CNN: 'Atlas Shrugged' author sees resurgence
Submitted by gabulldawg79 on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 14:30
From Doug Ganley
CNN
(CNN) -- "Where is John Galt?" reads a sign in the back of a vehicle heading down Interstate 85 in Atlanta, Georgia.
The quotation is wrong. As any reader of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" can attest, the correct line is "Who is John Galt?" but the point is well taken.
In the midst of the credit crisis and the federal government's massive bailout plan, the works of Rand, a proponent of a libertarian, free-market philosophy she called Objectivism, are getting new attention.
read rest here:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/04/27/ayn.rand.atlas.s...
Maybe people are starting to wake up to the idea of a truely free market. Lets hope so.
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Here's another article, from
Here's another article, from the Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html
This article describes someone who hasn't read "Atlas Shrugged" as a "virgin"...so I guess I am in the process of being deflowered.
I read lots of geeky stuff, but I have never gotten such startled responses from friends and acquaintances who see me carrying this book with me everywhere. The impression I'm getting is that this book is something many have heard of, but not so many have read, perhaps fearing that it's too hard to understand. I'm thoroughly enjoying it, though--just started Part II--and Rand's mix of storytelling and philosophy doesn't bother me at all. It's exactly the read I want at this stage of my life.
Wish I had a little more time to read...
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem. ("I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude"). Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 30 January 1787.
I'd love to see the
I'd love to see the real-world effects on policy and politics of a US population whose average life expectancy was in the 150-200 year range. Would the people who make decisions and set policies actually remember history? Or would they be stuck on the memories that served them in their youth to influence their decisions, regardless of their appropriateness?
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"The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic..." —Alan Moore
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"The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic..." —Alan Moore
Frankly, Ayn Rand has
Frankly, Ayn Rand has remained a top-selling author nearly every year since she died. She continues to influence.
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"The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic..." —Alan Moore
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"The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic..." —Alan Moore
free market
Wikipedia:
A free market is a market that is free of government intervention and regulation, besides the minimal function of maintaining the legal system and protecting property rights, and is also free of private force and fraud. In a free market, property rights are voluntarily exchanged at a price arranged solely by the mutual consent of sellers and buyers. By definition, buyers and sellers do not coerce each other, in the sense that they obtain each other's property without the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or fraud, nor is the coerced by a third party (such as by government via transfer payments). In addition, in a free market, force is not used to prevent competition among buyers or among sellers (called free competition).
The legal tender laws are a threat of force which the government initiates. The government enforces the Federal Reserve's monopoly on money. Therefore any economic problems cannot be blamed on a free market, since we don't have a free market.
"Where is John Galt?"
The "quotation" may be wrong, but the paraphrasing is apt. Many of us, in moments of messianic need, wonder where we'll find a man like John Galt to lead us from tyranny, forgetting that each of us is John Galt.
The answer to Gospozha Rosenbaum's query: YOU ARE.
LXXI BC: Ego sum Spartacus // MDCCCLVII: I am Dred Scott // MCMVL: Ich bin Anne Frank // MMX: Je suis Assange // MMXI: Ik ben von NotHaus