joerio (@joerio)

There is something profoundly unsettling about listening to someone speak decades ago and realizing they were not describing their present, they were describing ours. Ayn Rand was never interested in popularity. She reduced complicated matters to first principles, freedom versus tyranny, individual rights versus ideology, civilization versus barbarism. And here we are, more than fifty years later, having the same conversation, except now it is taking place on smartphones, university campuses, and social media. That is the part that keeps me awake at night. As a Jew, a Venezuelan, and someone who has spent years studying human behavior and conflict, I find it fascinating that so many of Ayn Rand’s questions remain unanswered. How does a nation the size of New Jersey command more attention than dictatorships, genocides, and wars that have claimed millions? And perhaps the sassiest question of all, if Israel is responsible for everything, who was everyone blaming before 1948? I don’t agree with Ayn Rand on everything, but I admire intellectual courage. She said what she believed when saying it was inconvenient. Today, inconvenience has been replaced by hashtags, algorithms, and outrage economies. The propaganda machine simply got better Wi-Fi. The most remarkable thing is not that this clip exists. It is that half a century later, people are still arguing with a dead philosopher while Israel is still standing. Perhaps the question was never whether Israel would survive. Perhaps the real question is whether humanity will. #israel #pride #winners #powerofpositivity #palestine Disclaimer: Personal reflection and analysis inspired by Ayn Rand’s historical remarks and their relevance to contemporary events.