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To: OldNavyVet
"If a life can have a theme song, and I believe every worthwhile one has..."

I guess the ones that aren't worthwhile are the ones she vocally advocated aborting.

26 posted on 07/24/2014 8:13:25 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: Publius
Thanks for the ping. Hope you're doing well in your new place.

I am not of the absolutist point of view that one must love everything about Rand in order to appreciate her work. Atlas Shrugged is the best effort of a brilliant woman to tell it exactly as she saw it, and in doing so we have a work where the characters are true to their personalities and whose narrative occasionally conflicts with Rand's overall philosophical case. I find that delightful enough to restate: Rand's characters behave in ways that occasionally contradict the philosophy they're espousing. It is that - and nearly only that - that makes them human.

One rather back-handed testament to the power of Atlas Shrugged is the hysteria with which it is received on the Left. Noam Chomsky called it the most evil thing ever published, a statement that is so rich in irony that it ought to be the topic of an entire volume of its own. What Rand most certainly got right was that the tool of the moochers and looters was and is the ability to make the rest of us feel guilt, and that someone who does not feel guilty for achievement is beyond the power of those for whom it is their only tool. "You didn't build that" is a perfect example, and the preening cretin who uttered it could have stepped right from the pages of the novel. Rand nailed that one and will never be forgiven for it.

Thanks to all who helped Publius and I shape our book. It is HERE, available for Kindle as well. It is not a paean to Rand; in fact, it is likely to infuriate certain of her over-earnest followers. It is certain to annoy her detractors. We think that's good ground to stand on.

29 posted on 07/24/2014 8:32:24 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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