Do I Like the Book? Shrug.
When I went to
the TEA protest in Sacramento, on one of the signs was
written “Who is John Galt?” This is a reference to Ayn
Rand’s magnum opus of “Objectivism,” Atlas
Shrugged. 
Rand,
(1905-1982) grew up in the Soviet Union before emigrating
to the U.S. Having seen the Before and After pictures of
her beloved country in the advent of Bolshevism, she was
greatly dismayed to see much sympathy in this country for
the very same Socialist/Communist ideals she’d barely
managed to escape. So she wrote long, overwrought, fervent
treatises against this, thinly disguised as novels.
Atlas Shrugged
has basically the same plot as her previous books, which is
that a few sane, rational human beings exist against the
machinations of totalitarian policies directed to
discourage all initiative, poison productivity and crush
basic freedoms.
Now that I’ve just
reread it, I find the protagonists laughingly
emotionally and intellectually stunted. Example:
“Man’s motive power is his moral code.” Gag. The
heroes reject any authority but their own and live for
their accomplishments. Their rallying cry: “I swear -
by my life and my love of it - that I will never live
for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to
live for mine.” Yet, somehow, they have no trouble
devoting their lives for others they deem worthy. As
you may have guessed, John Galt is the Christ figure
in this piece. Are all novels written by staunch
atheists this worshipful?
I’m pretty
sure the book wouldn’t have gathered a following on the
force of what it advocates, per se. It’s the fascinating
progression of the bad guys in their rise to power and how
their persuasion begets ideas ...
that give
birth to guidelines...
that grow into
directives..
that
obliterate freedom and ruin the whole world. She
demonstrates, with laser-sharpness, how compulsion to “give
to the greater good” results in hatred toward one’s fellow
man; how the policy of taking from the haves to give to the
have-nots creates more of the needy, how only rewarding the
collective guarantees that no one will ever show
initiative, how eliminating competition drives production
straight into the ground.
According to
Rand, a government that promises to meet all the needs of
its citizens ends up valuing none of them.
Whether you
love or hate her books, one thing’s for certain: She’s spinning like a top in her grave right
now. She’d have much to say about the renewed
power of the unions in this country; the government’s moves
toward nationalized banks, industries and healthcare; loans
made from careful savers to high-risk borrowers; and the
long list of promises made that can’t possibly be kept
without jacking up taxes to unprecedented levels.
One of my favorite quotes:
The Simpleton has left the building. I won’t be able to update this website until early July, but I’ll be back with a vengeance after that. Please put yourself on my update notification list, and I’ll let you know when something new pops up!