Thanks Tom and welcome! You and Al Barger will be best buddies.

Keep your wits about you, but that book is awesome! I love Rand!

I wouldn't buy into everything, but she has some very interesting points.

I don't want to be mean, but your education should have covered basic writing and proofreading (demogoging, ides, put) before objectivism (which was covered in a critical thinking philosophy course I took at North Central High School in Indianapolis).

The whole post could use a good edit, but particularly this passage:

I think that when people like Howard Dean call Bush a "gang leader", only die-hard socialists who are starving for red meat cheer. The rest of America who look at it more objectively see political hacks that have no real new ides, just a put full of mud to throw.

Just don't become a "pro-war" libertarian. That stuff is ridiculous. "No big government, but let's build schools and hospitals in Iraq!" Totally off the wall.

Start at LewRockwell.com or Wanniski.com before Al leads you down the wrong path.

I am pro-war in the case of our current state. September 11th has changed forever our place in the world. We are targets by fundamentalists who aim to destroy us. We must destroy them before something worse than 9/11 happens.

Very wise Tom, very wise. Per Steve's suggestion, I did a small edit.

You are a college graduate, Tom? Oh my!

Whoa, this place is pretty Darwinian - not that it could really be otherwise and not suck. But ...

Scary.

And does "scary" = "not true"?

Atlas Shrugged may be the most important book of the century, heartily recommended.

You may however wish to start with her previous book, The Fountainhead. Ms. Rand later in life described it as an "overture" to Atlas. The Fountainhead is shorter, and perhaps more succint.

There are no characters in common between the books, but the social situations of The Fountainhead are a kind of premonition of the apocalypse of Atlas Shrugged.

Stand back Mike, for my [and Ayn's] evil influence will prevail. Mwa-ha-ha!

If you're going to do puns on my last name, you definitely should learn how to spell puddle.

Cheers.

I'll chime in here and vouch for what others are saying. While Rand might make some good points, I wouldn't take it all at face value. I read The Fountainhead some time ago so i don't remember the details, but I do remember thinking Rand went over board with a lot of her ideas. And you might as well read Fountainhead first. It's shorter and, from what I've heard, says about the same things.

Particleman, I have read both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. I will not debate the matter in this forum, but will say only that while she made many good points, her selfishness and shallowness undercut the valuable ideas she had. And much of what she posited flies in the face of many of my most deeply held beliefs about humans and why we are on this earth.

There is no doubt that Atlas Shrugged is on a short list of books including Brave New World, 1984, Cats Cradle and Clockwork Orange. As time goes on William Gibson and Phillip K. Dick will be on this list. You know books like Catcher in the Rye, A Separate Peace and The Great Gatsby used to say alot more than they do now.

I think Rand's "enlightened self-interest" was a necessary and powerful antidote to the totalitarian collectivism of communism and fascism, which had particular appeal among intellectuals at the time. Democracy is built upon the indivisible unit of the individual and she helped reenforce that point.

Tom

I accidentally stumbled on to this page while looking for something else. I am an Objectivist and a big admirer of Rand. If you have any specific questions about the philosophy send me an E-mail and I will be happy to help.