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Post 60

Monday, March 28, 2005 - 6:13pmSanction this postReply
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ATLAS SHRUGGED is in German and Hebrew , as well as, of course, English at this time....

Post 61

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - 1:00pmSanction this postReply
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Robert Malcolm wrote:

ATLAS SHRUGGED is in German and Hebrew , as well as, of course, English at this time....

Atlas Shrugged has also been quite successful in Spanish in Argentina- reaching and staying in the top 10 best selling fiction list.

Publisher link: "La Rebelion de Atlas"


Post 62

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - 8:02pmSanction this postReply
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The 64 million dollar question is why Atlas is a top ten bestseller in a country outside of the United States, where there is no organized Objectivist movement... the only country in the world where that has happened...and why it would be not Britain, not Canade...but:

Argentina.

Any ideas? (I have quite a few, but I want to hear others first)

Post 63

Thursday, March 31, 2005 - 7:04amSanction this postReply
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Have also heard that AS is in Russian, but cannot verify that as yet.....

Post 64

Thursday, March 31, 2005 - 1:07pmSanction this postReply
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Philip wrote:

The 64 million dollar question is why Atlas is a top ten bestseller in a country outside of the United States, where there is no organized Objectivist movement... the only country in the world where that has happened...and why it would be not Britain, not Canade...but:


I'd surmise that

1) Argentinians have seen first hand the evils of government. In the same way, I think East European countries are more fertile breeding ground for objectivist ideas than the likes of Western European countries where a lot of people find Rand's fervent opinion well, unbelievable. They still have faith in government to do good. (Most) Argentinians don't.
2) The book has only just come available and there was a fair degree of "catch up" from people buying the book who had perhaps been exposed to Rand or libertarian ideas over the last fifty years, happy to read the title in their own language.

What do you think, Philip?


(Edited "last five years" to fifty years)

(Edited by David Bertelsen on 3/31, 9:55pm)


Post 65

Thursday, March 31, 2005 - 1:21pmSanction this postReply
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It is possible that Manfred Schieder was, according to his own words, responsible for the popularity of Ayn Rand in Argentina. He is a "soloist", his description is here:

http://www.solohq.com/Users/567.shtml

Post 66

Thursday, March 31, 2005 - 10:16pmSanction this postReply
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David, your explanation of the Argentinian success of Atlas focuses on the negatives (thugocracy?) to which Argentinian's have been exposed. An alternative explanation--one which is admittedly more "out on a limb"--is to explain this phenomenon by focusing on the positive.

Argentina has had trouble feeding its people. New technology has really--REALLY--helped in this endeavor. An example is that modern corn can now be grown in an 800-km wider belt around the earth, which benefits Argentina immensely--as now there is more land available for food production.

It is possible that this real-world result of the human mind, reshaping nature according to man's values (and feeding Argentina), had something to do with the acceptance of a book that enshrines man's mind as the source of values.

I know, it's out on a limb, but Philip asked in the first place!

Ed

Post 67

Friday, April 1, 2005 - 12:25amSanction this postReply
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I must thank Mike Erickson for calling the attention of the Soloists to what I accomplished by introducing Objectivism in Argentina in the 80's. Unashamedly I must say that it is a good example of what One Man can accomplish by promoting a worthwile idea.

Let me add a few additional details to what I mention in my description for the SOLO "People" section. "Grito Sagrado", the publishing house in Argentina, has, in the meantime, published also "The Fountainhead" ("El Manantial") with just as great a success story underscoring its importance and is now planning a new issue (all in de luxe editions) of "The Virtue of Selfishness" ("La Virtud del Egoismo") which I published in 1985 in Argentina with a few Objectivist friends and which constituted, to my knowledge, the first foreign language edition of a non-fiction work by Ayn Rand.

All this triggered a strong Objectivist movement in Argentina, embodied in the "Fundación Atlas" (www.atlas.org.ar), a Foundation which recently received the 2005 "Templeton Freedom Award Grant for Institute Excellence" price of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. The Foundation is in a steady danger of being prohibited since the present Argentine Chancellor Bielsa (a former terrorist of the Montonero group) looks at it with great dislike (the present Argentine government is composed of left-wingers which, of course, gave Fidel Castro the condecoration of "Illustrious Citizen") though the Foundation has its defense in being too well known all over South America and incorporating among its distinguished members the former leftist writer Mario Vargas Llosa (by the way, has any of the Soloists read that marvellous book written by former leftists called "Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot"? It is a perfect argument against leftwingers all over the world).

Further information: "Grito Sagrado" published for 2005 a "Filofax" notebook celebrating Ayn Rand in the "Year of Liberty" (look at it under
www.gritosagrado.com, where you can also have a feast of Objectivism by just looking - their in Spanish - at the many positive newspaper comments for "La Rebelión" in Argantina). Besides containing my introduction to Rand's life - also in English as you can read it on the webpage mentioned - I think that this is the only daily notebook worldwide celebrating the centennial of Rand's date of birth. Hence, I think it will be a very valuable collector's item for the years to come. The text is both in Spanish and English.

I must also add what is happening in the German area around Ayn Rand. Beside having published "Atlas Shrugged" in German (under the title "Wer ist John Galt?") the Gewis publishing house also issued "The Fountainhead" ("Der Ursprung") and "Anthem" ("Hymne") (
www.gewis.de) so far and plans to publish, as far as I know, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal".

SO: KEEP ON GOING, OBJECTIVISTS! THINGS ARE DEFINITIVELY ON THE MOVE!


Post 68

Friday, April 1, 2005 - 3:44amSanction this postReply
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ahem..... I have an important announcement to make.

As you probably have noticed, the Colonel has not been posting on Solo for a couple of days. He is on strike.

This thread has been hijacked by serious discussion since he left. This is an outrage. I cannot in good conscience continue to post on Solo under such anal retentive conditions. I have checked my premises, and I can no longer be a scab. I must stand by the man I love and join the strike.

Goodbye Soloists.


Post 69

Friday, April 1, 2005 - 11:24amSanction this postReply
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Will Objectivism spread overseas faster than in America - at least in some cases?

Argentina now is ahead of the U.S. in having Atlas as one of the ten most popular books in the country.

I would express gratitude to Manfred for his wonderful work in starting the ball rolling and to the libertarian? foundation he mentions. But in the U.S., the pump-priming and fertilization of the soil is approaching fifty years in duration: there have been two foundations since the eighties (ARI and TOC), a long-standing libertarian party in fifty states running national campaigns, a chain of think tanks across fifty states, decades-old taped courses, lectures at colleges across the country first by Ayn Rand herself...and now by Objectivists like Peikoff and many others. Enormous effort and decades have been spent to get the return we've seen here.

Perhaps the major factor David hints at in his first point - "Argentinians have seen first hand the evils of government. In the same way, I think East European countries are more fertile breeding ground".

The spread of ideas is about timing as much as about the rationality of the ideas.

Bad ideas spread despite their lack of rationality.

To a very large extent throughout history radical ideas have spread the most rapidly in places which have been the most hungry and desperate...and the least complacent and self-satisfied.

Here is what I have gleaned from newspaper and journal articles (Manfred can correct me on any of these points) Argentinians once rivalled Europeans in terms of prosperity. But now their average personal wealth is a -fraction- of that of Americans. Argentina's political and particularly economic state has been at the -bottom- of the Latin and Central American countries, its economy in free fall, it's once prosperous people angry and desperate. It's system and rulers more corrupt than most.

Who is more likely to feel the need to pick up and read a book that radically challenges all their beliefs and their whole system, prosperous middle class Americans whose system basically works...or those in parts of the world where it doesn't?

How many of us have experienced how much it is like pulling teeth to get a complacent, busy American to pick up a thousand page book ... or to be motivated to seriously stick to the years-long process of mastering and integrating a whole new way of looking at the world.

This also helps illuminate why Objectivism and Rand's works are making essentially no ripple in places like Britain, France, Germany.... compared to India where Rand is well-known and influential.

And why Christian missionaries are most successful in the most backward or dissatisfied or transitioning parts of the world - Africa, the "third world", communist or former communist countries, not the staid, moderate, largely safe and successful "center".

If I had a million dollars, I would go seek out new untapped frontiers to spread Objectivism.

And many of them are overseas. Frontiers are where change happens.

((Please don't reply to this here...the spread of Objectivism in various countries has been moved to the new Objectivism in Argentina thread..))
(Edited by Philip Coates
on 4/01, 11:32am)


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