Rudyard Kipling's New Year's Resolutions

Rudyard Kipling’s amusing little poem New Year Resolutions first appeared in an Indian newspaper on January 1st 1887. It was not published in a collected edition until 2013, thus general readers were unaware of its existence.

Kipling was working for local newspapers in India at the time. He lists his bad habits, typical Victorian vices such as gambling, smoking and dancing and flirting with young girls, and makes resolutions to give them up - with an exception for each one.

He knows that giving up a bad habit is much easier said than done; he decides to implement the resolutions one yearly step at a time, starting with the decision to stop playing cards for money.

He describes a process that many of us go through when making our own resolutions: we will give up eating sweets – except for chocolate; we will start taking more exercise –  once we have got into the habit of eating much less sugar.

Such wisdom is unusual in young men; he was just a few days past his 21st birthday when this poem was published, 130 years ago:

    1.

I am resolved—throughout the year

      To lay my vices on the shelf;

A godly, sober course to steer

      And love my neighbours as myself—

Excepting always two or three

                    Whom I detest as they hate me.                         2.  

I am resolved—that whist is low—

      Especially with cards like mine—  

It guts a healthy Bank-book—so

      These earthly pleasures I resign, 

Except—and  here I see no sin— 

When asked by others to 'cut in'.

        3.  

I am resolved—no  more to dance 

      With ingenues—so help me Venus!

It gives the Chaperone her chance

      For hinting Heaven knows what between us.

The Ballroom and the Altar stand 

Too close in this suspicious land.

(N.B.)   But will I (here ten names) abandon?

                No, while I have a leg to stand on    

        4.  

I am resolved—to sell my horses.

      They cannot stay, they will not go; 

They lead me into evil courses

      Wherefore  I mean to part with—No!

Cut out that resolution—I'll

Try Jilt tomorrow on the mile.

         5.  

I am resolved—to flirt no more,

      It leads to strife and tribulation ; 

Not that I used to flirt before,

      But as a bar against temptation. 

     Here I except (cut out the names) 

x perfectly Platonic flames.

         6.  

I am resolved—to drop my smokes,

      The Trichi has an evil taste.

I cannot buy the brands of Oakes; 

      But, lest I take a step in haste,

And—so upset my health, I choose a

'More perfect way' in pipes and Poosa. 

           7.  

I am resolved—that vows like these, 

      Though lightly made, are hard to keep;

Wherefore I'll take them by degrees,

      Lest my backslidings make me weep. 

One vow a year will see me through; 

And I'll begin with Number Two.

From 100 Poems: Old and New by Rudyard Kipling

https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_resolutions.htm

I found an image of an old sea-mail envelope on which Kipling has typed the first two and the final verses of his poem. It is full of typing errors. As an example, he has put 'Expecting' instead of 'Excepting' in the first verse! 

Kipling visited Japan in 1889 and 1892, so presumably was still working on implementing his resolutions year by year.

Here is Rudyard Kipling with his father circa 1890, just a few years after the poem was published:

Psychic shocks, black clouds and their consequences

Whenever an unpleasant incident or painful event occurs, I look back for a possible cause. As I have described in many other articles, there is often an energy vampire in the case. Being weighed down by a black cloud of bad energy and having had a jarring shock are other frequently-occurring features.

I have remembered a few more incidents; I am recounting these events in the hope of helping people who have had similar experiences but have not made the necessary connections.

I will start with two similar unwelcome encounters.

The first unwelcome person from the past

As I have described in a previous previous article, I fell and shattered my wrist after being in the company of an energy vampire.

People were very kind and helpful while the break was mending: they packed my shopping for me; I got a discount from one man just because my arm was in a sling. Then it all changed. 

I visited the fracture clinic several times, getting a different doctor on each occasion. The last one was South African; he had such a strong accent that it was difficult to understand what he was saying. I was not feeling well; I had trouble concentrating. Then he suddenly said something about my condition that made everything seem much worse. I left the clinic feeling shaken and vulnerable. The streets and the people in them seemed alien, hostile and sinister. I passed a group of teenage boys who laughed at me and said, “Look at her, she's got a broken arm.” I had to pack my shopping myself: the man on the till was detached and indifferent and ignored my struggles. 

Then, as I was walking down a street near to home, I saw someone from the very distant past in front of me, someone I didn't want to meet. Luckily, he had not seen me; he was walking along as if in a trance. I went off down a side street and reached home safely with no further incidents.

King George V's Christmas speech

King-Emperor George V made the first-ever royal Christmas speech. It was broadcast on the radio to all the peoples of the British Empire on Christmas Day 1932.

For many years, the King could not be persuaded to give a personal message to his Empire on Christmas Day. This was due largely to his belief that he lacked the sophistication and flair of other broadcasters, and as the message would be personal in nature rather than a formal address he could not hide behind formality to combat his fears.

All that changed when, at the suggestion of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, Rudyard Kipling was appointed to write the script. King George respected and admired both of these men, so the reluctant speaker was finally persuaded to deliver his message. 

The thick tablecloth that can be seen in the picture below was added to help muffle the sound of rustling papers: the King was so nervous when speaking that his hands shook! Despite this, the King's delivery and Kipling's majestic words were widely acclaimed. The King sounded like a father speaking to his family; Kipling's Christmas message is often seen by historians as one of the great speeches of the twentieth century.

Born at the end of November

Some of the writers who have been mentioned in previous articles were born during the last two days of November. 

Here is some information to mark the occasion:

Born on the 29th
November 29th is the 333rd day of the year (except in leap years). 

Amos Bronson Alcott entered this world on the 29th November 1799; Louisa May Alcott, his daughter, was born in the early hours of the 29th in 1832, thus they were born exactly 33 years apart.

C. S. Lewis was born on the 29th November 1898.

Madeleine L’Engle was born on the 29th November 1918.

Born on the 30th
Angela Brazil was born on the 30th November 1868.

L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery was born on the 30th November 1874.

Influences and connections
For the Alcotts, sharing the same birthday was not the only connection. Bronson died in March 1888; Louisa died 2 days later.

C. S. Lewis died one week short of his 65th birthday and one hour before President John F. Kennedy died.

Louisa M. Alcott, L. M. Montgomery and Angela Brazil all wrote classic girls’ books.

One of Madeleine L’Engle’s main characters is called Meg; so is one of Louisa M. Alcott’s.

Madeleine L’Engle said this about books she read in childhood:

“My favorite was Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maude Montgomery, who is better known for her Anne of Green Gables books. Emily wanted to be a writer. Emily and I had a lot in common. Emily lived on Prince Edward Island and I live on Manhattan Island. Both are islands! Emily's father was dying of bad lungs and so was mine…“

Both C. S. Lewis and Madeleine L’Engle have been called Christian myth-makers. When asked whether her work has been compared to his, she replied:

“Yes, it has. I think that the main difference is that C. S. Lewis has more answers and I have more questions…”

C. S. Lewis created a flying horse, wrote a book called Surprised by Joy and married an American called Joy.

Madeleine L’Engle’s winged unicorn is called Gaudior, which has a meaning connected with joy and rejoicing. 

Being born at the end of November means that they were born under the astrological sign of Sagittarius. 

Flying horses, centaurs, philosophy, joyful religion and angels are all very Sagittarian. 

Two similar painful incidents: curse or coincidence?

Thinking about a fairly recent painful incident has reminded me of something similar that happened a long time ago. 

What these events have in common is both the effect they had on me and the suspected cause:  I was hit where it hurt most and an energy vampire was involved. 

In both cases, administrators behaved unprofessionally and out of character.

The empty bank account
Many years ago, I got a horrible, jarring shock when a letter from my bank manager arrived out of the blue informing me that my account had gone overdrawn, and that while he was not unduly concerned about this he thought that I should be made aware of the problem. 

I was always very careful with my financial affairs so I couldn’t understand how this could have happened - for the first time ever. I was expecting two big cheques from a client; they were overdue but I knew that I had enough money in my account to last until they arrived.

Two positive propositions

Accepting that unseen influences are at work in people’s lives can result in depression - and even paranoia - where some of the negative influences are concerned. Here are some positive ideas to help balance the books.

Reversing the minus sign

A while back, the idea came to me that some of the people who have a very negative effect on others could have an equally positive effect if they would only decide to clean up their act and be a force for good instead of evil.

The more innate power to influence people and events someone has, the greater their potential for either causing damage and destruction or making the world a better place.  The more power they have, the more people they can either save or lead to disaster.

This is similar to being overdrawn at the bank: if the sign were changed from minus to plus, a small deficit would become a small credit but a huge overdraft would become a huge credit balance.

Benjamin Franklin, the Washington Monument and synchronicity

I did some research on Benjamin Franklin yesterday evening, in preparation for a visit that I was intending to make to the London house where he lived for 18 years. This is Open House Weekend so entry is free, for the two days only.

I read about the bone fragments that were found during a renovation of the house. Some people believe that Franklin was involved in Satanic rituals! I followed some references to Freemasons, Illuminati, Washington and other usual suspects and ended up reading this:

“If the weather is clear, anyone standing at the centre of the bottom of the west Capitol steps and looking west at 6.45 pm on September 17th will see the Sun standing exactly on top of the Washington Monument. At that instant, the shadow of the Monument will pass straight down the Mall and its point will look like an arrow at the top of the Capitol steps, pointing to its doors."

http://www.washingtondcschamberofsecrets.com/absolute-proof.html

I froze when I saw the date and time: I read this on September 17th, and the time on my laptop as I read it was exactly 6:45 p.m. I know that there is a time difference between Washington and London, but it is still quite a coincidence. 

This information was new to me; I have been to the Washington Monument, but my visit was in the summer.

This was actually the second synchronous event I experienced yesterday. Something very interesting happened when I was visiting another open building in the morning; that is a story for another time perhaps. I wonder what is so special about September 17th – and what happens in Washington when it is a leap year!

Anyway, I went on a free guided tour of Benjamin Franklin House today; I saw the bones. The house is well worth a visit.

http://www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org/site/sections/default.htm

Defeat, disappointment, disillusion and devastation

I have been following and posting about on the Conserpiracy forum  (now closed) the political campaign of would-be US senator Augustus Sol Invictus for some months now.

His recent defeat in the Libertarian primary election in Florida has stirred up some very painful memories; I have seen something like this campaign before. It is a very different story involving very different people, but there are a few familiar elements. There is also a big coincidence in the case.

I was involved with an Islamic political opposition movement a while back. I remember that the leaders referred to themselves by the titles they hoped to attain once they had overthrown an oppressive regime; they behaved as though they already occupied the positions that they were campaigning to achieve.

I remember the excitement when the main leader started to levitate; the members, supporters and followers were uplifted too. They felt part of something big and inspiring; they had goals and a mission to work for. The members called each other brother and sister.

The mood was very positive, euphoric even; victory seemed just around the corner. I remember the press releases, the statements, the attention, the publicity, the interviews and articles, the committees, the meetings and the conferences and speeches.  I remember the demonstrations in various capital cities and the concerts with famous artists, all very colourful with flags, flowers and stirring music…volunteers worked round the clock getting it all organised.

At the time, it seemed like the start of something very big. Looking back, I can see that the first year of campaigning was as good as it got.

Today is the 141st anniversary of John Buchan’s birthday

John Buchan was born on this day, August 26th, in 1875.

His birthplace was Perth, Scotland. The house where he was born fell into disrepair, but together with the house next door is being extensively refurbished and set to be turned into offices. Other than a small plaque, there will be no evidence remaining that John Buchan ever lived there.

John Buchan House, 20 York Place, Perth

The new Buchan Story Heritage Museum in Peebles explores his life and works. They are acquiring, preserving and displaying many interesting exhibits. Buchan was the Conservative candidate for Peebles, which is to the south of Edinburgh, and his family had many associations with the area.

The new Buchan Story Museum in Peebles

The John Buchan Way is a commemorative walking route from Peebles to the Borders.

I am not in a position to make pilgrimages to these far-away places to mark the occasion; London, where Buchan came to live early in 1900, is another matter. I am very familiar with many of the central London locations that he visited, lived and worked in and wrote about. I often go through and past them on the bus.

John Buchan and London, his ‘magical city’
This is a very evocative description:

“The spell of London wove itself around me. Fleet Street and the City had still a Dickens flavour, and Holywell Street had not been destroyed. In the daytime, with my fellow solicitor's-clerk, I penetrated into queer alleys and offices which in appearance were unchanged since Mr. Pickwick's day. On foggy evenings I would dine beside a tavern fire on the kind of fare which Mr. Weller affected. Behind all the dirt and gloom there was a wonderful cosiness, and every street corner was peopled by ghosts from literature and history. I acquired a passion for snugness, which I fancy is commoner in youth than is generally supposed. A young man, a little awed by the novelty of everything, is eager to find his own secure niche…

London at the turn of the century had not yet lost her Georgian air. Her ruling society was aristocratic till Queen Victoria's death and preserved the modes and rites of an aristocracy. Her great houses had not disappeared or become blocks of flats. In the summer she was a true city of pleasure, every window-box gay with flowers, her streets full of splendid equipages, the Park a showground for fine horses and handsome men and women. The ritual went far down, for frock-coats and top-hats were the common wear not only for the West End, but about the Law Courts and in the City. On Sunday afternoons we dutifully paid a round of calls. Conversation was not the casual thing it has now become, but was something of an art, in which competence conferred prestige. 

Also clubs were still in their hey-day, their waiting lists were lengthy, and membership of the right ones was a stage in a career. I could belong, of course, to none of the famous institutions; my clubs were young men's clubs, where I met my university friends. One was the Cocoa Tree in St. James's Street, a place with a long and dubious history, of which the bronze cocoa-tree in the smoking-room, stuffed with ancient packs of cards, was a reminder. At that time its membership was almost confined to young men from Oxford and Cambridge. I belonged also to the Bachelors', then situated at the foot of Hamilton Place, a pleasant resort for idle youth, from whose bay- windows one could watch the tide of fashion flowing between Hyde Park and Piccadilly.”

From John Buchan’s autobiographical memoir Memory Hold-the-Door

Although some aspects are unchanged, much of what John Buchan describes has gone for ever - including the foggy Victorian atmosphere. The streets he mentions still exist, but many of the shops and buildings have gone and the people in these streets are of very different demographics with very different lifestyles from those of Victorian and Edwardian gentlemen. I wish I could go back in time and visit John Buchan’s London!

John Buchan may have felt snug and secure in London, but some of his investigative and hunted heroes saw it as a dangerous and sinister place where they were watched, threatened, pursued and attacked. It is possible to retrace the routes that Richard Hannay and Sir Edward Leithen took and visit some of the featured central London locations, but the traffic and the masses of tourists and shoppers make it impossible to recreate the paranoia-inducing atmosphere that the fictional action took place in. The poor air quality is the most dangerous aspect now.

John Buchan and Portland Place

I have mentioned Portland Place in the Marylebone district of central London in connection with Masonic associations and street patterns that look like Olympic torches.

There are also some connections with John Buchan: he lived at no. 76 from 1912 to 1919; he wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps while he was ill in bed there. Richard Hannay resided in a flat in Portland Place; he was known to the public and the police as the Portland Place murderer.

The Georgian terraced house where John Buchan lived was later demolished together with its neighbour and replaced with a bland, contemporary office building. No. 76 recently became the new home of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

As I was visiting the area this week, I decided to take a look at some buildings of interest in Portland Place, no. 76 in particular. 

The notorious no. 33 appears unoccupied. There is nothing to show that John Buchan ever lived in a house on the site of no. 76; there really should be a blue plaque on the outside. There was once a plaque in the foyer, but it went missing during some recent renovations. All we have now is the photographic record.

John Buchan deserves a much better London memorial than this:

Ayn Rand and the Age of Aquarius

We know that Ayn Rand had no time for anything mystical or metaphysical, so it is unlikely that she ever investigated astrology or studied the history of religions. She would have been dismissive of and shown contempt towards anyone who tried to talk to her about such topics.

This means that she probably didn’t know anything about the predicted Aquarian Age, where the influence of Aquarius is balanced by the opposing sign of Leo.

Despite this, there are some references to elements associated with the Age of Aquarius in her life and works.  Perhaps it is all just a coincidence - a very uncanny one though. Perhaps she unconsciously picked up something of the spirit of the coming new age. Perhaps she was an unwitting avatar for some of the subtle forces and unseen influences that affect mankind.

Ayn Rand was born under the sign of Aquarius; she was very logical and rational, which is a major feature of the sign. Her ideology was like a religion for her; we would expect a new religion for the new age to be idea-based rather than feeling-based as in the Age of Pisces.

By coincidence, one of her great novels is called The Fountainhead; the outpouring of water for mankind in the form of ideas is a very Aquarian image:

Ayn Rand, Leo and her lion cubs

One of the main characters in Ayn’s autobiographical novel We the Living is called Leo; he was based on someone she knew as a girl back in Russia and never forgot.

Ayn worked in the studios of MGM, whose mascot is Leo the Lion.

Lion cubs are associated with the waxing Age of Aquarius/Leo.

By coincidence, Ayn Rand owned two small stuffed lion cubs, given to her by her husband as a wedding present. She called them Oscar and Oswald. She drew a sketch of them crying (pouring water!):

Two of her unpublished stories are signed by “O. O. Lyons”.

Yet another string of minor incidents

I recently experienced a string of minor misfortunes while out on a shopping trip.There was a time when such incidents would have been very jarring but not any more; I was not affected at all. I even tried to mentally bring some positivity into the atmosphere.

The first incident happened when the bus I was on swept past a bus stop without stopping. A woman who had wanted to get off there became very angry, all the more because the next stop was a fair distance away so she had a long walk back. She swore at the driver.  He said that she should have rung the bell; she insisted that she had rung it. She seemed a bit disturbed and disconnected, and her voice had a strange, unpleasant tone.

The next incident took place in a small supermarket. A woman left her queue to go back and get some item she had forgotten. She took her time, leaving a lot of people waiting. Someone mentioned this, quite politely, to her when she came back – without apologising for the delay - and she took offence and got into an argument with him. Staff had to intervene.

When I was on the bus on the return journey, there was trouble involving a man in a wheelchair who wanted to get off and a passenger who intervened on his behalf. The driver closed the doors to let the ramp down, but she jumped to the wrong conclusion and thought that he was going to move on without letting the man off. She shouted for him to stop. 

It was just a misunderstanding, but the bus driver got annoyed and said, "I'm not blind!" She got annoyed and said there was no need for him to be so rude. As she got off a few stops later, she told the driver that he should not have spoken like that to someone who was just trying to help. 

Soon after that, the bus made a sudden, violent swerve and I was thrown forwards.

A young tourist asked me if she was on the right bus. I tried to help, but it seemed that her English wasn’t good enough for her to understand what I said, despite all my efforts. This was frustrating. I showed her a stop where she could change to a better bus; she produced a map and other papers and said that she knew where she was; I realised that she didn’t really need any help after all. She seemed rather vague. A very minor incident indeed, but I suspect that it was part of the string.

Ayn Rand: chance events, lucky breaks and unseen influences

After reading through Barbara Branden’s biography The Passion of Ayn Rand yet again, I noticed that she had some lucky breaks in her life. Although she knew what she wanted and was very pro-active in preparing herself for and going about getting it, her life might have been very different and we might never have heard of her without some fortuitous incidents that helped her along her way and got her through some key stages in her life.

Reprieve from university expulsion

When Ayn Rand was studying at university in Russia, there was a plan to expel some socially undesirables. Ayn was on the list; she would not be permitted to attend any other college ever again; being without a degree would have been a death warrant for her future plans. Luckily, a delegation of foreign visitors heard about the proposed purge and they were very indignant about it. In an attempt to make a good impression on the prominent visitors, the expulsions were cancelled for some of the students, including Ayn. A reversal of this kind was a unique occurrence.

Getting a visa to enter the USA

Ayn Rand knew that she just had to go to America. It seemed like her only chance to make something of her life. She could never live under the oppressive Communist regime.

She had a difficult interview with an American consul; she needed to convince him that she planned to return to Russia after her trip to the US. (She actually intended to leave for ever.) She happened to notice a card on his desk. It said that she was going to marry an American. This gave her an idea: she said that it was a mistake and that she was going to marry a Russian man on her return. She was thinking of her still-beloved Leo. The consul realised that her details had been confused with someone else’s; he had been about to refuse her a visa, but her quick thinking made him revise his decision.

She was doubly lucky: she got out before the doors were closed and Russian citizens were prohibited from leaving their country.

Robin Jarvis’s witchmaster Nathaniel Crozier: Part III

The return of Nathaniel Crozier

A Warlock in Whitby ended with the defeat and destruction of Nathaniel Crozier. He left two devastated people behind him: Jennet is shattered emotionally and Miss Boston physically.

The Whitby Child, the final book in the Whitby Witches trilogy, describes Crozier’s efforts to return from the dead. He has done a deal with an evil supernatural entity: he will be restored to life in return for Ben’s death.

Crozier uses his coven of witches to perform rituals and run his errands, which include more attempts to murder Ben. Jennet is drawn into the coven; Nathaniel has left her in such a bad state that she has no defences against their plots.

It all – eventually - ends well for most of the characters, but only after a lot of action, horrific incidents, suffering and supernatural intervention, both malign and benign.

Roselyn Crozier returns temporarily to get her revenge; Nathaniel Crozier is permanently destroyed. The members of his coven are released from his control to make whatever new lives they can for themselves. Miss Boston, who early in the story recovers from her stroke, cheats death a few more times but her life finally comes to an end. She is 93 years old, and she is no longer needed to defend the children.

The future for Jennet and Ben is very good: their parents are restored to life.

The only thing that Nathaniel Crozier ever did to make the world a better place was to (inadvertently) redeem the Gregsons. There is a happy ending for this couple, who continued to be good neighbours to Miss Boston while she was still alive. They repair the relationship with their estranged son. They go to visit him and see their grandchildren for the first time.

Perhaps a horrible experience is necessary before some people can see the light, appreciate and make the best of what they have and change for the better.

Rudyard Kipling, nationalism and our children’s future

Many disappointed and resentful people who voted to Remain in the EU call those of us who voted to Leave stupid, uneducated, racists, fascists and bigots, traitors who have ruined this country’s and ”our children’s” future.

Emotional over-reactions, hysteria even, from self-declared broken-hearted people are common; attempts by such people to understand why rational people who are obviously not stupid or bigoted would vote to Leave are not. 

A prophetic poem by Rudyard Kipling helps to explain how people who support sovereignty and nationalism, people who think that enough is enough and prefer to live among their own kind, feel. He even mentions the influence of alien religions and the effect that too much diversity would have on children in the future: 

The Stranger within my Gate 

The Stranger within my gate, he may be true or kind,
But he does not talk my talk - I cannot feel his mind
I see the face and the eyes and mouth
But not the soul behind.

The men of my own stock, they may do ill or well,
But they tell the lies I am wonted to, they are used to the lies I tell;
And we do not need interpreters
When we go to buy and sell.

The stranger within my gates, he may be evil or good
But I cannot tell what powers control, what reasons sway his mood;
Nor when the Gods of his far-off land
Shall repossess his blood.

The men of my own stock, bitter bad they may be,
But at least they hear the things I hear, and see the things I see;
And whatever I think of them and their likes,
They think of the likes of me.

This was my father's belief, and this is also mine:
Let all the corn be one sheaf, and the grapes be all one vine
Ere our children's teeth are set on edge
By bitter bread and wine.

Rudyard Kipling

Ayn Rand: some more thoughts about her life

Barbara Branden’s biography The Passion of Ayn Rand is inspiring a whole series of articles. It is uncanny how so many aspects of her life resemble mine.

Some more similarities

Ayn Rand loved light classical music and operettas; so do I. When she first encountered them, they provided a magical form of temporary escape from a life of squalour, poverty, fear, pain and humiliation; this was my experience too. She would queue for hours in freezing weather to get the cheapest tickets, walking miles to save her fare money; I did exactly the same.

Ayn Rand pinned all her hopes for the future, for escape from a life of blank nothingness, for freedom, for any kind of life, on one thing: moving to the USA; I did the same with the profession of computing. She knew that she just had to go there; I knew that too.  The terrible suspense, the hopes, fears and disappointments and uncertainty that she had to live through before she finally got what she wanted are very familiar; I endured all that too.

She felt at home in New York as she loved the city lights, the city streets, the buildings and the big city atmosphere; I feel exactly the same about city life, as opposed to the suburbs and the countryside. Just knowing that it is all there, just outside the window, really does give fuel to the spirit.

While her mental energy was limitless, she always struggled with the problem of low physical energy; I have the same problem. She once worked continuously for 30 hours with no sleep; I used to do that all the time.

Ayn Rand almost never drank alcohol, disliking both the taste and the effect; I am the same. She disapproved strongly of the drug culture; it didn’t make sense to damage or destroy one’s most precious attribute, the clarity and precision of one’s rational mind; I share her views. She was a heavy smoker though; I have always been a non-smoker.

She had a few lessons, but was unable to learn how to drive a car; I have never even wanted to learn.

The life of Ayn Rand: some more familiar features

Barbara Branden’s biography The Passion of Ayn Rand provided the source material for the article about some familiar features from

Ayn Rand's childhood.

There are many more examples of characteristics, viewpoints and experiences that Ayn Rand shares with other people, including me, to be found in this book.

Some more basic elements of Ayn Rand’s personality

There is little evidence that Ayn Rand possessed a sense of humour. She may not have had much common sense either. This is very reminiscent of Elizabeth Taylor’s character Angel.

She needed to control others.

She could be selfish and thoughtless, for example when she uprooted her husband from a life he loved and that suited him perfectly because she wanted to move to New York. This is very like what Angel did to her mother.

Just like Angel, Ayn Rand lacked introspection and showed no humility.

Ayn Rand considered herself to be the supreme authority on what had worth and what did not and what was right and what was wrong; she judged people by her own standards and was contemptuous and intolerant of and dismissive towards people who didn’t make the grade.

Where she saw no unusual intelligence – nor the capacity for dedicated productive work that she believed to be its consequence – she saw no value.

She had little understanding of family ties, emotional connections and people’s feelings. Very few people mattered to her in a personal way. To the end of her life, she dismissed anyone who had a deep need for the company of other people as being essentially without value.

Ayn Rand was passionately anti mysticism and pro reason.