Ayn Rand was born on February 2, 1905. She is credited with discovering and developing the “virtue of selfishness.”
Rand saw this idea both as the key to personal happiness and as the moral foundation of a free society. And she was right! If you want to live your life fully and achieve the greatest happiness possible, you must act in a rationally self-interested manner as a matter of unwavering principle.
To do otherwise is to live less fully, less happily.
And this is why Randsday is a worthy holiday. It celebrates the birthday of the philosopher who codified the virtue of selfishness and made the *moral* argument for a rights-respecting society.
How to celebrate Randsday? As Henry Binswanger puts it: “You do something not done on any other holiday: you give yourself a present.”
The idea is to treat yourself to something that you really want and will greatly enjoy but that you ordinarily would not buy for yourself now: that MacBook Pro or that beautiful dress you’ve been eying, that snowboard you know will improve your turns, reservations at that picturesque hotel in the Caymans, tickets to that Broadway show, a Lexus, a puppy, extra guacamole at Chipotle—whatever you’ll love and can non-sacrificially afford.
Buy it for Randsday and selfishly enjoy it.
