Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The people who like Atlas Shrugged

Likes to imagine he's Ragnar Danneskjold,
the Norwegian terror of the high seas.
This Onion story 62-Year-Old With Gun Only One Standing Between Nation And Full-Scale Government Takeover is meant to parody gun nuts, but I think it could be applied equally to most libertarians (and there's plenty of libertarian/gun nut cross-overs) - especially the kind that like Atlas Shrugged.

Those are the kind of people who fantasize about their own immense power in the face of an incompetent gubmint. Much like the Norwegian terror of the high seas Ragnar Danneskjöld, who doesn't attack US military vessels in Atlas Shrugged  - not because he'd end up dead or in custody along with his band of reverse-Robin Hood merry men, but rather on principle - because in his considered opinion only aid supplies to poor people are worth looting justly appropriating because taxes.

And these people really do exist. There are those who think Atlas Shrugged was a brilliant work of art and a brilliant work of philosophy. You can read all about them at The Atlas Society.

And they recently had a Summit in Washington DC, and just as in Galt's Gulch, the ratio of male to female speakers is hugely lopsided in favor of men.

William R. Thomas writes:
Writing a good novel is very difficult in itself. A novelist needs to create well-realized characters, put them in a convincing setting, and make of their interactions a plot that is believable, interesting, and moving. That people remember Atlas Shrugged for its story and its characters is a testament to the job Ayn Rand did as a novelist.
But Atlas Shrugged fails in every particular here, especially the "convincing setting" and the "believable", "interesting" and "moving."

You really have to wonder what planet Objectivists come from.