Posted on 01/13/2022 4:14:51 AM PST by MtnClimber
For most of my adult life I’ve been told about Ayn Rand’s famous novel…but had no idea what it was about. It was particularly popular among my Libertarian buddies. So, I finally ordered a copy…and when it came, I had to update the prescription for my reading glasses, because it’s over a thousand pages in nine-point type.
Early on I was able to kind of get a handle on what it was about. There are basically two kinds of people: problem solvers or innovators who are constantly trying to make things work better…and cronies, who have an overwhelming sense of entitlement and who ferociously cling to the status quo.
Not much later, the story began to creep me out. Not because of some quirky aspect of the story…but, due to our current pandemic. I was seeing Rand’s vision of authoritarian cronyism taking place right before my eyes. In the story, first published in 1957, crony bureaucrats assume control of businesses via some kind of vague government policy…and, guess what(?)…shortages of just about everything started happening. We now call these “supply chain” problems. The story mentioned black marketeers that snuck around under the radar in order to fill in some of the gaps.
Rand was born Alisa Rosenbaum in 1905, in St. Petersburg, Russia. When she was twelve, Lenin got off a train in her city…and zealous cronies took over her world. At the age of 21 she came to America. Eventually to become a Hollywood screen writer. By 1957, she was already an established novelist…and, now it seems, that she was also exceptionally prescient. Had I read this book more than two years ago, this may not have occurred to me.
Various concepts are presented in the story. The “Equalization of Opportunity Bill” and “The State Science Institute” are eerily...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Because Hollywood Leftists would never want this message to get out.
John Galt has yet to appear, Elon Musk he’s not.
Bill the Drill & Publius ran the original discussion series a LONG time ago here on FR. Their chapter-by-chapter method with explanations made Ayn’s work very digestible.
They expanded the FR posting into a book, I believe.
Atlas ping.
The book, “Who is John Galt: A Navigational Guide to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged,” is available at Amazon. Billthedrill and I could use the royalties.
I never really got “who is John Galt?”. Everybody in the book seemed to know the phrase, but it was not clear (unless I missed it or forgot) how it ever started. It seems it should have started appearing as graffiti like “Kilroy was here” or on leaflets or something; but everybody in the book seemed to know the phrase with no reason for knowing it. I think the book just said it was a well-known catch-phrase that no one knew the origin of. It seemed to be used when someone was meaning to say “who knows”?
Mark, Dude, we been seeing it for YEARS!.............
Welcome to the club...
Too bad you had to read the book after its contents had become a “fait accompli”...
Always believe your lying eyes...
That’s right! They did put a book together on it!
Post #65.
Like the author of this piece, I got a creeping sense of familiarity throughout Atlas Shrugged that grew as the story proceeded. It's very revealing that what resonates isn't the physical circumstances - Rand wrote of a time when there was no airline travel and mass communications was only the radio - but rather the cultural and philosophical maneuverings and the impossible vanities of a parasitical would-be ruling class that finally ended up dragging down the host society. As John Galt says himself in the novel, he isn't actually changing anything, he's merely accelerating it.
For those suggesting that Rand needed a good editor, she had one: Bennet Cerf (remember him from Hollywood Squares?). She simply didn't listen to him. Hence the infamous Chapter 26. Publius and I have a lot to say about that one.
Who Is John Galt? is intended to be a companion book, not a sort of Cliff's Notes. Like the author of this piece, you can't avoid the 1100 page monster but perhaps like a lot of us it turns out not to be so impossible after all.
I read it at 15 -- after the class bully hit me over the head with it. Its weight impressed me immediately.
The basic concepts of Objectivism in that 50-page section near the end.
I suggest buying "Who is John Galt: A Navigational Guide to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged" from Amazon. Two excellent FReepers wrote the book as a product of a FReeper Book Club dedicated to "Atlas." Then pick up "Atlas," read a chapter, and then go to the chapter in "Galt." You'll get so much more out of "Atlas" if you read it that way.
In "Who is John Galt: A Navigational Guide to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged," available at Amazon, the authors addressed this question in several sections at the end of their book. How does Ameria and the world recover when Atlas shrugs? The chapter labeled "Coda" goes into detail.
That, and her "A is A" analogy in support of abortion. To her, she saw fetal cells as just a clump of tissue--not fully a person--therefore, "fetal tissue isn't the same as a fully-developed human," and does not enjoy the same right to life.
That said, I'm a fan of her story-telling and many aspects of her objectivist outlook.
“Who is John Galt?” is a cry of frustration at the inability to change anything. Today we hear the phrase, “It is what it is.” That’s our modern equivalent of it.
Was Bennet Cerf on “Hollywood Squares”? I thought he was on an earlier show like “What’s My Line?” or “To Tell the Truth.”
Correct you are, it was What’s My Line? - Wiki says for 16 years. Now that’s a long gig.
It's been a while since I read Fountainhead, but I think Atlas Shrugged lays out the concepts of objectivism more comprehensively, and the story is a bit more compelling.
In Fountainhead, I felt like Howard Roark was living by some principal, but couldn't quite articulate what it was.
I think it’s here:
Our First FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged
A Publius Essay | 15 January 2009 | Publius
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2165176/posts
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