Atilla Shrugged
Savage Capitalism
Ayn Rand at West Point
After listening to Ayn Rand’s address to the graduating class at West Point in 1974, entitled “Philosophy, Who Needs It?”, a cadet stood up to ask…
“Ma’am, at the risk of stating an unpopular view, when you’re speaking of America, I couldn’t help but think of the cultural genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of black men in this country, and the relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II. How do you account for all of this in your view of America?
Ayn replied along that the lines that …she couldn’t be bothered talking about the rights of savages.…
“Any white person who brought the element of civilization had the right to take over this continent.”
— Ayn Rand
The Death of Minnehaha
And he rushed into the wigwam
Saw the old Nokomis slowly
Rocking to and from and moaning,
Saw his lovely Minnehaha
Lying dead and cold before him.
Then he sat down still and speechless
On the bed of Minnehaha
At the feet of Laughing Water,
At those willing feet, that never
More would lightly run to meet him
Never more would lightly follow.
With both hands his face he covered.
Seven long days and nights he sat there,
As if in a swoon he sat there,
Speechless, motionless, unconscious
Of the daylight or the darkness.
H.W. Longfellow Hiawath