Posted on 03/14/2009 7:43:42 AM PDT by Publius
What I think most people are missing when Ayn Rand writes about Hank and Dagny is that they’re the last two standing. They’re both driven to success and define their lives by their success.
As two people with very powerful personalities, of course they are drawn to one another. There is no one else they know that is as they are.
At this point, both Hank and Dagny are not only sharing their passion, they’re also using each other to try and insulate and reassure themselves against the coming collapse. A collapse they see happening all around them, yet deny there is nothing they can do about it.
Excellent point. Such passion is rare among the sane.
Changing the subject just a bit, have you ever compared the description of “The Banner” in “The Fountainhead” to the MSN homepage?
Back to AS: I personally know two people who have remained one man shops here in CA, because the headache involved with adding employees just isn’t worth the monetary gain.
Between the two of them, they’ve probably kept 10 or more $15/hr+ jobs off the market. Not to mention the cost to suppliers, due to less demand from these shops.
Reminds me just a bit of Owen Kellog.
According to my mom, her tax guy has been inundated with requests for advice on reducing taxable income. And, of course, these are people who make in excess of 200k.
Atlas is Shrugging and, as in the book, those who abdicate any responsibility for their actions are being willfully blind to what is happening.
The Little Guy is also shrugging when he buys firearms and ammunition. People can't put their fingers on just what wicked thing is coming their way, but like a wolf they can sense it.
Lots of people shrugging in little ways. The newspapers are already starting to feel the pinch. The reply on the part of the looters in government will be to find additional things to tax - e-commerce, for example. And by placing as many people as possible on the government payroll - the Obama Youth. The Obama Youth versus the garage sale crowd. That, I suspect, is part of what Atlas shrugging might look like. More on this later.
Dang it Publius, two minutes? Don’t you have anything better to do on a Sunday night but hang around seditious websites? ;-)
When I read comments from the left denigrating the ideas of Ayn Rand, they invariably call her names and encourage those of us who agree with Ayn Rand to “leave and go to Galt’s Gulch.”
The left refuses to understand that if all the high wage earners in the US were to go on strike and refuse to do anything but the most menial jobs, our government would collapse.
It doesn’t require going anywhere, it just requires doing less.
You don’t have to go on strike. Start a small business and get a conservative CPA to help you figure out how to live your life and minimize (I really mean minimize) the taxes paid to the looters. Saw this coming a few years ago and am in full Galt mode today.
Actually, that’s what I mean by going “on strike.”
When one does less of the economic activity that is taxed, the looters get less taxes.
I’m not advocating quitting entirely, just slowing down.
Although, quitting to the point of doing just menial labor does sound good at times.
I agree and I am gradually going on strike. This includes my neighbors who gladly have the Zer0bama bumperstickers all over their cars. I usually have to pull them out of the snowbanks in winter here in Colorado, but I am just going to ask them to call Zer0 for their problems. I have already paid so don’t axe me sis or bro. I beez on strike!
Starnesville 2009: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1882089_1850973,00.html
Drat, you beat me to it.
That link is down right scary. I’m bookmarking it. Lots of good ideas and I haven’t read all of it.
And how intoxicating this is for Jim Taggart! Cherryl fulfills a need of his that no gold-digger would have been capable of doing. As Taggart bathes in her oblivious and honest admiration of him, he is able momentarily to believe his own press releases. The lies become his reality for most of the evening until he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Rather than feeling any remorse, Taggert feels smugly satisfied that he has conned this innocent young thing. And he feels superior. [...]
I noticed another element in the relationship between Jim Taggart and Cherryl: His interest in her is almost solely based on the amount of 'good' he is seen to be doing 'for' her. He sees her as a welfare case and his pride in showing her off in public is saying in effect "look how magnanimous I am, and how good I am for saving this wretched pathetic creature from her life". Cherryl's social awkwardness is a (if not the only) point of pride for him, and serves to back up his misperception of her.
It isn't real, of course, and (perhaps later in the story) his annoyance with her develops when she begins to lose that awkwardness and her modest background becomes less obvious to his socialite peers.
She is a prop in the stageplay that is his false existence. She doesn't really need him any more than Taggart Transcontinental needs him. But he needs *her* to justify and showcase his shallow worldview.
Excellent evaluation of Jim Taggart!
The names of the destructive government programs is similar to what is going on today.
Look at the destruction done in AS by the Equalization of Opportunity act. Compare to recently proposed or passed acts:
Employee Free Choice Act - eliminates secret ballots when voting on union representation.
Making Work Pay Tax Credit - redistributes money from those who work and pay income tax to those who pay no income tax.
Wait until Saturday, when a whole host of acts become law, not by an act of the National Legislature, but by administrative fiat.
Better late to the party than never.....
Starnesville: of course the people who are still there are wallowing in self-destruction. They did not have enough interest in self-preservation to bother to leave. My grandmother emigrated from “the old country”, and two of my sisters went back to visit the village and our second cousins. They were appalled at the utter lack of ambition and enormous quantities of alcohol. Think about it: the ambitious ones left.....
I think that is why our country was once so great: it was a self-selecting population of go-getters. No ambition? Stay put in the old country.
Just another Atlas Shrugged moment in the news. Today’s Wall Street Journal editorial on ethanol mentions various groups, including, the “Union of Concerned Scientists”. I had to giggle, it sounded just like one of those stupid committees worried about Rearden Metal.
Until next week, then.
Wait until you see the names of next Saturday’s committees!
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