Comments from Atlantis Legacy Donors on Their Long-Term Support of ARI

We are leading our own lives as Objectivists, and gladly we watch our children following in our footsteps. But we also see the frustration and conflict they encounter, particularly with the outrageous curriculum in our grandchildren's public schools. It will take more than the two of us, and probably more than one lifetime of properly educating the coming generations, to make Objectivism part of mainstream culture. We think that contributing to ARI—during our lives, and beyond—is the best way to achieve that goal.

The ideas contained in Objectivism are essential to a rational world. Since the 1960s, they have guided and enriched my life, even made it possible. Because I believe that only through understanding and adopting these ideas can a free and civil society exist in the future, I support ARI in its educational endeavors with both full-time students and professionals and business people. As a natural consequence of these ideas, of my love of life and the heroic human potential, I wish to continue to be a part of this influence for enlightenment after my life is finished—as my gift to the best that will exist in future generations.

I support ARI because its mission is critical to human survival.

Altruism is virtually unchallenged in government, in education and throughout all culture. Thus its dominance is expanding to lethal dimensions. The responsibility of rational thought is no longer learned at home or in school. When I tell people that I choose to live my life by reason, the typical response is, "Well, I just don’t share that belief system." I see my own mission and that of ARI to be building a critical mass of Objectivist thinking by private and public communication in whatever forms are available. You may consider me officially "on the team."

From the time I first read Ayn Rand's work, I wanted to pay her back for saving my life, and for showing me how to live it. The best way is to understand her philosophy and to practice it consistently.

As a child I saw my country as a great nation of producers and honorable men. As an adult, I saw ARI as a shield against the irrationality seeking to kill those men. That shield is the championing of individual rights. Thera (aka Santorini) was the most productive culture of the Ancient Aegean world. It is alleged to have been the actual Atlantis before sinking into the ocean. I want my country to be Atlantis as Miss Rand saw it. The way to achieve that is through ARI. To support ARI now and into the future for as long as I can, is a pledge I've made to me.

Bequeathing money to the Ayn Rand Institute is the most efficacious method for continuing the struggle to achieve Ayn Rand's heroic vision.

It is important to me today to know that after I am gone, my work and effort will continue to fight for a world where the men of reason can live in freedom and prosperity. Where men such as Howard Roark, Hank Rearden, and John Galt are possible. Where men such as Aristotle, Leonardo, Newton, and Edison can live again. I want the type of world that such men require to be realized. If it takes twenty years or two hundred years, that's the fight I want to make. The Ayn Rand Institute makes this fight possible—both today and into the future.

I think that the only hope for avoiding another "Dark Ages" is the growth and acceptance of Objectivism. ARI is the means for achieving that growth.

We donate to ARI because of our certainty that Ayn Rand's ideas are the only hope for the future of mankind and can be realized only through the efforts of the Ayn Rand Institute. Their commitment and our long-term support is the best investment we can make towards achieving that goal.

To experience the kind of world foreshadowed by Ayn Rand today, I need to do something to bring it about tomorrow. But to change the world is a big, long-range job that requires the work of professionals. The Ayn Rand Institute offers me a way of fighting professionally for my values, today and tomorrow. We all have to make provision for our future and the future of our loved ones; the planned gift I have arranged—one that pays income to me for life—offers a way of doing that and benefitting ARI at the same time. I consider it an investment in all my values, from the most immediate and personal to the most long-term and global.

I donate to ARI because it is both acting as Central Command and serving on the frontlines of the most important battle in history—the battle of ideas. The work it is doing to transform our culture is a higher priority than any short-term activism being done by other organizations. The battle will last for many years, therefore both immediate and future donations are crucial.

The Ayn Rand Institute is making a difference in my lifetime, something I never expected. In recent years, its success and activities have mushroomed! I have watched and supported the development of many excellent programs for spreading the existence of Objectivism. Seeing success makes me want to be even more supportive, and I regard the Institute as having truly earned my contributions, now and in the future. More importantly, it is assuring to me that ARI has the resources to meet its future goals. My legacy is not really to ARI—it is the legacy to my future grandchildren. I want them to grow up in Ayn Rand's sunlit universe.

Advancing the awareness of Ayn Rand's work and ideas is of course uplifting. But make no mistake, this is a war in which civilization itself hangs in the balance. We could easily lose this war to virulent philosophies that embrace death, leaving a bleak future of staggering human suffering, a world in which life itself has no value but as a bloody sacrifice upon the altar of altruism. I meet the enemies of reason with hate in my heart, for they wish nothing less than to deny me the ultimate value: life. Fighting to help people in the future realize the benefits of reason strikes a blow at the roots of the malevolent vine. But ammunition, especially the ammunition of ideas, costs money. I consider the cost of the ammunition that the Ayn Rand Institute loads into the breach to be a bargain. I'm honored to help ARI lead us in this battle for the nobility of man—now, and in the future.

Some years ago, I bought a beautiful piece of property bordering Zion National Park in Utah that I call "Galt's Gulch." My purpose was to provide a "safe harbor" for my grandchildren if they should ever need one. I hope my bequest will help the Institute to insure that they won't.

I contribute because ARI avenges me by fighting the wrong ideas of today's culture. I believe that through advancing Objectivism, ARI is waging a war to wipe out all pain, guilt, and fear from the face of mankind—and it gives me immense satisfaction to be a part of the crusade.

September 11 brought us a vivid instance of the destructive combination of blind faith and brute force. More sharply than ever, world events emphasize the crucial value of supporting the Ayn Rand Institute. ARI provides intellectual, philosophically based, leadership as ammunition for "fighting back." The most efficient way to spread Objectivism—both now and in the future—is to "employ" the Institute, in the sense of a happy division of labor. My annual contributions during my life, and my bequest after my lifetime, will help achieve the goal of human freedom.

When I graduated from college in the early 60s, I had no explicit philosophy. I was very cynical, and in despair over pathetic conservative attempts to combat the welfare state. When I read Atlas Shrugged and started to attend lectures, Ayn Rand's assertion that ideas do matter and do influence the course of history hit me like a thunderbolt.

To combat the mystic-altruist-collectivist traditions of 2000-plus years, an educational organization like ARI is a necessity. Its mission is to advance Objectivism through re-education, primarily in universities but in lower grades as well. Some progress has already been made, but the philosophical struggle to defend the U.S.A. and western civilization has a long way to go.

Ayn Rand said, "My personal life is a postscript to my novels; it consists of the sentence: 'And I mean it.'" My wife Maralyn and I have named ARI as a primary beneficiary of our estate. Through this action, we are saying "Thank you, Ayn Rand—and we mean it."

Because correct philosophical ideas are so important—so fundamental—to human beings, it is crucial that Ayn Rand’s ideas continue to be heard.

This conviction is why we support the ARI with regular donations from our income. Substantial proceeds from our estate will also fund the advancement of her philosophy.

We are living the beginning of a moral world revolution. Planned giving at ARI offers one the opportunity to be an active participant in this process, by becoming a willing Atlas supporting a world in the vision of the philosophy of Objectivism.

Over the years I have come to realize what great value the ideas of Ayn Rand are to me. They opened a window of understanding that I did not even know existed. To bequeath my estate to ARI is to support those values.

I have been an Objectivist for years. Recently my college age son read The Fountainhead and it changed his life. He has continued to read Ayn Rand and is currently studying philosophy. I support ARI now and in the future because it is bringing awareness of Ayn Rand's books to many students.

There are few things in life, which man can leave, that represent his life and values in ways that are both significant and lasting. Our financial donations, both while we are alive and those that will continue after we are gone, are the only way we know to accomplish this. Because of this; and the inspiration of Miss Rand's life, her novels, and her philosophy, Objectivism; and the positive effects these have had upon our own lives, we wanted to donate to that organization which would best make these available to the widest possible audience. ARI is that organization. It is the soundest investment we've ever made.

The long range survival of The United States of America and the principles for which she stands rests most fundamentally on one organization: the Ayn Rand Institute. Only the philosophy of Ayn Rand can save our nation from self-destruction and guarantee our future prosperity and well being, and ARI is the only organization that spreads her philosophy consistently, accurately and without compromise. There is no more important organization to leave your money to in the world than ARI.

We contribute to ARI regularly to help create the kind of rational culture we long to live in. Naming ARI as a beneficiary in our wills offers us the best chance possible to continue to propagate a rational culture for our most precious value, our daughter Olivia.

Because I enjoy living and creating wealth, I want certainty that after I die my wealth will only be used for what I scrupulously know is good and great. ARI gives me that certainty—because it acts on and even promotes the only fully consistent principles ever: the philosophy of Ayn Rand. I'm delighted to name ARI as my beneficiary.

I support ARI for the opportunity it affords both young and old to enter Ayn Rand's sunlit universe. Little did I imagine when I read Atlas Shrugged as a teenager that the characters portrayed had counterparts in everyday life. I assumed that besides Ayn Rand and a few of her contemporaries, such people were entirely out of my reach. There was no one—except for my father, who introduced me to Ayn Rand—with whom to discuss the issues of the world. My thinking errors went unchallenged. Now I know personally that such people do exist, I have met them, and my perspective has been broadened immensely. For this reason, I want ARI to continue well past my lifetime with its educational pursuits. The Institute's work is the best way to ensure the long-term survival of civilization.

Ayn Rand's philosophy and the Ayn Rand Institute's work are of the utmost importance to us, and we unreservedly support the Institute as the cultural fighting machine capable of changing the world. ARI is the only institution that understands and promotes a truly happy vision of life, of man as a productive individual living life to the fullest. Planned gifts are crucial to ARI's future, and thus to the future of civilization.

We are motivated by ARI's rigorous adherence to genuine, undiluted Objectivist principles. In particular, its energetic work to "inject" concisely formulated Objectivist thought into mainstream debate, and its support of courageous Objectivist professors.

Nothing is more morally proper than to support those who passionately fight for and brilliantly articulate the greatest philosophy for living ever devised; nothing is more just than to give to an organization genuinely dedicated to a second Enlightenment. For us, nothing is more satisfying than knowing that after we're gone, our bequest will help ARI continue the struggle for that Enlightenment, for that sunlit world that will benefit our children, our grandchildren, and all those who choose to embrace it.

In the late 1940s I was an indifferent college student with no goals, academic or otherwise. And my life was going nowhere. As with many Objectivists, Ayn Rand's novels changed my life. I was an average radio time salesman in Tucson when I read Atlas Shrugged. Thirteen years later I owned my own radio station. What Ayn Rand's philosophy did for me, it has done for many others. I want to live in a more rational world. This is why I support the Ayn Rand Institute.

Ayn Rand wanted her values to live on after her. I want her values, which are now mine, to live on after me. I want civilization to have a future. By helping to make that future possible, that future is mine today.

Only a change in ideas will change our world to reflect Ayn Rand's vision. ARI continues to be true to that charge and innovative in the means to get there.

I am a donor in ARI’s planned giving program for a deeply personal reason: to the extent possible, I want my most important values to survive me, long-range. These are the philosophical values which have given meaning and direction to my life. Thus, I have a sense of quiet satisfaction and certainty from knowing that I have made irrevocable provisions for the future existence of the Ayn Rand Institute and Objectivism.

When I watch a good movie, I feel great pleasure and inspiration when the "good guys" win—even though they're just fictional characters in a story. I'm rooting for them, cheering for them, and am elated when they do win. Similarly, I feel tremendous pleasure and encouragement contemplating the struggles and victories of great men of the past.

Looking forward in time, the "good guys" are the future thinkers and producers at any level. When I imagine the enormity of the philosophical and cultural battles to come, I want to do everything I can to make sure they win.

Even if I won't be around to see the ending of this story, I get pleasure now from knowing that my bequest will help to bring about a culture where, as never before in history, great men will flourish; and where great achievements beyond anything I can imagine will be produced.

Why should we care what will happen to this country and the world after we are gone? If our Founding Fathers would not have cared, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the United States of America would not exist. Now that this country is facing its greatest peril from an orgy of irrationality, we consider the Ayn Rand Institute's continuing efforts, to change the destructive course of this country, of utmost importance. That is why we care, and that is why we made the Ayn Rand Institute the sole beneficiary of our estate.

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