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Some points about Rand's characters. All, nearly or all, of the bad characters are easily identified from when they enter. They are shallow, without interest or intellect. Two exceptions- Jim Taggart and the scientist, high IQ maybe but at the same time 'silly'. Could specific incidents be shown that disagree with the above summary?
The few real heroes stand out having complexity, Dagny and Hank, they are super intelligent, hard workers, productive. But on the big issues they are slow, they agonize, analyze and evaluate, a change of mind is time consuming. Are there others in that class? There are many 'good' characters who have seen the light, on approach from Galt, or otherwise, the change is quick - well hours, days, not months. This class of character are admirable, but not interesting.
Then there are those who do not fit the above description, not many, Rand is not a fence sitter.
To me, there is a class of Rand character who are very interesting, hard workers, the small scale achievers, stable and reliable, not the great intellects, but those who have got the big things right. Eddie and Cheryl belong here, not many of them.
etc.
I have not kept strictly to SamMG's question, but this could be done on follow up.
Elon Musk strikes me much more as a Reardon-type person where he's more than willing to buck the system (Twitter/X) and call out the freedom violations for what they are.
SolarCity (especially) and SpaceX seem to have been designed to suck up taxpayer subsidies, and thus SolarCity went under when the trough went dry, just like its predecessor Solyndra. Tesla also got some subsidies, but it will probably outlast them. (It's hard to convince inflation-squeezed taxpayers to subsidize people willing to pay $80k or more for a car!)
It struck me as very odd that the SEC or investors didn't intervene when he used Tesla to buy up the worthless stock of SolarCity as a bailout of Musk personally. If Trump or Buffett had tried that I expect they would be in prison. Does this mean Musk is beholden to the deep state? It sure suggests it.
That leaves only the Boring Company, which I can't explain at all; it seemed to me a stupid idea and doomed to fail. I'm not sure if this has already happened.
I'm also a little puzzled by his expressed desire to grab Disney. There is already an investor group trying to wrest Disney out of the hands of the pervs who have run it into the ground. Give it to Musk and we'll probably find out more about the specifics of his politics, which I somewhat like but can't completely trust.
I'd love to see more of this type of discussion here in the Gulch. It's why I originally joined.
Over the years there have been a few discussion threads that delved deeply into AS. There was one that went chapter-by-chapter for a while, and I wish I remembered who was responsible, to give them credit for it. Also there was recently one on The God of the Machine (by Isabel Paterson).
These are the kinds of discussion I like best. I can picture John, Midas, Frisco and the gang sitting in Midas's living room with a big fire with glasses of Akston's wine and having these types of discussion. That's as close to AR's Gulch as I can hope to get.
Enjoy!
VG
I like to think that I actually met Eddie. Long ago I was talking to an old (very old) rail worker, who expressed to me his delight that Atlas Shrugged had such a good understanding of rail operations. I think he cut his teeth on steam. His words did not focus on the philosophical aspects of the book, but on, "How we run the railroad." I think he was particularly pleased with the section where the electric block signals had failed and they had to revert to written orders and hand signals.
"Now in non-fiction!"
They are "made up" but represent types found in real life.
i rather look to REAL people for examples and analysis
with all their REAL flaws and Heroism
While I don't mind comparing people to characters to quickly wrap a perspective on them, it can also be dangerous. Especially when real-life characters like Trump exist. And he is constantly being labelled. He is IMPERFECT at best.
But that makes it hard to discern the truest essence of things we should value. And values that should be avoided (not hurting anyones feelings even with the truth).
Concepts are easier without a specific person.