Posted on 09/24/2002 2:58:00 PM PDT by Enemy Of The State
Edited on 04/13/2004 1:39:58 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
In these post-Enron days of corporate scandal, some of the millions of copies of Atlas Shrugged that have been sold over 45 years are being dusted off by executives under siege by prosecutors, regulators, Congress, employees, investors, a Republican president, even terrorists.
(Excerpt) Read more at usatoday.com ...
I agree completely!
Ayn Rand often said "capitalism" when maybe she should have said "free enterprise." Capitalism, as I understand it, is just a way to make money by already having money.
A free-enterprise economy might have capitalists in it, but the heroes in Rand's novels are more like enterpreneurs and inventors. They were heroes because of their individualism and their prowess as productive visionaries, not because they had big piles of other people's money and talked like winners(except maybe Midas Mulligan).
Paper-shufflers, conformists, smooth-talkers, schmoozers and posers were generally the bad guys.
Unfortunately, there is no Galt's Gulch to which the producers of society can retreat. Though 'tis a dream devoutly to be wished ...
Ever heard of the Free State Project? http://www.freestateproject.com/
Considering what our ancestors went through in pursuit of freedom and a better life, this isn't a bad idea...
After 30 years since reading Atlas Shrugged as a 17 year old (and after buying countless copies since for younger brothers, friends, and co-workers as gifts) I finally picked it again up this Summer. It's true, you have to wade throught the first 100 pages. Then it's great.
That said, I agree that "capitalism" is not the best term. After all, Karl Marx, the enemy of capitalism, popularized the term. That's like the supply-side economic school deciding to be known as the trickle-down economic school.
I try always to use the term "free economy" while I debate (well, argue) with my liberal "friends".
That one and Stranger in a Strange Land are the only novels of his that I have read and liked. He did a short story called "And He built a Crooked House" that I like when I was a kid.
In fact, now that I think of it, what you described was EXACTLY what John Galt was -- and Engineer who developed a revolutionary energy source, but the company he worked for was full of morons and conformists who wouldn't follow up with the project, so he quit and went underground!
Edison
Tesla
Ford
Westinghouse
Siemens
Bell
.....
Hard to find someone who fits exactly, but I think any of the above would serve as examples of inventors/enterpeneurs who had a large impact on society.
Also, I can think of companies that appreciate and reward guys who do things like that. Think IBM 30 years ago, or RCA or Bell Labs back then, too.
Nowadays we have huge corporations led by followers and copycats -- just exactly like the bad guys in Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
“A sale,” said Rearden, slowly “requires the sellers consent.” He got up and walked to the window. “I’ll tell you what you can do.” He pointed to the siding where ingots of Rearden Metal were being loaded into freight cars. “There’s Rearden Metal. Drive down there with your trucks- like any looter, but without his risk, because I won’t shoot you, as you know I can’t - take as much of the metal as you wish and go. Don’t try to send my payment. I won’t accept it. Don’t print out a check to me. It won’t be cashed. If you want that Metal, you have the guns to seize it. Go ahead.”
“Good God, Mr. Rearden, what would the public think!”
It was an instinctive, involuntary cry. The muscles of Rearden’s face moved briefly in soundless laughter. Both of them had understood the implications of that cry. Rearden said evenly, in the grave, unrestrained tone of finality, “You need my help to make it look like a sale - lake a safe, moral transaction. I will not help you.”
--Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Rand's characters are one-dimensional archetypes. Same goes for the plot.
Heinlein on the other hand knew how people, technology and history work. A great wordsmith as well:
"A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot."
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."
"No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and, in the long run, no state ever has."
: "Any government will work if authority and responsibility are equal and coordinate. This does not insure 'good' government; it simply insures that it will work. But such governments are rare -- most people want to run things but want no part of the blame. This used to be called the 'backseat-driver syndrome.' "
: "Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity."
"Political tags -- such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth -- are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surely curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbours than the other sort."
-RAH
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