’ve
debated many many many people about
various ideas and they’ve never poked a
hole in it in in the philosophy you know
it’s the same as it’s like me saying you
know capitalism works it doesn’t work
always yes it works always you know
there no exceptions it just works and
it’s true it’s the only social system
appropriate for human life and it’s it’s
not you don’t have it’s not we’ve we’ve
internalized this idea that they have to
be flaws but no they don’t have to be
flaws the problem is that most of our
philosophies most of ideas indeed come
from religion and because they’re based
on faith there’s no even methodology
discover the contradiction other than
the whole thing contradicts reality so
that’s a mistake so why don’t we just
talk about the basic fundamental
philosophies that she had when you break
down objectivism right with reality so
you know all of that once you go through
that a little bit sure so reality is
what it is it is not what you want it to
be it’s not what you invent it to be
your conscious
doesn’t create reality but neither
there’s some other consciousness create
reality so our reasoning capabilities
the way we know reality not our emotions
emotions of products of of past
decisions we’ve made past values though
you might have had and it’s not it’s not
a knowable right it’s not reality is
there we know it because and we have the
tool to know it and only individuals can
reason you know we can’t we can’t really
we don’t have a collective stomach and
we suddenly don’t have a collective mind
we don’t have collective consciousness
we don’t have Collective reasons each
individual can reason each individual
therefore is responsible for his own
mind and sponsible for his own life so
in morality Iran was a was an egoist she
believed in rational self-interest that
your moral responsibility was to live
your life to the fullest to flourish as
a human being to survive Kwahu man being
not to live for others for the sake of
others and not to expect others to live
for you but for you to live for yourself
and then what kind of world do
individuals like this who want to live
for themselves we want to make the most
of themselves by using the reason to
discover the truth what kind of world do
they want to live in they want to live
in a world free of the one enemy of
Reason which is the fist the gun forced
coercion
so capitalism is a system where coercion
is outlawed and you know so she’s
against socialism she’s again fascism
she’s against any kind of statism she
believes in government but government
that only does one thing and as protect
us from coercion protects our rights and
our rights our freedoms from coercion
freedoms of action so so we’re free to
act to pursuit of the rational values
necessary for own life free of what for
your force free of coercion free of
authority so something just let’s talk
about that so meaning I do whatever I am
interested in and if it is my interest
to want to help somebody else so be it
that’s ok yes or no yes but but but
let’s let’s let’s first figure out what
self-interest means because
self-interest a lot of people think
what’s what self-interest means is do
whatever you feel like feel like doing
whatever
comes into your mind whatever whatever
they or some people in the culture today
think well I feel guilty that these
people are poor so I’m gonna help them
and that will reduce my guilt so none of
that to Iran is self-interest
self-interest has to be rationally shown
to be in your long-term benefit that
we’re long-term benefit your life right
so it has to be based on reason so
helping other people can be in your
self-interest Academy can be but but it
has to be for the right reason it can be
because you want to reduce the guilt
that you haven’t owned but who cares
what the reason is right I mean well you
could you do so so I don’t care what
your reason is really like me but you
should care about your own reason
because if it because if you do
something that is that is ultimately not
in your self-interest then you’re
working against your life you against
the iake against self-interest and
you’re hurting yourself what about
helping others what about the poor word
why I mean my always response to
everybody who I want to say what do you
care I mean what why isn’t the first
response that’s not my concern
it’s iron rants philosophy is
sustainable to run a nation yeah I mean
wow you really believe that I wish so
like I wish I wish we had the
opportunity to show you really believe
in rants philosophy is sustainable to
run a nation we as the government’s role
only playing cops you know military only
doing that absolutely I wouldn’t be
advocating for the philosophy otherwise
but absolutely and it’s again the
purpose of the philosophy is not a run a
nation the purpose of philosophy is to
run your own life and and and this the
focus should always be on my life the
only nation the only kind of nation yes
appropriate for my life and appropriate
for your life and to maximize your
opportunities and my opportunities to
make the most of our lives is a nation
that is free that is free of coercion
that leaves us free to pursue our dreams
in as individuals so that kind of nation
of course works because it’s a nation
where every individual is free to make
the most of their lives and what a
beautiful thing that is right because
because how do we make the most of our
lives we we make it by by producing by
creating by building and
trading with one another here’s a
follow-up to that question it’s the
concept is the philosophy of ein ran is
it to attract only the Navy SEALs is it
is it to only attract the Navy SEALs and
we go live in a small place by ourselves
you know who is John Galt you know find
all the jungles in the world and we go
live together because we have a great
understanding of each other and how
we’re wired or is it to help you know
and I know help is a sensitive word in
this community but is it is it to help
and inspire others who are not
non-believers yet to convert and say
this way of thinking works I will also
like to be part of this community which
is it because that’s them theirs and by
the way for me you gotta realize where
I’m coming from when I ask this question
I’m a hundred percent capitalist yeah
okay I grew up in an environment where I
know what it is what socialism or
communism does I know what it is to make
people feel guilty to force to tax if
you don’t I left to stay for a specific
reason 13.3% to force me to pay for it
you don’t want to fix it well you’re not
important my question on real capital
yeah I’m not a courtesan yet not more
per say it but that’s the real question
are you just trying to attract the Navy
assault I’m trying to attract any
individual who takes their life
seriously I’m trying to attract anybody
who’s open to these ideas it you know
it’s it’s an ultimately look even if a
majority of people don’t accept these
ideas but I introduce to them and their
lives has made better because these
ideas have political influence and we
have a more capitalist environment or
their lives is better because they take
the responsibility for their own life
more seriously rather than obsessing
obsessing constantly about what their
mother told them to do or how to help
other people but first and foremost
focus on themselves then the lives of
everybody become all of those people
become better and of course the
political life becomes better so no the
philosophy the philosophy fits any human
being willing to engage in his own
reason so so this is not some elitist
you know that it sounds no but it sounds
like it for me hypothetically the moment
you make a hundred million dollars you
start getting invited to weird parties
and you go to the heavens haven’t got
there yeah then I say do you honestly
Know Who I am I’m a one-point AGP a guy
all I did is work my ass off
and I read 1,500 business books and I
got in this situation okay great I don’t
think of myself as this special guy that
did this but sometimes I find guys and
gals who came from a family a lot of
money and they feel they’re elite
because they were raised in that
environment makes sense so for me when I
think about this philosophy I say is
this a philosophy to just attract all
those free thinkers who come together
let’s create a community together
because logically based on reason which
is what the community of ein Rand likes
I just don’t see a nation sustainable to
run it based on this philosophy cuz
you’re pessimistic about human nature
and I’m absolutely not no so I believe
every individual is capable of reason I
believe that individual is capable of
taking care of themselves I put aside
the less than 1% that for whatever
reason were born with some defect and it
can’t do it
every individual is capable of taking
care of themselves every individual is
capable of reasoning everybody every
individual is capable of achieving their
potential in life this philosophy is for
those individuals since everybody visual
is capable of reason every individual is
capable of getting this Fauci will it
happen in my lifetime no right and would
I prefer in my lifetime if I could to
live them in a community of people who
get it and look sure I mean I just said
that but but but you know and I know
that nobody’s gonna leave that community
alone so that community’s not gonna be
able to survive as a standalone entity
because the bad the guys you don’t want
to leave it alone have big guns and
and-and-and big weapons but there’s
absolutely zero reason why this can’t be
the dominant set of ideas in a culture
the dominant view of the people in the
culture and and look most people are not
philosophers most people are non
intellectuals but they are influenced by
the philosophers and intellectuals so my
view is when we get to the point where a
substantial number maybe a majority of
intellectuals and philosophers and
thinkers in the culture are advocates
for these ideas the culture will follow
that is the rest of the nation the
country however you want to call it the
community will follow and you will get a
society based on these ideas there’s
nothing in the ideas that prevents that
there’s nothing hard or impossible
or anti-human in the ideas in the
country the ideas are built to be
practical the ideas are built in a sense
they work because they derive from
reality
so here’s okay so every time I come to
LA if I go to a place and I see this
World Peace stuff right it’s a World
Peace World Peace World Peace and I see
it everywhere I’ll always go to myself
so tell me how I gonna get World Peace
well you know and I’m asking them so
tell me I’m gonna get we’re home with
you the way we get World pieces this
this this and all these rich people you
know all these distances and if we got
rid of religion and if we gotten rid of
this and we got rid of this this is how
we could get World Peace I said so
what’s your pretty much telling
everybody around the world is the only
way we can get world peace is for you to
think like me yeah okay that’s what
they’re saying that’s the idea of world
peace okay so how do we go world peace
well let me give you an example of world
peace so so after Napoleonic Wars in in
the nineteenth century until World War
one it was basically on the big picture
pretty much world peace why because we
had capitalism or as good as close to
capitalism’s we’ve ever had since World
War two until today and certainly since
the fall of the Berlin Wall we haven’t
had major Wars and today’s actually the
least violent period in all of human
history we’ve had fewer Wars close to
World Peace as we’ve ever mean why
because more and more countries around
the world are becoming free think about
40 years ago if I told you that if China
wants to become rich it has to become
capitalists that is they have to change
the way they’re thinking they have to
abandon not only Mao and communism but
to some extent they have to abandon
Confucius and all the Eastern mysticism
which they have implicitly in their
system in order to adopt capitalism
you’d have said that’s crazy China will
never do that but the reason a
successful today is the logic they’re
not completely not a hundred percent
it’s not perfect yet there’s a long way
to go but they’ve moved dramatically in
that direction in a sense China now is
more of a land of enlightenment values
in terms of the way people live then is
you Europe France where the
Enlightenment came about right so if you
look at the fundamental values that work
for human beings they are spreading they
can go anywhere in the world why is
Japan rich why South Korea rich because
they’ve adopted a certain set of values
they’ve adopted reason they’ve adopted
individualism as the core values that
made it possible for them to become rich
now we’re still at the beginning of a
process there’s still 100 maybe 200
years maybe 300 years I don’t know but
if you take that projection of people
better understanding these fundamental
ideas reality is reality reason is
efficacious the individual is what
counts if they get those three ideas
wonderful things happen Africa started
starting to turn and this is going to be
an evolution it’s gonna take a lot of
time but there’s again no reason why in
300 years 400 years people won’t adopt a
completely different philosophy than
they have today which I hope is mine
right because I think that’ll be good
for the for the world ideas of what
shape history what do you think about
religion has it done more good for the
world or bad for the world well it
depends when right so religion religion
thousands of years ago served an
important purpose in human life human
beings need a philosophy they need
guidance they need some explanation for
the world around them and religion
provided that explanation for a long
time maybe you could argue until the
Scientific Revolution there was some
need for some kind of religious
explanation where there was the Greek
gods or where there was the monotheistic
religions human beings needed some
guidance there was a slaughtering each
other at the same time right over this
study from the Enlightenment right in
something with it with the Scientific
Revolution people discovered wait a
minute we don’t have to get guidance
from authorities the Pope the the the
preach to it we can actually use our
mind to discover the truth by ourselves
we can learn about the world without
this and since and and you know so so
religion lost its purpose so there is no
purpose to religion today so when
Nietzsche says God is dead
good riddance I mean overall religion
does a lot of damage because it
highlights for the individual the
opposite of reason which is faith faith
is the opposite of reason so you’re not
a fan of faith obviously not okay I’m a
fan if we let me ask a question let’s
call faith so mine ran is not a person
that’s a trip in my faith no what
brought it to us knowledge knowledge of
what knowledge of the freedom that
existed how do I know
she saw it in the movies but there
that’s not that’s not that’s not a
absolute oh that’s so much it’s it’s
it’s it’s non absolutely gonna be
prediction right there to me first of
all first of faith and probabilities are
not the same thing so so she had
evidence faith is the absence of
evidence faith is when you have no
evidence of something there is no
there’s ever many of evidence on a lot
of different religions if you talk no
evidence course there god there’s no any
of them there’s zero evidence there’s
plenty of them around you but are there
plenty of religions around me and that’s
not your own evidence for the truth no
but if you think about it because this
is the contradiction where I see it I
believe she is a woman of faith Iran is
a woman of faith she is living in
Babylon that’s how my god I’m not time
I’ve gone that time at the fact that God
exists and looking I’m I’m in the fire
I’m at a complete opposite place right
now you guys are on the same page I’m
I’m trying to challenge you and you have
control over me right now because
there’s more of you there’s only one of
me but but I sit and I think about and I
say here’s a woman that leads Russia I
mean all you’ve been watching is movies
that you have control over it’s a
fantasy
I’m gonna go to us not a fantasy a
culture the producer has no idea the
culture she has every idea she how would
she have a a because because she’s
speciate when she was a child they left
and they were they were in Western
Europe so she saw Western European
culture versus Russian culture just saw
with their eyes
plus you’ve got a culture that produces
these movies not every culture produces
these movies Russia can’t produce these
movies other cultures don’t produce this
kind of movies plus you’ve got books and
stories you’ve got newspaper articles
you’ve got pictures even before the rise
of communism they were there were
newspapers so I’m not saying she has
certainty she might not have certainty
but she has massive quantities of
evidence but don’t equate faith with a
probabilistic you know I might not know
something with certainty but if I have a
lot of evidence then I know something
when and I can act based on a I mean a
finance guy I don’t have any sons here
but with yeah but I don’t consider that
faith I consider that I you know I have
I’ve evidence and I put a probability on
the ability on where the stock is going
to be in a year but that’s not faith so
based would the faith would be if
I had no evidence and I’d say you know I
you know coca-cola I just love the name
okay I go up some could argue with that
to say to there’s plenty of evidence for
faith but I don’t want to go make this a
religion thing I want to keep a specific
to economics right now so going back to
the contradiction she died okay
so she’s not a fan of saying that people
help they’re like she’s been quoted
writing about saying no one helped me no
one helped me she’s I’m sure I’m sure
she asked me easily find it where it
says I wasn’t helped no she was trying
to make a specific point absolutely the
fact that she never she never was helped
okay yeah but she comes here you know
and she lives with a family in Chicago
while she’s living with the family in
Chicago going to a movie theater she
went up watched a couple hundred more
ease and she was inspired and some pops
room you know she borrowed money from
some people on all this other stuff and
so the biggest challenge for me while
she’s on her second interview with Phil
Donahue yeah okay and so she’s wearing
that baby blue dress and a lady gets up
there and she says I used to be a
believer I’m no longer a believer there
are parts your stuff I agree and she
says why are you telling me I don’t care
I’m just sharing you with you yeah but
God say to another crowd that also
disagrees with me I don’t want to hear
it right now this is my show I’m here
because you have to hear from me in in
that level of intolerance to me if I
can’t share my opinion around you then
this is what happens let me finish it’s
a question and I want to hear you on
sure this is what happens it becomes
either one of two things
years ago the Republican Party kept
getting their tail handed to them
because they had a campaign called
anti-abortion Democrats the Liberals
came out with pro-choice right and they
were getting killed so they got together
and they said listen this anti-abortion
campaign doesn’t work we have to change
it and they went from anti-abortion to
pro a pro-life once they went to
pro-life boom everybody said I am
pro-life I’m not I am pro-life these
words are better so do you think a part
of the reason why maybe and by the way
you’re selling more books than ever
before you know 30 million plus copies
sold the people around the world are
more interested library Congress talking
about this being the second most
popularity with readers with all this
okay
credits there believe me I’m a big fan
of our content but do you think there’s
got to be a little bit of
a repackaging of the content being sold
to the world to embrace the content do
you think part of the packaging and the
story that’s being sold it’s tough for
people to embrace when you say virtues
of selfishness yeah it’s tough for
people to embrace absolutely but but
it’s tough for people to embrace this is
not gonna be easy so so I don’t think I
don’t want to soft-pedal this right if
you’re gonna become if you’re gonna take
on these ideas these are these
incredibly valuable to your life
incredibly valuable to your life but
it’s gonna require you to do real work
and it’s gonna challenge your existing
beliefs your existing beliefs set is
gonna have to be turned upside down Phil
Donahue is standing there and he’s
challenging her constantly and he’s
basically saying you’re wrong and I
don’t agree with anything and she takes
it and she answers and it’s great but a
woman in the audience stands up and
basically insults her by saying I used
to believe in this nonsense but I don’t
anymore
she didn’t say like but that’s exactly
what she meant and that’s what I’m it
was another person that insulted I was
like listen I that was that’s an insult
to say that to somebody to stand up and
say to somebody I used to think what you
say makes sense I don’t anymore then why
why why you asking me a question why you
here – what’s the point so so if you
listen to I advanced q and A’s and
particularly if you read her letters
we’ve got a book of all her letters she
would take questions across the board
from religious people and left us and
write us and all kind from teenagers and
every political view every philosophical
view and she would patiently write them
an answer and some of those letters are
beautiful and and and and and some of
their incredibly philosophical but she
was very very sensitive and she she
could hear it to somebody jury obvious
somebody just wanting to insult or
somebody just being you know being you
know being obnoxious and she dealt with
that now it would I deal with this
question the same way probably not I’m
not sure which one of us is right but
that’s not but that’s not the point the
point is for the viewers right is
engaged with the philosophy engage with
her ideas put aside whether you think
she was a little gruff where she was a
little rude or whatever that’s not the
point
although idea is true our ideas you know
beneficial to human life all right
some of them are unbelievable well some
of them some of them have been
life-changing to me I mean I can’t even
tell you what I know I know thousands
and there are hundreds of thousands or
millions of people would say that
whether they accept a whole philosophy
and of course yeah how ideas have
touched millions of people and sometimes
only some of her ideas now I think the
entire philosophy is consistent as a
system they’re no contradictions and
I’ve embraced at all but I completely
accept the fact that people take a part
of them and that’s better because to the
extent that somebody takes Iron Man’s
idea seriously to that extent their life
becomes better today extent that better
human beings and my world is a better
world as a consequence that’s in my
selfish interest that people take her
ideas even a little bit seriously so go
either books go engage in ideas you know
nonfiction fiction watch our videos
online but let’s get away from mine Rand
in a sense and in talk about the ideas
that’s that’s what’s important right and
that’s what’s gonna change the world in
the future that the reason why I came
over here was the following reason so I
went from do you believe this is
sustainable to run a nation do you
believe this can’t go out there and you
know get to the masses is the goal for
you to be in a small community of John
Galt Apple we think hey we have our
society it’s just gonna be us eh why
don’t all of us go put our money to get
and go buy beliefs and we run the nation
and we build that honestly we can clap
out Billy’s idea if you think about it
Billy’s could be a place we can do this
at you can’t do that a lot of other
places outside of Billy’s okay do that
part that’d be kind of great and it’s
all entrepreneurs free thinkers creative
thinkers and Peter Thiel wants to create
an island and all the people get
together I understand that concept if
that’s the goal if the goal is for us to
create a community and go out there and
think about it this words the the so let
me ask you because cuz libertarians
bring this up all the time so we might
as well put it on so let’s say you do
that and and let’s say you have real
freedom and a my my world real freedom
means private banking it means if you
want to withdraw more than ten thousand
dollars in cash nobody should have to
fill out a form and let you have real
all of that real there and you’re
building a wonderful capitalist
community how long do you think before
the marine show up and and in the name
of money laundering drug smugglers and
not a lotta bother in Dubai because
Dubai plays by the game Dubai plays the
game Dubai
banks are registered the Federal Reserve
Dubai banks play by the Federal
Reserve’s game Dubai is not a free
market it’s not capitalism it’s it’s
part of the system that exists out there
in the world it is not true capitalism
it’s not certainly not the kind of
society I would want to live in Panama
Panama’s got a two percent same thing
and if you look and it’s great that
Panama’s the 300 ploy great but it’s not
a real capitalist society so but you
believe 100% this philosophy absolutely
how big how sustainable is it on how big
a globe you mean I don’t I don’t believe
in one government for the whole globe
but I believe that every government in
the world could have this philosophy how
do you feel about a sustained it how do
you feel about the way the US government
is set up I think originally the way was
set up is pretty good I like it which
part of it which part do you like I like
I like that the fact that the no.1
branch of the government has very much
power I like the fact that all a little
impotence I wish they were a little bit
more impotent
you know I saw I like I like you have
two houses I like you have a president
that’s separate an executive branch at
separate I like the fact you have a
Supreme Court I would like that I would
like to have a stronger Constitution
that was clearer and more ticket and
stronger and one individual rights mean
what the purpose of government is and
how do you actually enforce the role of
government which is the protection of
individual rights how would we write the
content it’d be clearer than what it is
today
I mean it was written it is
unfortunately it could be it could be a
much clearer partially because remember
they wrote this in in in you know a long
time ago before capitalism really took
off before you had the institutions of
capitalism via the institutions you
could write it a lot clearer for example
I give an example I believe there should
be a complete separation of economics
from politics politicians have no power
over the economy letting the government
not not even a limit of good know let me
but let’s take in one room in the realm
of economics I believe that you
shouldn’t have a Treasury secretary
other than you know distribute to the
different departments or whatever you
it’s an accountant you don’t need a but
basically the gunman has no regulatory
role in economy it just doesn’t
intervene in the economy it would be
nice if in addition to the separation of
church and state that exists in the
economy in the Constitution which is
great
there was a separation of economy from
state right and there was a separation
of science from state and there was a
separation of economics from state so I
would have four separations in the
Constitution instead of just one and
that would be clearer and it would keep
government in its place
get out of the minds of my kids get out
of trying to run doctrinaire schools
you’re my jewel : no i’m for private
schooling my fried private schools okay
homeschooling is fine as an option but
i’m for private schools privatize the
entire system why don’t we try do we
have private insurance companies
although you know you’re heavily
regulated why do we have private
insurance but now private schools
private schools are much more important
right I want competition
I want to innovation I want choice I
want people to care about the education
that kids get I want I want to have
innovation in your world there would be
100% deregulation yeah 100% deregulation
yeah I mean I mean I’m not saying there
won’t be laws because in in the world we
live in today there’s confusion between
regulations our law regulations are
there to try to dictate to a business
how to run its business often it’s a
preventive law it says in advance this
might be a problem so don’t do it right
no I want I want laws things just on the
books the houin tech is it a police in a
judicial system so I don’t I know non
anarchist right so I want laws on the
books that protect property rights that
protect individual rights so if I am
doing something that clearly harms you
whether it’s poisoning you with with
dirty water or dirty air something then
yeah you have recourse against me and
the government has recourse against me
but I you know the government just can’t
scan out of nowhere say this is okay and
that’s banned and this is bad no there
has to be proof there has to be a system
there has to be a methodology of a
determined went something is man it has
to be proven that it hurt somebody you
know that it’s actually damaging to
human life rights are being violated so
their job is to protect property rights
which is hard it’s not easy so you need
a government you need a court system you
need a legislative branch you know to
figure out for example with the internet
what is property how do you apply
property to intellectual stuff how do
you apply property to the interest
you’re simplifying it more than like you
know it may be easy to do that with
50,000 people in a country
three hundred thirty minutes the other
way around it’s it the the more complex
the system is the more important it is
once you have freedom the more
complexity you have the more capitalism
is important I can I can centrally plan
probably don’t hold me to this I don’t
think it’s right I don’t think it small
but I could centrally plan a fifty
thousand person community and do okay
could I centrally plan a three hundred
million people no way so even even from
the yeah so the more complex the the
less economic justification there is for
any kind of planning the more you want
freedom the more you want capitalism
right the bigger it is the more this
philosophy in a sense quite economics
works so let’s say your house burns down
and you didn’t buy insurance for
whatever reason and any of a nice sky
and you’ve got neighbors what happened
in America before the government stepped
in and provided you with welfare and
everything else your neighbors got
together and they said he’s a good guy
we like here maybe no fault of his own
it should have bought insurance but ok
and we’re gonna we’re gonna come
together I’m gonna help him build a new
house but you you you shouldn’t expect
some guy you live in Dallas you
shouldn’t affect somebody in California
to pay for your new house if your
neighbors want to help you it but what
if you’re a jerk and your house burns
down and your neighbors actually hate
you and you’re not worthy of their help
then you’re not gonna get the help so
virtue is rewarded under capitalism if
you’re a good person if you’re a nice
person and then people will help you
when you need that help but it’s not
automatic you’re suffering does not
place a moral claim on us what happens
though unfortunately that’s what happens
you know you have some yeah but I know
but that says happened that’s not just
today it’s know you telling me there’s
never been people that have exploited
other pino and tell me I’m saying always
there be other people in matters but
when we’re free there’s less
exploitation because when we’re free we
get to make decisions for ourselves and
I and we’re much more focused on our own
self-interest but when you have a system
where my money is taken for me by the
point of a gun which is what attacks us
all money is taken from me and then some
bureaucrat decides who to help and who
not to help then I’m being exploited all
the time every single day except in
Puerto Rico
so if 7 billion plus people today
all believed in the philosophy of
Objectivism what would the world look
like oh my god
you wanted world peace you got world
peace it’s the most boring world ever
are you it’s the most exciting with
those boring warning about innovation
are you think about me about freeing up
billions of people freeing up to think
and to be entrepreneurs to create to
build to make the whole sky no utopia of
course it’s only yes the same thing when
liberals say that you know we have this
utopian it’s the same you asked me I
didn’t say I expected to step in them
are but think about what has happened
again in in countries in the world that
have adopted just a little bit of the
sauce tree not the whole thing just a
little bit of it right you see beautiful
skyscrapers you see massive innovation
you see production wealth creation see
people rising out of poverty so every
place that’s adopted just a little bit
of this a little bit of freedom a little
bit of capitalism a little bit of reason
and science and thinking boom
now extrapolate what would happen if
they did just do a little bit what
happens if China tomorrow forget my
philosophy what happened if China
tomorrow said you know what Thomas
Jefferson and John Adams and Hamilton
they will write we’re gonna adopt a
constitutional government into image in
then we’re gonna separate state from
economics and we’re going to adopt the
American constitutional model China
would almost instantaneously become five
times richer more innovation more
production more creation so why why do
you say yes on that right now okay now
take it even one more step further and
why would an exciting world it’s so much
fun so much excitement so much
innovation so much dynamism I don’t see
it yeah I don’t know why I don’t see it
here’s why I don’t see it okay by the
way well I mean the world today is
interesting because people are killing
each other in Syria and in other places
for no absolutely no reason because they
God doesn’t agree with somebody else’s
God
oh well that’s like I want I want all of
the goddess they’re extremists yeah well
we have extremists in capitalism as well
I mean you know crony capitalism doesn’t
work like well honey capitalism doesn’t
exist let me just say there is no such
thing as crony capitalism or conscious
capitalism or any capitalism it’s
capitalism cronyism is a feature of the
state
is a feature of statism that’s socialism
no cronyism is not an extreme of
capitalism cronyism is a feature of
uncapitalized of the opposite of
capitalism when you take capitalism away
what you get is cronyism if you have a
capitalism purely is a separation of
state from economics if government
doesn’t have control of the economics
how much cronyism I have wholly with
zero I am totally with you on that side
so you can’t there’s no there’s no but
outside the concept of a Syrian I said
that’s that’s not a religion that’s the
extremists well listen I was an atheist
25 years of my life okay I’m giving a
whole different standpoint for me
I’m not going faith here that’s an
extremist we’re talking about and
unfortunately sometimes in capitalism
guys come up they go to politics gives
you a story yeah I’m in Harvard
okay and I’m at their opium poor no I
didn’t go to Harvard I went to opium
program it’s a three week program I’m
not bragging that I want to are but this
was entrepreneurs inventor of it yeah
it’s a $40,000 course you go for three
weeks and it’s 144 different
entrepreneurs from 65 country countries
yeah and one of the guys says you know
instructor I’m really struggling because
I used to have 31 percent of marketplace
and this one business came in and he
took 17 percent because it’s two
different businesses combined it’s 17
percent I only have 13 percent we’re
really taking it what do you think I
should do so the instructor says well
what do you guys think you should do you
know this is about you know us talking
to one other what do you guys think you
should do this one guy from Brazil says
let me ask you a question who’s running
for office and by the way he is not
laughing everybody’s in there saying
let’s see what’s gonna happen who
running for office and he says what do
you mean is there anybody that’s running
for Congress Senate governor office
anybody says yeah of course there’s a
couple guys he says listen very simple
you go tell them right now
a million dollars okay what is the
dollar amount for you you give me a half
a million dollars up front half a mil
upon passing the bill to make the
barrier to enter for the other guy then
he gets the other half a million dollar
bonus goes to guess what we had a
business I’m sitting on like the way he
said it was so nonchalant like you know
just go out there and do it but there’s
an have you been to Brazil but I have
not no well if you go to Brazil and you
see the level of poverty and you see the
level of
I lack enough shot on his page no so
sorry point is my point is yes that’s
how the world works and it’s a disaster
to the extent that it works so so we
reject that we want pure capitalism we
want a capitalism with that is
impossible
great what is the downside of that
there’s no downside here you’re looking
for downsides but if I if I make that
impossible by making those sentences
impotence when it comes to the economy
make them so weak that they can’t impact
the economy there’s no point in bribing
them so the leader by the way and your
society is it a president or is it like
a chief of a commander or chief like a
military guy not a president I think the
American system is a good system
oh you like the system here I like them
I like to make a system as it was at the
founding again I think it’s me perverted
and distorted the executive today has
way too much power
all these regulatory agencies are
unconstitutional so so I’d like the
original system where the president has
some power but videos weak but but look
and you need a military because you need
to defend yourself but the point is if
you recognize that what this guy said
about Brazil is leading to poverty in
Brazil then if you take that out you
would lead to more wealth in Brazil so
why can’t we have the whole world be
capitalist I’m hundred percent well
being capitalist I’m going back to the
concept of there being still some
contradictions in it that there’s
there’s gotta be some contradictions in
it that’s not being addressed let me
give you another one here okay virtue of
selfishness by ina ran right virtue of
selfish yeah do the virtues of
selfishness work in every aspect of life
yeah in your personal life absolutely in
the bedroom with your wife absolutely ok
ready ready I’m happy though I’m happy
to go from politics I’ve got mine babe
Bobby I didn’t get mine but babe we
believe in virtues of selfishness so
wait what’s what is selfishness mean I’m
satisfied yes so are you satisfied are
you really satisfied felt amazing bro
let me tell you I am like solid I’m
ready to go to sleep
so is she important to you if you love
somebody are they important to show is
their happiness important to you of
course this day happiness contributed
you’re happy sure then making them happy
in bed is that gonna make your
satisfaction even greater of course if
I’m married yes so if I’m single you’re
same
forget about if you’re single no that’s
what you’re saying so we got it so if
I’m single all the young fellas no go
get yours and forget about her life not
what I said
it’s Engel it depends right it depends
is this a one-night stand or is this
something some a woman is anything worth
that you expect yeah that you’re gonna
marry or you expect you can have a
long-term relationship with do you love
this other person my point is this if
you love another person then their
happiness becomes part of your happiness
and it’s completely selfish to take care
of this other person to make sure that
they’re enjoying the sex as much as you
enjoying the sex because the fact is
you’ll enjoy the sex more if they’re
enjoying the sex if they lie they I know
right if they lie they like a cardboard
and you’re having some and you’re having
some physical sensation that is nothing
as compared to they’re having the time
of their life and your heart and and
because you’re gonna have the time of
your life
so so the idea that selfishness means
you don’t care about other people that
selfishness means that you actually
ignore other people but but the point is
packaged right know it the point is
let’s think about what the word means
and let’s think it’s food ayan ran is
challenging us she’s not she you can’t
take morality and put it in one word and
hand it to somebody and they’re gonna
get it well Ali takes work so the word
selfishness is a challenge what do you
mean
who what is a self is a self just the
momentary pleasure of an orgasm or is
the self the entire life all my values
everything that I encompass my
consciousness my future my life and then
what kind of behavior and what kind of
values do I need to adopt in order to
make my life meaningful and enjoy it and
happy over this period and do other
people have a place in that well of
course they do but they have a place in
that because because they have a place
in my happiness because it’s selfish for
me to care about them so you have to
unpackage it and it takes effort and it
takes work
but that’s beautiful it’s a challenge we
learn that morality is simple just take
care of other people and don’t be
selfish don’t think of yourself just
take care of other people and that sucks
nobody wants to actually do that
everybody wants to take care of
themselves everybody cares about
themselves so we learned for a very
young age to be cynical about morality
not to take morality seriously and and
we go to church and we do a thing and we
pretend and we say oh Jesus right but
nobody wants to be Jesus nobody wants to
be Mother Teresa I haven’t seen anybody
volunteering to become a mixed mother
Teresa right so we live our life’s Road
then what happens we’ve got this a model
ideal that we be taught and we’re living
this life and we feel guilty and and
that’s unknown guilt why should you feel
guilty and we can’t achieve happiness
and we’re frustrated with our lives and
you see all the social problems that’s
that’s great I’m saying that’s the
consequence of religion that’s a
consequent we’re just morality it’s crap
it’s wrong it seemed all your focus
needs to be on making your life the best
life that it can be and of course other
people have a role in that do you think
I’m rant yes the only place I’m getting
amazing do you think I rant lived her
life according to her philosophies yeah
I do
I do so then why do you thirty minutes
ago tell me let’s set aside the way she
lived let’s focus on the facade because
contradiction again no but no because
the ideas need to stand on their own
whether she did it she didn’t the ideas
needed standard on I think Iran is an
exemplar of a philosophy I think she’s a
hero and I think she’s somebody to look
up to but I don’t want to get into the
debate about this personal aspect of my
life or that personal aspect of her life
because I don’t think that’s what
they’re but that is your example don’t
like when I come in here and I come to
your confidence as your conference
everywhere I see Iran so Iran is your
Jesus Iran is short Joseph Smith Iran is
your l ron Hubbard and you may laugh at
it all you want go look at the
conference I ran to you is your God you
you you you’re seeing it as your God
she’s not she’s not a god she is a
philosopher you you would go you could
go to other conferences with a where
they talk about Aristotle’s philosophy
or
she is a philosopher we all you know
share this philosophy we’ve learned to
philosophy with her we admire her and
and she changed my life
she changed the lives of most of the
people in this room we have a massive
amount of admiration for her and look
you know I don’t have that big of a
problem you know she’s a heroine and I
have no problem in you saying she is our
Jesus Jesus is a hero to Christians I’m
Rand and ended some of her fictional
characters in her books uh heroes to us
so in a sense of concretizing this image
of what this life and what this
philosophy is absolutely she’s she’s a
massive hero but I find instead of
engaging with the ideas too many people
in the culture want to nitpick her life
and I’m not an expert in her life I know
an expert in her biography
I love Ironman because what she did to
my life he for one my life see I don’t
mind sitting there and debating somebody
who is an atheist and he wants to debate
me whether there’s a God or no God or
agnostic or whatever you want to do
that’s fine the only time the reason why
this is so much attracted is because
there’s such a 100% certainty in
everything being right if you’re free
think or how could a free thinkers say a
hundred percent to anything if you’re a
free thinker it’s a bit of a
contradiction yeah another hand this cup
of coffee in my hand is is coffee and
this cup is a cup and it’s made of paper
and I’m a hundred percent certain of
everything I just said and so to say
coffee by the way just so you guys know
I’m not a coffee guy yeah but I ran a
sales office don’t know that drank
coffee do you not just walk away seeing
who is this guy don’t like him at all
he’s so confused he’s missing out on the
point of life if he doesn’t even drink
coffee do you do you follow the author
or have you read his book Nassim Taleb
yes I like opposition is what I like
this is a quote by Jeff and Vince Graham
in his book I am at the Fed level a
libertarian at the state level a
Republican at the local level a Democrat
and at the family and friends level a
socialist what do you think about that I
think that is tragic and I think a lot
of libertarians have that view
unfortunately
includi Hayek Frederick Hayek had the
view there was socialists in the family
and you have to abandon those altruistic
socialist values in the family when you
go out into the community I’m not a
socialist of my family I don’t believe
in socialism in any kind of human
relationship I don’t believe in
sacrifice in any human relationship I
believe I don’t sacrifice my wife I
don’t sacrifice my kids they were
important to me I love them that’s why I
do what I do for them but so I think one
has to hold your values and be
consistent throughout you don’t
sacrifice for your kids
no so when your kids were born and they
were brayton newborn babies you slept
eight hours
no no why why because because my kids
were far more important to me than a few
hours of sleep then you sacrifice no for
your sacrifice self-sacrifice is
something very simple we was important
right some sacrifices when you give
something and what do you expect to get
in return if I go into the Apple store
and give them $1,000 and get an iPhone X
did I sacrifice no cuz I got something
more valuable I gave something up I gave
up but nobody says you sacrificed a
thousand dollars you traded so I gave a
thousand dollars and I got something
more valuable when I didn’t sleep at
night I got something much more valuable
my kids and what’s more important than
that right so that’s not a sacrifice
Jesus what Jesus did that’s a sacrifice
right he suffered for other people’s
sins I can’t think of anything more evil
than that I can’t think of anything more
evil than that then for the individual
or for the for the anybody for anybody
for a person who think of the injustice
yea they committed sins and I’m gonna
penalize you for them and you’re gonna
say yeah great cool I’m gonna sacrifice
it why why would you chose to though
it’s a choice you may he made such a
little choice yeah that’s his choice ya
know it’s a choice I’m not gonna take
away your choice if you want to commit
suicide fine but it particularly slow in
a painful suicide that’s your problem
but I still think that’s anti life
that’s anti values it’s evil it’s bad so
you know again that’s a sacrifice and I
don’t I I avoid sacrifice you know if I
you know so once in a while I’ll do
something and I’ll regret it but that
wasn’t
steak I don’t answer into relationship
with the idea of sacrificing sacrificing
is bad I’m for life I’m for living and
living involves trade living involves
giving up something to get something
greater in return right and and the
person who got the stuff thinks what
they got is more than what they gave
right Apple thinks that the thousand
dollars is worth more than the iPhone
that’s why they engaged in a trade so we
won I won they want everybody wins with
what ein ran be wearing a make America
great hat again today she walk around
today saying I am and just in love with
this Trump guy man he’s just I love I go
to sleep thinking about make America
great again she would go to sleep in in
shock and Hawwa about the state of
America under Donald Trump I think she
would hate him now I don’t want to speak
fine man because she was a genius and
and it’s sometimes hard to say what she
would I can tell you what I think not
not what I would I think Iran would
think she would hate him and and she
would say yes I’m for making America
great again it would be great if Donald
Trump had a clue what America was
because to make something great you have
to know what it is first and America’s
not about America’s not about steel jobs
of this job of this thing trying to tell
what do you call it Holly Davidson where
they should open a plan Americans about
individual rights Americans about
freedom Americans about is the only mall
or country in history because it’s
founded on the principle of individual
rights this is a president who doesn’t
know what individual rights are this is
a president has no conception of the
Constitution never mentions the
Constitution because he doesn’t really
care he just wants to do what he want he
really doesn’t care I am convinced he
cares you know I’m convinced kid zero
about the constant how do you know that
by watching him and seeing his behavior
so a lot of the stuff you just said he’s
doing a lot of it for you right he’s
deregulating every day is deregulating a
lot of laws yeah that’s that lowered the
corporate taxes from thirty five percent
to twenty three good
he’s deregulating good for him he lured
competition for him no good for
everybody
yeah good for sure but at the same time
he is spending like crazy so spending is
gone up dramatically so what does that
do that’s sucks money out of the private
economy just as if you taxed it so the
difference between taking our bonds to
fund the government or tax
is small one could argue which one is
worse for the economy but on principle
you measure government intervention in
the economy by how much dollars they
spend if they’re spending more dollars
they were intervening in my life more so
he maybe deregulating over here but
something’s going up over here
which is bad on top of that he’s just
he’s just raised taxes on all of us it’s
called tariffs tariffs are sales tax and
he’s just taxed all of us with tariffs
and he intends to do a lot more of that
but it’s more than that
what he does is he diminishes the the
the significance of the presidency he
diminishes what America stands for
he’s vulgar he’s he’s and again he has
no sense of understanding of what this
country actually is about and what this
country actually means so so there’s
nothing this man’s done that that Iran
would say I’m pleased with this three
areas well sure I mean and again I don’t
want to speak fine man but yeah he’s
deregulating good I’m glad he’s
deregulating I’m glad he lowered the
corporate tax that’s a no-brainer
so anybody would have done that but but
but okay but but the negatives I think
way outweigh the positives way out way
too fast so who which president has been
a president where the Iran community
objectivism would say we like this guy
or a possible current candidate Grover
Cleveland that would be it
Grover Cleveland no and none of them and
it’s not surprising right it’s not
surprised anybody gonna be able to
please Iran I highly doubt anyone’s
gonna please well I mean I meant voted
ina in voted when she was alive and she
voted sometimes she didn’t always vote
but she voted on portal Barry Goldwater
she will key was it’s notable he’s just
what a Barry Goldberg ordered for Nixon
right I wouldn’t say she supported Nixon
but she voted for Nixon a lot of people
change their minds with Nixon yeah but I
think she wouldn’t have with regard to
McCaul McGovern Oh McGovern yes my
government because of how far left he
was so she sometimes you don’t close the
nose and and and voted for people she
didn’t like and she she ran a campaign
what was it anti-nixon nights for Nixon
I think was was was well
what she called in 1972 she adds I think
some hope for Nixon is 68 but then he
disappointed her and there were a number
of people in the administration who were
quite influenced by her in the 72
administration she would not vote for
Reagan she refused to vote for Reagan
she wouldn’t have she didn’t 1980 what
was the reason for she believed Reagan
would bring them all majority into the
Republican Party and it would take it
over and turn it into a religious party
she was absolutely right of course and
she said that the harm that he will do
by bringing religion and associating
with republicanism and capitalism would
do more damage long-term than any good
things he might do on deregulation
Louisa said how would she feel about
Obama or Clinton she would have despised
both of them in Bush Clinton wavy
wouldn’t negotiate with Newt Gingrich he
was with with Monica Lewinsky to bother
we was working with legislation which
you know I’m happy when a president does
not use of selfishness you know Bill
Clinton was a big fan of he’s not
selfish she was a it was an impulsive
emotional aesthetic not selfish and you
can look at Bill Clinton and you can see
how miserable pathetic you know low
human but you know what this does to me
but this is what selfishness is not
about it you know just doing whatever
your emotions dictate selfishness is
about figuring out what’s good for you
and you allow many of you here under 30
years old got it how many of you saw
Iran face to face like you saw her alive
Wow listen that’s impressive I would
have loved to and if there’s a few
people I would have loved to set which
she’s one of them Milton Friedman’s
another one those are two of my biggest
heartbreak so I wanted to get a chance
to meet them too what having said that I
hope you enjoyed this we’re gonna do a
little bit of Q&A I think that’s part of
next we have Lee thank you for
tolerating me pushing a little bit what
what most of you guys don’t know is a
lot of this stuff I pushed I am a
supporter of I just want to see the
argument I want to see the emotions and
what would happen if you respond to this
is the way I learned and I hope you can
appreciate that so and if anybody has
any questions that they get I go right
over there the aroan you are reminded us
of all the positives of the 19th century
which were the result of freedom greatly
increased prosperity relative world
the short version of my question is what
the hell happened because you look at
the 20th century and you have two major
world wars other Wars the massive
casualties of those wars were dwarfed by
the genocide caused by totalitarian
dictatorships yep
can we not learn from example well we
don’t learn from example I don’t think
humanity learns much for example I don’t
think individuals learn much for example
because their interpretation of events
is clouded by their ideology by the
ideas that they hold so its ideas that
led to those catastrophes of the 20th
century it’s and you know you hear
socialists today what do they say they
say well those people didn’t apply the
ideas right you know this time well we
have a noble socialist or noble
communist to be different yes there’s no
said of course they were the noble
because they were consistent because
socialism leads to death and destruction
it can only lead to that but to know
that you have to understand ideas you
have to understand what happened I mean
you know this right what happened was
that the the Enlightenment ideas that
generated the 19th century were
challenged by German philosophers and
one French guy you I was and a couple of
French guys but at least it was so and
cons and then the whole string of German
philosophers that followed that that
challenged the Enlightenment undercut
the Enlightenment made people doubt the
Enlightenment and open the door to
people like Marx and and other
ideologues to steer us away for an
Enlightenment so communism and fascism
now anti-enlightenment political
ideologies Phyllis based on that German
Romanticism that’s anti enlightenment
and the good thing is and I said this in
my talk the other day right the good
thing is that we bounce back towards the
Enlightenment at least a little bit
right so if you think about what
happened in 1913 we had World War one in
the World War two right you think that
would have crushed us yeah I mean think
about the devastation the hundreds there
and then communism taking over a third
of the world or maybe two-thirds of the
planet I mean that would have devastated
us and yet we bounce back from that and
we’re bouncing back from that and vast
regions of the planet are bouncing back
for that and and I think that’s because
we bounce back to those in
Lichtman ideas of individualism and
reason and the week so it’s easy to you
know the opposition is still there but
the opposition today is not ideological
in a sense of a passion for socialism as
I said in my talk there are no
socialists out there they call
themselves Social Democrats because they
don’t know they they don’t go all the
way with socialism because because it’s
so stupid and it’s being crushed and
it’s being devastated and nobody takes
it seriously anymore so they have to
moderate it but they can’t give up in
the altruism they can give up on the
mysticism they because that those
ideologies is still they and we still
don’t have other than I in rant a proper
comprehensive systematic defense of
Enlightenment value so I’ve you eyeing
man as an Enlightenment philosopher as
they as the philosopher who culminates
the Enlightenment she closes the loop
she just she gives the philosophical
justification for reason as efficacious
and and egoism and individualism as a
proper model ideal and and and that’s
the power and if I think if we viewer
that way it I think I think if we
projected into the future it’s easier
she you know it’s it’s there’s a there’s
a foundation that people have and wig
we’re solidifying that foundation
imagine instead of our kids reading up
mice of men or that was then this is now
they read all this rug yeah I mean these
kids being raised thinking about being
free thinkers Wow it’d be a whole
different world we’re living it kids
we’re reading done yep yes
okay so Patrick thanks for doing the
interview awesome and thanks for sharing
your story too about like your
conversion like yeah coming back to it I
think it’s cool to be able to do
especially in a community where you know
that’s not necessarily the predominant
view so I like this but I guess gonna
get in like a masochist I like this kind
of go ahead your own could you just talk
about that kind of a Postum illogical
point of the package dealing that
happens I think that was helpful for me
and clarifying a lot of things that Iran
talked about yeah so we have a lot of
concepts out day so concepts think of
concepts as like a five fold in your
mind well we would put different things
and then when we refer to that concept
we open up to fold and pull things out
and and part of the problem is that that
we have in this fire folder called
selfish we have very conflict
things so people think of Bill Gates or
any rich person right a selfish why well
because they pursued their passion
because they made a lot of money so that
that’s kind of a good thing you know in
a sense I don’t think of it as good but
it’s in that file folder but also in
that file folder is Bernie Madoff right
scumbag pimmit schema lie out cheetah
and everything so you have in one folder
you have all these examples of good
things pursuing your own values trying
to be happy you know all of us most of
the day concerned about they won’t
happiness concern about their own family
I always tell audiences write your kids
in the pool the neighbors kids in the
pool they’re drowning who do you say
first and everybody says I say my kids
now the only difference between them and
me is I say my kids and I don’t feel
guilty about that they save their own
kids but they feel guilty about it
because their morality tells them they
should have saved the neighbor’s kid’s
first because because you have to love
your neighbor just like yourself so
there’s no difference between the
neighbors kids and your kids so we all
have a sense of selfishness we all
pursue our self-interest but we also
think that self-interest is associate
with lying cheating and stealing it Sosa
so with Bernie Madoff that’s the culture
right so we have a majority majority
Saudi that’s what I say the majority up
there so so every time we sell
selfishness the thing that pops into the
head is Bernie Madoff it’s it’s lying
cheating stealing it’s nasty people and
what Iran is saying is clean it up clean
the folder right we need to create a
different folder for bernie madoff
because there’s something inherently
different about what bernie madoff does
and what Bill Gates does or what Steve
Jobs does there’s something inherently
different between being productive and
taking care of your life and using your
mind to make your life a better then
lying cheating and stealing so that’s
great a separate folder for the line
cheating stealing bastards right let’s
call it self-destruction and let’s have
self-interest clean right real
self-interest long terms of its rational
self-interest using your reason to
pursue your own flourishing so
conceptually we need to clean up our
concepts and and and therefore then we
can use these terms and people ought to
understand us a part of our job is just
just housekeeping my mindset from the
outside is the marketing aspect of it
that that’s all I’m thinking about how
do you market it to get 18 19 20 year
olds to say this make sense and get to
get it to them even more so we usually
say things like oh why would God allow a
child rapist or concentration camps or
murders or any other evils or ugliness
of the world when we could say that
converse the opposite we can say why are
their paintings and sculptures and
skyscrapers and beautiful things what
what kind of God would allow that so I
just want like to see if you two would
elaborate a little bit more on that kind
of idealism I mean I don’t think in
those terms because I don’t think
there’s a God I mean I know there’s no
God and and I’ve never known an since
the age of six so to me the question of
why would God allow this or why would
God allow that doesn’t come into mind
but I do find it funny right there when
the guy catches the pass in the Super
Bowl in the end zone in the last second
he thanks his God right but when he
drops the pass he doesn’t go like this
right right so so so we give God credit
all the good stuff but they don’t blame
him for the bad stuff which I find
bizarre and ridiculous right yeah I mean
he’s control and therefore he gets
credit and blame for everything or he’s
not in control and therefore he doesn’t
get credit for the good stuff either but
you know but but the whole idea doesn’t
cross my mind because there’s no God so
if you caught to pass good for you and
if you dropped it you know go practice
some more we’re all fans of capitalism
here what’s our game plan we’re all
reading a lot of books we’re coming
together at conventions we’re doing a
lot of talking we’re doing a lot of
thinking what does that look like going
forward how is that going to like
produce difference in the world so I’ll
give you a perfect example here so I am
with Charlie Kurt Ernie about Turning
Point USA is doing a phenomenal job by
the way out there he’s making a lot of
noise some people like him some people
who like him marketing-wise
is killing it period chile and he’s
producing the content around capitalism
which is great i was at one of his
conferences in dallas and i went up to
him i said so let me ask you a question
this is great your time’ capitalism this
is phenomenal stuff here I said what
percent I said I noticed a lot of people
here are white and he says no they’re
not I said I notice about
90% are white he says no we have 46
people here that are african-american
and Hispanic I said how many people told
we got here he says a thousand people I
said it’s 95% white it’s my point you
know by the way this is on video when
you hear me talking about it when such
well it kinda is but as I said the
biggest challenge for me is the
following how many of you here
completely disagree with I rant this is
the problem you guys are the problem
all these donors I gave all this money
here you need to have three thousand
seats and handful it and let them leave
and hear the presentation of capitalism
let them make a decision for themselves
you don’t have to like what I’m saying
what’s the purpose of all of us coming
together and talking about this we agree
about this stuff I’m in Greece last week
I’m talking to these kids 20 of them
show up 20 of these entrepreneurs show
up right outside of Acropolis I said let
me ask you a question so what do you
guys doing right now to save Greece
what’s your game plan for Greece this is
what you mean as a how’re you guys
planning on saving Greece I mean you saw
what happened with your country you guys
don’t know how to manage money you have
no clue what’s going on what’s your game
plan he says well you know our
politicians all they want to do is tax
tax tax they don’t know how to manage
money they’re corrupt they’re this I
said so what are you doing about it
he says I don’t know I said so the
solution for all of you is capitalism
what’s gonna save Greece is capitalism
so the kid eighteen year old kid says
the other day I wore the value take my
shirt that says I love capitalism I said
what happened he says I went to school
teacher pulled me aside said you got to
take that shirt off I said did you take
it off he said yes I said you shouldn’t
have but here’s my challenge to you you
guys want to really do something about
Greece I said pick one day all of you
guys here’s the twenty of you put money
together create 500 posters white red
letters that says capitalism will save
Greece take 10 locations in Athens that
has the most traffic between 1 to 3
o’clock in the morning post 50 posters
at the most traffic place right next to
each other and wake up in the morning at
5 o’clock and record everybody that
walked past it see what happens you guys
got to create awareness you guys got to
come together and talk about this oh my
gosh you know what happens if we do that
we’ll get an arrest or we get I said
that’s what you’re gonna have to do
because you have two choices either do
that or you have to go to America well
you cannot wanted these two choices
gonna keep spreading the concept of
capitalism from our end I think the way
we’re gonna be doing it is realizing if
you go on YouTube right now everybody
took out their phones right now if you
typed in the word entrepreneur 80% of
the videos will be myself talking about
capitalism why we want to get this
message out but this is my last one I’ll
come to you
the virtues of selfishness to mean if
you guys did a focus group and got
people that came in here so what do you
think about this word you have two
things either we’re gonna work so hard
to change the way people think about the
word more power to you or why don’t we
repackage this messaging what word is
saving capitalism believe it or not is
entrepreneurship people are more
receptive to entrepreneurship than they
are to capitalism it’s the same exact
thing anti-abortion pro-life the
packaging needs to be better I believe
if we do that we’re gonna get the
attention of the younger audience that’s
my thoughts what do you think yeah
packaging matters it doesn’t matter as
much as I think Patrick thinks it does
because if you want the younger odd
cause people are going to hell people
are going to hate the concept of
selfishness even if we call it something
else it’s not the opposition to the word
it’s the opposition to the idea it’s the
idea that they find offensive we can cut
what happens when you call it
entrepreneurship what happens when you
call it free by the way free enterprise
polls better than free markets which
polls better than capitalism so let’s
use free enterprise but what happens
when you use Fanta price is the reason
it polls better it’s watered down and
it’s gonna be watered down more and more
and more so if you really care about
capitalism long term then I believe you
have to understand the philosophy on
which capitalism is based and the
philosophy on which capitalism is based
is the philosophy grounded on reason and
individualism those are the two most
important concepts the reason he comes
to this conference is not to convert you
into capitalists but to a give you
emotional fuel because it’s just fun and
B give you more substance so that you
can go out there into the world and
defend the concept of cap
I’m better on the basis of individualism
and reason which nobody else other than
us is doing capitalism will not survive
the conservative and libertarian
attempts to defend it on quicksand on
nothing yeah nitric yes what if anything
have you learned from Enron iron rant
what is wrong with saying hey man are
you kidding me
you should have corrected and that would
have gotta be embarrassed of yourself
right now right by the way look at my
phone it says I am an entrepreneur
everywhere I go and I put my phone like
this intentionally everywhere I go I
want people to know the power of
entrepreneurship what have I learned
from her allowing it okay for you to be
a free thinker and knowing at the end of
the day there’s a reason why I went on a
30-day tour I lived in an RV and went
across the country from LA to Miami to
Toronto to San Francisco back to LA
spoke to nearly ten thousand people on
the concept of capitalism for thirty
days my kids birthday was there but I
won in this RV because people need to
understand that this concept of
capitalism can free anybody if it did it
for me for other people as well so we’re
gonna keep screaming off the top of
there up top of our lungs the concept of
capitalism you will see us doing it with
the way we do it and hopefully five ten
years from now there’s gonna be hundreds
of millions of people sitting there
saying you know this capital some
concept is good and to go back to piggy
back with the point that he said
remember Mormons or get out one thing
they bring them in they worry about
baptizing people later not the other way
around
you can’t baptize them upfront you bring
them in and then you baptize them if you
had 3,000 people in this room there’s
more opportunities to baptize who cares
a 40 percent disagree if I convert 20
percent where you headed again we’re
gonna keep baptizing entrepreneurs
that’s how are we gonna be doing for the
next ten years so stay tuned thank you
so much everybody thank you well your to
see your writers see the CEO see yes sir
I got to allow me to ask the right
question we’re gonna meet in the second
show read this book which one is that
Atlas sure of course I’m multiple time
okay and what do you think everybody in
the world needs to read that book
that’s all up to everybody in the world
nice by the way not just that book every
one of the book she wrote Fountainhead
and forget about just the book study or
interview study how she thinks study how
she responds anything you can find on on
an or Iran you ought to read about
anything thank you guys thank you so much everybody thanks Patrick
at it all you want go look at the
conference look at your guide I ran to
you as your God I was fully ready for
like 300 people protesting outside you
know with an R an anti capitalism you’re
in state of California so having said
that let me ask you a question I know
you got the book at 16 years old and you
were inspired when you read the book at
16 years old and you said okay this is
an interesting book you know can I
believe something like this exists and
then from there and Israel you go and
you go become a first sergeant a
military there and I don’t know a lot of
people know this or now you did very
well in the military you come out you go
to University of Texas Austin then you
go and teach at Santa Clara for seven
years economics and you go run ahead
sponsor you’ve had that transition from
a kid who is inspired by a book you’re
introduced to her and then yours later
you go teach finance in Santa Clara San
Jose and then you just start a hedge
fund based on the papers you’re writing
now you live in Puerto Rico because
you’re smart NEP 4% taxes and all this
other stuff with them right what part of
my rants philosophy do you disagree with
in terms of philosophy none of it none
of it none of it I mean nothing’s really
changed since so 16 except now I
understand it and then I didn’t first of
all I’m not a philosopher so a lot of
the technical stuff it makes sense to me
right but no there’s not a there’s not a
portion of the philosophy qua philosophy
that I would disagree with it’s a whole
it’s a system it’s logical it all makes
sense that’s all well connected together
and it you know it just it fits it works
it you know 40 years later and it’s 40
years I read in 77th of 41 years later
you know now I understand it and it in
and I’m still as dedicated to it as I
was back then more so so so one of the
things I like when I talk to a pastor
and I’ll say okay listen I mean I
understand your believer I understand
your you know your pastor and you
believe in a Bible you believe in the
Quran oh you believe in Scientology you
believe in whatever it is that you
believe is your book of Mormon and
maroney all this other stuff Karen crepe
I don’t know any philosophy that doesn’t
have any contradictions
I don’t know any religion and I know you
know the Iran community is not a big
community on religion some are not all
of them are but you mean to tell me
there are nope no single contradictions
and any of Iran’s philosophies Asian I’m
sorry I’m saying in no contradictions
I’m also saying there might be something
wrong there I even found it I’m not
saying that I know it’s philosophy is
the truth and will always be known as
the truth I mean certainly philosophers
in the future might discover that this
aspect is needs improving or this year
they might be you know disagreement
about this virtue of that virtue or this
idea and epistemology of that idea in
post apology but I suddenly haven’t
found any she was a genius I’m not and
when I look at her philosophy it’s it
all for right now based on the knowledge
I have today everything I see there is
true but I don’t treat it as a Bible I
don’t take it on faith it’s true because
what I see in reality what I test in
reality when when I when I live the
philosophy it works it’s it’s and I
haven’t found a contradiction and I’ve
debated many many many people about
various ideas and they’ve never poked a
hole in it in in the philosophy you know
it’s the same as it’s like me saying you
know capitalism works it doesn’t work
always yes it works always you know
there no exceptions it just works and
it’s true it’s the only social system
appropriate for human life and it’s it’s
not you don’t have it’s not we’ve we’ve
internalized this idea that they have to
be flaws but no they don’t have to be
flaws the problem is that most of our
philosophies most of ideas indeed come
from religion and because they’re based
on faith there’s no even methodology
discover the contradiction other than
the whole thing contradicts reality so
that’s a mistake so why don’t we just
talk about the basic fundamental
philosophies that she had when you break
down objectivism right with reality so
you know all of that once you go through
that a little bit sure so reality is
what it is it is not what you want it to
be it’s not what you invent it to be
your conscious
doesn’t create reality but neither
there’s some other consciousness create
reality so our reasoning capabilities
the way we know reality not our emotions
emotions of products of of past
decisions we’ve made past values though
you might have had and it’s not it’s not
a knowable right it’s not reality is
there we know it because and we have the
tool to know it and only individuals can
reason you know we can’t we can’t really
we don’t have a collective stomach and
we suddenly don’t have a collective mind
we don’t have collective consciousness
we don’t have Collective reasons each
individual can reason each individual
therefore is responsible for his own
mind and sponsible for his own life so
in morality Iran was a was an egoist she
believed in rational self-interest that
your moral responsibility was to live
your life to the fullest to flourish as
a human being to survive Kwahu man being
not to live for others for the sake of
others and not to expect others to live
for you but for you to live for yourself
and then what kind of world do
individuals like this who want to live
for themselves we want to make the most
of themselves by using the reason to
discover the truth what kind of world do
they want to live in they want to live
in a world free of the one enemy of
Reason which is the fist the gun forced
coercion
so capitalism is a system where coercion
is outlawed and you know so she’s
against socialism she’s again fascism
she’s against any kind of statism she
believes in government but government
that only does one thing and as protect
us from coercion protects our rights and
our rights our freedoms from coercion
freedoms of action so so we’re free to
act to pursuit of the rational values
necessary for own life free of what for
your force free of coercion free of
authority so something just let’s talk
about that so meaning I do whatever I am
interested in and if it is my interest
to want to help somebody else so be it
that’s ok yes or no yes but but but
let’s let’s let’s first figure out what
self-interest means because
self-interest a lot of people think
what’s what self-interest means is do
whatever you feel like feel like doing
whatever
comes into your mind whatever whatever
they or some people in the culture today
think well I feel guilty that these
people are poor so I’m gonna help them
and that will reduce my guilt so none of
that to Iran is self-interest
self-interest has to be rationally shown
to be in your long-term benefit that
we’re long-term benefit your life right
so it has to be based on reason so
helping other people can be in your
self-interest Academy can be but but it
has to be for the right reason it can be
because you want to reduce the guilt
that you haven’t owned but who cares
what the reason is right I mean well you
could you do so so I don’t care what
your reason is really like me but you
should care about your own reason
because if it because if you do
something that is that is ultimately not
in your self-interest then you’re
working against your life you against
the iake against self-interest and
you’re hurting yourself what about
helping others what about the poor word
why I mean my always response to
everybody who I want to say what do you
care I mean what why isn’t the first
response that’s not my concern
it’s iron rants philosophy is
sustainable to run a nation yeah I mean
wow you really believe that I wish so
like I wish I wish we had the
opportunity to show you really believe
in rants philosophy is sustainable to
run a nation we as the government’s role
only playing cops you know military only
doing that absolutely I wouldn’t be
advocating for the philosophy otherwise
but absolutely and it’s again the
purpose of the philosophy is not a run a
nation the purpose of philosophy is to
run your own life and and and this the
focus should always be on my life the
only nation the only kind of nation yes
appropriate for my life and appropriate
for your life and to maximize your
opportunities and my opportunities to
make the most of our lives is a nation
that is free that is free of coercion
that leaves us free to pursue our dreams
in as individuals so that kind of nation
of course works because it’s a nation
where every individual is free to make
the most of their lives and what a
beautiful thing that is right because
because how do we make the most of our
lives we we make it by by producing by
creating by building and
trading with one another here’s a
follow-up to that question it’s the
concept is the philosophy of ein ran is
it to attract only the Navy SEALs is it
is it to only attract the Navy SEALs and
we go live in a small place by ourselves
you know who is John Galt you know find
all the jungles in the world and we go
live together because we have a great
understanding of each other and how
we’re wired or is it to help you know
and I know help is a sensitive word in
this community but is it is it to help
and inspire others who are not
non-believers yet to convert and say
this way of thinking works I will also
like to be part of this community which
is it because that’s them theirs and by
the way for me you gotta realize where
I’m coming from when I ask this question
I’m a hundred percent capitalist yeah
okay I grew up in an environment where I
know what it is what socialism or
communism does I know what it is to make
people feel guilty to force to tax if
you don’t I left to stay for a specific
reason 13.3% to force me to pay for it
you don’t want to fix it well you’re not
important my question on real capital
yeah I’m not a courtesan yet not more
per say it but that’s the real question
are you just trying to attract the Navy
assault I’m trying to attract any
individual who takes their life
seriously I’m trying to attract anybody
who’s open to these ideas it you know
it’s it’s an ultimately look even if a
majority of people don’t accept these
ideas but I introduce to them and their
lives has made better because these
ideas have political influence and we
have a more capitalist environment or
their lives is better because they take
the responsibility for their own life
more seriously rather than obsessing
obsessing constantly about what their
mother told them to do or how to help
other people but first and foremost
focus on themselves then the lives of
everybody become all of those people
become better and of course the
political life becomes better so no the
philosophy the philosophy fits any human
being willing to engage in his own
reason so so this is not some elitist
you know that it sounds no but it sounds
like it for me hypothetically the moment
you make a hundred million dollars you
start getting invited to weird parties
and you go to the heavens haven’t got
there yeah then I say do you honestly
Know Who I am I’m a one-point AGP a guy
all I did is work my ass off
and I read 1,500 business books and I
got in this situation okay great I don’t
think of myself as this special guy that
did this but sometimes I find guys and
gals who came from a family a lot of
money and they feel they’re elite
because they were raised in that
environment makes sense so for me when I
think about this philosophy I say is
this a philosophy to just attract all
those free thinkers who come together
let’s create a community together
because logically based on reason which
is what the community of ein Rand likes
I just don’t see a nation sustainable to
run it based on this philosophy cuz
you’re pessimistic about human nature
and I’m absolutely not no so I believe
every individual is capable of reason I
believe that individual is capable of
taking care of themselves I put aside
the less than 1% that for whatever
reason were born with some defect and it
can’t do it
every individual is capable of taking
care of themselves every individual is
capable of reasoning everybody every
individual is capable of achieving their
potential in life this philosophy is for
those individuals since everybody visual
is capable of reason every individual is
capable of getting this Fauci will it
happen in my lifetime no right and would
I prefer in my lifetime if I could to
live them in a community of people who
get it and look sure I mean I just said
that but but but you know and I know
that nobody’s gonna leave that community
alone so that community’s not gonna be
able to survive as a standalone entity
because the bad the guys you don’t want
to leave it alone have big guns and
and-and-and big weapons but there’s
absolutely zero reason why this can’t be
the dominant set of ideas in a culture
the dominant view of the people in the
culture and and look most people are not
philosophers most people are non
intellectuals but they are influenced by
the philosophers and intellectuals so my
view is when we get to the point where a
substantial number maybe a majority of
intellectuals and philosophers and
thinkers in the culture are advocates
for these ideas the culture will follow
that is the rest of the nation the
country however you want to call it the
community will follow and you will get a
society based on these ideas there’s
nothing in the ideas that prevents that
there’s nothing hard or impossible
or anti-human in the ideas in the
country the ideas are built to be
practical the ideas are built in a sense
they work because they derive from
reality
so here’s okay so every time I come to
LA if I go to a place and I see this
World Peace stuff right it’s a World
Peace World Peace World Peace and I see
it everywhere I’ll always go to myself
so tell me how I gonna get World Peace
well you know and I’m asking them so
tell me I’m gonna get we’re home with
you the way we get World pieces this
this this and all these rich people you
know all these distances and if we got
rid of religion and if we gotten rid of
this and we got rid of this this is how
we could get World Peace I said so
what’s your pretty much telling
everybody around the world is the only
way we can get world peace is for you to
think like me yeah okay that’s what
they’re saying that’s the idea of world
peace okay so how do we go world peace
well let me give you an example of world
peace so so after Napoleonic Wars in in
the nineteenth century until World War
one it was basically on the big picture
pretty much world peace why because we
had capitalism or as good as close to
capitalism’s we’ve ever had since World
War two until today and certainly since
the fall of the Berlin Wall we haven’t
had major Wars and today’s actually the
least violent period in all of human
history we’ve had fewer Wars close to
World Peace as we’ve ever mean why
because more and more countries around
the world are becoming free think about
40 years ago if I told you that if China
wants to become rich it has to become
capitalists that is they have to change
the way they’re thinking they have to
abandon not only Mao and communism but
to some extent they have to abandon
Confucius and all the Eastern mysticism
which they have implicitly in their
system in order to adopt capitalism
you’d have said that’s crazy China will
never do that but the reason a
successful today is the logic they’re
not completely not a hundred percent
it’s not perfect yet there’s a long way
to go but they’ve moved dramatically in
that direction in a sense China now is
more of a land of enlightenment values
in terms of the way people live then is
you Europe France where the
Enlightenment came about right so if you
look at the fundamental values that work
for human beings they are spreading they
can go anywhere in the world why is
Japan rich why South Korea rich because
they’ve adopted a certain set of values
they’ve adopted reason they’ve adopted
individualism as the core values that
made it possible for them to become rich
now we’re still at the beginning of a
process there’s still 100 maybe 200
years maybe 300 years I don’t know but
if you take that projection of people
better understanding these fundamental
ideas reality is reality reason is
efficacious the individual is what
counts if they get those three ideas
wonderful things happen Africa started
starting to turn and this is going to be
an evolution it’s gonna take a lot of
time but there’s again no reason why in
300 years 400 years people won’t adopt a
completely different philosophy than
they have today which I hope is mine
right because I think that’ll be good
for the for the world ideas of what
shape history what do you think about
religion has it done more good for the
world or bad for the world well it
depends when right so religion religion
thousands of years ago served an
important purpose in human life human
beings need a philosophy they need
guidance they need some explanation for
the world around them and religion
provided that explanation for a long
time maybe you could argue until the
Scientific Revolution there was some
need for some kind of religious
explanation where there was the Greek
gods or where there was the monotheistic
religions human beings needed some
guidance there was a slaughtering each
other at the same time right over this
study from the Enlightenment right in
something with it with the Scientific
Revolution people discovered wait a
minute we don’t have to get guidance
from authorities the Pope the the the
preach to it we can actually use our
mind to discover the truth by ourselves
we can learn about the world without
this and since and and you know so so
religion lost its purpose so there is no
purpose to religion today so when
Nietzsche says God is dead
good riddance I mean overall religion
does a lot of damage because it
highlights for the individual the
opposite of reason which is faith faith
is the opposite of reason so you’re not
a fan of faith obviously not okay I’m a
fan if we let me ask a question let’s
call faith so mine ran is not a person
that’s a trip in my faith no what
brought it to us knowledge knowledge of
what knowledge of the freedom that
existed how do I know
she saw it in the movies but there
that’s not that’s not that’s not a
absolute oh that’s so much it’s it’s
it’s it’s non absolutely gonna be
prediction right there to me first of
all first of faith and probabilities are
not the same thing so so she had
evidence faith is the absence of
evidence faith is when you have no
evidence of something there is no
there’s ever many of evidence on a lot
of different religions if you talk no
evidence course there god there’s no any
of them there’s zero evidence there’s
plenty of them around you but are there
plenty of religions around me and that’s
not your own evidence for the truth no
but if you think about it because this
is the contradiction where I see it I
believe she is a woman of faith Iran is
a woman of faith she is living in
Babylon that’s how my god I’m not time
I’ve gone that time at the fact that God
exists and looking I’m I’m in the fire
I’m at a complete opposite place right
now you guys are on the same page I’m
I’m trying to challenge you and you have
control over me right now because
there’s more of you there’s only one of
me but but I sit and I think about and I
say here’s a woman that leads Russia I
mean all you’ve been watching is movies
that you have control over it’s a
fantasy
I’m gonna go to us not a fantasy a
culture the producer has no idea the
culture she has every idea she how would
she have a a because because she’s
speciate when she was a child they left
and they were they were in Western
Europe so she saw Western European
culture versus Russian culture just saw
with their eyes
plus you’ve got a culture that produces
these movies not every culture produces
these movies Russia can’t produce these
movies other cultures don’t produce this
kind of movies plus you’ve got books and
stories you’ve got newspaper articles
you’ve got pictures even before the rise
of communism they were there were
newspapers so I’m not saying she has
certainty she might not have certainty
but she has massive quantities of
evidence but don’t equate faith with a
probabilistic you know I might not know
something with certainty but if I have a
lot of evidence then I know something
when and I can act based on a I mean a
finance guy I don’t have any sons here
but with yeah but I don’t consider that
faith I consider that I you know I have
I’ve evidence and I put a probability on
the ability on where the stock is going
to be in a year but that’s not faith so
based would the faith would be if
I had no evidence and I’d say you know I
you know coca-cola I just love the name
okay I go up some could argue with that
to say to there’s plenty of evidence for
faith but I don’t want to go make this a
religion thing I want to keep a specific
to economics right now so going back to
the contradiction she died okay
so she’s not a fan of saying that people
help they’re like she’s been quoted
writing about saying no one helped me no
one helped me she’s I’m sure I’m sure
she asked me easily find it where it
says I wasn’t helped no she was trying
to make a specific point absolutely the
fact that she never she never was helped
okay yeah but she comes here you know
and she lives with a family in Chicago
while she’s living with the family in
Chicago going to a movie theater she
went up watched a couple hundred more
ease and she was inspired and some pops
room you know she borrowed money from
some people on all this other stuff and
so the biggest challenge for me while
she’s on her second interview with Phil
Donahue yeah okay and so she’s wearing
that baby blue dress and a lady gets up
there and she says I used to be a
believer I’m no longer a believer there
are parts your stuff I agree and she
says why are you telling me I don’t care
I’m just sharing you with you yeah but
God say to another crowd that also
disagrees with me I don’t want to hear
it right now this is my show I’m here
because you have to hear from me in in
that level of intolerance to me if I
can’t share my opinion around you then
this is what happens let me finish it’s
a question and I want to hear you on
sure this is what happens it becomes
either one of two things
years ago the Republican Party kept
getting their tail handed to them
because they had a campaign called
anti-abortion Democrats the Liberals
came out with pro-choice right and they
were getting killed so they got together
and they said listen this anti-abortion
campaign doesn’t work we have to change
it and they went from anti-abortion to
pro a pro-life once they went to
pro-life boom everybody said I am
pro-life I’m not I am pro-life these
words are better so do you think a part
of the reason why maybe and by the way
you’re selling more books than ever
before you know 30 million plus copies
sold the people around the world are
more interested library Congress talking
about this being the second most
popularity with readers with all this
okay
credits there believe me I’m a big fan
of our content but do you think there’s
got to be a little bit of
a repackaging of the content being sold
to the world to embrace the content do
you think part of the packaging and the
story that’s being sold it’s tough for
people to embrace when you say virtues
of selfishness yeah it’s tough for
people to embrace absolutely but but
it’s tough for people to embrace this is
not gonna be easy so so I don’t think I
don’t want to soft-pedal this right if
you’re gonna become if you’re gonna take
on these ideas these are these
incredibly valuable to your life
incredibly valuable to your life but
it’s gonna require you to do real work
and it’s gonna challenge your existing
beliefs your existing beliefs set is
gonna have to be turned upside down Phil
Donahue is standing there and he’s
challenging her constantly and he’s
basically saying you’re wrong and I
don’t agree with anything and she takes
it and she answers and it’s great but a
woman in the audience stands up and
basically insults her by saying I used
to believe in this nonsense but I don’t
anymore
she didn’t say like but that’s exactly
what she meant and that’s what I’m it
was another person that insulted I was
like listen I that was that’s an insult
to say that to somebody to stand up and
say to somebody I used to think what you
say makes sense I don’t anymore then why
why why you asking me a question why you
here – what’s the point so so if you
listen to I advanced q and A’s and
particularly if you read her letters
we’ve got a book of all her letters she
would take questions across the board
from religious people and left us and
write us and all kind from teenagers and
every political view every philosophical
view and she would patiently write them
an answer and some of those letters are
beautiful and and and and and some of
their incredibly philosophical but she
was very very sensitive and she she
could hear it to somebody jury obvious
somebody just wanting to insult or
somebody just being you know being you
know being obnoxious and she dealt with
that now it would I deal with this
question the same way probably not I’m
not sure which one of us is right but
that’s not but that’s not the point the
point is for the viewers right is
engaged with the philosophy engage with
her ideas put aside whether you think
she was a little gruff where she was a
little rude or whatever that’s not the
point
although idea is true our ideas you know
beneficial to human life all right
some of them are unbelievable well some
of them some of them have been
life-changing to me I mean I can’t even
tell you what I know I know thousands
and there are hundreds of thousands or
millions of people would say that
whether they accept a whole philosophy
and of course yeah how ideas have
touched millions of people and sometimes
only some of her ideas now I think the
entire philosophy is consistent as a
system they’re no contradictions and
I’ve embraced at all but I completely
accept the fact that people take a part
of them and that’s better because to the
extent that somebody takes Iron Man’s
idea seriously to that extent their life
becomes better today extent that better
human beings and my world is a better
world as a consequence that’s in my
selfish interest that people take her
ideas even a little bit seriously so go
either books go engage in ideas you know
nonfiction fiction watch our videos
online but let’s get away from mine Rand
in a sense and in talk about the ideas
that’s that’s what’s important right and
that’s what’s gonna change the world in
the future that the reason why I came
over here was the following reason so I
went from do you believe this is
sustainable to run a nation do you
believe this can’t go out there and you
know get to the masses is the goal for
you to be in a small community of John
Galt Apple we think hey we have our
society it’s just gonna be us eh why
don’t all of us go put our money to get
and go buy beliefs and we run the nation
and we build that honestly we can clap
out Billy’s idea if you think about it
Billy’s could be a place we can do this
at you can’t do that a lot of other
places outside of Billy’s okay do that
part that’d be kind of great and it’s
all entrepreneurs free thinkers creative
thinkers and Peter Thiel wants to create
an island and all the people get
together I understand that concept if
that’s the goal if the goal is for us to
create a community and go out there and
think about it this words the the so let
me ask you because cuz libertarians
bring this up all the time so we might
as well put it on so let’s say you do
that and and let’s say you have real
freedom and a my my world real freedom
means private banking it means if you
want to withdraw more than ten thousand
dollars in cash nobody should have to
fill out a form and let you have real
all of that real there and you’re
building a wonderful capitalist
community how long do you think before
the marine show up and and in the name
of money laundering drug smugglers and
not a lotta bother in Dubai because
Dubai plays by the game Dubai plays the
game Dubai
banks are registered the Federal Reserve
Dubai banks play by the Federal
Reserve’s game Dubai is not a free
market it’s not capitalism it’s it’s
part of the system that exists out there
in the world it is not true capitalism
it’s not certainly not the kind of
society I would want to live in Panama
Panama’s got a two percent same thing
and if you look and it’s great that
Panama’s the 300 ploy great but it’s not
a real capitalist society so but you
believe 100% this philosophy absolutely
how big how sustainable is it on how big
a globe you mean I don’t I don’t believe
in one government for the whole globe
but I believe that every government in
the world could have this philosophy how
do you feel about a sustained it how do
you feel about the way the US government
is set up I think originally the way was
set up is pretty good I like it which
part of it which part do you like I like
I like that the fact that the no.1
branch of the government has very much
power I like the fact that all a little
impotence I wish they were a little bit
more impotent
you know I saw I like I like you have
two houses I like you have a president
that’s separate an executive branch at
separate I like the fact you have a
Supreme Court I would like that I would
like to have a stronger Constitution
that was clearer and more ticket and
stronger and one individual rights mean
what the purpose of government is and
how do you actually enforce the role of
government which is the protection of
individual rights how would we write the
content it’d be clearer than what it is
today
I mean it was written it is
unfortunately it could be it could be a
much clearer partially because remember
they wrote this in in in you know a long
time ago before capitalism really took
off before you had the institutions of
capitalism via the institutions you
could write it a lot clearer for example
I give an example I believe there should
be a complete separation of economics
from politics politicians have no power
over the economy letting the government
not not even a limit of good know let me
but let’s take in one room in the realm
of economics I believe that you
shouldn’t have a Treasury secretary
other than you know distribute to the
different departments or whatever you
it’s an accountant you don’t need a but
basically the gunman has no regulatory
role in economy it just doesn’t
intervene in the economy it would be
nice if in addition to the separation of
church and state that exists in the
economy in the Constitution which is
great
there was a separation of economy from
state right and there was a separation
of science from state and there was a
separation of economics from state so I
would have four separations in the
Constitution instead of just one and
that would be clearer and it would keep
government in its place
get out of the minds of my kids get out
of trying to run doctrinaire schools
you’re my jewel : no i’m for private
schooling my fried private schools okay
homeschooling is fine as an option but
i’m for private schools privatize the
entire system why don’t we try do we
have private insurance companies
although you know you’re heavily
regulated why do we have private
insurance but now private schools
private schools are much more important
right I want competition
I want to innovation I want choice I
want people to care about the education
that kids get I want I want to have
innovation in your world there would be
100% deregulation yeah 100% deregulation
yeah I mean I mean I’m not saying there
won’t be laws because in in the world we
live in today there’s confusion between
regulations our law regulations are
there to try to dictate to a business
how to run its business often it’s a
preventive law it says in advance this
might be a problem so don’t do it right
no I want I want laws things just on the
books the houin tech is it a police in a
judicial system so I don’t I know non
anarchist right so I want laws on the
books that protect property rights that
protect individual rights so if I am
doing something that clearly harms you
whether it’s poisoning you with with
dirty water or dirty air something then
yeah you have recourse against me and
the government has recourse against me
but I you know the government just can’t
scan out of nowhere say this is okay and
that’s banned and this is bad no there
has to be proof there has to be a system
there has to be a methodology of a
determined went something is man it has
to be proven that it hurt somebody you
know that it’s actually damaging to
human life rights are being violated so
their job is to protect property rights
which is hard it’s not easy so you need
a government you need a court system you
need a legislative branch you know to
figure out for example with the internet
what is property how do you apply
property to intellectual stuff how do
you apply property to the interest
you’re simplifying it more than like you
know it may be easy to do that with
50,000 people in a country
three hundred thirty minutes the other
way around it’s it the the more complex
the system is the more important it is
once you have freedom the more
complexity you have the more capitalism
is important I can I can centrally plan
probably don’t hold me to this I don’t
think it’s right I don’t think it small
but I could centrally plan a fifty
thousand person community and do okay
could I centrally plan a three hundred
million people no way so even even from
the yeah so the more complex the the
less economic justification there is for
any kind of planning the more you want
freedom the more you want capitalism
right the bigger it is the more this
philosophy in a sense quite economics
works so let’s say your house burns down
and you didn’t buy insurance for
whatever reason and any of a nice sky
and you’ve got neighbors what happened
in America before the government stepped
in and provided you with welfare and
everything else your neighbors got
together and they said he’s a good guy
we like here maybe no fault of his own
it should have bought insurance but ok
and we’re gonna we’re gonna come
together I’m gonna help him build a new
house but you you you shouldn’t expect
some guy you live in Dallas you
shouldn’t affect somebody in California
to pay for your new house if your
neighbors want to help you it but what
if you’re a jerk and your house burns
down and your neighbors actually hate
you and you’re not worthy of their help
then you’re not gonna get the help so
virtue is rewarded under capitalism if
you’re a good person if you’re a nice
person and then people will help you
when you need that help but it’s not
automatic you’re suffering does not
place a moral claim on us what happens
though unfortunately that’s what happens
you know you have some yeah but I know
but that says happened that’s not just
today it’s know you telling me there’s
never been people that have exploited
other pino and tell me I’m saying always
there be other people in matters but
when we’re free there’s less
exploitation because when we’re free we
get to make decisions for ourselves and
I and we’re much more focused on our own
self-interest but when you have a system
where my money is taken for me by the
point of a gun which is what attacks us
all money is taken from me and then some
bureaucrat decides who to help and who
not to help then I’m being exploited all
the time every single day except in
Puerto Rico
so if 7 billion plus people today
all believed in the philosophy of
Objectivism what would the world look
like oh my god
you wanted world peace you got world
peace it’s the most boring world ever
are you it’s the most exciting with
those boring warning about innovation
are you think about me about freeing up
billions of people freeing up to think
and to be entrepreneurs to create to
build to make the whole sky no utopia of
course it’s only yes the same thing when
liberals say that you know we have this
utopian it’s the same you asked me I
didn’t say I expected to step in them
are but think about what has happened
again in in countries in the world that
have adopted just a little bit of the
sauce tree not the whole thing just a
little bit of it right you see beautiful
skyscrapers you see massive innovation
you see production wealth creation see
people rising out of poverty so every
place that’s adopted just a little bit
of this a little bit of freedom a little
bit of capitalism a little bit of reason
and science and thinking boom
now extrapolate what would happen if
they did just do a little bit what
happens if China tomorrow forget my
philosophy what happened if China
tomorrow said you know what Thomas
Jefferson and John Adams and Hamilton
they will write we’re gonna adopt a
constitutional government into image in
then we’re gonna separate state from
economics and we’re going to adopt the
American constitutional model China
would almost instantaneously become five
times richer more innovation more
production more creation so why why do
you say yes on that right now okay now
take it even one more step further and
why would an exciting world it’s so much
fun so much excitement so much
innovation so much dynamism I don’t see
it yeah I don’t know why I don’t see it
here’s why I don’t see it okay by the
way well I mean the world today is
interesting because people are killing
each other in Syria and in other places
for no absolutely no reason because they
God doesn’t agree with somebody else’s
God
oh well that’s like I want I want all of
the goddess they’re extremists yeah well
we have extremists in capitalism as well
I mean you know crony capitalism doesn’t
work like well honey capitalism doesn’t
exist let me just say there is no such
thing as crony capitalism or conscious
capitalism or any capitalism it’s
capitalism cronyism is a feature of the
state
is a feature of statism that’s socialism
no cronyism is not an extreme of
capitalism cronyism is a feature of
uncapitalized of the opposite of
capitalism when you take capitalism away
what you get is cronyism if you have a
capitalism purely is a separation of
state from economics if government
doesn’t have control of the economics
how much cronyism I have wholly with
zero I am totally with you on that side
so you can’t there’s no there’s no but
outside the concept of a Syrian I said
that’s that’s not a religion that’s the
extremists well listen I was an atheist
25 years of my life okay I’m giving a
whole different standpoint for me
I’m not going faith here that’s an
extremist we’re talking about and
unfortunately sometimes in capitalism
guys come up they go to politics gives
you a story yeah I’m in Harvard
okay and I’m at their opium poor no I
didn’t go to Harvard I went to opium
program it’s a three week program I’m
not bragging that I want to are but this
was entrepreneurs inventor of it yeah
it’s a $40,000 course you go for three
weeks and it’s 144 different
entrepreneurs from 65 country countries
yeah and one of the guys says you know
instructor I’m really struggling because
I used to have 31 percent of marketplace
and this one business came in and he
took 17 percent because it’s two
different businesses combined it’s 17
percent I only have 13 percent we’re
really taking it what do you think I
should do so the instructor says well
what do you guys think you should do you
know this is about you know us talking
to one other what do you guys think you
should do this one guy from Brazil says
let me ask you a question who’s running
for office and by the way he is not
laughing everybody’s in there saying
let’s see what’s gonna happen who
running for office and he says what do
you mean is there anybody that’s running
for Congress Senate governor office
anybody says yeah of course there’s a
couple guys he says listen very simple
you go tell them right now
a million dollars okay what is the
dollar amount for you you give me a half
a million dollars up front half a mil
upon passing the bill to make the
barrier to enter for the other guy then
he gets the other half a million dollar
bonus goes to guess what we had a
business I’m sitting on like the way he
said it was so nonchalant like you know
just go out there and do it but there’s
an have you been to Brazil but I have
not no well if you go to Brazil and you
see the level of poverty and you see the
level of
I lack enough shot on his page no so
sorry point is my point is yes that’s
how the world works and it’s a disaster
to the extent that it works so so we
reject that we want pure capitalism we
want a capitalism with that is
impossible
great what is the downside of that
there’s no downside here you’re looking
for downsides but if I if I make that
impossible by making those sentences
impotence when it comes to the economy
make them so weak that they can’t impact
the economy there’s no point in bribing
them so the leader by the way and your
society is it a president or is it like
a chief of a commander or chief like a
military guy not a president I think the
American system is a good system
oh you like the system here I like them
I like to make a system as it was at the
founding again I think it’s me perverted
and distorted the executive today has
way too much power
all these regulatory agencies are
unconstitutional so so I’d like the
original system where the president has
some power but videos weak but but look
and you need a military because you need
to defend yourself but the point is if
you recognize that what this guy said
about Brazil is leading to poverty in
Brazil then if you take that out you
would lead to more wealth in Brazil so
why can’t we have the whole world be
capitalist I’m hundred percent well
being capitalist I’m going back to the
concept of there being still some
contradictions in it that there’s
there’s gotta be some contradictions in
it that’s not being addressed let me
give you another one here okay virtue of
selfishness by ina ran right virtue of
selfish yeah do the virtues of
selfishness work in every aspect of life
yeah in your personal life absolutely in
the bedroom with your wife absolutely ok
ready ready I’m happy though I’m happy
to go from politics I’ve got mine babe
Bobby I didn’t get mine but babe we
believe in virtues of selfishness so
wait what’s what is selfishness mean I’m
satisfied yes so are you satisfied are
you really satisfied felt amazing bro
let me tell you I am like solid I’m
ready to go to sleep
so is she important to you if you love
somebody are they important to show is
their happiness important to you of
course this day happiness contributed
you’re happy sure then making them happy
in bed is that gonna make your
satisfaction even greater of course if
I’m married yes so if I’m single you’re
same
forget about if you’re single no that’s
what you’re saying so we got it so if
I’m single all the young fellas no go
get yours and forget about her life not
what I said
it’s Engel it depends right it depends
is this a one-night stand or is this
something some a woman is anything worth
that you expect yeah that you’re gonna
marry or you expect you can have a
long-term relationship with do you love
this other person my point is this if
you love another person then their
happiness becomes part of your happiness
and it’s completely selfish to take care
of this other person to make sure that
they’re enjoying the sex as much as you
enjoying the sex because the fact is
you’ll enjoy the sex more if they’re
enjoying the sex if they lie they I know
right if they lie they like a cardboard
and you’re having some and you’re having
some physical sensation that is nothing
as compared to they’re having the time
of their life and your heart and and
because you’re gonna have the time of
your life
so so the idea that selfishness means
you don’t care about other people that
selfishness means that you actually
ignore other people but but the point is
packaged right know it the point is
let’s think about what the word means
and let’s think it’s food ayan ran is
challenging us she’s not she you can’t
take morality and put it in one word and
hand it to somebody and they’re gonna
get it well Ali takes work so the word
selfishness is a challenge what do you
mean
who what is a self is a self just the
momentary pleasure of an orgasm or is
the self the entire life all my values
everything that I encompass my
consciousness my future my life and then
what kind of behavior and what kind of
values do I need to adopt in order to
make my life meaningful and enjoy it and
happy over this period and do other
people have a place in that well of
course they do but they have a place in
that because because they have a place
in my happiness because it’s selfish for
me to care about them so you have to
unpackage it and it takes effort and it
takes work
but that’s beautiful it’s a challenge we
learn that morality is simple just take
care of other people and don’t be
selfish don’t think of yourself just
take care of other people and that sucks
nobody wants to actually do that
everybody wants to take care of
themselves everybody cares about
themselves so we learned for a very
young age to be cynical about morality
not to take morality seriously and and
we go to church and we do a thing and we
pretend and we say oh Jesus right but
nobody wants to be Jesus nobody wants to
be Mother Teresa I haven’t seen anybody
volunteering to become a mixed mother
Teresa right so we live our life’s Road
then what happens we’ve got this a model
ideal that we be taught and we’re living
this life and we feel guilty and and
that’s unknown guilt why should you feel
guilty and we can’t achieve happiness
and we’re frustrated with our lives and
you see all the social problems that’s
that’s great I’m saying that’s the
consequence of religion that’s a
consequent we’re just morality it’s crap
it’s wrong it seemed all your focus
needs to be on making your life the best
life that it can be and of course other
people have a role in that do you think
I’m rant yes the only place I’m getting
amazing do you think I rant lived her
life according to her philosophies yeah
I do
I do so then why do you thirty minutes
ago tell me let’s set aside the way she
lived let’s focus on the facade because
contradiction again no but no because
the ideas need to stand on their own
whether she did it she didn’t the ideas
needed standard on I think Iran is an
exemplar of a philosophy I think she’s a
hero and I think she’s somebody to look
up to but I don’t want to get into the
debate about this personal aspect of my
life or that personal aspect of her life
because I don’t think that’s what
they’re but that is your example don’t
like when I come in here and I come to
your confidence as your conference
everywhere I see Iran so Iran is your
Jesus Iran is short Joseph Smith Iran is
your l ron Hubbard and you may laugh at
it all you want go look at the
conference I ran to you is your God you
you you you’re seeing it as your God
she’s not she’s not a god she is a
philosopher you you would go you could
go to other conferences with a where
they talk about Aristotle’s philosophy
or
she is a philosopher we all you know
share this philosophy we’ve learned to
philosophy with her we admire her and
and she changed my life
she changed the lives of most of the
people in this room we have a massive
amount of admiration for her and look
you know I don’t have that big of a
problem you know she’s a heroine and I
have no problem in you saying she is our
Jesus Jesus is a hero to Christians I’m
Rand and ended some of her fictional
characters in her books uh heroes to us
so in a sense of concretizing this image
of what this life and what this
philosophy is absolutely she’s she’s a
massive hero but I find instead of
engaging with the ideas too many people
in the culture want to nitpick her life
and I’m not an expert in her life I know
an expert in her biography
I love Ironman because what she did to
my life he for one my life see I don’t
mind sitting there and debating somebody
who is an atheist and he wants to debate
me whether there’s a God or no God or
agnostic or whatever you want to do
that’s fine the only time the reason why
this is so much attracted is because
there’s such a 100% certainty in
everything being right if you’re free
think or how could a free thinkers say a
hundred percent to anything if you’re a
free thinker it’s a bit of a
contradiction yeah another hand this cup
of coffee in my hand is is coffee and
this cup is a cup and it’s made of paper
and I’m a hundred percent certain of
everything I just said and so to say
coffee by the way just so you guys know
I’m not a coffee guy yeah but I ran a
sales office don’t know that drank
coffee do you not just walk away seeing
who is this guy don’t like him at all
he’s so confused he’s missing out on the
point of life if he doesn’t even drink
coffee do you do you follow the author
or have you read his book Nassim Taleb
yes I like opposition is what I like
this is a quote by Jeff and Vince Graham
in his book I am at the Fed level a
libertarian at the state level a
Republican at the local level a Democrat
and at the family and friends level a
socialist what do you think about that I
think that is tragic and I think a lot
of libertarians have that view
unfortunately
includi Hayek Frederick Hayek had the
view there was socialists in the family
and you have to abandon those altruistic
socialist values in the family when you
go out into the community I’m not a
socialist of my family I don’t believe
in socialism in any kind of human
relationship I don’t believe in
sacrifice in any human relationship I
believe I don’t sacrifice my wife I
don’t sacrifice my kids they were
important to me I love them that’s why I
do what I do for them but so I think one
has to hold your values and be
consistent throughout you don’t
sacrifice for your kids
no so when your kids were born and they
were brayton newborn babies you slept
eight hours
no no why why because because my kids
were far more important to me than a few
hours of sleep then you sacrifice no for
your sacrifice self-sacrifice is
something very simple we was important
right some sacrifices when you give
something and what do you expect to get
in return if I go into the Apple store
and give them $1,000 and get an iPhone X
did I sacrifice no cuz I got something
more valuable I gave something up I gave
up but nobody says you sacrificed a
thousand dollars you traded so I gave a
thousand dollars and I got something
more valuable when I didn’t sleep at
night I got something much more valuable
my kids and what’s more important than
that right so that’s not a sacrifice
Jesus what Jesus did that’s a sacrifice
right he suffered for other people’s
sins I can’t think of anything more evil
than that I can’t think of anything more
evil than that then for the individual
or for the for the anybody for anybody
for a person who think of the injustice
yea they committed sins and I’m gonna
penalize you for them and you’re gonna
say yeah great cool I’m gonna sacrifice
it why why would you chose to though
it’s a choice you may he made such a
little choice yeah that’s his choice ya
know it’s a choice I’m not gonna take
away your choice if you want to commit
suicide fine but it particularly slow in
a painful suicide that’s your problem
but I still think that’s anti life
that’s anti values it’s evil it’s bad so
you know again that’s a sacrifice and I
don’t I I avoid sacrifice you know if I
you know so once in a while I’ll do
something and I’ll regret it but that
wasn’t
steak I don’t answer into relationship
with the idea of sacrificing sacrificing
is bad I’m for life I’m for living and
living involves trade living involves
giving up something to get something
greater in return right and and the
person who got the stuff thinks what
they got is more than what they gave
right Apple thinks that the thousand
dollars is worth more than the iPhone
that’s why they engaged in a trade so we
won I won they want everybody wins with
what ein ran be wearing a make America
great hat again today she walk around
today saying I am and just in love with
this Trump guy man he’s just I love I go
to sleep thinking about make America
great again she would go to sleep in in
shock and Hawwa about the state of
America under Donald Trump I think she
would hate him now I don’t want to speak
fine man because she was a genius and
and it’s sometimes hard to say what she
would I can tell you what I think not
not what I would I think Iran would
think she would hate him and and she
would say yes I’m for making America
great again it would be great if Donald
Trump had a clue what America was
because to make something great you have
to know what it is first and America’s
not about America’s not about steel jobs
of this job of this thing trying to tell
what do you call it Holly Davidson where
they should open a plan Americans about
individual rights Americans about
freedom Americans about is the only mall
or country in history because it’s
founded on the principle of individual
rights this is a president who doesn’t
know what individual rights are this is
a president has no conception of the
Constitution never mentions the
Constitution because he doesn’t really
care he just wants to do what he want he
really doesn’t care I am convinced he
cares you know I’m convinced kid zero
about the constant how do you know that
by watching him and seeing his behavior
so a lot of the stuff you just said he’s
doing a lot of it for you right he’s
deregulating every day is deregulating a
lot of laws yeah that’s that lowered the
corporate taxes from thirty five percent
to twenty three good
he’s deregulating good for him he lured
competition for him no good for
everybody
yeah good for sure but at the same time
he is spending like crazy so spending is
gone up dramatically so what does that
do that’s sucks money out of the private
economy just as if you taxed it so the
difference between taking our bonds to
fund the government or tax
is small one could argue which one is
worse for the economy but on principle
you measure government intervention in
the economy by how much dollars they
spend if they’re spending more dollars
they were intervening in my life more so
he maybe deregulating over here but
something’s going up over here
which is bad on top of that he’s just
he’s just raised taxes on all of us it’s
called tariffs tariffs are sales tax and
he’s just taxed all of us with tariffs
and he intends to do a lot more of that
but it’s more than that
what he does is he diminishes the the
the significance of the presidency he
diminishes what America stands for
he’s vulgar he’s he’s and again he has
no sense of understanding of what this
country actually is about and what this
country actually means so so there’s
nothing this man’s done that that Iran
would say I’m pleased with this three
areas well sure I mean and again I don’t
want to speak fine man but yeah he’s
deregulating good I’m glad he’s
deregulating I’m glad he lowered the
corporate tax that’s a no-brainer
so anybody would have done that but but
but okay but but the negatives I think
way outweigh the positives way out way
too fast so who which president has been
a president where the Iran community
objectivism would say we like this guy
or a possible current candidate Grover
Cleveland that would be it
Grover Cleveland no and none of them and
it’s not surprising right it’s not
surprised anybody gonna be able to
please Iran I highly doubt anyone’s
gonna please well I mean I meant voted
ina in voted when she was alive and she
voted sometimes she didn’t always vote
but she voted on portal Barry Goldwater
she will key was it’s notable he’s just
what a Barry Goldberg ordered for Nixon
right I wouldn’t say she supported Nixon
but she voted for Nixon a lot of people
change their minds with Nixon yeah but I
think she wouldn’t have with regard to
McCaul McGovern Oh McGovern yes my
government because of how far left he
was so she sometimes you don’t close the
nose and and and voted for people she
didn’t like and she she ran a campaign
what was it anti-nixon nights for Nixon
I think was was was well
what she called in 1972 she adds I think
some hope for Nixon is 68 but then he
disappointed her and there were a number
of people in the administration who were
quite influenced by her in the 72
administration she would not vote for
Reagan she refused to vote for Reagan
she wouldn’t have she didn’t 1980 what
was the reason for she believed Reagan
would bring them all majority into the
Republican Party and it would take it
over and turn it into a religious party
she was absolutely right of course and
she said that the harm that he will do
by bringing religion and associating
with republicanism and capitalism would
do more damage long-term than any good
things he might do on deregulation
Louisa said how would she feel about
Obama or Clinton she would have despised
both of them in Bush Clinton wavy
wouldn’t negotiate with Newt Gingrich he
was with with Monica Lewinsky to bother
we was working with legislation which
you know I’m happy when a president does
not use of selfishness you know Bill
Clinton was a big fan of he’s not
selfish she was a it was an impulsive
emotional aesthetic not selfish and you
can look at Bill Clinton and you can see
how miserable pathetic you know low
human but you know what this does to me
but this is what selfishness is not
about it you know just doing whatever
your emotions dictate selfishness is
about figuring out what’s good for you
and you allow many of you here under 30
years old got it how many of you saw
Iran face to face like you saw her alive
Wow listen that’s impressive I would
have loved to and if there’s a few
people I would have loved to set which
she’s one of them Milton Friedman’s
another one those are two of my biggest
heartbreak so I wanted to get a chance
to meet them too what having said that I
hope you enjoyed this we’re gonna do a
little bit of Q&A I think that’s part of
next we have Lee thank you for
tolerating me pushing a little bit what
what most of you guys don’t know is a
lot of this stuff I pushed I am a
supporter of I just want to see the
argument I want to see the emotions and
what would happen if you respond to this
is the way I learned and I hope you can
appreciate that so and if anybody has
any questions that they get I go right
over there the aroan you are reminded us
of all the positives of the 19th century
which were the result of freedom greatly
increased prosperity relative world
the short version of my question is what
the hell happened because you look at
the 20th century and you have two major
world wars other Wars the massive
casualties of those wars were dwarfed by
the genocide caused by totalitarian
dictatorships yep
can we not learn from example well we
don’t learn from example I don’t think
humanity learns much for example I don’t
think individuals learn much for example
because their interpretation of events
is clouded by their ideology by the
ideas that they hold so its ideas that
led to those catastrophes of the 20th
century it’s and you know you hear
socialists today what do they say they
say well those people didn’t apply the
ideas right you know this time well we
have a noble socialist or noble
communist to be different yes there’s no
said of course they were the noble
because they were consistent because
socialism leads to death and destruction
it can only lead to that but to know
that you have to understand ideas you
have to understand what happened I mean
you know this right what happened was
that the the Enlightenment ideas that
generated the 19th century were
challenged by German philosophers and
one French guy you I was and a couple of
French guys but at least it was so and
cons and then the whole string of German
philosophers that followed that that
challenged the Enlightenment undercut
the Enlightenment made people doubt the
Enlightenment and open the door to
people like Marx and and other
ideologues to steer us away for an
Enlightenment so communism and fascism
now anti-enlightenment political
ideologies Phyllis based on that German
Romanticism that’s anti enlightenment
and the good thing is and I said this in
my talk the other day right the good
thing is that we bounce back towards the
Enlightenment at least a little bit
right so if you think about what
happened in 1913 we had World War one in
the World War two right you think that
would have crushed us yeah I mean think
about the devastation the hundreds there
and then communism taking over a third
of the world or maybe two-thirds of the
planet I mean that would have devastated
us and yet we bounce back from that and
we’re bouncing back from that and vast
regions of the planet are bouncing back
for that and and I think that’s because
we bounce back to those in
Lichtman ideas of individualism and
reason and the week so it’s easy to you
know the opposition is still there but
the opposition today is not ideological
in a sense of a passion for socialism as
I said in my talk there are no
socialists out there they call
themselves Social Democrats because they
don’t know they they don’t go all the
way with socialism because because it’s
so stupid and it’s being crushed and
it’s being devastated and nobody takes
it seriously anymore so they have to
moderate it but they can’t give up in
the altruism they can give up on the
mysticism they because that those
ideologies is still they and we still
don’t have other than I in rant a proper
comprehensive systematic defense of
Enlightenment value so I’ve you eyeing
man as an Enlightenment philosopher as
they as the philosopher who culminates
the Enlightenment she closes the loop
she just she gives the philosophical
justification for reason as efficacious
and and egoism and individualism as a
proper model ideal and and and that’s
the power and if I think if we viewer
that way it I think I think if we
projected into the future it’s easier
she you know it’s it’s there’s a there’s
a foundation that people have and wig
we’re solidifying that foundation
imagine instead of our kids reading up
mice of men or that was then this is now
they read all this rug yeah I mean these
kids being raised thinking about being
free thinkers Wow it’d be a whole
different world we’re living it kids
we’re reading done yep yes
okay so Patrick thanks for doing the
interview awesome and thanks for sharing
your story too about like your
conversion like yeah coming back to it I
think it’s cool to be able to do
especially in a community where you know
that’s not necessarily the predominant
view so I like this but I guess gonna
get in like a masochist I like this kind
of go ahead your own could you just talk
about that kind of a Postum illogical
point of the package dealing that
happens I think that was helpful for me
and clarifying a lot of things that Iran
talked about yeah so we have a lot of
concepts out day so concepts think of
concepts as like a five fold in your
mind well we would put different things
and then when we refer to that concept
we open up to fold and pull things out
and and part of the problem is that that
we have in this fire folder called
selfish we have very conflict
things so people think of Bill Gates or
any rich person right a selfish why well
because they pursued their passion
because they made a lot of money so that
that’s kind of a good thing you know in
a sense I don’t think of it as good but
it’s in that file folder but also in
that file folder is Bernie Madoff right
scumbag pimmit schema lie out cheetah
and everything so you have in one folder
you have all these examples of good
things pursuing your own values trying
to be happy you know all of us most of
the day concerned about they won’t
happiness concern about their own family
I always tell audiences write your kids
in the pool the neighbors kids in the
pool they’re drowning who do you say
first and everybody says I say my kids
now the only difference between them and
me is I say my kids and I don’t feel
guilty about that they save their own
kids but they feel guilty about it
because their morality tells them they
should have saved the neighbor’s kid’s
first because because you have to love
your neighbor just like yourself so
there’s no difference between the
neighbors kids and your kids so we all
have a sense of selfishness we all
pursue our self-interest but we also
think that self-interest is associate
with lying cheating and stealing it Sosa
so with Bernie Madoff that’s the culture
right so we have a majority majority
Saudi that’s what I say the majority up
there so so every time we sell
selfishness the thing that pops into the
head is Bernie Madoff it’s it’s lying
cheating stealing it’s nasty people and
what Iran is saying is clean it up clean
the folder right we need to create a
different folder for bernie madoff
because there’s something inherently
different about what bernie madoff does
and what Bill Gates does or what Steve
Jobs does there’s something inherently
different between being productive and
taking care of your life and using your
mind to make your life a better then
lying cheating and stealing so that’s
great a separate folder for the line
cheating stealing bastards right let’s
call it self-destruction and let’s have
self-interest clean right real
self-interest long terms of its rational
self-interest using your reason to
pursue your own flourishing so
conceptually we need to clean up our
concepts and and and therefore then we
can use these terms and people ought to
understand us a part of our job is just
just housekeeping my mindset from the
outside is the marketing aspect of it
that that’s all I’m thinking about how
do you market it to get 18 19 20 year
olds to say this make sense and get to
get it to them even more so we usually
say things like oh why would God allow a
child rapist or concentration camps or
murders or any other evils or ugliness
of the world when we could say that
converse the opposite we can say why are
their paintings and sculptures and
skyscrapers and beautiful things what
what kind of God would allow that so I
just want like to see if you two would
elaborate a little bit more on that kind
of idealism I mean I don’t think in
those terms because I don’t think
there’s a God I mean I know there’s no
God and and I’ve never known an since
the age of six so to me the question of
why would God allow this or why would
God allow that doesn’t come into mind
but I do find it funny right there when
the guy catches the pass in the Super
Bowl in the end zone in the last second
he thanks his God right but when he
drops the pass he doesn’t go like this
right right so so so we give God credit
all the good stuff but they don’t blame
him for the bad stuff which I find
bizarre and ridiculous right yeah I mean
he’s control and therefore he gets
credit and blame for everything or he’s
not in control and therefore he doesn’t
get credit for the good stuff either but
you know but but the whole idea doesn’t
cross my mind because there’s no God so
if you caught to pass good for you and
if you dropped it you know go practice
some more we’re all fans of capitalism
here what’s our game plan we’re all
reading a lot of books we’re coming
together at conventions we’re doing a
lot of talking we’re doing a lot of
thinking what does that look like going
forward how is that going to like
produce difference in the world so I’ll
give you a perfect example here so I am
with Charlie Kurt Ernie about Turning
Point USA is doing a phenomenal job by
the way out there he’s making a lot of
noise some people like him some people
who like him marketing-wise
is killing it period chile and he’s
producing the content around capitalism
which is great i was at one of his
conferences in dallas and i went up to
him i said so let me ask you a question
this is great your time’ capitalism this
is phenomenal stuff here I said what
percent I said I noticed a lot of people
here are white and he says no they’re
not I said I notice about
90% are white he says no we have 46
people here that are african-american
and Hispanic I said how many people told
we got here he says a thousand people I
said it’s 95% white it’s my point you
know by the way this is on video when
you hear me talking about it when such
well it kinda is but as I said the
biggest challenge for me is the
following how many of you here
completely disagree with I rant this is
the problem you guys are the problem
all these donors I gave all this money
here you need to have three thousand
seats and handful it and let them leave
and hear the presentation of capitalism
let them make a decision for themselves
you don’t have to like what I’m saying
what’s the purpose of all of us coming
together and talking about this we agree
about this stuff I’m in Greece last week
I’m talking to these kids 20 of them
show up 20 of these entrepreneurs show
up right outside of Acropolis I said let
me ask you a question so what do you
guys doing right now to save Greece
what’s your game plan for Greece this is
what you mean as a how’re you guys
planning on saving Greece I mean you saw
what happened with your country you guys
don’t know how to manage money you have
no clue what’s going on what’s your game
plan he says well you know our
politicians all they want to do is tax
tax tax they don’t know how to manage
money they’re corrupt they’re this I
said so what are you doing about it
he says I don’t know I said so the
solution for all of you is capitalism
what’s gonna save Greece is capitalism
so the kid eighteen year old kid says
the other day I wore the value take my
shirt that says I love capitalism I said
what happened he says I went to school
teacher pulled me aside said you got to
take that shirt off I said did you take
it off he said yes I said you shouldn’t
have but here’s my challenge to you you
guys want to really do something about
Greece I said pick one day all of you
guys here’s the twenty of you put money
together create 500 posters white red
letters that says capitalism will save
Greece take 10 locations in Athens that
has the most traffic between 1 to 3
o’clock in the morning post 50 posters
at the most traffic place right next to
each other and wake up in the morning at
5 o’clock and record everybody that
walked past it see what happens you guys
got to create awareness you guys got to
come together and talk about this oh my
gosh you know what happens if we do that
we’ll get an arrest or we get I said
that’s what you’re gonna have to do
because you have two choices either do
that or you have to go to America well
you cannot wanted these two choices
gonna keep spreading the concept of
capitalism from our end I think the way
we’re gonna be doing it is realizing if
you go on YouTube right now everybody
took out their phones right now if you
typed in the word entrepreneur 80% of
the videos will be myself talking about
capitalism why we want to get this
message out but this is my last one I’ll
come to you
the virtues of selfishness to mean if
you guys did a focus group and got
people that came in here so what do you
think about this word you have two
things either we’re gonna work so hard
to change the way people think about the
word more power to you or why don’t we
repackage this messaging what word is
saving capitalism believe it or not is
entrepreneurship people are more
receptive to entrepreneurship than they
are to capitalism it’s the same exact
thing anti-abortion pro-life the
packaging needs to be better I believe
if we do that we’re gonna get the
attention of the younger audience that’s
my thoughts what do you think yeah
packaging matters it doesn’t matter as
much as I think Patrick thinks it does
because if you want the younger odd
cause people are going to hell people
are going to hate the concept of
selfishness even if we call it something
else it’s not the opposition to the word
it’s the opposition to the idea it’s the
idea that they find offensive we can cut
what happens when you call it
entrepreneurship what happens when you
call it free by the way free enterprise
polls better than free markets which
polls better than capitalism so let’s
use free enterprise but what happens
when you use Fanta price is the reason
it polls better it’s watered down and
it’s gonna be watered down more and more
and more so if you really care about
capitalism long term then I believe you
have to understand the philosophy on
which capitalism is based and the
philosophy on which capitalism is based
is the philosophy grounded on reason and
individualism those are the two most
important concepts the reason he comes
to this conference is not to convert you
into capitalists but to a give you
emotional fuel because it’s just fun and
B give you more substance so that you
can go out there into the world and
defend the concept of cap
I’m better on the basis of individualism
and reason which nobody else other than
us is doing capitalism will not survive
the conservative and libertarian
attempts to defend it on quicksand on
nothing yeah nitric yes what if anything
have you learned from Enron iron rant
what is wrong with saying hey man are
you kidding me
you should have corrected and that would
have gotta be embarrassed of yourself
right now right by the way look at my
phone it says I am an entrepreneur
everywhere I go and I put my phone like
this intentionally everywhere I go I
want people to know the power of
entrepreneurship what have I learned
from her allowing it okay for you to be
a free thinker and knowing at the end of
the day there’s a reason why I went on a
30-day tour I lived in an RV and went
across the country from LA to Miami to
Toronto to San Francisco back to LA
spoke to nearly ten thousand people on
the concept of capitalism for thirty
days my kids birthday was there but I
won in this RV because people need to
understand that this concept of
capitalism can free anybody if it did it
for me for other people as well so we’re
gonna keep screaming off the top of
there up top of our lungs the concept of
capitalism you will see us doing it with
the way we do it and hopefully five ten
years from now there’s gonna be hundreds
of millions of people sitting there
saying you know this capital some
concept is good and to go back to piggy
back with the point that he said
remember Mormons or get out one thing
they bring them in they worry about
baptizing people later not the other way
around
you can’t baptize them upfront you bring
them in and then you baptize them if you
had 3,000 people in this room there’s
more opportunities to baptize who cares
a 40 percent disagree if I convert 20
percent where you headed again we’re
gonna keep baptizing entrepreneurs
that’s how are we gonna be doing for the
next ten years so stay tuned thank you
so much everybody thank you well your to
see your writers see the CEO see yes sir
I got to allow me to ask the right
question we’re gonna meet in the second
show read this book which one is that
Atlas sure of course I’m multiple time
okay and what do you think everybody in
the world needs to read that book
that’s all up to everybody in the world
nice by the way not just that book every
one of the book she wrote Fountainhead
and forget about just the book study or
interview study how she thinks study how
she responds anything you can find on on
an or Iran you ought to read about
anything thank you guys thank you so much everybody thanks Patrick
Please follow and like us: