Nobody can tell you what Atlas Shrugged is about. It is something you need to experience first hand to truly find out the meaning behind Atlas Shrugged.

Atlas Shrugged is about FREEDOM and PROSPERITY for ALL.

In Greek mythology Atlas was a Titan who held the world on his shoulders. The book Atlas Shrugged highlights how captains of industry, the leading producers of oil, transportation, banking, and steel are carrying the world today. This book highlights the probable outcomes if one day these leading producers simply decided to shrug off the weight of the world.

Atlas Shrugged has become the greatest literary foretelling of future events since Nostradamus' Quattrains.

Atlas Shrugged is a captivating novel. The greatest "shortcoming" is that the book is over 50 years old. The heroine is the vice-president of a major railroad company, and most of the plot revolves around her desperate efforts to keep the railroad going. In the 21st century, when the age of railroads is long past, this is certainly dated. Indeed, Atlas Shrugged, although contemporary when written, takes on the feel of a grand masterful allegory perhaps like Dante, Chaucer, or Swift. It is just as much "fun" as Alice in Wonderland or Gulliver's Travels--and just as serious as the Divine Comedy. Yet, if you listen to a hour of local and national news on TV every evening while reading the book--half of the stories will sound as though they were lifted from the book--so timelessness and universal is Rand's story.

This will probably be the most important book (to you) that you read in your lifetime.

What is it about? It is often described as "Capitalism versus Communism", or "altruism vs selfishness"--but both descriptions seriously miss the point. What this book is really about is much more fundamental. It is about the nature of good and evil, and beyond that, the very meaning of life.

"But I'm a good person, so what value is this book to me?"--you may ask. Answer: You have certainly noticed that adult "morality" is full of all kinds of exceptions and contradictions. The truth is, the world of "morality" we adults have constructed is a sham, a fraud. It is no more than "social convention"--which is to say, "what most-of-us more-or-less agree to"--and actually, despite all the "moral" justification, has absolutely nothing to do with morality or right-and-wrong, and often little to do with common sense.

Still, the question remains, "Why isn't simply accepting the current 'social norms' good enough?" "Go along to get along." Answer: To put it bluntly, the greatest evil the world has ever seen has been done by folks "accepting community norms" who thought they were doing good, or at least who could justify their actions as being "socially acceptable".

The truth is, you will be quite surprised when you learn the true nature of evil. Until you have read Atlas Shrugged, evil will remain a hazy mist floating just off your line of vision, which you don't look straight at, because you don't WANT it to exist. After reading Atlas Shrugged, evil snaps into sharp focus--and like a bully confronted--ceases to be a fear, and just becomes something distasteful to avoid.

As Rand richly illustrates: Just as eating too much fat can clog up your arteries, thinking "too much fat" can damage with your mental health. Some mental illness is physiological. But most mental illness is caused by unresolved internal contradictions. Reality is all there is. You do NOT have the option of living in your own private version of reality. Nevertheless, many, perhaps most, people live lives built on thier own complex lies. That turns smart people crazy, and stupid people mean and crazy.

How do you avoid "unresolved internal contradictions"? By knowing the difference between right and wrong, and never, ever, allowing a rotten board to be used in the construction of your mental house. The problem is the old "slippery slope". Lie to yourself just once, no matter how trivial the lie, and the next one will be easier. Before long, you realize that you can justify ANYTHING--and with the blessings of the popular culture. And before you know it, you've lost your soul.

As Rand preaches, the meaning of life is integrity. Living without compromise. To live a life filled with joy and pride in yourself, made possible by being free of mental conflicts. To know, not merely hope, that your mistakes were honest mistakes. To live with the knowledge that you are the best you can be, while striving to be better. To be a joy and comfort to the people you love. To give generously of your time, wealth, and love simply for the joy of doing so. To be a person who has changed the world for the better when you have gone. That's what Atlas Shrugged is really all about. All ofthe other themes, even Communism vs Capitalism are peripheral supporting themes. It is precisely because the fundamental issues are so basic and primary, that the implications are simultaneously universal--applying to all aspects of life.

It's a warning to watch out for corrupt vote buying political thug insane conman who are always trying to take and use the production of others to gain power and wealth for themselves. We are almost there, where can I find John Galt today?

Atlas Shrugged is a novel that explores how society should and should not organize itself, and how individuals should and should not conduct themselves, in order to bring the highest possible standard of living to the greatest number of people.

Atlas Shrugged was written years ago telling us what we are living now in the USA and what is coming faster than we can accept.

"What is Atlas Shrugged?"

I usually respond:

"Today's history," or "Current non-fiction," or"The ultimate engagement of good over evil."

Atlas Shrugged is a story written in 1957 that explains what is happening right now.

Atlas shrugged is a rational method statement for human existence.

Atlas Shrugged shows the importance of your time, thinking, work, benevolence, and good-will -- Your Life -- as they benefit you, yours, and all. Never sacrifice them to the demands of others.

The mind on strike

Atlas Shrugged is about capable people, who are producing major components of our physical world. They gradually come to the realization that the money they are paying in taxes is being used to fund organizations who are philosophically opposed to them and whose explicit goal is to crush them. So they stop producing…and without their technological input, society totters, topples, and finally implodes.

(There’s an implication that this destruction opens a social ecological niche for reconstructing society in a fashion that more nearly excludes the parasitic elements and is rationally stronger, but this is not what the book is about.)

Jan

Atlas Shrugged is a novel written in 195(3?) that correctly foretold the sorry state our country is in today; how we got here and how to fix it.

Ayn Rand's magnum opus, 'Atlas Shrugged'(1957) depicts the eternal struggle of the productive against those who steal their efforts. One man's answer:"I will stop the motor of the world"...collapse was inevitable.

A prophetic novel of how the Book of Revelation would actually come to pass: How envy will eventually destroy the world as we know it...and a "how-to book" for those who are intelligent enough to avoid the catastrophic end to implement an escape plan.

When I read Atlas, I remember thinking that this is what I have always felt but was unable to put it into words. It is simply a guideline showing how honorable mankind should live.

ATLAS SHRUGGED was a science fiction novel that we see now coming true before our eyes and merging with the themes of 1984 by George Orwell.

Atlas Shrugged is a dramatic depiction of what happens when society no longer respects those who give everything they have to build and run the world we all enjoy. Remove those people and society slowly collapses. As with most great novels there are stories within the story. What is most fascinating is how these stories relate to our modern day. Lets hope we use it as a rallying cry for change and not as our epitaph.