Writing Homework Help
HUM 110 71 Kean University Collectivist Bent in 1959 Discussion
Paper Formatting Instructions: When you type your response in a Word document, please make sure that your document has one-inch (1″) margins on the top, bottom, and sides. Be sure that you type your first and last name in the upper left-hand corner. Under your name, place the due date (October 4, 2021). Under the due date, type the course number (HUM 110-71). Under the course number, type Professor Stephenson. Underneath my name, include the title of the paper (i.e. the question/statment to which you are responding). Each of these lines should be single-spaced. However, be sure that you double-space your (1-2) one-to-two-page response. Be sure that each page is numbered.
Assignment Instructions: Click on the links below or place them in your browser for viewing. Choose one of the following statements below. A copy of the United States Constitution is attached. Please familiarize with the first ten (10) amendments, which are called the Bill of Rights. Be sure that you carefully explain your response with details and sound reasoning. Be sure that your response is one-to-two pages (1-2) in length and turned in as an attachment. Use the “Attach Files” option and not the “Text” box for this assignment. When you are finished, attach your Word document in the area provided. Please do not use the “Text Submission”/”Write Submission” area to turn in this assignment:
Ayn Rand First Interview (1959) (Full)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Overview/Background: Ayn Rand is a novelist, essayist, and philosopher whose writings on moral objectivism and analysis of late-modern/post-modern western culture have made her one of the most polemical figures of the 20th century. Her ideas about individualism and objectivism have directly influenced libertarian political philosophy in the United States, although Rand was not a libertarian, did not identify with libertarians and libertarianism, and even denouncedlibertarianism. This 1959 interview with well-known and well-respected journalist, Mike Wallace, the host of CBS News and later of the long-running 60 Minutes, also on the CBS network, focuses on Rand’s views on the correct or proper role of government, altruism, and the virtue of self-interest. Rand’s objectivism is diametrically opposed to the philosophical position of moral relativism, which is the philosophical position that what is true or false, right or wrong, or good or evil depends on the historical period and the social and cultural contexts and circumstances, and individual circumstances in which human action is taken. Moral relativism also defies the objectivist position that universally binding moral principles and ethical guidelines can be and are demonstrably true for all people.
Respond to one of the following:
1) Ayn Rand argues that no one should have the right to use “state compulsion and force” to compel any individual to participate in actions and activities that he or she opposes. However, in March 2020, state governments have fined and even closed business that have defied orders to adopt various protocols that are alleged to ensure the “health and safety” of clients and patrons, despite the lack of any scientific evidence to support these protocols. Businesses must comply with mask mandates for employees and customers; take the temperature of employees and/or visitors, clients, customers, or guests; install plexi glass and/or plastic shields at service counters; limit the numbers of people who can enter the business at any one time; provide hand sanitizer; routinely wipe down and clean high-use areas and equipment; and allow health department officials to regularly inspect their businesses for compliance. Businesses that don’t cooperate can and are fined or even closed until the state and its agencies determiine they may reopen. Carefully listen to the interview with Rand, and explain the specific issue Rand has with government or state force to virtually guarantee all manner of compliance with government mandates and edicts such as paying taxes, paying a certain amount in wages to employees and providing certain benefits, all determined by the federal government. Why does Rand find tax laws and business regulations, such as these and others, problematic, undemocratic, and a violation of “man’s rights”? Be detailed and specific.
2) Beginning in March 2020, state governments have assumed an unprecedented amount of power in the name of public “health and safety.” Most of the mainstream, major media have reinforced this power by supporting “social distancing,” mandatory vaccination, the closing of “nonessential businesses,” the ordering of individuals to “quarantine and shelter in place,” the curtailing of most, if not all, large public gatherings and events, and creating public policies that mandate wearing masks in all public spaces and even outdoors where individuals can spread out and maintain considerable distance from each other. All of this government control, including fining individuals who violate set curfews, banning unvaccinated people from restaurants, museums, and ohter venues, limiting travel between states, and even ordering large stores such as WalMart to restrict the types of goods customers may buy, has resulted in serious questions among different sectors about whether these controls and the suspension of civil liberties are excessive and irrational. For example, in Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s policies (https://www.forbes.com/sites/
3) According to Rand, the United States in 1959 was on a “collectivist” bent, which she vociferously opposed. How does she define “collectivism” and what is her opposition to it? What evidence in 2021 might suggest that Rand’s predictions were accurate about the United States’s “collectivist bent” and that collectivism is dangerous and destructive to individual liberty and freedom and “man’s rights”? Be detailed and specific when you respond to this two-part question.
