The ideas and Philosophy of Ayn Rand are very useful tools to quickly cut through myths and find the truth. Understanding that contradictions cannot exist in reality and therefore when we find one we know that some conclusion is wrong. Also, learning to make sure we integrate all the information in our minds into one non-contradictory sum, enables us to join the dots and see where one belief contradicts another; such as claiming to value freedom and yet supporting socialism, or valuing wealth and prosperity as a means of providing us with material comforts and yet bashing capitalism as evil.

Several factors can result in people holding false convictions as truth and being happy to remain convinced of the truth even in the face of conflicting evidence. Some people cannot resist the appeal from authority and will believe things just because it comes from a particular source. Others will default to the group belief and latch on to what everyone else believes. Both of these are substitutes for thinking.

Either sloppy thinking, lack of knowledge or outright evasion of the effort leaves us at the mercy of our emotions or the ideas of other people because those are the only options left.  If you add in a little well-funded propaganda plus a deeply conditioned sense of learned helplessness and you have the perfect conditions for the maintenance of popular myths that disconnect ‘believers’ from the truth.

What is a myth?

The word “myth” is derived from the Greek word mythos, which simply means “story”. The word myth can refer to a ‘sacred story’, a ‘traditional narrative’ or a ‘tale of the gods’.

A myth is an enduring traditional cultural story believed without supporting evidence or in spite of evidence to the contrary. In the past myths have explained the existence of things or of past historical occurrences to tribes and people in the absence of scientific knowledge. The defining feature of a myth is that it cannot be considered knowledge. It is a storybook explanation without supporting evidence.

The best you can hope for with a myth is that it may contain some truth. This is characteristic of so many myths in the mainstream narrative or what I refer to as the Matrix. They contain just enough truth to look credible whilst ultimately giving the onlooker a duff steer.

The ideas of Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was a Russian born free thinker of last century. She was born in 1905 and came to the US as a young woman to become a writer. Her radical individualism meant that staying in Russia was not an option in the context of the communism that prevailed at the time. In Hollywood, she worked her way up to become a scriptwriter and then a novelist. Interestingly, she created her own philosophy for her novels because in her view no existing philosophical school of thought was adequate to frame her stories and her vision of man as a heroic being. She named her philosophy Objectivism.

She went on the write four novels including; ‘Anthem’, ‘We the Living’, ‘The Fountainhead’ and her masterpiece ‘Atlas Shrugged’. From the 1960’s onwards she devoted her writing to her philosophy, with further works such as ‘The Virtue of Selfishness’, ‘Philosophy – who needs it?’ ‘Capitalism – the unknown ideal’, ‘A Romantic manifesto’ and much more.

The philosophy she created is controversial and it is true. It rests fundamentally on recognising that reality is what it is and cannot be changed by consciousness. It is based on the primacy of existence and recognises man as a uniquely rational animal with reason bein...