Posted on 10/20/2014 9:26:39 AM PDT by right-wing agnostic
In 1991, the book-of-the-month club conducted a survey asking people what book had most influenced their lives. The Bible ranked number one and Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” was number two. In 1998, the Modern Library released two lists of the top 100 books of the twentieth century. One was compiled from the votes of the Modern Library’s Board, consisting of luminaries such as Joyce Carol Oates, Maya Angelou, Edmund Morris, and Salman Rushdie. The two top-ranked books on the Board’s list were “Ulysses” and “The Great Gatsby.”
The other list was based on more than 200,000 votes cast online by anyone who wanted to vote. The top two on that list were “Atlas Shrugged” (1957) and “The Fountainhead” (1943). The two novels have had six-figure annual sales for decades, running at a combined 300,000 copies annually during the past ten years. In 2009, “Atlas Shrugged” alone sold a record 500,000 copies and Rand’s four novels combined (the lesser two are “We the Living” [1936] and “Anthem” [1938]) sold more than 1,000,000 copies.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
That ‘other list’ was a joke - it was spammed by Objectivists and Scientologists.
This is what passes for Libertarianism these days?
It’s surprising how people think they’ve discovered something astonishing when they can point out flaws in Ayn Rand as a person. Clearly, her observations on the dangers of collectivism and the virtues of individualism mean more as a writer than any defects in her personal life.
Many people from all political persuasions find it difficult to separate the messenger from the message.
Ponder the merit of the message before pondering the merit of the messenger.
"When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - you know your nation is doomed."
“You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.”
“Every movement that seeks to enslave a country, every dictatorship or potential dictatorship, needs some minority group as a scapegoat which it can blame for the nation’s troubles and use as a justification of its own demands for dictatorial powers. In Soviet Russia, the scapegoat was the bourgeoisie; in Nazi Germany, it was the Jewish people; in America, it is the businessmen.”
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
“There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
It's even more amazing how people think one's personal flaws have no correlation to one's weltanschauung. Certainly, Rand made a great case against the intrusive, overearing power of the state, but IMHO, she vastly undermined her own case with her advocacy of abortion (among other things). Rand would be the first to object to the state making whimsical, arbitrary decisions about the life and death of an individual, but had no problem with the state delegating that power to pregnant women.
faking reality is what fiction writers do for a living.
I had a band called ANTHEM, named after the book before I even heard of RUSH.
This is a good article about Rand with information I didn’t know.
Ayn Rand was not the first to notice ...
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." - Tacitus, Roman Senator and Historian (A.D. c.56 - c. 115)
This observation was also noted before the Roman historian ...
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector Plato: Ancient Greek philosopher (428/427-348/347 B.C.)
faking reality is what fiction writers do for a living.
_________
Pithy, but I disagree. Faking reality is what actors do for a living. Imagining reactions to various realities is what fiction (and screen) writers do for a living.
Right, and you'd rather take the word of the likes of Angelou (a ham and scribbler of doggerel), Morris (a fraud and a liar) and Rushdie (a fool, a coward and a traitor).
Yes, that fits.
Thank you for those references.
Even Obama would probably put Atlas Shrugged in his top ten list (in the unlikely event that he chose for once to be honest about something).
I imagine Barack Hussein Obama’s list would include Atlas Shrugged, Animal Farm, and 1984 as blueprints; Capital, Communist Manifesto, and The Little Red Book as theoretical guides; and a mixture of his own works with Malcolm X’s works, for inspiration, to fill out the list.
I would recommend that Obama buy my book — see my tagline — and start a reading circle among his most Leftist advisors. They all might learn something. (Shameless plug.)
I had a history teacher who was completely blind from birth. His inability to see didn’t detract from what he had to teach me about european history.
I cannot think of anything he could have told me about japanese watercolors.
Rand had a fascinating — and inconsistent — sense of morality that I’ve never been able to peg. I can’t say I would care to know her as a person, but as a social critic, she’s second to none.
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