Who is John Galt?
It’s Barack Hussein Obama, you dumbass.
Look: The whole of Atlas Shrugged was only incidentally about how statism is bad and how capitalism isn’t. Those things are true, but the larger picture is about a group of egotistical pains in the ass shutting down as much of the planet as possible to remold it in their image. And that’s just what you have now, and don’t you forget it.
No matter how unlike Galt is Obama, No matter how unlike Dabney Taggart is Pelosi, no matter how unlike Reardon is Rahm, what they are doing is the fucking same. They have the courage of their convictions that what they are doing is the right thing (not “right” in a meaningful sense, just “Right” in their twisted view) and they have grabbed the reins of power, and are using them to enforce their agenda. Atlas is shrugging, and the load is dropping directly on you and I. And it will remain there until WE shrug.
Look: Hank Reardon is an utter fiction, and always will be. The closest thing you had to Hank was Henry Ford, and he’s been gone a long time. Nothing like that exists anymore. The actual work of inventing and producing things has been in the hands of the research laboratory and in the garages of motivated amateurs since Edison built the Menlo Park lab over a hundred years ago. That whole annoying book is really about using whatever tools are at hand (And boy, do I mean TOOLS) to force the population to toe the line and do the right thing. It’s as stupid to believe in Dabs and Hank and John as it is to believe in Nancy and Brak and Rahm. There is no group of elites that know what is best for us, and to give them the levers of power to make it happen is a clusterfuck of the first water.
Atlas Shrugged. You’re living it. Hope you like it.
17 comments Og | Uncategorized
Hmmm… interesting twist, Og.
Waiting for somebody (some elite hero) to save our asses instead of us doing it ourselves does seem to be a flaw in Atlas Shrugged. I never though of that.
Though Atlas Shrugged IS a top favorite of mine, I’ll remember that flaw in its storyline. Thanks.
…and yes, the current administration does resemble the heroes of that book solely for the fact that they may actually be the ones to bring the whole economy to a stand still (Taht Health Care Bill may actully be the stake through the heart) – just like Galt and friends.
Still the resemblances blurs quite a bit as the current admin are a bunch of bureaucrats that resemble the villians of that self-same story.
Nice twist, though.
Hilarious, but I hope to hell you’re wrong!
For a laff, click on my name for a photo comparison of Ayn Rand and Willism F. Buckley Jr. I’m convinced Rand was really Buckley wearing a hippy wig.
I’m in the middle of listening to Atlas Shrugged in audiobook form (69 hours, yikes!). I’d never read the book before. I’m 29, and its amazing just how stupid the ideals I was taught (socialism, duty to “share with the world”) sound when coming out of a character’s mouth instead. It’s very eye-opening.
That being said, depending on and following the intellectual elites (of either political persuasion) is just plain stupid. Just because the elites are *sometimes* smarter than the rest of us doesn’t mean their policies and actions aren’t imbecilic and dangerous.
IIRC Og, I think you once said that Rand deserved a ring in Hell all her own. You also sometimes consider that God lets you live solely to take on the role of Edmond Dante. Here’s you chance: would you choose ring 3a or 9-dumb for Ayn Rand? :)
I’ve always had the sense that Rand’s heroes were bloodless titans, and I say that her chosen title reinforces the conclusion.
Her most wild-eyed fans reflexively deny it. They so want humanity to be perfected, if only the less perfect could be destroyed by their own stupidity — as they are in Rand’s supreme opus. I think it’s because they want to believe. They like her “objective” utopia because it looks more deserving than that cooked up by her chosen adversaries, all collectivists. And she also kills off her two good normal humans in the process — Taggert’s wife and Dagny’s uber-loyal friend from childhood, Eddie Willers. Taggert’s wife and Willers are you and me folks. Clearly Rand could care as little as do the Obamoids. Her ends justify her means.
Here’s where Eric Hoffer knows more about human nature than Rand’s followers. Imagine that? Hehe
Melody – This may save you some time, or at least might be good companion reading while you listen. It’s a thoughtful critique of Rand by the guy who published Johnny Porno.
http://temporaryknucksline.blogspot.com/2009/12/atlas-shrugged-knucks-drank.html
Hell, I’m thinking Atlas Shrugged is prophecy.
Regards,
Rabbit.
“Atlas is shrugging, and the load is dropping directly on you and I. And it will remain there until WE shrug.”
That combined “shrug” and perhaps combined voice of the once powerful and now nearly enslaved and still gun toting middle class hollering:
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it any more!!!!”
will, by the grace of God and the steeled will and sinews of those armed militia, shake the foundations of the world.
Seems a bit trite…but here’s wishing you and your’s a Joyous and Prosperous New Year.
Pascal,
How about either of the last two Bolgia of the eighth circle ? Fraud, in the form of willful sowing of discord, would seem to be close to the mark in Rand’s case. What say you?
Sven, there is nothing trite between brothers in arms.
Pasc, I don’t know that I have issues with Ayn, she seemed a decent person in her real life- it’s her cult of personality that annoys me. I do sometimes think she needs to be brought back to life so I can kick her ass.
Off topic, but thanx, og, for pointing out the dingbats on my blog. I chose the wingbat font because it came up clearer for my bum eyesight on my screen. Evidently Bill Gates or Google or some other gremlin got in and jinxed it on the way out, turning the characters into hieroglyphics. I think it’s fixed now.
Happy New Year!
How do you see her as sowing discord Guy? Using the words of one of her fans, let’s allow that she separated “doers” (good) from “looters” (evil).
My complaint stems from her good guys being totally devoid of human characteristics which often accompany the accomplished such as desire to be worshiped. Indeed, she did nothing to stem her own cult of personality — and that is something Og finds particularly offensive.
Her most acclaimed acolyte, Alan Greenspan (another cult personality), proved my concerns were valid when he ridiculed people for considering 4.3% fixed mortgages (near a 50 year low!) when 3.7% variables were available. At that point his “objective” clearly didn’t mesh with John Q. Public’s. He remained silent too as the Fannie and Freddie fundamental flaws were building during Clinton and escalating during Bush. That was looting of the highest order under his “Objectivist” watch.
At least Greenspan admitted his misjudgment, making him human and probly dooming him to an eternity of robotic nagging when he joins Rand in whatever nether region she dwells.
Waiting for somebody (some elite hero) to save our asses instead of us doing it ourselves does seem to be a flaw in Atlas Shrugged. I never though of that. – cond0010
If I remember the book correctly, it was the teeming masses of brain dead humanity crying for Galt to save them. Kind of like the
communistsDemocrats who voted for The Prostrate Won.I was an Objectivist once. Then I turned 18 and the real world slapped me in the face. Haven’t cared for Rand ever since.
I know I’m just a rambling, ignorant, non-NPR listener with no IQ but why does Rangel not go to prison like anyone in the private sector would for the same violations?