Posted on 03/02/2009 3:32:23 PM PST by GVnana
Ayn Rand and the Tea Party Protests
Protesters must couple their outrage at bailouts with a positive vision of a properly limited government.
March 2, 2009 - by Paul Hsieh
Over the past week, an extraordinary wave of Tea Party protests has erupted across America. Citizens around the country have expressed outrage at the governments mishandling of the financial crisis. And one of the most intriguing developments has been a resurgence in interest in Ayn Rands classic novel Atlas Shrugged.
Denvers Tea Party protest opened with a reading from Atlas Shrugged. A sign at the New York City protest read, Ayn Rand Was Right. One banner at the Atlanta Tea Party said, Read Atlas Shrugged Before It Happens. The Ayn Rand Institute reports that sales of Atlas Shrugged have nearly tripled compared to last year due to Americans concerns about the economic crisis.
So why has there been such a renewed interest in Ayn Rand?
Stephen Moore identified one reason in his Wall Street Journal column, Atlas Shrugged: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years. Atlas Shrugged depicted a future in which America descends into economic chaos due to ever-increasing government regulations. Each new problem spawns new government controls that merely deepen the crisis. The result is a downward spiral that nearly destroys America. Many Americans are finding Rands predictions uncomfortably close to real-life events.
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
Our First Freeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Theme
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Chain
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Top and the Bottom
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Immovable Movers
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Climax of the dAnconias
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Non-Commercial
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Exploiters and the Exploited
Aynn Rand was right on target. This should be required reading for all Americans.
I want to join the FRper book club since I know NOTHING about Ayn Rand. Never even read it in high school.
You know that the ultimate event for these protests would be a nation-wide strike, when EVERYONE shrugged. Let Obamateur try to run the country with only his disciples, while the working folks and the small-business owners and the moms and pops stay home.
I read Atlas Shrugged several years ago and am re-reading it now.
Looks more like the bolshevik revolution every day. Rand - socialist
Unfortunately, many of the best of the best wont have the guts to do what they do in the book.
Bookmarked.
And I hope you got my request to put me on the ping list. Have to find and dust off my copy of Atlas Shrugged for next Saturday.
Who is John Galt?
Rand - socialist?
I am John Galt
You’re on the ping list. Now start reading tonight because on Saturday we’ll be working on Chapter 9.
I’ve read that book three times. What I hadn’t read were your opening remarks to the book club and your comments on the book from an historical perspective. Nicely done, Publius, and quite thought provoking.
She's about as anti socialist as it is possible to become. I just finished reading "New Deal or Raw Deal" a book about FDR and it's pretty clear to me that Atlas Shrugged is spot on because Rand knew the truth about the Franklin depression and incorporated it into her books.
Yes, commenting on post 7.
Thanks. (blush) For each chapter, besides the synopsis, I have one or two short essays explaining unusual points in the book.
>>>You know that the ultimate event for these protests would be a nation-wide strike, when EVERYONE shrugged. Let Obamateur try to run the country with only his disciples, while the working folks and the small-business owners and the moms and pops stay home.<<<
Absolutely. If the looters want to take my property and wealth, what better way to fight back than have nothing for them to take?
And to take as much from them as they'll give. Plus a little extra for the effort ...
The way I see it, there's nothing I can do to this government that it doesn't deserve. It's been stealing from me for half a century. It has betrayed its half of the social contract, and now operates not in my best interest but in its own.
Our forefathers at least had the guts to revolt against far lesser tyranny. But we castrated lambs just mill about awaiting the slaughter. Or worse yet, hurry it along by electing tools like O.
“Brother you asked for it!!”
I believe the date was Septmber 2nd. But do not know if we can wait that long.
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