Scandals lead execs to 'Atlas Shrugged' 1957 Ayn Rand novel sanctions self-interest

USA Today ^ | 9.24.02 | Del Jones

[Enemy Of The State]

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.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

On the contrary Ayn Rand would have lauded Microsofts' rise to the top. It was not a scam it was genius.

[RJCogburn]

"The Atlas Society, devoted to Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead and other fiction by Ayn Rand"

http://www.atlassociety.org

[RJCogburn]

"A 1998 documentary about Rand's life was nominated for an Academy Award and played to sold-out venues"

http://www.asenseoflife.com/

[Enemy Of The State]

lol...

[Condorman]

When any government . . . undertakes to say to its subjects, 'This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,' the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything--you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him. --If This Goes On...

Heinlein Remembered

[hosepipe]

"Giving money and power to Government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." -- P.J. O'Rourke

"Governments have killed many more people than cigarettes or unbuckled seat belts ever have."..... -P.J. O'Rourke

"And the Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was founded by religious nuts with guns" -P.J. O'Rourke

"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interesed in dogs." -P.J. O'Rourke

[hosepipe]

'Umm, right. Communism is "attractive"... to ants.'

And Bees..

"I would think that if you understood what Communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees, that we would someday become communists." --Jane "Hanoi" Fonda, Michigan State University, 1970

[Enemy Of The State]

As quoted in my profile ...

"How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin"

~Ronald Regan~

[dubyagee]

Some of the soliloquys are HUGE, though, so be prepared.

I agree. Galt's last big spiel especially, but it is well worth reading. I read all of her fiction books this summer. Personally I liked 'We The Living' the best. The characters are much more believable and it paints a vivid portrait of communist Russia.

[Indrid Cold]

Oh, please. Nikola Tesla died flat broke thanks to George Westinghouse--he kept pleading poverty and didn't make his royalty payments.

[Indrid Cold]

Hear, hear. I spent 10 years working at dead-end jobs before I "fluked" myself into my dream job--couldn't stand the idiots. I am prepared to close down the shop and go flip hamburgers for a living if the moochers get too oppressive.

[LibertyThug]

Nowadays we have huge corporations led by followers and copycats -- just exactly like the bad guys in Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

This is the end result of over-regulation. The producers of the world must become large and bloated with money...
-> so that they can afford lawyers
-> so that they won't get fined by the city, county, state, and federal governments
-> so that they can find ways to avoid being taxed to death
-> so that they can avoid lawsuits
->so that they can become something they never wanted to be
In the world now one must become mega-corporations just to battle the government.

[HitmanLV]

I posted my story from my old job last week and you each responded to it. Well, I thought I'd share with you an interesting development that I just learned - it made me smile!

Just a few days after I posted my episode, my friend called me and related the latest event that happened at my old office.

First the context: I was one of 3 project managers at my old job, and after I left they really felt it. They were way arrogant and never valued my contributions. Well, in addition to their inability to cope with my loss, after i left morale worsened and things spiraled downward.

Three months after I left, one of the other case managers couldn't hack it and suddenly quit also. My old boss's ship was sinking, and she couldn't find anyone to replace me or the other guy who left. She ended up hiring someone for one of the slots, and after a long search, that person quit on her after a week or so!

Well, this past Friday, my old Boss's #1 boy and partner in crime, Bradley, suddenly quit on her also! They were closely aligned in running me out of town fast and discrediting me as best they could after I quit. It seems that since I left, he had increasing difficulties with my old boss, and in recent months their relationship deteriorated completely. Hmmmmmmm!

So he quit suddenly, leaving her high and dry. Now she is wildly understaffed and in way over her head. The workload is increasing for the Fall. She has almost no techincal ability and isn't equiped to run her department. In the 6 months since I left, her entire department was destroyed - everyone walked out on her and no one seems to be speaking to anyone else.

As I said, she will be demoted or fired herself, and her department will be outsourced before the year is done.

Have faith, True Believers!!! Things work out all too well!

[thinktwice]

I'm a doer, like you, and my competent management kept me quite busy and happy for 10 years; but when that management was promoted, a worthless good-old-boy supervisor moved into that management spot and I was on the *hit list.

That manager did everything possible to get me to leave, but I had growing kids so I just kept pumping out great work for another twelve years, working often on major proposal efforts -- thereby working amongst top management people from other areas within the corporation.

Then, when the day arrived that I was ready and eligible for early retirement, I took the parachute package and walked out the door. Soon after that, I went to work as a consultant; and I was introduced to Ayn Rand, where I identified myself with such as Atlas Shrugged's Hank Reardon.

That former manager of mine -- also eligible for early retirement -- decided to stay, only to be unceremoniously and involuntarily walked out the door a few weeks later. Last I heard, he's done nothing since.

[thinktwice]

That's like the supply-side economic school deciding to be known as the trickle-down economic school.

Where capitalism is supply-side economics, socialism is demand-side economics.
Where capitalism is trickle-down economics, socialism is shake-down economics.

Evil is easy to fight. When evil ones come up with apt cliches against the good, look for a related cliche to expose the evil.

[Dan(9698)]

I had a corporation with 40 employees. They changed the rules regarding communications to make it impossible to continue.

I said "stick it in your ear" and retired.

The employees found other jobs.

[Skywalk]

I agree. Many of the execs in the business world are probably fascistic in their outlook towards government and their fellow man. This is why major corporations seemingly have no problem lobbying the government to restrict the entry of competitors into the market AND the survival of small businesses already present.

The funding of major foundations with leftist or fascist goals is yet another reason to suspect that, while commerce is the lifeblood of a free society, that there are those with wealth and power that would seek to create compliant slaves , er workers.