Comments on: Atlas Shrugged Still Going Strong at 50

By: John Jarzemsky

John Jarzemsky — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 04:27:28 +0000

Nazar:

Ever read “Black Like Me”? One of my all-time favorites. As is “On the Road”.

Some other reading recommendations: anything by G.K. Chesterton, one of turn-of-the-century England’s most prominent conservative philosophers, is sure to strike a few chords with most readers of this site.

“What’s Wrong with the World” is pretty straight-up, philosophical essay, while “Napoleon of Notting Hill” and my favorite, “The Man Who Was Thursday”, are fictional narratives.

Check ‘em out.

By: Nazar

Nazar — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:45:55 +0000

At least you didn’t have to read White Like Me: Reflections on Race From A Privileged Son.

By: no2liberals

no2liberals — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:25:01 +0000

I read the book when I was in grade school, as I had watched my Dad read it almost every night until he finished it. It was difficult to read, in the sense that the character development, and complexity of her thoughts, were difficult to follow, but not the idea. What if private enterprise had incentive stripped away? Why would they continue to work so hard, to overcome so many problems, to be innovative?
What if the Greek mythological character Atlas saw no reason to hold the earth in space, and just shrugged?
It wasn’t until much later in life, when I learned more about Ms. Rand’s objectivism, intellect, and fierce anti-communism, that I came to understand her message(s) in this book and others.

If some men are entitled by right to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor.

Any alleged “right” of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.

No man can have a right to impose an unchosen obligation, an unrewarded duty or an involuntary servitude on another man. There can be no such thing as “the right to enslave.”

— Ayn Rand, “Man’s Rights,” The Virtue of Selfishness

By: Preston

Preston — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:37:14 +0000

Yeah, I’ve wanted to read that and the Fountainhead just for academic reasons but I’ve heard so many horror stories it seems like some bitter medicine to choke down. Yet, I see the Fountainhead is still the #1 book by architecture students at the school near me.

Scary.

I think a similar reassessment is ongoing for On the Road which also is just turning 50.