Posted on 04/30/2010 1:21:29 PM PDT by smokingfrog
"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." Ayn Rand
Author and objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand was born in Russia just before the Bolshevik Revolution. She literally witnessed the slaughter and the dismantling of her country from the window of her father's pharmacywhich was subsequently seized by the Leninist state. As a young woman, she fled to the United States, where she never forgot what she saw in her native country. She developed a deep distrust of government as she became one of the most celebrated writers of the mid-20th Century.
Rand was eerily prescient when she penned the crown jewel of her literary career, the 1,100-page tome she appropriately titled, Atlas Shrugged. The novel was twice as long as it needed to be, filled with long philosophical soliloquies about the evils of socialism; but it was so prophetic concerning America's future that today, in the age of Obama, Pelosi and Reid, its annual sales far outpace those of 1957, the year it became a New York Times best seller.
Deep into the story, the main protagonist, John Galt, is revealed to the reader as a brilliant young engineer who has decided to stop the engine of the world. He has invented a motor that can convert static electricity into electric power, but he refuses to share his knowledge or his invention with the world in an atmosphere of ever-intrusive government intervention into the private sector.
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
Going Galt, with a Henry Bowman chaser...
Pigs need feeding...
I have four years to pay off the house. Then I have low expenses.
They are already talking about nationalizing IRAs and 401ks to bail out Social Security.
Depends on how and where you accumulate your wealth. I agree that there is a strong potential that they will try to steal our IRAs and 401Ks, especially given how deep they've driven the federal government into debt.
still am till work perks up again.
Ha! Where?
"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." Ayn Rand
Information is Power, sports fans. If you wanna go galt, you're gonna have to go off the database grid.
Information Retrieval is expensive, Jack...
Dunno if I’m going Galt, but I’m not spending any money I don’t have to. I’d call it more battening down the hatches.
What I will be buying are commodities that I have to have and will likely go up a lot when inflation hits. As for earning; 0bamao said “I think at some point you have earned enough.” For me that point is just below the level the Feds will tax it.
What?
You mean OPEN BORDERS?
5.56mm
Thank you for your chapter by chapter study. I have been reading Atlas Shrugged for the second time and am really creeped out by how prescient Ayn Rand is regarding today’s political and social climate. Some of the passages could be taken from today’s newspapers.
Not a big fan of Ayn Rand, sorry. I already knew all about the philosophy of capitalism and individualism before I learned of her, and the rest of her philosophy is simply rarified stupidity.
After paying for food, fuel, mortgage, utilities and taxes there isn’t much left.
I read Atlas Shrugged in 1963 as a nineteen year old sailor. Since then I have been watching it slowly unfold. There have been times when I had fleeting hopes that it would not happen but always America returned to the plot line and since the election of Bill Clinton the pace has slowly quickened until the election of 2008 and it shifted into overdrive, the end is near.
I have cut income below where I have to pay taxes...if enough do so the beast starves.
Good for you, Niedermeyer! (as well the rest of the country)
I've considered doing the same thing, but don't know where to start. Got any suggestions?
Thanks for your inspiration.
I'm one who needs it.
tag d8^)
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