Novelist Ayn Rand's Romantic Idealism Explains Her Enduring Success

Posted by sdesapio 11 years, 7 months ago to Culture
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"Pundits warn that we are living the plot of "Atlas Shrugged" where unions threaten productive management with strikes, where the government spawns yet another program, law, tax or regulation, always in the name of fairness or do-goodery while delivering injustice and misery."
SOURCE URL: http://news.investors.com/management-leaders-in-success/031913-648537-ayn-rand-was-romantic-novelist-at-heart.htm


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  • Posted by Ben_C 11 years, 7 months ago
    Who is John Galt?

    I am amazed at how closely you are following the Ayn Rand government script in Atlas Shrugged. As you know, the outcome for our country in the book is not as you intend:

    • Social engineering and government hand-outs simply do not work. You need only to look to Detroit to see its effects. But giving away “free stuff” buys votes. Giving charity to a person’s weakness rather than strength is counterproductive.
    • The State Institute of Science is in real life the Environmental Protection Agency. It is nothing more than a regulatory branch of the White House doing what the White House labels as “being for the greater good.” Of course it is always about control.
    • The “central planners” in Atlas Shrugged are the Department of Education, Department of Energy, and Department of Health and Human Services (Obamacare). In the near future it will be Agenda 21 from the United Nations. What makes you think you can do a better job than the Soviet Union? Communism doesn’t work.
    • Project X is the dismantling of the Second Amendment and the authorization of the use of drones against American citizens. While it is unconscionable to think the federal government would use a weapon such as in Project X to control citizens, disarming citizens has the same net effect. Never take a knife to a gun fight, or in this case, a shotgun against an AK-47 or AR-15.
    • Directive 10-289 is crony capitalism (“green jobs”) and the control of our energy supplies. What better way to make Congress and the White House appear to be for the “greater good” than to manipulate energy supplies (Keystone pipeline, Gulf off-shore drilling permits) and fund ineffective solar panel companies (Solyndra) and car battery plants (LG Chemical).
    • Compliant media - clearly all three national news sources are in bed with you. The lone voices in the wilderness of course are Fox News nationally and WAAM radio locally.
    • The Unification Board is the National Labor Relations Board controlled by various labor unions. It is no wonder we are not able to compete on a global basis when wolves are guarding the hen house.
    • The educational system today is as is portrayed in her book: a social engineering institution that preaches government reliance.
    • Government credibility is now so low that very people actually believe anything you say – as is so accurately portrayed in the final chapters of Atlas Shrugged.

    If you truly wish to help our country, do as John Galt cried when being manipulated by the government: “Get the hell out of my way.”
    If you have not read the book, do it. If you have read the book, shame on you.
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    • Posted by LionelHutz 11 years, 7 months ago
      Nice associations.

      It took me a while to figure out that this is the letter you wrote in. I was trying to figure out why it was "shame on me" for reading the book...and then realized it was "shame on them".
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  • Posted by Ben_C 11 years, 7 months ago
    Beat me to it. I recently wrote a letter to my two Senators and Congressman - all three flaming liberals, drawing the parallels from AS and the real world. It's frightening when you think about it. We are living part two.
    If anyone is interested I will be happy to post my letter.
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    • Posted by LionelHutz 11 years, 7 months ago
      I'd be more interested in the response letter. I predict it will be a form letter that doesn't directly address any of your points. It will have been written by a staffer. It will probably not even be signed, or will be signed with a "stamp". That is the type of reply I have gotten every time I have written in. I'm not saying you shouldn't have written in. It feels good and makes you think you are at least taking some action rather than sitting passively and letting something happen to you. But the effect of these letters is "zero" unless they are received in the dozens to hundreds. After receiving such an influx of letters, they will try to get some photo op where they give lip service to your issue, and then continue on as normal. It is frustrating.
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