“I am challenging the cultural tradition of two-and-a-half-thousand years.”

This is from an interview Rand gave to Playboy in the early ’60s. A small digression before I link to the same. In one of the appendices to his book that I wrote about a couple of day back, entitled “My Competition,” Friedman lists many authors. Rand finds a mention a couple of times. This, [...]

“Cornerstone”

I can come up with two reasons on why someone would adopt a policy of self-censorship, or offer an apology if the horse, so to speak, has bolted before anything could be done about it. The first is fear of reprisal. In civilized countries inhabited by wise people, such reprisal is never violent; it occurs [...]

Friedman, The Yes Men and Friedman

There are two interesting things as far as the recent Yes Men film is concerned (get it here). One, they blame Milton Friedman, the “guru of greed,” his cult, and capitalism for everything that is wrong with the world, including government incompetence, and then think that if only the government had been like this, or [...]

Mothership

Pritish Nandy’s got it the beginning wrong while writing about bans- India’s a great democracy, give or take a few aberrations. We have a free vote, a media that largely speaks its mind. Top politicians still get caught out for their indiscretions, so do leading businessmen. And yes, we read what we want to, watch [...]

Fear

M: You know this is not your responsibility. R: It is. I can’t explain. M: Well, try me. R: He knows that I understand him. M: Of course you do. You’re a profiler. R: It’s more than that. M: How? R: I know what it’s like to be afraid of your own mind. — Criminal [...]