The ideal still unknown

“No politico-economic system in history has ever proved its value so eloquently or has benefited mankind so greatly as capitalism – and none has ever been attacked so savagely, viciously, and blindly. The flood of misinformation, misrepresentation, distortion, and outright falsehood about capitalism is such that young [and now old] people of today have no idea (and virtually no way of discovering any idea) of its actual nature.”* This quote I believe sums up the situation over the awareness of capitalism in today’s society just as well as it did when it was written. While Marxism is commonly denounced as a practical failure, most people are still led by its doctrines. Most people still believe that society exists as a higher priority; one must sacrifice personal goals to those of society. It is a forgotten truth that society does not exist; it is merely a group of individuals. The individual is the most important thing, and individual rights such as freedom and the right to private property are, therefore, unalienable.

* Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Ayn Rand, Signet, 1967