Posted on 01/31/2009 11:38:31 AM PST by Publius
Publius, thank you so much for doing this! I had intended to read AS again and this analysis is really a great way to get the most out of the book!
Perfect character but at 65 I fear he is to old for the part now.
You fans of 24, could Kiefer Sutherland play the part?
How about the scandinavian Stellan Skarsgard?
The Scot actor Kevin McKidd?
I had been thinking that Orlando Bloom who played the bow and arrow wielding Legolas Greenleaf in the Lord of the Rings movie and was also in one or more Pirates of the Carribean movies would be great as Ragnar Danneskjold.
Ping to Chapter 3.
rationing is exactly what taxdodger Daschle has in mind
Sorry, late to the book club.
Add me to the ping list?
Great topic. Enjoyed your insights.
Ping to Chapter 3.
Ping to Chapter 3.
So, the characters are developing, who in the current political environment are similar to the characters in AS? I might think Rahm is Wesley. Dagney isn’t Sarah, but their ideas are close. It would be an interesting exercise.
Ping to Chapter 3.
We’re going to be doing a lot more of these exercises as our book club moves on. Be patient. Wesley is nothing compared to monsters like Cuffy Meigs.
I finally got a copy of the book and am caught up now. I’ll start participating. Thanks for the pings.
When the book was published in 1957 this was not an isolated opinion. This was the age of Sputnik, when the Soviet Union seemed at least to be equal and at times superior to the United States. Around this time, John W. Campbell (the influential and extremely conservative editor of Astounding Science Fiction) published many stories around this time by Mack Reynolds and others, about a future where the USA was second-rate power in a world dominated by the technological and economic prowess of the USSR. In other words, a belief that Communism was the wave of the future was held by many from all over the political spectrum, not just leftist ideologues.
Today, after the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989-91, this kind of faith in the USSR seems almost quaint, but it was very real and very much informed Rand's world.
The most expensive bar in New York...is designed to look like a cellar
Another prescient image of the future. The 1980s saw the beginnings of "rave" culture, where the coolest clubs were literally abandoned warehouses taken over for the night by hipsters.
Rearden's success was a threat because it was an inspiration. If the goal is nationalization, then the way to further that goal is to remove the incentive to acheive through sapping the hope that one can acheive without the government and make it seem almost like a crime to become a success independently.
This way, not only is it less likely that someone will want to strive but if they do, then they will be castigated as being opposed to the public good and the passions of the masses will be used in councils against them.
Sounds eerily like the present day, doesn't it.
Yeats, not Keats.
Liberals think that advantage, especially economic advantage, is unearned and undeserved. For example, an advantaged (rich) person got his money due to illicit practices, exploitation, inheritance and/or luck. Since all of these means are improper to a liberal, the advantaged person has no right to his position. As a corollary, a disadvantaged person has every right to usurp the position of the advantaged (i.e., start at the top). In fact, a disadvantaged person may see such usurpation as a noble act.
In Marxism, all inequities are the result of class differences ... social constructs, not human failings. "Fix" the society and you erase the inequities. The corollary of course is that no one "deserves" more than any other, regardless of their abilities, ethic, or diligence. They should simply revel in their ability to contribute more to the Collective since, in the edenic Marxist vision, no status accrues to material wealth anyway.
And you're right. It was Yeats, not Keats. Unpardonable sin for an English major.
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