AMERICAN LABOR DAY 2025: Why I Work

These quotations are from The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, most of them spoken by the story's hero, Howard Roark. 

 “I have, let’s say, sixty years to live. Most of that time will be spent working. I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I am only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the best is a matter of standards—and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition.”  (Plume Edition, 1994. Page 16)

“An open car drove by, fleeing into the country. The car was overfilled with people bound for a picnic. There was a jumble of bright sweaters, and scarf fluttering in the wind; a jumble of voices shrieking without purpose over the roar of the motor, and overstressed hiccoughs of laughter; a girl sat sideways, her legs flung over the side of the car; she wore a man’s straw hat slipping down her nose and she yanked savagely at the strings of a ukulele, ejecting raucous sounds, yelling, “Hey!” These people were enjoying a day of their existence; they were shrieking to the sky their release from work and the burdens of days behind them; they worked and carried burdens in order to reach a goal—and this was the goal. (Plume Edition, 1994. Page 131)

 “… There will be thousands passing by your house and by the gas station. If out of those thousands, one stops and see it—that’s all I need.”

“Then you do need other people, after all, don’t you, Howard?”

“What are you laughing at?”

“I’ve always thought that you were the most anti-social animal I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

“I need people to give me work. I’m not building mausoleums. Do you suppose I should need them in some other way? In a closer more personal way?” (Plume Edition, 1994. Page 158)

DefCon 512 June 2013

“Why are you a good architect? Because you have certain standards of what is good, and they are your own, an d you stand by them. I want a good hotel, and I have certain standards of what is good, and they’re my own, and you’re the one who can give me what I want. I’m doing—on my side of it—just what you’re doing when you design a building. Do you think that integrity is the monopoly of the artist? And what, incidentally, do you think integrity is? The ability not to pick a watch out of your neighbor’s pocket? No, it’s not as easy as that. If that were all, I’d say ninety-five percent of humanity were honest, upright men. Only, as you can see, they aren’t. Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea. That presupposes the ability to think. Thinking is something that one doesn’t borrow or pawn. And yet, if I were asked to chose a symbol for humanity as we know it, I wouldn’t choose a cross nor an eagle nor a lion and unicorn. I’d choose three gilded balls.” – Kent Lansing. (Plume Ed., 1994. Page 321)

“I love doing it. Every building is like a person. Single and unrepeatable.”

(Plume Edition, 1994. Page 480)

“From different states, from unexpected parts of the country, calls had come for him: private homes, small office buildings, modest shops. … The story of every commission he received was the same: “I was in New York and I liked the Enright House.” “I saw the Cord Building.” “I saw a picture of the temple they tore down.” It was if an underground stream flowed through the country and broke out in sudden springs that shot to the surface at random, in unpredictable places. They were small, inexpensive jobs—but he was kept working.” (Plume Edition, 1994.  Page 533)

Austin Astronomical Society
13 October 2023

“Three quarters of them don’t know what it’s all about, but they’ve heard the other one-quarter fighting over your name and now they feel they must pronounce it with respect.  Of the fighting quarter, four-tenths are those who hate you, three-tenths are who feel they must have an opinion in any controversy, two-tenths are those who play safe and herald any new ‘discovery,’ and one-tenth are those who understand.” (Plume Edition, 1994. Page 536)

“One cannot collaborate on one’s own job. I can co-operate, if that’s what they call it, with the workers who erect my buildings. But I can’t help them to lay bricks and they can’t help me to design the house.” (Plume Edition, 1994.  Page 569)

American Numismatic Association
Rosemont (Chicago) 2019

“Roark got up, reached out, and tore a thick branch off a tree, held it in both hands, one fist closed at each end; then, his wrists and knuckles tenses against the resistance, he bent the branch slowly into an arc. “Now I can make what I want out of it: a bow, a spear, a cane, a railing. That’s the meaning of life. … Your work.” He tossed the branch aside. “The material the earth offers you and what you make of it.” (Plume Edition, 1994.  Page 577)

American Numismatic Association
Chicago Virtual 4 August 2020

“But first, I want you to think and tell me what made me give years to this work. Money? Fame? Charity? Altruism?... You see, I’m never concerned with my clients, only with their architectural requirements. I consider these as part of my building’s theme and problem, as my building’s material—just as I consider bricks and steel. Bricks and steel are not my motive. Neither are the clients. Both are only the means of my work. Peter, before you can do things for people, you must be the kind of man who can get things done. But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences. The work, not the people. Your own action …”  (Plume Edition, 1994.  Page 604)

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Psychohistory from Asimov’s Foundation to Big Data

Psychohistory had no academic definition before Isaac Asimov penned his Foundation Trilogy 1942-1953. In the 1970s the academic pursuit of psychohistory began as the application of psychoanalysis (Freud) to explain of the events of history. Alternate meaning came from attempting to explain individual psychology in terms of historical context. Eventually, in our time of big data and artificial intelligence, Asimov’s intention of a mathematical treatment of large scale historical events is a real though still putative pursuit. It is an easy claim (1 below) that no doctoral research program in history includes “psychohistory” in the title. 

Before the Renaissance, the depiction of a better world was always a previous golden age. This is in the Old Testament and it is in Hesiod’s Works and Days. Only with the Renaissance did there come a new idea: that we could create a better society. At root, the idea was a resurrection of Plato’s Republic but it soon became more than that because different philosophers had other ideas of what constituted a good society. Moreover, a causal vector in the rise of capitalism came from predictive mathematics. The exploration of gambling outcomes by Fermat and Pascal led quickly to the monetization and fungibility of risk. The statistical likelihood of future events was predictable — and therefore (theoretically) controllable. 

Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy was a child of its own time. Personal criticism of Asimov comes from his actions toward women at science fiction conventions and other gatherings. He, too, was a child of his time. First, science fiction of the Golden Age was a medium for boys. Girls were interested in science, of course, and political leaders with foresight encouraged an influx of young women into university science classes. (See “The Legacy of Vannevar Bush (Part 3)” published here June 1, 2025.) The primary actors in the Foundation Trilogy are men. Deeper than that, in  Foundation and Empire (1952; originally, book two in the series) when Bayta Darrell attempts to outline her analysis of Foundation politics to her husband, his father, and uncle, Toran Darrell leans over and  puts his hand over her mouth.

The Industrial Revolution was the cultural shift that created and allowed science fiction itself as apart from fable. Jules Verne and H. G. Wells were preceded by John Leonard Riddell, inventor of the binocular microscope, professor of chemistry, working geologist and botanist, and author and publisher of Orrin Lindsay’s Plan of Aerial Navigation, with a Narrative of His Explorations in the Higher Regions of the Atmosphere, and His Wonderful Voyage Round the Moon! (Rea's Power Press, New Orleans, 1847) (Cited on NecessaryFacts here.) Orrin Lindsay and his companion, an instrument maker, are both men, of course. A hundred years later, the world was changing. 

Many women science fiction authors hid their sex with pseudonyms, but others did not. The near futures of cyberpunk were launched by the Apple Macintosh. By 1984, the children of the Post-War Baby Boom were harvesting from their new world view. The arguments continue in our time with politicians currying favor among people who truly believe that women should be the mothers of large families—“should be.” Against that, however, the science fiction of our time is now identity inclusive.

Of course, previous science fiction placed its conflicts in worlds with troubles: no troubles; no story. Nonetheless, foundational to that was a general optimism that the future would evolve and be ever-better. H. G. Wells warned twice that the coming World War Two would bring an end to civilization. But it was ultimately only a temporary pause. He knew that some people would follow a would-be tyrant and rally against a rocket into outer space, but into the cosmos do go the rocket and the young couple. 

Two years ago (almost to date), I was having my stem cells harvested and ahead of that to pass the time while the tubes were in, I bought an armload of science fiction books at ArmadilloCon 45. Ecological disaster is the new normal. And unlike the science fiction of the Golden Age solving the problem does not create a better world—because the problem does not get solved. They just all go down the drain together. 

Hari Seldon was right: the intellectual leaders of our empire of science fiction cannot imagine a world other than the one they know. To even label the years 1941 to 1965, the “Golden Age of science fiction” is to admit the poverty of the present. And yet, I was, indeed, having my stem cells harvested.

Contrary to that Asimov’s own creation of the word “psychohistory” launched the academic studies that also use that name. 

The Journal of Psychohistory has been publishing quarterly since 1973, originally as The History of Childhood Quarterly and since 1976 as The Journal of Psychohistory. It is somewhat unique in the world of academic publishing in being one of very few journals not published by a large publishing house or by a University Press, subsidized by university funds. It has been independently published by Lloyd deMause for more than 40 years.

    The JOP has been a place where many authors have been able to see their work published in more than 800 articles, as well a several hundred book reviews and review essays. We welcome contributions to a new section that will run from time to time, Psychohistorical Perspective on Current Events.

    Recent issues include articles such as: A “Backward Engineering” view into how atrocities can be performed mechanistically and without feeling or guilt, how Politics Can Be Seen as Reflecting Borderline Polarization, The Spanish and Portuquese Inquisition’s methods to uncover hidden beliefs and motivations, The Tea Party and the Recent Rise of Right-Wing racism, Mass Incarceration and American Racism, Slavery’s Transgenerational Impact on Southern Personality, and the Unconscious Wishes behind Nuclear Armaments and Wars. -- The Journal of Psychohistory https://psychohistory.com/the-journal-of-psychohistory/

I identify that as postmodernist with the attendant problems inherent in the academic culture of anti-capitalism, anti-individualism, anti-reason. They dominate, but they do not control. Here at the University of Texas, I have my quibbles with the Salem Institute and the other fans of Ayn Rand at the McCombs School of Business but here they are, doing their best to keep the syllogisms and money flowing. 

Psychohistory

Psychohistory uses psychoanalytical theory and sociological research methods to examine the psychological origins and motivations for the social and political behavior of significant individuals, groups, and nations, both past and present, as well as psychological aspects of historical and current events. The goal of psychohistory is to understand the causes of human destructiveness and benevolence.

Psychohistory attempts to understand how historical and current events are shaped by individual and group psychologies, as well as how the past and the present influence the psychologies of individuals and groups. 

Early influential works of psychohistory include Wilhelm Reich's The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933) and Erich Fromm's Escape from Freedom (1941), which examined psychological motivations behind political ideologies. Eric Erikson's biography of Martin Luther, Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History (1958), was one of the first psychobiographies of a famous historical figure, and many contemporary biographies now include aspects of psychobiography. Lloyd deMause (1931–2020) is widely viewed as the founder of psychohistory as a formal academic discipline, beginning in the 1970s. Psychohistory, however, remains controversial, and many traditional historians are reluctant to attribute major human events to the psychology of individuals or groups. -- “Psychohistory,” in The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, Editor Jacqueline L. Longe, Vol. 2. 4^th ed.

See also:

• (1) "The Dilemmas of Psychohistory," Fuchsman, Ken. The Journal of Psychohistory (Vol 47. Number 3, Winter 2020). 
• "Remembering the future: science and positivism from Isaac Asimov to Gregory Benford,"Extrapolation (Vol. 39, Issue 2), Kent State University Press.
• "The Origins of Inspiration: Winwood Reade's role in the foundation of Isaac Asimov's psychohistory," LaBounty, David. Extrapolation (Vol. 39. Issue 4), Kent State University Press.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_(novel_series)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data
• https://asimov.fandom.com/wiki/Foundation_series
• https://asimov.fandom.com/wiki/Seldon_Crisis
• "The Computational Power of a Human Society: a New Model of Social Evolution," Wolpert, David; Harper, Kyle. Cliodynamics, 2025-05, Vol.16 (1)

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Ashleigh Brilliant, Tom Lehrer, and the Limits of Humor

Arthur Koestler explained humor as an intersection or juxtaposition of two different meanings which then creates a new meaning of its own. Humor is necessarily a surprise, which is why jokes are seldom funny twice. 

Recently, I found the works of Ashleigh Brilliant by way of a comment from a friend online. (See NecessaryFacts for July 12, 2025.) I first listened to a Tom Lehrer record in 1966. Ashleigh Brilliant is still alive and guards his intellectual property. Tom Lehrer passed on 26 July 2025 and sometime before the end, he put all of his works into the public domain. From him, I took the titles of two posts here: “Fight Fiercely Harvard” and “Albeit they possess the might … Nonetheless we have the will.” 

Probably 15 years ago, I heard an interview with Lehrer on NPR’s “All Things Considered” in which he retracted the fun in “The Old Dope Pedlar.” After crack-cocaine and then the arrival of fentanyl, the humor seemed gross. His songs that are centered on science and mathematics hold up well enough. 

Tom Lehrer (retouched) 
Wikimedia
https://tomlehrersongs.com/

His arrangement of “The Chemical Elements” to the tune of “Modern Major General” is probably the most enduring. Several independent animations are on YouTube and Daniel Radcliffe performed it ad lib on a talk show. 

However, recently, I listened to New Math several times and I was ultimately disappointed. First of all, I don’t know how “new” he considered this, but it was how I in elementary school 1955 to 1961 learned multiplication. One difference is that he always sang “… carry…” whereas we learned to “borrow” from the higher order and “carry” to it. Also, to the point here, his humor about Base 8 was cute as a lesson but irrelevant as social criticism. 

When we learned Base 2, Base 5, Base 8, and Base 12 (1962-1964) aside from the poetry of number theory, we were told that we would use this if we ever worked with  computers which is exactly what happened. We do not use Base 5, of course, and Base 12 was offered to us then as a gateway to Base 16 which was merely cumbersome once you understood the processes of Base 12. But calculating in binary, octal, and hexadecimal has proved useful (to say the least). And Lehrer did not see this coming, even though his day job was teaching mathematics at MIT and at UC Santa Cruz. 

Ashleigh Brilliant
(Santa Barbara Independent)
https://www.ashleighbrilliant.com/ 

Also on his website are links to lyrics that were never recorded. Those were often published as doggerel in The Physical Review, sometimes with suggestions for melodies. Some of his political views are easy to accept, but others not. Some of those are rooted in their time while others are more enduring. And who could have predicted that “Fight Fiercely Harvard” would acquire a new meaning?

Diogenes of Sinope was called The Cynic because he lived “like a dog” in an abandoned wine cask. When Plato defined Man as “a featherless biped” Diogenes held up a plucked chicken.  Cynicism can deliver that other plane of meaning with which to turn a chuckle into a theorem. So, too, do the aphorisms and cartoons give you something to pause over. Eventually, many are just to be stepped over. 

I bought five books by Ashleigh Brilliant from two different sellers on Abe Books, then I bought three from Brilliant’s own website. From him, I bought his first two anthologies—I May Not be Totally Perfect but Parts of Me are Excellent; I Have Abandoned My Search for Truth, and Now Am Looking for a Good Fantasy — and his doctoral dissertation, The Great Car Craze: How Southern California Collided with the Automobile in the 1920s; When Motor Mania Made Social History. I gave the five used books to friends at the University of Texas and kept the others for my own library. 

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Aphorisms 

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Analytics and Metrics for this Site

A friend asked me about the numbers here and I had to go into the analytics to refresh my memory because I write for myself. Creating technical documentation for industry, business, and government, I get paid to create content that other people ask for. This blog publishes what I want. Of course, I also write to be read. 

I shut off comments several years ago when cleaning out spam got to be real work. (“Great post! See BuyThisProduct dot com.”). The most recent tally is that since January 2, 2011, this blog has garnered 779,696 page views: not bad for a site with seven subscribers; and I never bother with search engine optimization. 

Everyone else’s favorites are not mine. I remain satisfied with the original ideas that motivated me. Among those are Money as a Crusoe Concept (January 2, 2011) and then Supplies and Demands (November 25, 2011). I could promote 20 others as significant to myself. I remember deleting one post but I do not recall which that was. I do make anonymous grammatical corrections. However, notable updates are clearly identified with strikethroughs or other editorial markup. 

All-time most popular page views.

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Among the second-most popular articles.

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Casablanca

We viewed the perennial favorite over two nights for Bastille Day weekend. The story and its presentation hold up well over the years. There is no doubt that the Germans were the bad guys here, even if this were not a propaganda film, which it was. This time, I stepped back and took a historical perspective that was informed by the “Marseillaise” scene. 

First, we have lost some of the cultural context of 1940. Today, we see a direct line from Pearl Harbor to Normandy. However, “America First” isolationism was a barrier for the Roosevelt Administration. (For alternate histories, there are Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle (1962) and Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America (2004).) Given the partition of France and especially the widespread collaboration within Occupied France, it is important to separate French nationalism from French democracy. In the Marseillaise scene, Yvonne shouts “Vive la France! Vive la démocratie!” But today’s acceptance of democratic principles was not easily found in the world of 1940. 

YouTube: Warner Bros. Classics

In the Minersville School District versus Gobitis 310 US 586, the US Supreme Court ruled that public schools could require the Pledge of Allegiance and the salute to the flag. It is significant that victims of the Nazi holocaust included “Bible students.” As the war developed, the narrative of democracy versus dictatorship crystalized. In 1943, the US Supreme Court reversed itself with West Virginia Board of Education versus Barnette 319 US 624, and supported the right of the individual to refuse to worship the government. 

The Overlook Press, 1973.

When the viewer meets Richard Blaine, he is playing chess by himself.  He is an intelligent, thinking man -- and a loner. Louis Renault claims that Rick is a sentimentalist, pointing out that Rick ran guns to the Spanish Loyalists and to the Ethiopians.  "I was paid well both times," Rick insists.  Renault counters, "The winning side would have paid you more."  Rick demurs.  "I'm a poor businessman." In that, we see that Richard Blaine is a practical man whose actions are guided by principles.  He also has a bitter sense of humor.

The "Marseilles" scene says even more.  Victor Laszlo orders the band to play La Marseilles. The band leader, however, looks to Rick.  (As Sasha says in a previous scene, "Yvonne, I love you, but Monsieur Rick, he pays me.")  Rick nods. They play.  It is Rick's Cafe Americain that the police bust up the next day.  Rick takes responsibility for his actions and he literally pays the price for Laszlo's defiance.  It is easy to see Laszlo as the brave idealist. I see Laszlo as an irresponsible idealist. When the bar is closed, Rick keeps everyone on full salary.  It comes out of his pocket, of course. 

1 Franc France 1940. 1 Franc Vichy 1942
Morocco 1/2 riyal (5 dirham) AH 1336/AD1918
Morocco 1 Franc AH1339/AD1921

The Marseillaise scene (also called “the dual of the anthems”) rested on a lost narrative. The Germans are not singing Deutschland über Alles but Die Wacht am Rhein. That was composed 1840 (poem) and 1854 (music) to solidify Germans across over 20 different polities to defend the Rheinland because in the 200 years between Louis XIV and Napoleon, the river region was politically French though culturally German. In that the city of Strasbourg was iconic. Family names along the Rhein alternated between Brückner and DuPont. The new rallying motto was “Unser Strom nicht unser Grenze.” (Our creek, not our border.) 

Another lost narrative centers in the tiny town of Niederwald, Texas, here in Hays County. They say on their city website that the town was named for the low-lying bushy trees here in the Hill Country: nieder = nether; wald = woods. In fact, Niederwald, Texas, was settled between 1877 and 1890 and was more likely named after the Niederwald Memorial in Hesse, built in 1877 and decorated with a goddess Germania, Iron Crosses, a tally of German victories over Napoleon, and the lyrics to Die Wacht am Rhein. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niederwald,_Texas, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/niederwald-tx, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niederwald_monument 

La Marseillaise has nothing to do with democracy and is all about fertilizing the farms with the blood of impure invaders. It got its name from a regiment which sang the song on their entry to Paris, but the song itself was composed in Strasbourg and was titled “Chant de guerre pour l’armée du Rhin.” The event which inspired its composition was France’s war against an alliance of Austria and Prussia. To take sides between France and Germany over the Rheinland is to choose between Poland and the Ukraine over who rules which banks of the Vistula. Nonetheless, we still hate the Nazis because without a doubt they were opposed to everything that defines America.

Previously on Necessary Facts

The Second World Wars 

2LT Frances Y. Slanger American Nightingale 

Liza Mundy Breaks the Code and Misses the Message 

Building a Team in Fact and Fiction