DBWI: I Just Re-read "Atlas Frowned!"

(ooc: inspired by this thread)

Well, I read Ayn Rand's universally beloved Atlas Frowned again, and let me tell you, it seems to get better every time I read it. As the cornerstone of both her philosophy of Altruism and the Altruist Movement that took the Western world by storm from the '60s onward, we owe so much to this gold nugget of a novel.

What does everyone else think of both the book and the woman who led our civilization to its current utopian state, where generosity, compassion, and concern for the welfare of others is the cultural, economic, and political norm?
 
I enjoyed it, but skipped the main speech by the character Sara Clinton which made up the middle third of the book. Only read it since it was an option in my High School Economics class. The book in paperback must be about three inches thick.
 
I did enjoy Father Maxi's speech to John Galt.

"You say you started your life with a single absolute: that the world was yours to shape, and never to give it up no matter how hard the struggle. You speak at the death bed of my mind? No sir, I see your death, not of your body but of your mind. You who hide behind the figment of logic and reason and claim it is something more then selfishness. You say violence is wrong, , and is the tool of the brute who forces rights to others, and yet as I stand here all I see is a man calling for force, destruction, and power. I pity you. You say your work, or our guns? Well your work makes our guns, never forget that. You hold power by our actions, we can live in farms once more and do without your industry, yet can you live without us? Can you till the soil? Bake the bread? And man the machines? I think not."
 
Altruism is great in small doses, but some people take it too far. Like those Ron Paul nuts who hug me when I get off the subway and urge me to pay "a little something extra" in taxes. It's no wonder that he lost the Republican nomination to Senator Natalie Merchant.
 
My problem with big-A Altruism is that it overemphasises The State as the source of all goodness. Not that I'm much of a believer in Noble Savages either, but... well, surely some Russian-style decentralization is helpful sometimes... (The fact that it was achieved by decisive 1890 reforms of tsar Michael II only undersciores the point.) Why, there were Slavic Bears of 20's, Asian Tigers of 50's, why not American Grizzlies now? 100 yesrs ago US weren't backwater isolationist nowhere. (again, what kind of altruism The Altruism is if it _isolates_?)
 
Altruism is great in small doses, but some people take it too far. Like those Ron Paul nuts who hug me when I get off the subway and urge me to pay "a little something extra" in taxes. It's no wonder that he lost the Republican nomination to Senator Natalie Merchant.

Regardless, it ought to be an interesting race. It'll be close, especially since the Democrats nominated Congressman Gore...
 
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