Thread by @AlexEpstein

What has made America great?

Today, it is considered American for government to pursue "the common good" by dictating how we live or by taking huge portions of our earnings. I disagree.

I agree with philosopher Ayn Rand that *individual rights* are what make America America. 🧵

"America’s founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Nothing more—and nothing less. The rest—everything that America achieved, everything she became...unprecedented in human history—was the logical consequence of fidelity to that one principle." -Ayn Rand

"All previous systems had held that man’s life belongs to society, that society can dispose of him in any way it pleases, and that any freedom he enjoys is his only by favor, by the permission of society, which may be revoked at any time." -Ayn Rand

"The US held that man’s life is his by right (which means: by moral principle and by his nature), that a right is the property of an individual, that society as such has no rights, and that the only moral purpose of a government is the protection of individual rights." -Ayn Rand

The system they established was not based on unlimited majority rule, but on its opposite: on individual rights, which were not to be alienated by majority vote or minority plotting. The individual was not left at the mercy of his neighbors or his leaders..." -Ayn Rand

"For the first time, man’s mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being—the self-made man..."

"In its great era of capitalism, the US was the freest country on earth—and the best refutation of racist theories. Men of all races came here...and accomplished feats of productive ability which would have remained stillborn in their control-ridden native lands." -Ayn Rand

"Men of racial groups that had been slaughtering one another for centuries, learned to live together in harmony and peaceful cooperation. America had been called 'the melting pot,' with good reason....she united them by means of protecting their right to individuality." -Ayn Rand

"There have never been any 'masses' in America: the poorest American is an individual and, subconsciously, an individualist....American workers do not see themselves as a “proletariat,” but are among the proudest of property owners." -Ayn Rand

"The basic premise of the Founding Fathers was man’s right to his own life, to his own liberty, to the pursuit of his own happiness—which means: man’s right to exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself..." -Ayn Rand

"The Founding Fathers were neither passive, death-worshipping mystics nor mindless, power-seeking looters; as a political group, they were a phenomenon unprecedented in history: they were _thinkers_ who were also men of action." -Ayn Rand

"Throughout history the state had been regarded...as the ruler of the individual—as a sovereign authority...to which he must submit. The Founding Fathers challenged this primordial notion. They started with the premise of the primacy and sovereignty of the individual." -Ayn Rand

"The heroism of the Founding Fathers was that they recognized an unprecedented opportunity, the chance to create a country of individual liberty for the first time in history—and that they staked everything on their judgment...their own 'lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.'"

"A European is disarmed in the face of a dictatorship: he may hate it, but he feels that...the State is right. An American would rebel to the bottom of his soul....Defiance, not obedience, is the American’s answer to overbearing authority." -Ayn Rand

Let's keep being defiant.