Moving forward from the Moon
Ayn Rand believed each individual and society has a "sense of life," an emotional manifestation of their deepest appraisal of mankind and the nature of the world in which they live. If that's so, then America's sense of life might best be described as a celebration of achievements.
We Americans are an optimistic people. We believe successful pursuit of our goals is to be expected. We believe if we just put our minds and our wills to a task, we can do almost anything. We believe in exploring new frontiers, whether geographic, scientific or commercial. We believe in innovation; if a new road, a new invention or a new business plan is needed but does not yet exist, we'll create it. We believe the greatest joy comes from taking on the greatest challenges. After all, most of our ancestors took the risks of moving to a new country, often facing the physical dangers of crossing seas and mountains, the economic uncertainties of starting life in a new land and the social problems of learning a new language or customs -- all so they could acquire the best life had to offer.
There are two objections to this kind of thinking that I've heard: 1. "Not everybody can do that." Then they'll be left behind. In fact, look at my profile. I'm the guy in the train that Dagny Taggart was watching. 2. This is a second-hand story; I was riding in a car with three lawyers one day (it sounds unpleasant, but it wasn't) when one of them said he was watching BBC News or some such and there was a piece in which an American was explaining how some program or project would work and the British interviewer said, "Well, that's very American, isn't it. You figure that if you just throw enough money and time at something and you can fix it." Slug gopher that I am, I spoke up and said, "You can't solve anything without those things!" I mean, was the guy against fixing things? There must be a lot of people permanently "on strike" in England.
Was it Walter Williams, today, who was talking about the Brain Drain from Canada? Yup. Here it is.
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