Reliving We The Living

2020 America or 1920’s Russia?

The Benevolent Universe Premise is the conviction that ideas matter, the nature of man is noble, and justice is possible. The Malevolent Universe Premise holds that crisis is the norm, man is helpless or evil, and life means warding off danger.

The former is the hallmark of the Age of Enlightenment and is enshrined in America’s Declaration of Independence and Constitution. The latter describes the Dark Ages and the dominant philosophy of feudal Russia prior to the 1917 Revolution.

While the 19th century’s self-creation was morally superior, its capitalism was socially and economically superior, and its Romantic art was ethically superior, the 19th century’s dominant philosophy paved the way for Stalin’s Great Terror. It is also the foundation of the Progressive takeover of 2020 America’s education and media institutions.

Who is Kira Argounova?

Kira is the heroine of We the Living. She is the individual in a fight for survival against the collective – Man vs. Men. So, what are the virtues that define Kira’s sense of life?

Reality
Kira’s morality was rooted in nature. Respect for life on earth was her means of survival.
Reason
She rejected religion’s mystics of the mind and society’s mystics of muscle.
Independence
Kira was responsible for her own judgment and lived by the work of her own mind.
Determination
She identified what she wanted most and worked relentlessly to achieve her values.

Justice
Because people are the greatest obstacle to acting on her own judgment, Kira defended rights.
Serenity
Faced with the overwhelming injustice of an immoral society, Kira became calm and focused.
Romance
Love is the emotional response for another’s character, and only possible with self-esteem.
Reverence
Kira’s life, happiness, and self-esteem were not only her highest values, but her moral duty.

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Check out these original Center for Individualism articles that belong to our original series, Reliving We The Living:

Are We Reliving “We The Living?”Who is Kira Argounova? Gen Z’s Defense Against Losing Themselves to the Siren Song of Equality.

October 29, 2020

Like Kira, I refuse to be bound to any collective. I will not adhere myself to either side. My highest priority is my own freedom as an individual, the freedom to choose my beliefs rather than have them chosen for me. But to my peers, that is almost worse than choosing the opposite side. They mistake independence for indifference.

Devotion To Your Rational Life Is The Primary, Essential Force For Human Peace and Prosperity.

October 26, 2020

Chasing every possibility offered by the Soviet socialist criminal gang, she got Leo to a sanitorium in Crimea to save his life. Now, it was Kira's turn, and this is the extraordinary and beautiful message of We the Living. Your life and happiness is your highest value; not Society, not God, not retribution, not "others."

Are We Reliving We The Living?How Many Americans Will the New York Times Kill?

October 24, 2020

In 2020 America, we are faced with an important choice. It's either the life premise of Ayn Rand and capitalism, or the death premise of the New York Times and socialism. Lives of motion and purpose or lives of stagnation and retribution. As Salsman explains, putting "democratic" in front of it does not make it humane.

Existence Proves America’s Independent Virtues and Servant Leadership’s Sacrificial Vices.

October 19, 2020

You think everything that breathes can live? You've learned differently, I know. For Kira, her life, and Leo's, were their primary standard of value. They were exceptional because they took ownership of their futures. "Now look at me! I was born and I knew I was alive and I knew what I wanted. Something that knows how to want, isn't that life itself?"

Will Gen Z Make America Socialist?

October 18, 2020

There is a growing resentment of anything considered “capitalist.” Capitalism is a dirty word these days. Based on an analysis of the coming generation of youth voters, America could be at the start of a shift in public policy. It looks like younger generations could favor policies more common in socialist countries, setting the stage for the start of the new decade.

Pursuit of Happiness and the Virtue of Selfishness, Or Politics of Pull and the Vices of Selflessness.

October 12, 2020

Kira was selfish - she wanted to live as people were meant to live. Instead of pounding sand in a society of zeroes, Kira wanted to turn it into cement and glass, or maybe silicon wafers some day. Morozov's looting was an evasion of reality and utterly selfless. It was his death sentence in the court of moral justice.

Pragmatism, Good Intentions, and Proletariat Lives Are All That Matter. To Avoid Death. For Now.

October 5, 2020

In Chapter 8 of We the Living, Victor Dunaev betrays everything he had ever claimed about self-sacrifice being a virtue and self-interest being a vice. He paid his dues by informing the Soviet secret police about his sister Irina's 'counter-revolutionary' behavior.

The Price of Priest, Potentate, or Party ‘Protection’ Is One’s Mind, Happiness, and Future.

September 28, 2020

Kira asks Leo, "This isn't a joke you're playing on me, is it? Or have you lost your mind entirely?" Leo replies, "I'm glad to find some use for it." This neutering of the mind continues at Pavel Syerov's house party, the one celebrating Morozov's business deal with Leo that will make the three of them wealthy,

Intolerant of Independent Minds, Class and Race Theorists Demand a Return Of The Primitive

September 21, 2020

Peoples know nothing of the spirit of man, for peoples are only nature, and man is a word that has no plural. Petrograd is not of the people. It is a stranger, aloof, incomprehensible, forbidding. Petrograd does not need a soul; it has a mind.

Reverence for One’s Life Is Essential for Justice. Reverence For the Greater Good Is A Life Sentence.

September 14, 2020

Aunt Maria Petrovna had lived her life preparing for death. Her moral choices were guided by the mystics of the mind - the Church. Upon facing imminent death, Maria realized her error and turned to the only person she knew who chose to live. Andrei's moral choices were guided by the mystics of muscle - the Party.

Imagine All The People, Living Pathetic Lives in Peace. I Hope Someday You Will Pay Us, Comrade.

September 7, 2020

Vasili chose to live in a primitive environment, and used his impressive mental and physical energy to create wealth. Kira was imprisoned in a primitive environment, and using her prodigious mental and physical energy to avoid death.

Say’s Law Of Markets Writes The Code Of Moral Justice For We The Living.

August 31, 2020

The death premise of Marxism - life is chaos and people are impotent. They demand submission to the collective. Last week in 2020 America, you were exposed to their chaos in Kenosha WI and Portland OR, and the impotence of police departments who were ordered to stand down in submission to the cancel culture of today's organized, violent, Marxist mobs.

For the Possibility That She Can Live, Kira Argounova Gives the Criminal Gang More Rope

August 24, 2020

The eminently wise Gen Z'er Kira has exposed Rand's sense of humor and Pavel's greatest weakness - he has nothing without public cooperation. She knows that his object is unearned wealth, his carrot is social justice, and his stick is his criminal gang. Greed, envy, and fear - and today's Democratic party.

Leo’s Edge of Night and Andrei’s Secret Storm Galvanize Kira’s Search for Tomorrow

August 17, 2020

Kira's focus is on what she can control, especially her ambitions, and for the singular reason that she wants it. She has no interest in those who want little more than to avoid death. As the master of her future, and being a naive, idealistic 18 year old girl, her attention is drawn to young men who have not surrendered to their circumstances, whatever that may mean.

Reliving We the Living Teaches Living Is Not the Avoidance of Death.

August 10, 2020

The first banner read: Comrades! We Are the Builders of a New Life! The other banner read: Lice Spread Disease! Citizens, Unite on the Anti-Typhus Front! The comparative irony Rand presents with these is stunning - to be a comrade is to be lice, citizens are builders where building is forbidden, and life is defined as avoiding death.

To Relive We The Living Is To Choose The Benevolent Universe Premise Of Our Childhood.

August 3, 2020

Class consciousness is fealty to your political identity group, Communism is the negation of human volition, and the bourgeois exploiters are the manufacturers and merchants who produce every material need and desire for human prosperity. But when a culture's dominant philosophy becomes malevolent, and motivated by envy and fear, force replaces reason and trade is conducted by blood instead of money.

Who is Kira Argounova? There’s No Time Like the Present to Find Out.

July 28, 2020

Who is Kira Argounova? is an essential question no one has ever asked you, until now. As the lead character in Ayn Rand's 1936 novel We the Living, her story is more relevant than ever. Set in 1920's Soviet Russia, the circumstances of her life and culture are rearing their ugly head a century later in America. To learn more about Kira's life premise and America's degeneration, we have created the We the Living Study Group on Facebook for our readers.

2020 America or 1920’s Russia?

Who is Kira Argounova?

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