Posted on 03/16/2009 6:21:45 AM PDT by shove_it
Ayn Rand died more than a quarter of a century ago, yet her name appears regularly in discussions of our current economic turmoil. Pundits including Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santelli urge listeners to read her books, and her magnum opus, "Atlas Shrugged," is selling at a faster rate today than at any time during its 51-year history.
There's a reason. In "Atlas," Rand tells the story of the U.S. economy crumbling under the weight of crushing government interventions and regulations. Meanwhile, blaming greed and the free market, Washington responds with more controls that only deepen the crisis. Sound familiar?
The novel's eerily prophetic nature is no coincidence. "If you understand the dominant philosophy of a society," Rand wrote elsewhere in "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal," "you can predict its course." Economic crises and runaway government power grabs don't just happen by themselves; they are the product of the philosophical ideas prevalent in a society -- particularly its dominant moral ideas.
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(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I think it's even better the second time through. Of course now I also have daily news events that perfectly coincide with the book chapter and verse!
One good one!
Thank you. I will have to get a copy of that. That story stuck with me, and was probably the reason I turned out conservative.
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.
Sometimes one is enough.
Ask J. D. Salinger.
What would Balph Eubank say?
I think you can give her some slack. She was a very smart, bright woman who was marred under the communist fist for a good portion of her younger life.
She experiences that and it would make some sense if she swung 180 degrees to extreme individualism/egoism.
I JUST finished this book and though sometimes verbose and wordy, the main theme of the book is alarmingly similar to today.
You hear alot of the same things being said these days that James Taggart and his ilk says in this book, albeit the characters in the book are overly simplistic and extremely open in their disdain for capitalism and anything not related to sacrifice of oneself to another (of which none of these types of characters seem to do but oddly ignored throughout - maybe too easy a theme to need to address?).
I think this book, if trimmed and simplified could be made into a very unique story to tell to your preteens who are being manipulated by our education system.
For such a popular book, I'm surprised the term "looter" isn't more prevalent in today's lexicon related to our current affairs in Washington D.C.
The one thing this book leaves out or doesn't assume is that many of today's brightest and most talented are themselves, looters or support looters (such as Obama).
If anyone here thinks the folks at Google are just going to drop everything and find some valley to live in a month out of the year and in the meantime working as street sweepers have another thing coming.
Most of these people, im afraid, cant see themselves "lowering" themselves from their current pedestals to make a stand against a looting government like we have today.
What people want to read, he says, is irrelevant.
If you don’t just throw words around, but actually think Rand was a “man-hater,” you never read Rand. You read about Rand, which is a very different thing.
Was it the first book you ever read?
I’ve been trying to remember the name of that one, too.
Stephen King wrote “The Long Walk” as Richard Bachman years ago.
I thought it was ridiculous at the time, but seeing people worship Obama it kind of sends a chill up my spine now too.
She does get a little carried away with her adverbs and adjectives.
Wholeheartedly agree!!
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
-—Rahm Emanuel
One can only infer, from your screen name and monosyllabic answer, the reason for your opinion.
Personally, even as a committed Christian, I can see the truth of the economic principles Rand outlines. Her atheism creates a void, into which she inserts the Ego, but apart from that naturalistic approach to morality, she is logically and practically sound.
.....and should be required reading for all who aspire to public office ... and those who would presume to elect them.
Hey ass clown just because you don’t happen to like the book does not mean others shouldn’t. You’re sounding an awful lot like your namesake. A puffed up pseudo-intellectual trying to get attention. Well OK, you got mine, Yawn!
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