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Thread: Atlas Shrugged

  1. #1
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    Atlas Shrugged

    In case you didn't know, this is a novel by Ayn Rand, all 1,000+ pages of it. "Who is John Galt?" I read it a couple of years ago. It's long, but well worth the read.

    I mention it today because last night I watched one of the installments of the movie version of the book, on NetFlix. The books are always better than the movies, but it is worth a watch, especially if you prefer not to read 1,000+ pages. The theme, the story, of the novel focuses on the concept of the producers in our society, represented by good ole, successful capitalists, are far superior to government bureaucrats. When these capitalists start to mysteriously disappear, large corporations start to fold, and society starts to struggle for basic goods and services, made worse by "stop gap" policies and laws from the goofy government.

    Some on here, our resident commie bastards, will hate the novel and the story it tells. But the rest of you good Americans would enjoy it.

    And since, this is a political forum, I'd like to open a discussion of the potential ramifications of the novel's theme. Yes, it is skewed to the rather ridiculous that in each major industry there is only one major supplier. Which we know is not reality. But, the notion of the producers in society suddenly vanishing and causing a national crisis is...intriguing. And not all of them are wealthy Bill Gates types. Many, many of them, in the novel, are middle-class scientists and engineers, who possess special knowledge and skills. They hold patents on inventions and harbor trade secrets, and they disappear taking with them, or destroying, all their secret plans and data.

    My favorite moment in the story is when a train load of libtard politicians and academic types die a horrible death, due to their own stupidity. Too bad... The novel was published in 1957 and due to fuel shortages and other issues, in the story, trains are the primary mode of mass transportation. Airplanes are reserved for "the privileged elites" and even they, as in this instance, have to travel by train most of the time.

  2. #2
    Dawg Adamant Argument Czar Guisslapp has a reputation beyond reputeGuisslapp has a reputation beyond reputeGuisslapp has a reputation beyond reputeGuisslapp has a reputation beyond reputeGuisslapp has a reputation beyond reputeGuisslapp has a reputation beyond reputeGuisslapp has a reputation beyond reputeGuisslapp has a reputation beyond reputeGuisslapp has a reputation beyond reputeGuisslapp has a reputation beyond reputeGuisslapp has a reputation beyond repute Guisslapp's Avatar
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    Re: Atlas Shrugged

    Have read every book she wrote, including her nonfiction. Also read her heir’s (Leonard Peokoff’s) book on Objectivism (what her philosophy is called). Also read Greenspan’s and Nathaniel Branden’s books (they were part of her Objectivist society as well).

    Rand was an unapologetic atheist, serially dismantling faith and advocating for the primacy of Reason.

    From Atlas Shrugged...

    ...If devotion to truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.... the alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind.

  3. #3
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    Re: Atlas Shrugged

    Quote Originally Posted by Guisslapp View Post
    Have read every book she wrote, including her nonfiction. Also read her heir’s (Leonard Peokoff’s) book on Objectivism (what her philosophy is called). Also read Greenspan’s and Nathaniel Branden’s books (they were part of her Objectivist society as well).

    Rand was an unapologetic atheist, serially dismantling faith and advocating for the primacy of Reason.

    From Atlas Shrugged...

    ...If devotion to truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.... the alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind.
    So, out of 1,000+ pages, you choose to focus on Rand's atheism?

    Well...I do agree with her viewpoints on producers vs. users, or "looters," as her characters refer to them. I also share most of her disdain for government bureaucracy, and the "looters" who think they are entitled to the work of the producers. Like obummer's stupid statement, "You didn't build that."

    George Soros wrote a series of essays, commentary on events as they unfolded, focusing on economics, which included references to politics, since it is impossible to separate economics from national/world politics. Those essays, written over a span of 20 years, were collected into a publication. I point to his take on the European economic woes from about 10 years ago, when Greece, Italy and a few others were in deep chit. Citing the agreement which founded the EU, Soros wrote that Germany had a moral/ethical/legal obligation to bail out Greece, Italy, Spain? I think as well...saying Germany had the means to do so. Never mind, Soros write, that Greece's woes (and the others) were their own fault, and never mind that Germany was to be commended for making the right decisions and therefore was sound financially. Germany still had a moral obligation to give, not loan, aid to the struggling nations.

    It's like the old tale of the one squirrel who diligently "squirreled-away" nuts while his friends partied and made fun of him, and then that harsh winter, they banging on his door demanding he share his stash. This is the moral of the story in Rand's novel. As for her allusions to "thinking" and her being an "atheist," I find this explanation interesting:

    It is misleading to say “Ayn Rand was an atheist.”
    It should be this: “Ayn Rand was atheistic.”
    Translation: “Ayn Rand was a-theistic, without God. ”
    The formulation “She was an atheist” invokes an establishment of identity or proactive belief system called “atheism” which has attendant characteristics that are practiced as part of a system. Rand had no God in her system. Moreover there are legions of “atheists” whom she would reject as fellow-travelers, and whom despise her actual philosophy, Objectivism. Being atheistic conveys exactly zero about the proactive belief system of the person.
    The only reason Rand ever wrote about God/theism was this: other people keep bringing it up.
























































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  4. #4
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    Re: Atlas Shrugged

    Quote Originally Posted by dawg80 View Post
    So, out of 1,000+ pages, you choose to focus on Rand's atheism?

    Well...I do agree with her viewpoints on producers vs. users, or "looters," as her characters refer to them. I also share most of her disdain for government bureaucracy, and the "looters" who think they are entitled to the work of the producers. Like obummer's stupid statement, "You didn't build that."

    George Soros wrote a series of essays, commentary on events as they unfolded, focusing on economics, which included references to politics, since it is impossible to separate economics from national/world politics. Those essays, written over a span of 20 years, were collected into a publication. I point to his take on the European economic woes from about 10 years ago, when Greece, Italy and a few others were in deep chit. Citing the agreement which founded the EU, Soros wrote that Germany had a moral/ethical/legal obligation to bail out Greece, Italy, Spain? I think as well...saying Germany had the means to do so. Never mind, Soros write, that Greece's woes (and the others) were their own fault, and never mind that Germany was to be commended for making the right decisions and therefore was sound financially. Germany still had a moral obligation to give, not loan, aid to the struggling nations.

    It's like the old tale of the one squirrel who diligently "squirreled-away" nuts while his friends partied and made fun of him, and then that harsh winter, they banging on his door demanding he share his stash. This is the moral of the story in Rand's novel. As for her allusions to "thinking" and her being an "atheist," I find this explanation interesting:

    It is misleading to say “Ayn Rand was an atheist.”
    It should be this: “Ayn Rand was atheistic.”
    Translation: “Ayn Rand was a-theistic, without God. ”
    The formulation “She was an atheist” invokes an establishment of identity or proactive belief system called “atheism” which has attendant characteristics that are practiced as part of a system. Rand had no God in her system. Moreover there are legions of “atheists” whom she would reject as fellow-travelers, and whom despise her actual philosophy, Objectivism. Being atheistic conveys exactly zero about the proactive belief system of the person.
    The only reason Rand ever wrote about God/theism was this: other people keep bringing it up.



















































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    I agree. Her philosophy was not anti-God as much as it was a glorification of Reason. The rejection of god and all the rest of the “arbitrary” is an application of Reason to man made fictions.

    It is actually more funny that you would focus on capitalism than you would Reason, because capitalism, like the rejection of the arbitrary, to Rand is an extension of objectivism and reason, which itself is built on the foundation of objectivist epistemology and metaphysics.

    Peikoff’s book is the best treatise of her philosophy.

  5. #5
    Champ dawg80 has a reputation beyond reputedawg80 has a reputation beyond reputedawg80 has a reputation beyond reputedawg80 has a reputation beyond reputedawg80 has a reputation beyond reputedawg80 has a reputation beyond reputedawg80 has a reputation beyond reputedawg80 has a reputation beyond reputedawg80 has a reputation beyond reputedawg80 has a reputation beyond reputedawg80 has a reputation beyond repute dawg80's Avatar
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    Re: Atlas Shrugged

    Well, there won't be an "Atlas Shrugged" type exodus, but there are state versions. People are fleeing the libtard bastions of Illinois, New York and California in droves! Don't blame them. Thought it was funny when Guvnar Coma was begging "achievers" to return to NY. Their response was "Eff U!"

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