Galt's Gulch

I received the best compliment yesterday

Posted by $ rockymountainpirate 10 years, 7 months ago to The Gulch: General
10 comments | Share | Best of... | Flag

I was in the store yesterday and a guy I've met several times at events came in. He is a past State Representative for our district. I asked him, in light of the results of last Tuesday (election day), just how screwed does he think we are. He said very very screwed. We made a few comments to each other, then I asked if he had read Atlas Shrugged. He smiled and said "Yes I have. You are a thinker. Good for you! There are very few capable of thinking any more."

That made my day. :)

Add Comment

FORMATTING HELP

All Comments Hide marked as read Mark all as read

  • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 7 months ago
    Not all who have read it are "good thinkers." To whit, I have a niece who has just received her masters degree and is off to work in the Dept of Ed in DC to "make education better." She's never been a teacher, never really worked (I don't call being a barrista at Starbucks for 3 summers a real job), has no real life experience other than going to college and 1 semester in Spain for a study abroad. Yet, she thinks that she has all the answers for how to "fix" the education system. She idolizes Saul Alinsky. And she has read AS. I asked her what she thought of it, and basically said that she had to read it for a sociology class about the class struggle between rich and poor, and that it was a manifesto about how the rich are spoiled and when they don't get their way, they stomp off and pout, leaving their workers to starve.

    A very twisted perspective, indeed. I don't have much hope for her (her sister, on the other hand, just joined the Navy - despite the service, I'm very proud!).
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
      -
    • Posted by $ CBJ 10 years, 7 months ago
      Actually, it's encouraging that Atlas Shrugged would be required reading in a sociology class, of all places.

      It is likely that some of the students who read the book came to conclusions that were not exactly what the teacher intended. :-)
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
      • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 7 months ago
        Perhaps, but I have little hope that was the outcome for many of them. My niece's perspective was so anti-freedom/anti-free-market as she discussed the book. I'm afraid if I were still a head full of mush that I might have come to the same conclusions. Luckily, I've never had a brain full of mush, and came to the book after years of thinking most of those ideas on my own.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Comment hidden by post owner or admin, or due to low comment or member score. View Comment
    • Posted by Maphesdus 10 years, 7 months ago
      Fun fact: the philosophies of Saul Alinsky and Ayn Rand overlap with each other by probably 85% - 90%. Seriously, have you ever read Saul Alinsky's books? The number of points on which he essentially says the same thing as Ayn Rand is uncanny.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  

FORMATTING HELP

  • Comment hidden. Undo