Posted on 02/14/2009 11:27:03 AM PST by Publius
For most of the book that is the case. As you stated, the book is primarily cast with winners and losers. But there is a part where the 'in between' make an appearance, though not until the end of the book and even then, the character that encounters them doesn't think very highly of them.
You really lost me there, Pub. Why on earth would someone with pluck and determination support FDR (maggots be upon his corpse)? And especially why "needless to say"?
I read AS the first (of eight or nine) time in the summer after my junior year in high school (1958). It was clear to me (and many of my FRiends) that Ms. Rand was warning us of the dangers that awaited us in future years, if we allowed the LIEberals to take control of our society.
Even though we knew what to look out for, and what to work against, we were overcome by them. The phrase “Silent Majority” should ring a bell in this context.
We just could not believe that Americans would vote for Representatives and Senators and Presidents whose agenda would eventually destroy America — to turn a FRee America into just another banana republic, ruled by Socialist elites.
And, we could not believe that people who should know better did not vote. C’mon — less than 60% of eligible voters voting in most general elections, and many less in the primaries?
Unforgivable!
We sowed, and look what we reaped!
We were warned, and we failed to heed the warnings.
[Afterword: I will not be around to read it, but American History of the last 50 years of the 20th and first 50 years of the 21st Century will be a most interesting read.
Maybe, just maybe, if we get off our dead asses and do something, we can derail the LIEberal/Socialist/Marxist FReight train.
In which case, the read will be a good one.
OTOH, it could be one of enslavement.
We do have our work cut out for us to prevent that outcome.]
And, you can’t take your guns.
Blame it on Johnsons Great Society.
Let me most respectively correct you:
Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish, and he’ll spend the whole damn day sitting in a boat drinking beer!
You will certainly not get an argument FRom me on that score.
He was a deceitful, dishonest, low-life human being and not much of a President. That he had a “successful” (in the sense that he and his hangers-on got rich and had a lot of power) political career is a huge black mark on America.
That miserable sonofabitch should have been tarred and feathered and run out of Washington DC long before he got into a position of great power.
Now that I think on it, there are some other politicians who deserved/deserve the same treatment!
My father's side was different. They prospered during the Twenties and Thirties, and no one lost their jobs during the Depression. This side ended up Republican to this day.
On the matter of children in AS- Rand writes about children in ‘The Utopia of Greed’ wherein a mother speaks to Dagny about her reasons for taking the striker’s oath. It’s a very brief encounter, but a topic worth noting for future threads.
I thought you said no more spoilers... :)
Guess it’s a point of view thing. My family hasn’t always done well during tough times but when that happened my perspective on government was that they should get out of my way and stop causing me problems, not that they should save me.
FDR prolonging the Great Depression for 12 years was relatively benign compared to Johnson.
Johnson sewed the seeds of the destruction for the family and the foundation of the country.
He corrupted 3 generations with permanent victim status.
The outcomes of his policy have a direct link to both abortion and std’s and the complete corruption of the education system in this country.
Guess we will have to read it next.
I don’t remember exactly which verse it is, but in Proverbs it says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” This works both ways, unfortunately.
LOL. The revelation was relevant to the comments made by others... sort of. And besides, I didn't give away what happens to the children. May they rest in- I'm kidding. They have no huge impact (if any) on the plot but their presence is noted by Dagny.
Sorry, I meant to say that ‘The Utopia of Greed’ is a chapter in the book.
Deep dark confession here.
I was a Democrat until I read this book the summer after I graduated from High school.
To be perfectly honest, I never paid any mind to the absence of children in the part of the book I’ve read so far until it was mentioned in an earlier Book Club thread. While some might call this a flaw, it’s not serious enough to detract from the story IMO.
I have to confess that I flirted with liberalism during my college years. Hell, I even voted for Bubba in 1992.
Since then, I have realized the folly of my ways.
22:6 And funny you should mention that, if by that you mean that a person's basic outlook is inherited from/inculcated by parents, because I was just considering the same thought with respect to myself.
But in my case, it doesn't seem to explain anything. My dad is not like that at all. He's suspicious of business, thinks they're constantly dreaming up ways to screw with us and that the government should be protecting us from them, but is too often corrupt and too lenient on business. My mom is about equal parts libertarian, hippie, and June Cleaver. And they both think Bush is a dolt (although I'm sort of starting to come around to their point of view on that one).
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