FYI Publius
That's good news. The more people who read it, the better.
It's one heck of a long story, but once you start reading it, it's hard to put down. I even got my husband hooked on it.
Her fiction novel is now a non-fiction book.
Started reading it yesterday.
She was a strange man-hater who wrote a hard-to-read book with a pro-capitalism message. Just because she agrees with our politics doesn’t make her a writer.
“Is Rand Relevant?”
No.
#38 on Amazon right now and #99 on USA Today list of 150 best sellers. Not bad for a 50 year old book.
John Galt is my hero.
I first read Atlas Shrugged about 15 years ago. I recently picked up the book and began reading it again.
I encourage any of you who have not yet read this book to do so asap and those of you who have read it to read it again.
I can say with certainty that when read in the context of today’s politics this book is a totally different read. It is almost frightening to read what Rand had to say 50 years ago and see it actually begin to happen today.
She’s relevant to the point of getting one thinking. However, her philosophy is both derivative and often irrational — and her writing style is just plain awful.
Just bought it for the wife last week.
She portrays business leaders as heros, creative doers. But that's not always the case. That's the problem. In fact, my impression of the culture of most large corporations, based on first hand experience, is that they are no better than gubmint.
The C-level executives are just overpaid bureaucrats. Unless they are the founder of the company, they didn't create anything. Just like with gubmint, they are playing with someone else's money. And just like with gubmint, they lie and steal.
You're average C level exec comes in, rewrites the mission statement, the vision statement, etc. Stays holed up in his office with the lawyers and the accountants, and leaves after a few years, well paid, and someone else gets to deal with whatever mess he left behind.
And down the ranks, it's also quite like gubmint. VP level execs, and directors, are all motivated to expand their budget. Just like in gubmint, they have to make sure they spend every dime of last year's budget, often times just blowing it at the end of the fiscal year, so they make sure they get the same budget, or bigger, next year. They build little fiefdoms, try to take on new employees, not because they need them, not because it helps the company, but because it helps them accrue power and get to sit on on all the big meetings and feel special.
In short, the problem is a human problem, and business is far from immune. In my view, the only businesses that you can really hope to trust at all are the small businesses, where there isn't so much political BS. Where they are spending their own money, not shareholder money, and where the leaders of the company actually care about their core business, and aren't merely raping a company for a few years and then moving on.
Corporate culture, in the main, is sick. The only reason they are competitive at all is because all the other corporations suffer from the same disease. I saw it myself in many places, in various industries. And that's why Rand's idealistic notion of The Businessman is fatally flawed.
A morally dead fiction writer, the new “leader”.
I’m reading it...but I checked it out from the library. We need to start using the term looters (those who take what belongs to others by threat and force of laws) and moochers (those that take from others through use of tears).
Dang... It was 59 last week....
It is screaming up the charts!!
FYI...the movie is set to star Angelina Jolie as Dagny.
sorry if this has been posted.
Ive been listening to it everyday while I work out.