'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
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'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
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Re: 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
#2Ah, yes.... The collectivists controlled the Presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives and used their power to regulate the credit derivatives market out of existence. How much better things would have been if the Chairman of the Federal Reserve had heard of Objectivism!
Even the off-hand pop culture references are crapulous: "A Confederacy of Dunces" surely counts as a "classic novel of recent decades that was never made into a movie", and it is a lot funnier than anything Ayn Rand ever wrote.
Re: 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
#3> readers rated "Atlas" as the second-most influential book in their lives, behind only the Bible.
Re: 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
#4I have striking insights into totalitarianism. The left, naturally, hates me.
Re: 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
#5> readers rated "Atlas" as the second-most influential book in their lives, behind only the Bible.
And for many of the same reasons, it gives a sense of surety in an uncertain world, it provides a sense of tribal belonging and ready-made membership in a like-minded community.
That said, I find it somewhat creepy to base one's life around a work of fiction.
Re: 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
#6Absolutism: Simple. Satisfying. Wrong.
Re: 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
#7I was saying this in the summer of 2007, partly inspired by the fact that a Mr. Thompson (Fred) seemed to have a good chance of becoming a presidential candidate. It's interesting to see people and organizations repeating it around me now.
By the way, this guy needs to pull out his copy of the book, or at least the Cliff's Notes, on a few counts. Notably, the appropriation of Rearden Metal was hardly immediate.
Re: 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
#8Ah, yes.... The collectivists controlled the Presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives and used their power to regulate the credit derivatives market out of existence. How much better things would have been if the Chairman of the Federal Reserve had heard of Objectivism! Even the off-hand pop culture references are crapulous: "A Confederacy of Dunces" surely counts as a "classic novel of recent decades…
You're right about A Confederacy of Dunces, but it seems to me that Ayn Rand wasn't exactly going for funny.
But I am, so -- uh-oh, I said "it seems to me." Better dodge that falling giant copy of Atlas Shrugged that's aimed for my head.
Re: 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
#9I read this book for the first time, last summer. It was actually a little bit spooky -- OK, very spooky -- to read basically the same thing (metaphorically) in the book and the news most days of the week.
Re: 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years
#10> readers rated "Atlas" as the second-most influential book in their lives, behind only the Bible.
That's pretty disturbing, considering one of the book's main arguments is against altruism.