Category Archives: Ayn Rand

The Fountainhead, part 1, chapter 8

One day at work, Howard Roark is unexpectedly called into the boss office:

Mr. Keating has been telling me very nice things about you, Francon tried pleasantly and stopped. It was wasted courtesy; Roark just sat looking at him, waiting.

Listen whats your name?

Roark.

Listen, Roark. We have a client who is a little odd, but hes an important man, a very important man, and we have to satisfy him. Hes given us a commission for an eight-million-dollar office building, but the trouble is that he has very definite ideas on what he wants it to look like. He wants it Francon shrugged apologetically, disclaiming all blame for the preposterous suggestionhe wants it to look like this. He handed Roark a photograph. It was a photograph of the Dana Building.

Roark is thunderstruck with the opportunity thats dropped into his lap. But before he can say anything, Francon adds that he doesnt actually want Roark to design a replica of the Dana Building. Instead, he says, The point is to make it simple and in the general mood of this, but also artistic. You know, the more severe kind of Greek Plain pediments and simple moldings, or something like that.

Given that Roark has said theres such a thing as good Classic, this would be the perfect place for him to prove it, but no. Hes back to believing that even one pediment is a pediment too far:

Mr. Francon, please listen to me. Roarks words were like the steps of a man walking a tightwire, slow, strained, groping for the only right spot, quivering over an abyss, but precise. I dont blame you for the things youre doing. Im working for you, Im taking your money, I have no right to express objections. But this time this time the client is asking for it Are you going to fight a client for the first time in your life and fight for what? To cheat him and to give him the same old trash, when you have so many others asking for it, and one, only one, who comes with a request like this?

Arent you forgetting yourself? asked Francon, coldly.

Ayn Rand tip: A great way to get your boss on your side is by calling him a cheater and all his work trash!

Whats ironic, although the text doesnt point it out, is that Roark and Francon have swapped positions. If its out of character for Francon to fight a client for the first time in [his] life, its equally hypocritical for Roark to suddenly decide that the clients wishes ought to count. After all, he was the one who scorned the idea of listening to or caring about what clients wanted. Now hes decided that the clients desires matter after all but only as long as they want him to build the thing he wants to build anyway.

As always, although Roark is the protagonist and were supposed to be on his side, the text shows that other people have good reason for reacting to him as they do. Peter Keating would have recognized that this is the perfect place for some sweet talk and salesmanship. Instead, Roark is so out of practice at issuing anything other than demands, his pleas sound more like insults:

Roark had never known how to entreat and he was not doing it well; his voice was hard, toneless, revealing the effort, so that the plea became an insult to the man who was making him plead. Keating would have given a great deal to see Roark in that moment. But Francon could not appreciate the triumph he was the first ever to achieve; he recognized only the insult.

Besides people skills, the other thing Roark lacks is a sense of strategy. Hes not clever. He cant conceive of any way of getting what he wants other than bluntly asking someone he knows is going to be hostile to the request. Its as if he sees an obstacle in his path, and rather than walk around it, he cant think of anything to do but hurl himself directly into it.

This would have been the perfect place for some malicious compliance: design a garishly elaborate classical building, but also prepare a secret, second sketch the way he really wants to do it. Then when the client rejects the first sketch, whip out the second one and get him to agree to it before Francon can object. It took me about thirty seconds to come up with this plan, and Im not even a Randian supergenius.

I cant do it, said Roark, very quietly.

What? Are you speaking to me? Are you actually saying: Sorry, I cant do it?

I havent said sorry, Mr. Francon.

Another great Ayn Rand business tip! When your boss is angry at you for insubordination, be sure to point out that youre not apologizing.

In all my life, roared Francon, in all my experience, Ive never seen anything like it! Are you here to tell me what youll do and what you wont do? Are you here to give me lessons and criticize my taste and pass judgment?

Im not criticizing anything, said Roark quietly. Im not passing judgment.

Uh, yeah, you are. You called Francons preferred style the same old trash a few paragraphs ago, remember?

Given Roarks insubordination, its no surprise that Francon tells him hes fired and yells at him to pick up his last paycheck and get out. Presumably, were meant to view this as another instance of the creative Randian hero being ground beneath the boot of a cruel and uncaring world but this is the proper response to an employee who flat-out refuses a reasonable order from his boss. What would Hank Rearden or Dagny Taggart have done with a factory worker who refused to follow directions?

Roark meets his friend Mike at a bar later that day to explain why he wont be coming out to job sites anymore:

When he heard the news, Mike sat still and looked like a bulldog baring its teeth. Then he swore savagely.

The bastards, he gulped between stronger names, the bastards

Keep still, Mike.

Well what now, Red?

Someone else of the same kind, until the same thing happens again.

This is uncharacteristically self-aware. It means that Roark knows his obstinate behavior is ruining his career, that its resulted in one act of self-sabotage after another. But he never even considers changing his ways. It brings to mind that old saw about the definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Its not that this theme is totally infeasible. The hero planting his flag and demanding that the world adapt itself to him, rather than the other way around, is an archetype for a reason. There have been great stories with this idea as a backbone. The problem is that, for it to work, we have to sympathize with the heros motive for taking that brave stand.

Normally, when you have a story like this, its because the hero is upholding some high ethical principle which he wont compromise regardless of the cost. But you cant say that about The Fountainhead. Roark isnt a lawyer passing up a high-powered career to defend the downtrodden, or a policeman fighting to preserve the law from corruption, or a journalist bent on exposing the truth behind the machinations of the powerful. No, Roark is choosing to wage his revolt against the world on the basis of aesthetics.

Rand strains to find this justification by having Roark insist that most people are mindlessly copying the customs of the past. But even if that were true, we the readers might retort: So what? What difference does it make if your office building has fake columns on it? Does that make anyones life worse than it would have been otherwise? You might as well say that overthrowing the tyranny of auto dealerships so you can buy cars in any color you want, rather than them only being sold in basic black, is a noble quest whose achievement will save civilization.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons, released under CC BY-SA 4.0 license

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The Fountainhead: As Long As It's Black - Patheos (blog)

Why is the American Health Care Act (AHCA) bill passed by the House still being promoted on TV in spite of the fact that the Senate announced they would have to work on repealing and replacing this dysfunctional House bill? The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, could have had its wrinkles ironed out if it were not for the Grover Norquist pledge. Grover Norquist is a political advocate, and the founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization that opposes all tax increases.

He has been successful in securing signed pledges from most of the Republican Congress to never raise taxes. This pledge all but ensures that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, CHIP, and other social programs will be subject to an agonizing death spiral.

It is abundantly clear that the approximately 45 million Americans living below, or just above, the poverty line could be subject to being cast away without a lifeline. Add to [this,] the fact that recently proposed tax reductions for the rich have never resulted in the past for meaningful pay raises for the working class. This trickle-down supply-side economics was called voodoo economics by George Bush Sr.

Ayn Rand, a late author, and a hero of many Congressional Republicans, considered altruistic acts such as safety nets for the poor an evil because she believed it enabled the less-fortunate among us not to learn to fend for themselves. Never mind that the majority of the poorest among us grew up under repressive government regimes here and abroad, denying them equal opportunities to climb the ladder to success.

Nevertheless, Rands philosophy in her novels and essays was to oppose all forms of welfare, unemployment insurance, and support for the poor and lower middle class, regulation of industry, and government provisions for roads or other infrastructure. Taxation should be purely voluntary. Source: AlterNet, April 20, 2011, titled The Truth about GOP Hero Ayn Rand.

Paul Ryan, the architect of the GOPs anti-tax-raise budget plan, cited Rand as his primary inspiration for entering public service. The House bill that was rejected by the Senate and the majority of Americans is very similar to Ayn Rands, Grover Norquists and Paul Ryans philosophy. It appears to be very much the economic equivalent of draining the safety net. The banana republic may not be far away.

The rich continue to get richer, and the poor, poorer.

Bill Clemens Smyrna

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Draining the safety net ensures poor get poorer - Delaware State News

Ken Loach's bruising neo-realist I, Daniel Blake ponders the way poor-shaming is built into the system. Fifty-nine-year-old widower Daniel (Dave Johns, who looks like an older, sadder Bill Burr) was a carpenter before he had a heart attack that knocked him right off his scaffold. Over the titles, he's interrogated by phone by the British equivalent of workers' comp, being asked personal questions about his health, his continence and his ability to type.

Ultimately, he only has 12 out of the 15 points necessary to get disability.

On to Job Seeker's Allowanceunemployment insurance. The money is contingent on his seeking a desk job in one of England's worst job markets, the former shipbuilding town of Newcastle upon Tyne. Daniel is digitally useless: "With computers, I'm dyslexic." While entering his information the only way it can be accepted, as an online form, Daniel swears at the keyboard: "Cursor! Fucking apt name for it."

He goes through a risible yet mandatory job resume workshop, led by a suit-clad salespersonJohn Sumner, comic as one of those Dwight Schrute types who like to precede every statement with a shouted out "FACT!" Daniel befriends a new neighbor in the same boat, Katie (Hayley Squires). She was kicked out of her soon-to-be-privatized public housing in London, 250 miles away. London councils have been shipping public housing denizens north to cities where the real estate market is less hot.

Katie is a believable kind of single mom, wary of being indebted to anyone, even someone as harmless as Daniel. He eases her mind, watching her children. He shows her a few poor-person tricks: a flower pot and candle turned into a room heater, taped up bubble-wrap insulation for when the heat's turned off because of an unpayable 391 bill.

This neo-documentary film is at its keenest depicting Katie's shame when she goes to a food bank. A helper's "Anything else you want?" is pronounced in a way that means, "You've taken your share already." Katie helplessly rips into a can of foodshe's starving from having skipped meals so her kids could eat. Daniel tries to calm her when she breaks down in tears, reminding her that it's not her fault that she's poor.

In America, we feel it is indeed your fault. And in this valley, there's little patience with people who can't seem to become computer literate: tough for them. Even a movie this lucid might not convince conservatives, and some scenes simplify Daniel and Katie's plight into melodrama. Circumstances propel Katie into some very unpleasant work, and she's caught at it by her new friend. I didn't believe this development for a second. In a funeral scene we're reminded of the nature of the tragedy, as if we hadn't just seen it played out before us.

Blake's north British gentleness makes this rough to watchit's like seeing Wallace from the Aardman cartoons being put through the wringer by cold bureaucrats. But the meekness and kindness and details of conversational British language give you hope. Keenest of all is a moment of triumph, a great laugh when Blake finally rebels against his austerity-minded torturers. He gets some public revenge for all the hours he spent on hold on a pay-as-you-go mobilel phone, listening to stupid fiddling Vivaldi. (Hold music will teach you to loathe "The Four Seasons.") Revelers and passersby cheer Daniel on as, perhaps for the first time in his life, the old man breaks the law.

George Orwell once commented "to see what is in front of your nose requires constant struggle". That struggle is easier, these days. Governmental attacks on the poor are so obvious that even the slickest Ayn Rand bamboozlers in Congress fail to blind their victims.

Seeing what's in front of your nose is one problem. Loach's problem is slightly different: how do you dramatize something that happens every day, so that it'll look, believably, like something that happens every day? Loach's half-century long efforts in his many films about the working class haven't always succeeded, but he's always tried. For the most part, this time he's succeeded beautifully.

I, Daniel Blake Unrated, 100 min. Opens Friday at the Camera cinemas

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Review: 'I, Daniel Blake' - Silicon Valley's Metro

Veteran stage actor and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson, who received a 2015 / 2016 Elate Season Ticket Holder Award Nomination as Best Actor for his performance as the debonair, but aging, leading man Ernest in Tad Mosel's "Impromptu" as part of the Elate staging of four one-acts entitled "Just 4 Fun," returns to the stage of the Lincoln Stegman Theatre of North Hollywood to play District Attorney Flint, a prosecutor deeply involved in the case of "The People of The State of New York vs. Karen Andre" in The Emmanuel Lutheran Actors Theatre Ensemble - ELATE revival of Russian-American author and playwright Ayn Rand's 1935 classic Broadway courtroom drama "Night Of January 16th."

Mr. Robinson, a Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award Winner as Outstanding Actor In A Principal Role In A Play ( for his performance as Sam Semela in Athol Fugard's "Master Harold...And The Boys" ), and who for 15 years served as The Founder, Artistic Director and Producer of the multiracial, non-Equity professional, classical and contemporary chamber theatre, The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago, has played numerous roles in courtroom dramas during the course of his 43-season stage career including: The Angry Man in Director / Producer Ray Hayman's 1980 staging of The At Random Players' production of C. B. Gilford's "The Jury Room" presented at Chicago's McCormick Inn; The Professor in Director Jonathan Wilson's 1998 staging of The Pegasus Players' Jeff Citation Award-winning world premiere production of Robert Myers' "The Lynching of Leo Frank" performed at Chicago's O'Rourke Center For The Performing Arts; and The Reverend Sykes in Director Diedra Celeste Miranda's 2011 staging of The Glendale Centre Theatre's five-time Stage Scene L A "Scenie" Award-winning production of playwright Christopher Sergel's adaptation of Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird." However, Ayn Rand's "Night Of January 16th" marks the first time Mr. Robinson has appeared as a lawyer onstage since he played the role of Sir Thomas More, the condemned Lord Chancellor of England, in Director John Grassilli's 1984 staging of The University Players' revival production of Robert Bolt's "A Man For All Seasons" presented at Benton Hall Theatre of The University of Missouri-St. Louis ( UMSL).

Co-Produced by long-time ELATE Members Norma Burgess and Deb Sadlouskos, Ayn Rand's "Night Of January 16th" reunites Mr. Robinson with his "Impromptu" director Jeff Zimmer. A multiple Emmy Award-nominated television producer ( noted for his work on such programs nas "The Doctors" and "America's Funniest Home Videos" ), Mr. Zimmer will stage Rand's 82-year-old Broadway success "Night" in modern dress attire, and add a few touches to make the piece resemble a slightly more recent "Trial of The Century."

This includes casting several talented actresses in roles traditionally played by males including: Gerrie Wilkowski as Judge Heath; Therese Hawes as the writing expert, Chandler; and Lisa Cicchetti as the medical examiner, Dr. Kirkland. Mr. Robinson's District Attorney Flint prosecutes his case opposite experienced actress and Co-Producer Ms. Burgess as Defense Attorney Stevens, the legal counsel of accused murder suspect Karen Andre. The pivotal role of The Defendant Andre is played by Erin Cote', who earned a 2015 / 2016 Elate Season Ticket Holder Award Nomination as Best Actress for her performance as Jane in Elate playwright Stan Brown's "Ride Share," another of the four one-acts of "Just 4 Fun". MR. Brown, who won two 2015 / 2016 Elate Season Ticket Holder Awards for Best Actor and Best Director ( shared with Mr. Zimmer ) for his work in "Ride Share" as part of "Just 4 Fun," appears in the revival production of "Night," as the multimillionaire and philanthropist, John Graham Whitfield.

Other performers featured in ELATE'S revival of "Night January 16th" include: Rod French as the elderly night watchman, Mr. Hutchins; Judith Miller as the Swedish housekeeper, Magda Svenson; Tom Reilly as the private investigator, Homer Van Fleet; Terry Bratcher as Police Inspector Sweeney, Tim Aberdeen as accountant Siegurd Jungquist, Mr. Zimmer in the blended roles of The Bailiff and The Court Clerk; and ELATE newcomer Lauren Waites as Nancy Lee Faulker, beautiful young widow of murder victim Bjorn Faulkner, and only daughter of John Graham Whitfield. The role of love-smitten gangster Lawrence "Guts" Regan ( a part that revitalized the stage and screen acting career of Hollywood Legend Walter Pidgeon during the original 1935 Broadway production ) will be played in this new revival by Elate audience favorite Tony Cicchetti.

The ELATE revival will be staging Ayn Rand's final, 1968 definitive version of her script, and utilize the device that made it a hit in 1935 on Broadway: At every performance audience members will be asked to participate as Jury Members and, by their verdict, determine one of two endings of the play!

Performances of ELATE's revival of Ayn Rand'S "NIGHT OF JANUARY 16th" will take place Saturday June 3rd at 8pm., Sunday June 4th at 2pm., Saturday June 10th at 8 pm., Sunday June 11th at 4pm., Saturday June 17th at 8pm., and Sunday June 18th at 2pm. All performances are onstage at The Lincoln Stegman Theatre, 6020 Radford Ave., North Hollywood, CA. 91606. For Tickets and Reservations Information as well as to request special "Jury Box" ( premium view ) seats call ELATE at ( 818 ) 509-0882.

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Elate's Revival of Ayn Rand's NIGHT OF JANUARY 16TH Opens 6/3 - Broadway World

Mashable

Surprise, no one wants to be Ted Cruz's Secret Santa Mashable Al Franken's new book Giant of the Senate contains some great stories about the Texas senator who is like if Grandpa Munster started reading Ayn Rand. Turns out he's even despised by his fellow senators. A week or so ago, Franken revealed a ... and more »

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Surprise, no one wants to be Ted Cruz's Secret Santa - Mashable

The motive for their madness is one-world government. Totalitarianism by any other name whether it is religious or secular is still totalitarianism.

Left-wing liberal leaders do not lack the intelligence to recognize the suicidal policies they are pursuing. They are deliberately facilitating the policies of cultural suicide to create the social chaos necessary to eliminate their nation states and globalize the world under one-world government That is the motive for their madness.

Their seemingly bizarre policies create an atmosphere of such anxiety and cognitive dissonance that people are overwhelmed and paralyzed trying to make sense of the nonsensical policies destroying their cultures. Most people simply cannot absorb the shock of leaders who are deliberately trying to destroy the sovereignty, borders, and national cultures of their own countries - it is madness. Most people have enormous difficulty accepting the fact that their left-wing leaders are purposely lying to them, distorting reality, and manipulating the news to disguise their destructive motives. Rather than face this intolerable truth people often withdraw into unreality and pretend it is not happening - they choose subjective reality to find some relief.

The problem is, of course, that subjective reality is not a safe place. As Ayn Rand famously pointed out, You can deny reality but you cannot deny the consequences of denying reality. The Islamists know they are waging war - they are in objective reality. The Globalists know they are waging war - they are in objective reality. It is the lying Islamic leadership practicing taqiyya and the lying left-wing leadership practicing their secular form of taqiyya who are trying to seduce the West into subjective reality where the citizenry can be exploited. Citizens who reject objective reality and accept the lies of their leaders have entered subjective reality where they can pretend that there is no war but cannot escape the consequences of their pretending. Denying reality is a flawed and losing strategy - it is a childs response to fear. A child hides under the bed when the house is burning - an adult escapes to safety.

Subjective reality is a very dangerous place for fearful citizens to hide because the Islamists and the Globalists are exploiting their fear and humanity by deceiving them with the fiction that the mass immigration of a population with hostile cultural norms will somehow benefit them or that it is their humanitarian duty to accommodate their hostile norms.

We are at a critical time in world history now. The efforts to destroy American dominance launched after WWII have escalated to a tipping point.

Islamists and Leftists have common cause to destroy the West. Islamists seek to impose religious one-world government ruled by sharia law. Globalists seek to impose secular one-world government ruled by themselves. It is time to stop the hand wringing and embrace the fact that the Left is trying to destabilize and overthrow Donald Trumps presidency to create the social chaos required for imposition of Globalisms one-world government. It is also time to stop pretending that Islam is a peaceful religion like any other. Islam is a socio-political expansionist ideology with a religious wing, a military wing, and an educational wing all attempting to overthrow Western governments and replace them with supremacist sharia law. Terrorism is an Islamic tactic of war. Terrorist attacks in New York, London, Brussels, Nice, Syria, Orlando, Paris, Stockholm, Cologne, Malmo, Berlin, Manchester, and on and on and on are inspired and connected by Islamic ideology. There are no lone wolves. Responding to Islamic terrorism with flowers and songs is patently absurd. Responding to Islamic terrorism by pretending it is not driven by Islamic ideology is denying objective reality and making the choice to enter the fiction of subjective reality.

It is time for free people in every free country left on this earth to face facts and accept objective reality. There is a vicious war being fought by Islamists and Globalists with the help of the colluding mainstream media for world dominion that will impose either religious or secular totalitarian rule on the world if they are not defeated. The income equality and social justice promised by Globalists is as fictitious as the 72 virgins promised by Islam to jihadis - it is the candy offered to children by strangers that every adult in Western countries understands is the bait that lures its unsuspecting victims. The West must grow up and reject the candy. The West must reject subjective reality and learn to live in objective reality.

The totalitarian rule of Islamic states is a reality of modern life - there is no ambiguity regarding its strict and savage lifestyle. Every Middle Eastern country with the exception of Israel is bound by sharia law or is struggling for sharia law and its restrictive supremacist strictures.

The income equality and social justice promised by globalists is the big lie of the 21st century that is duping the useful idiots in the Western world. Globalism is not new - it was described unapologetically in chilling detail by Lord Bertrand Russell in his 1952 book The Impact of Science on Society. Far from providing income equality and social justice the one-world government of the New World Order (NWO) is a binary socio-political system of masters and slaves. There are no individual freedoms in one-world government, no middle class, no upward mobility, and no self-determination. The promises of income equality and social justice offered by lying left-wing politicians are no different than the candy offered by strangers to gullible children. Globalism is not the John Lennon song Imagine. Globalism is the sinister and insidious reality of a collectivist society where individuals are treated as children and property of the state. As Hillary Clinton famously said - we need a public who is unaware and compliant. Unaware and compliant are the hallmarks of childhood.

Hillary Clinton is a globalist. Barack Obama is a globalist. The six mega-corporations that own the media are all globalists. George Soros is a globalist. Angela Merkel is a globalist. Emmanuel Macron is a globalist. Theresa May is unsuccessfully trying to be both globalist and nationalist. The Leftist leaders of the European Union are globalists. The entire Globalist community is arrayed against President Donald Trump because he is the single greatest obstacle to one-world government on earth. President Donald Trump and his America first nationalism is the existential threat to one-world government. The Globalist disinformation campaign against him is unparalleled. The Islamists practice taqiyya - lying in the service of Islam. The lying Left practice the equivalent language of deceit - lying in the service of Globalism - in their end justifies the means complete disregard for truthfulness.

Unless people wish to live under the totalitarian governance of Globalisms dystopian one-world rule or under Islams sharia law they had better rid themselves of their lying Leftist leaders and replace them with honest leaders committed to protecting their countrys democracy, sovereignty, borders, individual freedoms, constitutions, and national cultures.

The motive for their madness is one-world government. Totalitarianism by any other name whether it is religious or secular is still totalitarianism.

Linda Goudsmit is a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. She and her husband owned and operated a girls clothing store in Michigan for 40 years and are now retired on the beach in sunny Florida. Linda graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, earning a B.A. in English literature. Having a lifelong commitment to learning, she is an avid reader and observer of life. She has shared her thoughts, observations, and philosophy of behavior in her book DEAR AMERICA Whos Driving the Bus? Linda is currently working on a childrens book series titled Mimis STRATEGY that offers helpful problem solving techniques encouraging resourcefulness and critical thinking skills for kids.

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MOTIVE FOR MADNESS - Canada Free Press

Kansas City Star

Digital Life: Tech in a nanny state or Ayn Rand wonderland Kansas City Star I want to rent out a room near the Plaza to the occasional traveler. What's it to you? I'm gonna make a few extra bucks giving people rides home from Westport. What do you care? Turns out, it is something to hotel folks if Airbnb cuts into the lodging ...

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Digital Life: Tech in a nanny state or Ayn Rand wonderland - Kansas City Star

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From filmmaking to vlogging, Casey Neistat is now sharing another one of his passions: reading.

Thats right, the YouTube personality, filmmaker, vlogger and entrepreneur has started his own book club. In a recent vlog post, Neistat shared his plans of the book club to express the joy that reading brings him. And he wants his fans to share the experience with him. Reading is like leaving the house," he says in the video. "Yes, you can go your whole life without doing it, but youre not really experiencing all life has to offer if you never leave the house.

Related:5 Lessons for Success From YouTube StarCasey Neistat

So whats first on Neistats list? The YouTube star made a rather dark choice, kicking off the club with journalist Nick Biltons American Kingpin. The nonfiction book tells the story of Ross Ulbricht, the man behind Silk Road, a billion-dollar website hosted on the dark web where people could buy and sell drugs, firearms and more.

While his first choice might come as a surprise to some, if you read the book, youll find you might relate to some of Ulbrichts characteristics and the events throughout his journey. In so many ways, the programmers and entrepreneurs Ross met were just like him, a line from the book says. Like Neistat, Ulbricht was an entrepreneur (a criminal, nonetheless) himself -- building a billion-dollar business, taking risks (perhaps too many), pushing boundaries and creating something that people wanted.

Related:10BooksEvery Leader Should Read to Be Successful

Still curious? Check out these three excerpts from American Kingpin about entrepreneurship, inspiration and pushing boundaries.

The CEOs of these other startups were no different from Ross, either. They had all read the same Ayn Rand books. These chief executives shared the same quotes on Facebook as he did: The question isnt who is going to let me; its who is going to stop me.

Ross vehemently disagreed. As long as we dont cross [a] line in our pursuit, DPR wrote to Variety Jones, then we are only doing good.'

Ha, dude, were criminal drug dealers, VJ responded. What line shouldnt we cross?

Murder; theft, cheating, lying; hurting people,' DPR replied, resentful of the question. That line. We are drawing a new line I guess you could say. According to that line, we arent criminals.

Related:ReadingBooksMakes You Smarter, Richer and Surprisingly Healthier

In the current version of the site, it was Rosss world, and he got to decide what went and what didnt. He dictated who got a raise and who didnt. People who worked hard were rewarded, as he has recently done with some focused employees, giving some of them an extra few hundred in Bitcoin when they excelled.

Rose Leadem is an online editorial assistant at Entrepreneur Media Inc.

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Casey Neistat's First Selection for His Book Club May Surprise You - Entrepreneur

Over the years, Uber's CEO has been described as arrogant and a "bro-y alpha-nerd" -- along with plenty of more colorful terms not fit to print here. And that was before Uber's endless string of PR crises kicked off this year.

But Kalanick disagrees with that perception.

"I think there's this general question out there: Is he an a**hole?" Kalanick says in Wild Ride, a book out this week offering an inside look at Uber's rapid rise. "I don't think I'm an a**hole. I'm pretty sure I'm not."

When asked if he cares about the negative public image, Kalanick says, "Yeah, it's not good for Uber, it's not good for me, it's not good for the people that I'm talking to. It's bad for everybody."

The conversation took place in July 2016. A little more than six months later, Kalanick would publicly admit he needs to "grow up" and get "leadership help" after a video surfaced of him arguing with an Uber driver.

The book, by Fortune executive editor Adam Lashinsky, offers a unique window into the background and psyche of the man shaping one of the world's most influential and controversial young technology companies.

Uber is both a startup juggernaut and a media punching bag. Kalanick, more than anyone, deserves credit for both. But contrary to the founding story Uber tells, Kalanick was not actually involved in the company's earliest days.

Garrett Camp, the serial entrepreneur behind StumbleUpon, came up with the idea in mid-2008 after getting "blacklisted" by the two big cab companies in San Francisco. Camp brought on Kalanick and three other friends as advisers. Kalanick took an interest in the idea, but he didn't join the company full time as CEO until 2010.

As an adviser and later the CEO, Kalanick did much to shape the service and the perception of it. For starters, he pushed Camp to move away from the idea of Uber owning cars. Kalanick also drove Uber's vast fundraising machine, which helped it outpace rivals.

Related: Uber's PR crises show no sign of letting up

But it was also Kalanick who brazenly talked up Uber's fights with regulators and "an a**hole named taxi." The aggressive rhetoric only helped create a bad boy image for him and the company.

In the book, Kalanick describes this as "little moments of arrogance where I say something provocative." He appears to see himself as a truth teller, however controversial the truth may be.

At least some of this posturing is said to go back to Kalanick's days of being picked on as a kid.

"I was geeky enough to get bullied. Not like physically beat up really, but just made fun of, ostracized," Kalanick recalls in the book. "That could be where the justice thing comes from."

Some have described Kalanick as a cutthroat libertarian who likely opposes government regulation, in part because he once used the cover of an Ayn Rand book for his Twitter profile image. Here, too, Kalanick feels misunderstood.

"There is this crazy meme on the Internet that I am some kind of Ayn Rand disciple," he says in the book. "A few years ago I read The Fountainhead and put it up as my avatar, not having any idea the political ramification."

If Uber's bad boy image wasn't bad enough, it has been hit with sexual harassment allegations this year. Much of the reporting for Wild Ride predates the allegations and doesn't offer any inside accounts of what happened.

However, Lashinsky does note that Kalanick's tech scene before joining Uber was "unapologetically male." In one old Twitter post, Kalanick brags about a Las Vegas rental he found "named the PIMP HOUSE, equipped with stripper pole AND stage."

The harassment allegations would be enough to rattle any company. But Uber is also facing a criminal probe over a tool it built to help drivers dodge law enforcement and is in the midst of a legal battle with Google's (GOOGL, Tech30) Waymo that could hobble the future of its self-driving car operation.

Related: Uber searching for a COO after crises

Lyft, Uber's chief rival in the U.S., has differentiated itself with a friendlier brand and begun to capitalize on Uber's struggles. It recently raised $600 million in funding and said it experienced a 60% increase in new passenger signups the week after an Uber boycott in January.

If there is a saving grace for Kalanick based on the portrayal in this book, it's his ability to learn on the job, adjust quickly based on feedback -- and ultimately survive.

Kalanick taught himself how to fundraise with his first startup. He managed to get his second startup acquired even though he was the only employee left on staff at one point. And he steered Uber through new competition from Lyft and self-driving cars.

Now at Uber, Kalanick may just need to prove he can disrupt himself.

CNNMoney (New York) First published May 23, 2017: 11:54 AM ET

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Uber's CEO is just so misunderstood - CNNMoney

Southern Charm Savannah? This is how we represent Savannah? How embarrassing.

After the testimony of Sally Yates, the Tweeter in Chief replied saying, Nothing but old news and when will this taxpayer charade end? The educated voters in this country already know when it will end when he resigns or is impeached because the country cannot survive a full term of this lunatic.

After watching Southern Charm Savannah on Bravo, Im grateful my children werent raised with a silver spoon in their mouths!

The only two sure-fire ways to end the Obamacare mess is 1) let anyone keep it that wants to keep it, along with those exorbitant premiums/deductibles and 2) force all of Congress and their families to go onto Obamacare.

Unless you run the risk of being kidnapped, shot or otherwise disappearing, you should not get to call yourself resistance.

Yes, coyotes would take care of the cats, but what do we put out there to take care of people like you?

The health insurance industry is the only one I know where the goal is to do absolutely as little as possible for your customers. If you actually have happy customers, youre doing something wrong.

While the airport is relocating the wood storks, are there any plans for the eagles that are in the area?

Great Tuesday commentary in SMN by Robert Ringer. Health care/impossible dream says what our nation is up against and some helpful advice.

Because of government inefficiency, all high schools should have Ayn Rand plus George Orwells books as part of their curriculum. I had to read Atlas Shrugged and 1984 myself. Remember them today as a warning we should have taken more seriously.

Please can the columns by Robert Ringer. You have plenty of very right-wing columnists and dont need to go full nut job.

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Vox Populi: 'All high schools should have Ayn Rand plus George ... - Savannah Morning News