Posted on 09/27/2010 8:06:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
Whenever June comes around, summer reading lists are sure to follow. They appear from a variety of sources, each of which wishes to enlighten us on how to best spend our afternoons at the beach and our lazy summer evenings. Most lists include a popular spy/crime thriller along with other mindless diversions. But this summer, my son and I tackled a more challenging, yet vastly more fulfilling book: Atlas Shrugged.
I have read Atlas twice before. When I proposed the idea to my son, who turned 21 years old in August, I pointed out that it was generally considered to be America’s second most influential book, after the Bible. We sent my old, worn paperback to the recycle store and ordered two beautiful new copies.
The 1,168 page tomes arrived and my boy did not flinch, even though he was staring at the longest book with the smallest type that he had ever attempted to read. Our plan was to read about 100 pages a week, after which we would meet to discuss what we had read and to share particularly moving passages.
Taking on such a challenge can be quite … challenging. As you read through what is generally regarded as Ayn Rand’s manifesto for capitalism, you must wonder how she conceived such a project. While many authors have described the process of writing a 350-page crime novel – usually how they must outline the entire story before they start – Ms. Rand’s sheer brilliance is reflected in the fact that she actually completed this project, which was both her final and her finest novel. The fact that it is written in such clear prose, and covers such essential life concepts, makes you realize why so many people are so consumed by the book.
During the summer I told some friends what my son and I were doing. Everyone had some type of reaction. The people who had not read it spoke of their desire to do so, and the others told me of how many times they had read it. I told everyone that the book is a work of science fiction, an opinion which was generally met with either a quizzical look or a sigh. I explained to them that the book, which was first published in 1957, clearly predicts our society under the Obama Administration. Veteran and virgin readers alike realized that they needed to get their nose into Atlas to gain clarity on what we are all facing as long as Obama remains in office.
If you doubt the prescience of Ayn Rand, turn to page 744 to read about a doctor who no longer practices his profession. When asked why, he replies “I quit when medicine was placed under State control many years ago. Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun.” If you don’t think vast numbers of doctors feel this way, you have not spoken to any. If ObamaCare goes into effect as passed in 2010, you will soon see droves of doctors living by this creed, and the medical care that most Americans receive will come at the hands of graduates from schools in Indonesia, Mexico, and India because America will not be able to replace the retired doctors quickly enough.
The book, which is sometimes a love story and sometimes a thriller, expresses Ms. Rand’s philosophy on the greatest issues that you will ever face as an individual, and that we will ever face as a society. Each week, my son and I cherished the opportunity to discuss issues that are timeless and yet have never been as relevant as they are today. And each week, I saw the boy who used to ride on my shoulders become a true man, not only in body and age, but in mind.
Reading Atlas Shrugged remains a daunting task. Reaching page 1,000 provides you with certain self-satisfaction, and completing the book brings a feeling of euphoria. Sharing such a vital book with a loved one made the effort totally worthwhile, and absorbing again the philosophies of Ayn Rand made this an experience that will live with me forever.
Right on. I read it last year. I do not agree with Ms Rands take on God but other then that she was a prophet!
I have to admit, behind the Bible, this is the second most influential piece of literature i have ever read. It has changed the way i view the world. Rand saw the future, and it is here now.
Ayn Rand has been a life changer for me.
Anthem - a gift from a school teacher - kept me from becoming a juvenile delinquent; Fountainhead propelled me out of a vocational dead end.
Hmmm. The kid is about ready for Anthem . . .
Every single statist in America should be forced to read “Atlas Shrugged”
One simply cannot read this book about the logical, gradual and inexorable destruction of a once-free society tragically brought about by the creeping socialism of populist politicians, and remain a statist.
Perhaps most chilling is Ayn Rand’s depiction of “political correctness” (and its results) long before the phrase was even coined. She presciently identified the tool by which the politicians and bureaucrats would gain and wield their power over the people.
We know we have plenty of looters. The question is, “(Where) is John Galt?” -— and Dagny and Francisco and Hank and Midas.
Is there hope, or are we too far gone?
I’ve read it a dozen times in the last thirty years. I probably won’t again, since it’s being serialized in real life now.
Agreed!
Got the PDF - thanks for this heads up.
I have passed my copy off to my liberal BIL and look forward to his take on it after/if he reads it.
bump
If I am on a beach I am riding the waves not reading a book. If I am not on a beach I am on my motorcycle experiencing America and its hisory not reading about it..
Read it? I’m living it, as are we all. I “shrugged” when i saw the writing on the wall that Obama would take power and reinforce the damage being done by Pelosi. All my employees are now gone, with the good ones set up in business independently to compete against me (I don’t mind competition) and the marginal ones cut adrift. My taxes are down by more than a factor of 10. My income is way down too, but that doesn’t matter. I’d rather spend time with my family than be economically productive in a manner that gives Obama and Pelosi the money they need to seize even more power.
Will I re-enter the full-time work force? Only when we get a real American in our White House, and a Congress that follow the Constitution. In other words, I don’t know.
I read it for the first time just a couple of months ago.
Thanks for posting this. If not for Ayn Rand my brain would be mush and my life probably very screwed up. She was promethean.
question is, *have* they read it and decided that it just might work ???
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