Fear and Loathing

[wlotus]

I am reading Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, and the book is stirring anger and fear in me. I am about 1/4 through the book, and there is an overwhelming theme of mediocrity being rewarded, while those who do not walk in lockstep are pushed down until they surrender. When the person who is shining brighter than the rest does not quietly accept pleas from friends to step back, people in authority step in to create rules to force them to submit. The rules are created in back rooms and under tables, and the jealousy and hatred that fueled their creation are whitewashed...in this case with empty words about social responsibility and the need to even the playing field so everyone can achieve. Furthermore, those who do not fall in line are told they are selfish and wrong to fight the power.

Not only does this remind me of current political events in this country, it reminds me of some of my experiences in corporate America. I know it is just a book, but it is pushing all sorts of buttons.

Comments

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

Outside of Galt's tendency to drone on and on and on for pages at a time--Francisco is almost as bad--what about him do you find so irritating?

[jane-etrix.livejournal.com]

Well the droning is the #1 reason. But really, Galt is inhuman. As I said earlier, he is the Objectivist Man, an ideal and counterpart to the Soviet Man (who was just as inhuman), and I find nothing ideal about him.

What do any of these people say when discussing their motivation to produce something or run something? Profit. They express over and over and over (and over and over) that they have absolutely no interest whatsoever in contributing to anything which could be seen as a "greater good," and to me, it's impossible to get more shallow than this kind of "Me, ME ME" thing.

The working title of AS was The Strike, and the whole idea that these industrialists are Atlas and hold up the world is flat-out offensive to me. Reardon couldn't make his metal alone- he relied upon the miners, the smelters, the workers on his production line, just as they relied upon him to employ them. The idea behind the metal is only one component of its production. Dagny's family didn't build their railroad. Capital is only one component in the creation of a railroad.

So, let them strike, right? Unlike Rand's assumption- that without the Reardons, etc. the world will just collapse, the *reality* is someone else will step up with a new idea, something better than Reardon metal, and they will find people to help them make it. Someone else will open Francisco's mines and find people to help them mine it.

The whole "we're more important than everyone else, and therefore, the rules and laws of society don't apply to us," is, to my way of thinking, a foolish and dangerous thing to believe.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

I see what you're saying about the reality vs. Rand's assertion that the world would collapse. It's the same problem I have with the idea of karma: what goes around does not come around, no matter how much I wish it would.