Posted on 09/21/2009 9:24:56 AM PDT by AnalogReigns
How does it do that? Are you equating libertarianism with objectivism?
I always loved that review. Chambers nails the book and the bare fact that the objectivists are as shrill and dictatorial as the collectivists.
The libertarian movement (big L or small l) will never truly gain serious traction until they give up their romance with Rand.
The biggest problem I had with Atlas Shrugged was it seemed to assume that capitalism, without moral underpinnings, still works. It does not. Capitalism lacking in morality always leads to communism. Just as an engine without some sort of governor with eventually blow up. In other words, capitalists who do not throttle their desire to make money with a moral governor actually empower those who wish to destroy capitalism.
Utter and complete claptrap written without a shred of any kind of proof, historical or otherwise.
Whittaker Chambers offers an excellent review of Atlas Shrugged. I loved reading both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead as a teenager and enjoyed them both. However, now when I look back on it I see the validity of Chamber’s critique. Atlas Shrugged, in particular, was filled with unrealistic characters making these long winded speeches and lectures. The good guys are virtually superhuman and without flaws and the bad guys are cartoonishly evil buffoons.
I recently read Chamber’s own book, Witness. Now there is a book for ALL conservatives. A true story based on Chamber’s tumultuous life as a young communist who transformed into one of the greatest conservatives of all time who famously locked horns with Alger Hiss in a titanic struggle which has divided conservatives from the liberal/left ever since. With Chambers you see the human condition in its totality warts and all beginning with himself. Therefore, his work, writings, and life experiences are much more grounded in reality.
Read Atlas Shrugged for fun and entertainment—and yes Miss Rand was light years ahead of her time predicting socialism coming to America no matter how silly and unrealistic her characters were. But read Witness for getting to the truth and a real life experience of one man’s ascent from darkness and evil to the truth and seeing the light. One work is quite juvenile, the other is manifestly profound and deeply spiritual.
It seems Miss Rand was a good deal more correct than anyone could have imagined back in 1957.
L
Lurker, you are witnessing it now.
I don’t see how Rand proposes capitalism without morals.
I’ve been reading Capitalism by Rand right now and she’s quite explicit that it is only capitalism which is in fact moral.
Well said!
However, with morality based on a higher power, Man is naturally throttled back in his desires. Ownership and control may still be valued, but there is a sense that there is more to life and that giving of one's self and of one's possessions is not so very bad.
I don't think Rand saw this, and I've known a lot of Libertarians who don't see it either. In my experience, such people become very shrill and dictatorial.
Actually, no. Her world was one of black and white cardboard characters.
The world is far more shady and complex than anything she imagined and she totally failed to predict the rise of Islamic Jihad. Churchill, in contrast, predicted it quite well.
I didn’t mean she “proposes” capitalism without morals. She seems to “assume” capitalism is moral by it’s very nature. When, in reality, capitalism is a tool, like an axe, or a hammer. It can be used to support freedom, or it can be used to enslave.
NYC snob author?
Author cant even get D’Anconia’s name right while when making a point with the name. Oy.
Yea that whole 'good and evil' thing is just so....confining.
she totally failed to predict the rise of Islamic Jihad
That wasn't the point of the book. Duh.
Arguing that capitalism is moral and arguing that capitalism requires morals are not remotely like the same thing.
I’m laughing at the posters in this thread who clearly have no idea who Whittaker Chambers is.
My husband and I recently listen to it on CD as we drove to Texas. It was so true that I could barely stand to listen to it at times. Ellesworth Toohey is such a worm.
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