A post by Maynard
Tammy isn’t the only one to note that today’s events are a disturbingly reminiscent of Ayn Rand’s masterwork, Atlas Shrugged.
Here’s a WSJ op-ed on the same point: ‘Atlas Shrugged’: From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years.
Many of us who know Rand’s work have noticed that with each passing week, and with each successive bailout plan and economic-stimulus scheme out of Washington, our current politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that “Atlas Shrugged” parodied in 1957, when this 1,000-page novel was first published and became an instant hit.
For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises — that in most cases they themselves created — by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism…
You should read this, even though Congress won’t.
(By the way, although I believe Rand accurately depicts how totalitarianism gradually invades the lives of free people, I don’t see her book as the blueprint for the perfect society, as some of her more dedicated fans do. I think Rand’s idealism doesn’t perfectly translate into a real-world workable structure; people are far too prickly to get along as well as her dramatic heroes do. But Rand gives us a vital piece of the puzzle. She says what others cannot say, or what they fear to say, and so much of it rings true. She sounds a warning that, in spite of any blemishes, must be heard.)
I started to read this for the first time in October. I am only about 1/5 of the way done. I read a couple pages then have to stop so I don’t start to cry. I haven’t even been able to pick it up since Thanksgiving. Too many things are EXCATLY what is happening. I WILL finish it, but man is it hard right now. I also picked up her other works of fiction to get through eventually.
Watch Ayn take Mike Wallace to task in this interview back in ’59. She saw where her beloved adopted country was headed back then.
http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?p=269
Searching for Galts Gulch before the 20th…
I remember reading this years ago and thinking “People don’t really behave like this”, only to find out several months later (through personal experience) that many do.
I admire Rand’s Objectivist philosophy, but part with it when it comes to art (photographs can’t be art? I disagree.)
Meanwhile we’ll wait and see if Angelina Jolie will ever be able (as she said she wants) to bring “Atlas Shrugged” to the big screen. I’m not holding my breath.
Ayn Rand was a militant atheist..when Bill Buckley professed his Christian faith to her she replied,”How can you believe such nonsense?”
[You’re correct, Reddy. Rand was not one to accept anyone’s authority on faith, and in particular she did not accept God’s authority. Her personal life suffered serious turmoil because she followed her own rules, and she couldn’t accept that reasonable people would take issue with some of those rules. She could “prove” she was right; how could anyone argue? And she had so much to say, and it was so important…but she was not infallible or omnipotent. I’d argue with her atheism and some other points, but I still love her books. —Maynard]
How many books can you say have made you a better person? Atlas Shrugged may have done it for me.
I just finished it before Christmas. I now understand why I’ve heard from people over the years that this novel changed their lives. The number of pages is intimidating, but once I started it, I read it hungrily every day because it offered a parallel morality, different from anything educators, pastors, or the media tell us. The WSJ doesn’t get the whole picture when they say “the moral is simply this:†There are many morals in the story and they are cultural and ethical in addition to, or even more importantly than, economic. Based on those morals, I’ve already made improvements in the way I think and prioritize.
But Atlas Shrugged isn’t just a prophecy or a picture of the ideal; it’s a great novel. Rand (unlike many authors) took her work as a fiction writer seriously and took great care in developing her theme, characters, and plot. That makes the book exciting and mysterious, besides being full of lessons. So I would recommend any Tammy Peep or any American read it, own it, and re-read it.
Also, one can listen to some great interviews with and lectures from Ayn Rand at the ARI Multimedia Library site where she answers a lot of questions people have about the book and its themes.
Could anyone actually make a film out of Ayn Rand’s turgid rubbish? Whittaker Chambers nailed her back in the ’50s.
[Chambers wrote (in 1957) that Atlas Shrugged “is preposterous. It reports the final stages of a final conflict (locale: chiefly the United States, some indefinite years hence) between the harried ranks of free enterprise and the ‘looters.’ These are proponents of proscriptive taxes, government ownership, labor, etc., etc. The mischief here is that the author, dodging into fiction, nevertheless counts on your reading it as political reality. ‘This,’ she is saying in effect, ‘is how things really are. These are the real issues, the real sides. Only your blindness keeps you from seeing it, which, happily, I have come to rescue you from.'” In light of recent events and a new president who seeks “redistributive change”, I think it’s self-evident that Rand’s nightmare scenario is not as unrealistic as Chambers once thought. But I do agree that it would be hard to make a movie out of it. —Maynard]
Wow. Mike Wallace was a died-in-the-wool socialist 50 years ago! The video interview shows that he did not then understand the difference between mob-rule and our representative republic. Nor did he understand the difference between one’s personal morality (I differ with Rand on this) and one’s social morality – that is, the coerced service of one to another. This coerced service (my wages are confiscated to pay for someone’s groceries) is evil and it is the foundation of the socialist agenda embraced by both US political parties.
Wow. Mike Wallace was a died-in-the-wool socialist 50 years ago! The video interview shows that he did not then understand the difference between mob-rule and our representative republic. Nor did he understand the difference between one’s personal morality (I differ with Rand on this) and one’s social morality – that is, the coerced service of one to another. This coerced service (my wages are confiscated to pay for someone’s groceries) is evil and it is the foundation of the socialist agenda embraced by both US political parties.
thanks Maynard
Atlas Shrugged has been on my list for a couple of years now, guess it’s time to pull the tome off the shelf
The atheism of Ayn Rand is not of note, but she surely calls for a faith to drive freedom.
Even Oriana Fallaci, constantly haranging the Catholic Church and her friend, “Pope Ratzinger”, in “The Force of Reason”, closes with how her end might come.
“I will take a deep breath, I will close my eyes, maybe I will make the Sign of the Cross (just in case and out of respect), then I will jump over Niagara Falls.” {Note she capitalized, “Sign of the Coss”.}
The above quote was from her speech upon receiving the Annie Taylor Award, Novmber 28, 2005. (Annie Taylor was a woman who jumped over Niagara Falls and survived – some faith there.)
Tammy, deserves nomination for the same. Annie, Ayn and Oriana have gone, but we are fortunate in Tammy.
Yes, thanks, Maynard. A friend has often said we should/must read “Atlas” and I agree. Thanks for, again, bringing it to light. Fiction has a habit of becoming truth. Scarily so. And chickens have a habit of coming home to roost, as the “piper’s bill” comes due. There’s a huge flock of chickens and an equally huge piper’s bill ready to hit…just as the manure hits the spreader…
And who asked for it? “We the People”. Barf.
Rand has some very good points about what makes a society work well, especially her views on a welfare state vs. laissez-faire economics. But I think she is wrong in her assessment of self-sacrifice and love. I believe self-sacrifice is a virtue and that loving people first is the only thing that will make them worthy of it. As well, I believe that even as a religious duty, self-sacrifice is only valuable if it is done freely. It is no longer self-sacrifice if it is coerced. Rand splits hairs on self-sacrifice because she admits to helping her husband but prefers to call it selfish because she derives benefit from helping him. Others who are altruistic could parse their reasons the same way. Upon reflection, it’s almost better to say that being self-less has “selfish” benefits. I think that even Rand would admit that one of the primary foundations of economic and social progress has to do with delayed gratification. Selfishness has nothing to do with merely looking out for your own self interests. It’s quality, as an evil, goes much further. It desires its own gratification immediately and refuses to delay even if it brings harm to oneself and others. For all her atheism (disguised as intellectualism), I think Rand defends religious truth in spite of herself.
This mess is brought on and made worse by the fact that the world has adopted irredeemable currency as a global standard. You can’t print gold, you can’t print up barrels of oil, but you can print fiat money without limit. The entire notion of a welfare state rests on the government’s ability to control all aspects of the flow of money within the system. Creation(of money), taxation, wage controls, price controls, are all a soft form of control on the society. When governments must redeem the money they print for a tangible and universally accepted commodity, they dare not paper over their bad spending habits, or they will be called to the carpet on them.
Such was the case in 1971, when France realized that the U.S. was inflating like crazy to pay for Vietnam, and began draining gold out of the treasury until Nixon pulled out of the Brenton-Woods treaty, and severed the connection between the dollar and gold. It was portrayed as the rotten French are trying to drain Fort Knox, and I am stopping it! The reality is that the U.S. government was draining the Treasury to pay for J.F. Kennedy’s adventure, and rather than tax the people more to pay the bills, they cut loose the gold and printed their way to prosperity. We the people paid the price, in the cruelest tax of all, Inflation. Prices rose faster than wages, until mom needed a part time job to keep up, then came the two income household, we just busted on the two income household borrowing equity in an endless cycle of debt. Zimbabwe here we come.
I respect your opinion,Maynard,but I still despise Ayn Rand…I would rather anyone read “Witness” over”Atlas Shrugged”
I am in the middle of reading it right now. My wife got it for me for Christmas and it is THE BEST book I have ever read!!! I cringe because I see life imitating art. God help us all!