Friday, February 06, 2009
Is it time to re-read Atlas Shrugged?
With anti-business populism, the labor theory of value, and rank socialism all the rage, I wondered aloud today whether it is time to re-read Atlas Shrugged
16 Comments:
By 
John, at
Sat Feb 07, 08:34:00 AM:
Yep - I am in the mid 700 hundreds, Dagny has just returned from Atlantis.
Atlas Shrugged is scary in how it is predicting today's government - what would truly happen if those who carry the weight of society truly went on strike. My wife and I are definitely Atlas and wonder when society will really know what burden we carry for multiple families.
By cranberrycynic, at
Sat Feb 07, 08:41:00 AM:
I re-read it in December...chilling. I started to go "Galt" without realizing it in the late 90s.
Re-reading Hayek now and listening to Liberal Fascism while I work.
By SR, at
Sat Feb 07, 10:25:00 AM:
Interesting that CliffNotes never did an edition on Atlas. (At least I've never seen one). Their titles seem
to increase all the time, but no Rand.
By SeniorD, at
Sat Feb 07, 11:30:00 AM:
Read 'Liberal Fascism' some time ago and I'm now reading 'Atlas Shrugged' for the first time. Tough slogging, but interesting.
By drank, at
Sat Feb 07, 12:09:00 PM:
I re-read it a couple of years ago. Rand, whatever her other flaws as a writer, does have an unerring ear for satirizing bureaucrats and the laws they create.
I think this material seems so appropriate today because she was basically writing a parody of the New Deal, and so are our current political masters.
By 
, at
Sat Feb 07, 01:02:00 PM:
Somehow it was never assigned in many of my classes so I never read it in school. I just ordered my copy from Amazon.
By TigerHawk, at
Sat Feb 07, 01:29:00 PM:
Lee, as will be readily apparent once you start the book, Atlas Shrugged is never assigned in school...
By misterioso, at
Sat Feb 07, 06:39:00 PM:
Atlas Shrugged is in the Cliffs Notes catalog. So is The Fountainhead: http://tinyurl.com/b9cxaa
By , at
Sat Feb 07, 09:09:00 PM:
Yes, it is time.
I've ridiculed "Atlas" shortcomings many times, but lately I'm getting sympathetic to the main idea. When it becomes more and more clear how the battlelines are drawn, I am on the same side Rand is.
By , at
Sun Feb 08, 12:20:00 AM:
Hey, how about "Mein Kampf" too?
By , at
Sun Feb 08, 09:10:00 AM:
Did someone mention "Liberal Fascism"?
By , at
Sun Feb 08, 10:25:00 AM:
On January 13th 2009, I happened to notice (and commented on it on another blog) that Atlas Shrugged was #33 on Amazon.
I ended up buying a copy at Barnes and Nobles. As I was leaving, I smiled to myself and slipped in a nice big hardcover copy of the book into the middle of the Obama Shrine (If you've been into a bookstore this year you know what I'm talking about.) I wonder how long it stayed there.
By Gary Rosen, at
Sun Feb 08, 12:30:00 PM:
"Hey, how about "Mein Kampf" too?"
Ding-ding-ding - we have a Godwin winner!
By , at
Mon Feb 09, 02:00:00 PM:
"Mein Kampf" would be good, Hitler gave this plan for the future of Germany, no doubt the book would provide valuable in site into Obama's plan for America.
(I'm sure that was the previous poster's idea in making that suggestion)
By , at
Fri Feb 13, 12:48:00 AM:
Woohooo...oh, the humanity! I can almost smell the fear and despair.
Delicious.
By , at
Sun Mar 01, 01:37:00 PM:
I have been reading this book since 1973. It changed the way I looked at the gov. and the navy I was in.
Ayn Rand is the greatest prophet that has lived in the 20th and 21 century. This country has been moving toward this since before the 1930's. It is barely one quarter of the way there. The next 16 years will swing this country into the mess that Atlas Shrugged has prophetized about. It is going to be a very rough ride to the showers, ovens and graveyards for us.
