Atlas shrugged and so did I. Sorry Hipsters, Alan Greenspan, I hated it.*

I read this about 20 years ago, and if I'm honest I can recall very little about it.

At the time I didn't know anything about Ayn Rand, nor was I aware that the book had a heavy political / philosophical agenda, or that culture wars washed around it.

I think I was prompted into reading it when seeing it in a store a day or two after seeing Officer Barbrady's critique on South Park - a review that didn't tell me much as it was in a left-leaning cartoon but from an authoritarian character:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j56I...

I did, of course, notice the politics of the thing at work whilst reading it. I wasn't, and still am not, a political reader and such messages have to be particularly heavy handed to be noticed, even more so to distract me from the story.

As a scientist I had a natural sympathy for our hero who appeared to be standing up for intellect, reason, and clear thinking against a sea of red tape, vested interests, and resistance to change. However, even with the powerful following wind of being in the protagonist's head and seeing everything through their lens, the point of view pushed by the narrative did grow less and less palatable. The bias grew so thick as to stray into parody. Everyone in our hero's way was a useless moocher seeking to rob the earnings he had made with his own two hands. Everyone who disagreed with him was a lentil-farming hippy or a self-absorbed oxygen sink who refused all opportunity to help themselves.

I recall that the story remained mildly interesting and I did make it to the end. I had a libertarian friend who, some years later, became teary eyed when describing the John Galt speech as the best piece of literature in the history of writing... I didn't admit to him that I had grown so bored with that part that I skipped to the end of it.

It's a long book, and the story (as far as I recall it) is far from terrible. However, the thickly applied lectures on libertarian philosophy - which felt to me deeply selfish, amoral, and as empty as they are shallow - all while describing everyone else as selfish, greedy thieves ... grated on this usually oblivious reader to a point where the potential enjoyment was heavily eroded.



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Apparently I agree with Ayn Rand.

I also disagree with Ayn Rand.

I also firmly believe that true ignorance is failing to look at all sides of the argument and cognitive dissonance should be fought.

Given that, this book should probably have just been a series of essays since all the character interaction was simply as set up for another 10 page monologue for Ms. Rand's ideas.

Having said ALL of that, I still actually did like the book overall despite its lack of characters (there were two) since they were all either pro-objectivism or anti and if either they were just a base to go off on either premise.

I thought the ideas were thought-provoking and though she paints a picture that people can actually be as selfish as the main protagonists, which is absolutely crazy to me, I understand that it was more effective to write them that way to establish the points she's trying to make.

I tend to not get political here, but I do lean conservative (probably more libertarian) so that will explain enjoying the book more than others who are not as fiscally conservative as me. I do think freedoms for business should be preserved or else the failings of society that occurred in Atlas Shrugged could happen to us, but I also realize businesses need someone (government) to curb those tendencies to favor profits over the lives of people (read Sinclair's The Jungle).

Having a degree in economics, I learned that people operate on what they have the incentive to do. If money is your incentive, you will work harder for it. If others' welfare is your incentive, you will work hard for them. Bill Gates helped more people through his business endeavors than Mother Teresa. I have a hard time seeing the uproar about monetary inequality, which doesn't address poverty - a completely different issue. I want incentives to be high for people to create drugs that help the world, or technology that makes life better and easier. I don't want the incentives to create more people depending on those producing. That's where I agree with Rand.

Now, do I agree with Rand that if you're not producing or helping the world, you should just rot (at least what I get from it)? No, not at all. I think there are plenty of ways that people need assistance and we need to account for those individuals. Is it nearly the number that use assistance even now? I do not believe so. And on top of that why do we automatically assume that the government is the only way by which the poor can obtain that assistance?

There are a lot of reviewers that revile this book for its conservative ideals, but I was surprised to find there's a lot in here to support if you are progressive, especially regarding women's rights. Atlas Shrugged was published in the 50's and AS promotes the sexual freedoms of women almost as much as freedom of business. Dagney Taggart did what she want with whom she wanted and wasn't afraid to let the world know. I thought this was madly progressive for a book published at this time. Apparently, Rand doesn't just apply her laissez faire attitude solely to business.

Anyway, luckily my political rant is toward the middle so no one will read it anyway. :) Did I enjoy Atlas Shrugged? I did, mostly for the ideas, not so much for the characters or the writing. Do I think this book and its ideas are extreme? Definitely. Would I recommend it? Wholeheartedly (maybe on Audio though?) because I think those ideas are good to address in your own mind whether or not you end up agreeing with them. Is there a healthy middle ground? Yes. Is it the extremes that left us with Trump as president? I do believe so.

4 out of 5 Stars (highly recommended to challenge your thinking)