Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

[United We Stand]

If you want to see where our country is going and how it will get there, read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This shows how a government will crash if it is not run by way of reason. She wrote this about a fictional America; however this fiction is beginning to become reality.

Rand was born in Socialist Russia and came to America to be free. She wrote novels based on her experiences and her philosophy of objectivism. The foundation of her philosophy is that one should live one’s life by way of reason.

It is not reasonable to "work according to your ability and get paid according to your need." This is only a premise people use to become masters of slaves. The master will try to take your hard earned property and give it to another who has not earned it, putting him in a position of power. The ones who earn are slaves by way of having it taken and the ones who receive others earnings are becoming slaves by way of dependency. This being said, there are no winners among slaves.

[DonnaC]

Many of us cut our libertarian teeth on this book, and it's more relevant now than it was in the 60's when I read it the first time.

I saw Boortz admitting he'd never read it, until recently, then he couldn't put it down.

I have to admit your eyes glaze over, a bit, trying to get through some of John Galt's speech, and sometimes you want to tell Dagny and Reardon to, "Please! Just go!"

I've read it 3 times and will probably do so again.

[Owl]

While I disagree with some of the philisophical reasoning in the book ( much of it pro-agnostic IMHO) I agree that we're headed exactly where John Galt decided to leave. A governmental society bound not by the desire to work hard and succeed for one's own benefit, but bound by a slave-like existence where the goal is to let the government run everything, even your mind.


Alot of parallels with 1984 by Orwell. And the Matrix, if anyone needs a modern day comparison.

[SpringerRider]

If any one book has charted the course of my life, I must say it was Atlas Shrugged. I grew up with the hippie generation. Being a questioning, analytical thinker, I never quite fit in. I had earned the nick-name "Reverend" not because I was deeply religious but because I was always questioning the present beliefs in ethical terms. "Is it right that one person should be forced to pay for another?". But I was very lonely. I found a ragged copy of The Fountainhead under my rack while I was in the USMC. I was only 19. I read it and was not sure if I understood it, so I read it again. Then I went sought out all she had written.

I read Atlas Shrugged and I felt so forgiven. I kept telling myself, "I have said that!!!". Now I knew I wasn't crazy. I joined the Objectivist and used to get a news letter from Ayn Rand every month. I would write her back passionately with my ideas and I always got back a polite acknowledgment, though I doubt very much Ayn ever saw my letters. Later I belonged to the Ayn Rand News Letter up until her death in 1982.

I was still intellectually lonely for years. Her views and my own were not very popular. I would buy copies of Atlas Shrugged in hope of “breeding” friends. Sometimes it worked(I am married to her) and sometime is was a waste of money. I like to think of myself as an Atlas Shrugged “Johnny Appleseed”. Often, expressing my views would drive people away. Individual responsibility was so alien to the common liberal pabulum that the masses were being fed. And then I heard some talk radio in the late eighties. It was Rush.

And Rush was talking for me and he would quote Ayn Rand. I was sure he would he assassinated. And later Fox news. Now it wasn’t a mortal sin to be a capitalist. But it all started with Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged.

[NorthGaRob]

My father urged me to read it when I was about 14, then I read it again at about 18. Like you, SpringerRider, it had a tremendous impact on me and I wonder if that is one reason that I never went through that young liberal stage that so many people go through before getting a clue about how the world really works.

Admittedly sometimes laborious and often dogmatic, this book shaped the way that I look at the proper relationship between the Individual and the State. Just as importantly it introduced me to the immense importance of both free markets and private property rights and their connection to individual liberty. No one will blame you if you do not read the entire radio speech! I read it all the first time and wanted to say "WE GET IT, AYN, WE GET IT! Move on!"

When the previous lefties came into office in 1993 I felt that I was seeing some of Rand's looter/moocher come to life, but the current president and his henchmen make the Clinton administration look incredibly centrist and reasonable. I never thought that I would say that.

I also recommend Anthem as a quick read.

[Owl]

I enjoyed it, but have to admit that I had to flip to the end before I'd read through the last 100 pages or so.

It's nothing against the book, it's that I'm more of a movie person. Actually, I'm more of a video game person. If they made Atlas Shrugged into a video game with sniper rifles and a few massive train wrecks...oh, man I would be so there.

[SpringerRider]

I enjoyed it, but have to admit that I had to flip to the end before I'd read through the last 100 pages or so.

It's nothing against the book, it's that I'm more of a movie person. Actually, I'm more of a video game person. If they made Atlas Shrugged into a video game with sniper rifles and a few massive train wrecks...oh, man I would be so there.

I am so glad Ayn dies before she had a chance to read that!

an Atlas Shrugged video game...you scare me Owl!

[United We Stand]

Looks like we may have an Atlas Shrugged Series coming soon. It was mentioned on Stossels show this past week.

If you missed Stossel's Segment on Atlas Shrugged you can watch it here http://usaguns.net/patriots/stossel.html

[Owl]

What?

You'd start out as a friend of the main character, get all involved in missions to fix the trains or do some shady banking or whatever....then, you'd - wait, maybe you'd play as the government? Then, about 1/3 the way through the game you'd "see the light" and swap sides....and end up leading people to the Gulch. If you get them there - you win! If you don't win, as punishment for it you'd have to sit there and read all 34 pages of John Galt's speech before you could hit reset and try again! hahaha


What? Video games are cool.

[SpringerRider]

What?

You'd start out as a friend of the main character, get all involved in missions to fix the trains or do some shady banking or whatever....then, you'd - wait, maybe you'd play as the government? Then, about 1/3 the way through the game you'd "see the light" and swap sides....and end up leading people to the Gulch. If you get them there - you win! If you don't win, as punishment for it you'd have to sit there and read all 34 pages of John Galt's speech before you could hit reset and try again! hahaha


What? Video games are cool.

You are scaring me Owl!
Is nothing sacred?

How about a video game for the New Testament? Everyone starts with a hammer and bag of nails... call 911. The house was just hit with a bolt of lighting!