• • Symposium sheds light on Nelson 
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The Fountainhead  | In the lecture series “Context and Collaboration” given by Paul Makovsky of Metropolis Magazine, [Christopher] Pullman and architect Jane Thompson of the Thompson Design Group, [George] Nelson was described as rejecting the Howard Roark paradigm of the “hero architect” due to his socially conscious approach and his choice to work on interiors during the mid-20th century when furniture design was considered “feminine.”  

• • • Don’t begrudge happiness 
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Altruism  |The Fountainhead  |The Virtue of Selfishness  |Egoism  |Personal life  | Back in 1960, the famed Objectivist author Ayn Rand came to New Haven to deliver a lecture at Yale. Ever the harbinger of controversy and debate — are you listening, Rick Santorum? — our dear Alisa Rosenbaum drew quite the crowd, with students from both Yale College and the professional schools packing the auditorium of the Law School. [....] In the audience that February was Stanley Tigerman, the famed Chicago architect, who was then a student at the Yale School of Architecture.  

• • • No one hates earned money 
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Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  | Elaina Plott’s arguments, published Oct. 25, sound familiar. They draw much from Francisco d’Anconia’s money speech in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.” The speech outlines Rand’s view of money, arguing, as Plott wrote, that neither money nor the love of money is the root of all evil. Plott assumes that the Occupy Wall Street protesters hate money. However, there’s a fundamental flaw in her argument condemning them as hypocrites. The money glorified in Atlas Shrugged is not the same as the money in circulation today.  

• • The duty of intellectual cogency 
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Capitalism  |Egoism  | Good people should care about others. Ayn Rand does not lay forth an acceptable moral philosophy.  

• • From Rand to Nabokov: The end of the world, in 20 words or less (Part 3) 
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Atlas Shrugged  | In 1974, editors John Tierney ’75, Christopher Buckley ’75, and Eric Goodman ’75 celebrated the second anniversary of the Yale Daily News Magazine by commissioning short musings on the theme of the Apocalypse from some of the country’s most distinguished writers — so distinguished, in fact, that the college kids were willing to fork out a dollar for each of their words. Here’s our third installment of “The End of the World, In 20 Words or Less”: Re: Your question about the end of the world. You will find my answer in Atlas Shrugged. Judge for yourselves whether it’s coming true. – Ayn Rand  

• The end of the world, in 20 words or less 
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[John Tierney] told us [...] of the Magazine’s second anniversary issue, in which the editors hoped to feature “Apocalyptic visions” from “the best and the brightest modern minds.” But strapped for money, they couldn’t afford to pay these writers a dollar a word — the going rate at the time — for full-length original works. Their solution? Pay the going rate, but limit each “vision” solicited to 20 words. As the editors noted in that 12th issue of the Magazine, “The writers that exceeded twenty words did so out of a love for their craft.” Over the next few days, we will reprint the resulting works of these acclaimed authors, ranging from Ayn Rand to Joyce Carol Oates.  

• Lose faith in government 
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Libertarians — small-government advocates — have allowed themselves to be satirized in the press as Randian egotists and bizarre ideologues — rich anarchists who attribute mystical perfection to markets. There are some weird libertarians. But belief in small government can reasonably rest on the recognition that man is so stupid, so corrupt and so deeply fallen that almost every time we give more power to bureaucrats — no matter how good our intentions — we are likely to do more harm than good.  

• • Wright: A legend 
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The Fountainhead  | Interview with Robert A.M. Stern, Dean of the School of Architecture.
[Stern: Frank Lloyd Wright’s] life was the stuff of movies. “The Fountainhead,” by Ayn Rand, with the artist blowing up his own work, was modeled after Wright. If things were not going to be his way, it wasn’t worth doing them.  

• • • Brook views poverty with philosophy 
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Ayn Rand Institute  |Yaron Brook  | Report on a Yale Political Union debate, “Resolved: Your Poverty is Your Problem.”
Yaron Brook would have the audience at the Yale Political Union believe that morality is a science. “Your morality is not as most would have us believe … it is not to serve others, it is not to sacrifice,” the president of Ayn Rand institute — a nonprofit that aims to increase awareness of the author and political theorist — said Thursday night before a lively crowd. “Morality is the science that tells us how to live life to the fullest.”