![]() We’ve heard it shouted that the industrialist is a parasite, that his workers support him, create his wealth, make his luxury possible-and what would happen to him if they walked out? Very well. ![]() “We’ve heard so much about strikes, and about the dependence of the uncommon man upon the common. Through policies such as the Equalization of Opportunity Act and the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule, people who embody altruism treat the individualists as mere pieces on a chessboard, to be manipulated and harassed as the altruists please (since it’s in the name of “others”).Įventually, a mysterious man named John Galt persuades the most innovative and oppressed individualists to simply go “on strike.” This puts society in the hands of the Altruists, who know nothing of how to produce wealth, only how to redistribute it and that is why society collapses. It’s absurd to think Rand labeled anybody over a certain income threshold as a “producer.”Ītlas Shrugged has to do with the differences between a society based on altruism-in which the masses are told that their noblest deed is to sacrifice for “others”-and a society based on individualism-where individuals are respected as “ends in themselves” and free to pursue their own interests. ![]() So, what actually caused the strike and ensuing collapse in Atlas ? To answer this question is to get to the basic theme of the book, a theme that is present on every single page: altruism. Taxation and regulation are both separate elements in the book’s periodic table, but together they are not enough to cause the explosion of society. Hartmann: " So, in Atlas Shrugged, when the billionaires, tired of paying taxes and complying with government regulation, go on strike, Ayn Rand writes that the American economy promptly collapsed.”Ītlas Shrugged is such a vast and complex forest, yet Hartmann is peering like a hawk at only a couple of the trees. So, what actually caused the strike and ensuing collapse in Atlas? Altruism.Īny conscientious reader would have observed at least somewhere between page 1 and 1,200 that had the latter, and not the former, gone on strike, “society” would never have “collapsed.” This explodes the idea that Atlas was some sort of apologia for “CEOs” in specific and “the rich” in general.Ītlas Shrugged Is about Billionaires Who Don't Want to Pay Taxes And yes, these innovative corporate leaders did eventually go on strike, but it is also true that some of Rand’s villains -James Taggart and Orren Boyle, for example-were presidents of large and important companies as well. It is true that some of Rand’s protagonists-Hank Rearden and Ellis Wyatt, for example-were heads of large and important companies. This, of course, isn’t what the book is about. Yes, exactly! Atlas Shrugged : the tale of a society’s downfall when its CEOs skip work for the golf course! Hartmann: "Do you really think if all the CEOs went on strike that society would collapse? This is the basic premise of the book.” Perhaps the following is a fault of memory…)Ītlas Shrugged Is about the Importance of CEOs (In fairness, he claims to have read the book in high school, which would have been more than 40 years ago. As you’ll see shortly, his descriptions of Rand's classic novel are so extremely caricatured and unfounded that you really have to doubt his claim that he’s actually read the book. It didn’t take long before I came across a couple of videos and articles from Thom Hartmann, a popular far left-wing commentator, and I knew my suspicions were justified. I’ve long heard the rumor that Atlas critics give such undue hostility to the book that it’s plausible to imagine that most of them never read it in the first place!Ītlas Shrugged is a vast and complex forest but Hartmann is peering only at a couple of the trees. In the meantime, I became a little curious to see what other people online had to say about the book. ![]() The book left such a positive impression on me six years ago when I read it for the first time that I vowed to re-read it every five years or so to keep picking up on new things. I’ve just begun to re-read Ayn Rand’s 1,200-page behemoth Atlas Shrugged.
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