NP: Bush, Saddam, Ayn Rand

[MalignD at aol.com]

Bloodthirsty warmonger George W. Bush, alluding to Saddam Hussein, had this 
to say about Ayn Rand:

"Rand's teachings and writings rooted in laissez-faire capitalism are the 
ground upon which successful traders should stand:

“Man’s mind,” states John Galt, the protagonist of Atlas Shrugged, "is his 
basic tool of survival. Life is given to him, survival is not. His body is 
given to him, its sustenance is not. His mind is given to him, its content is 
not. To remain alive, he must act, and before he can act he must know the 
nature and purpose of his action. He cannot obtain his food without a 
knowledge of food and of the way to obtain it. He cannot dig a ditch — or 
build a cyclotron — without a knowledge of his aim and of the means to 
achieve it. To remain alive, he must think."

"Thinking is not an automatic process. A man can choose to think or to let 
his mind stagnate, or he can choose actively to turn against his 
intelligence, to evade his knowledge, to subvert his reason. If he refuses to 
think, he courts disaster: he cannot with impunity reject his means of 
perceiving reality."

Rand is more than relevant. Think about this excerpt from Rand’s writing 
within the context of trading. Are not blindly following your broker's 
opinions, listening to David Faber, chatting at Motley Fool, griping at 
RagingBull.com, trading RSI or watching support/resistance levels all actions 
demonstrating your choice not to think? Aren’t you allowing your mind to 
stagnate by evading the pure reality by relying on others to think for you 
and distort it? Following the hollow messages of other so called experts of 
trading courts disaster. We are sure all readers know at least one person who 
went bankrupt in the market by refusing to think for himself.

Trading is a zero-sum game. It's you against the world. It's not you and your 
friend or you and your broker fighting together. You are left to objectively 
use your mind to determine the best course of action in order pull a profit 
from the other traders in the world who are competing with you at the game. 
You must dig deep to understand why one course of action is better than 
another and avoid decision making based on fear. Pure fear is why the Nasdaq 
rose so far and plunged so low. And those who controlled their fear with 
confidence in themselves and their decision-making made a killing."