The Libertarian Almanac - January

Ayn Rand, better known for novels The
Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.)
(source: ISIL.org)

Featuring stuff about this month of particular interest to libertarians and freedom-minded folks in general.

January 16 – Forget the month, this date is not just a number on a calendar to libertarians but part of the title of a play written by playwright, screenwriter, novelist, philosopher and all-around individualist slash egoist Ayn Rand:

Night of January 16th (a play in 3 acts)

Synopsis: Karen Andre is on trial for the murder of her employer slash lover. As a play, the jury is composed of show-goers picked from the audience. As a book, you are the jury. The story of the murder (or was it suicide?) is slowly revealed via testimony from various witnesses. The idea is that the evidence will be so evenly weighted between a guilty slash not-guilty verdict that the jury slash audience slash reader must render a decision on some basis other than the facts. What Rand has attempted to do is pit her confidently individualistic heroine against a pack of collectivists and hangers-on slash second-handers, especially as epitomized by the poor victimized wife of the employer slash lover who was the murder slash suicide victim. The story is actually a test of your, as a reader slash jury member, sense of life. Those attracted to the heroine’s individualism slash egoism will vote not guilty while those who identify emotionally with the socially anointed slash politically correct wife will convict slash hang the home-wrecking harlot.

(According to some sources, during the play’s initial run about 60% of juries voted for Karen Andre’s acquittal slash You Go Girl.)

Even though Ayn Rand rejected libertarianism, libertarianism has never rejected Ayn Rand, so today she is considered a founding mover and shaker of the modern libertarian movement in America slash the world.