5 ms·

> David Kelley, founder and CEO of the Atlas Society, set the scene for them: the context of the whole novel and the significance of what they were about to see

> David Kelley, founder and CEO of the Atlas Society, set the scene for them: the context of the whole novel and the significance of what they were about to see–the portrayal of businessmen as heroes, MORAL heroes. This is inaccurate. Atlas Shrugged portrays some businessmen as heros and others as leeches, thugs, incompetents, moochers, looters, parasites, etc... It glorifies a certain type of businessman, not all businessmen.

iwwr 16y ago
The distinction being, businessmen earn a living by serving customers, while the others do so by seeking 'rents' (i.e. special privileges) through political connections. It's entirely accurately to portray the second category as 'looters' or 'thugs'.
ZeroGravitas 16y ago
To be fair, in the previous paragraph that is explained, and so it makes sense in context without further clarification: Here, in one arresting scene, is James Taggart, who represents businessmen who scheme to "take" their wealth by political pull and connections–and who cause catastrophes–and Dagny, who represents those who "make" their wealth by productive genius, I've never read the book myself, but I'm always amazed that something that seems to center around the ability to affect political change via industrial action (i.e. strikes) is so popular in the U.S., which generally seems very anti-union. Certainly the groups pro-Rand and those pro-union don't seem to overlap much.
- xenophanes 16y ago
  Atlas Shrugged is not about a "strike" meaning the thing unions do. When a union strikes they are saying, "We aren't going to work, and you can't replace us either, just shut down until you give in to our demands." In Atlas Shrugged, people quit and leave and make no specific demands at all. They do not care if they are replaced and they aren't using it as a negotiating tactic.

5 ms·

> David Kelley, founder and CEO of the Atlas Society, set the scene for them: the context of the whole novel and the significance of what they were about to see

by xenophanes 16y ago

iwwr 16y ago
The distinction being, businessmen earn a living by serving customers, while the others do so by seeking 'rents' (i.e. special privileges) through political connections. It's entirely accurately to portray the second category as 'looters' or 'thugs'.
ZeroGravitas 16y ago
To be fair, in the previous paragraph that is explained, and so it makes sense in context without further clarification: Here, in one arresting scene, is James Taggart, who represents businessmen who scheme to "take" their wealth by political pull and connections–and who cause catastrophes–and Dagny, who represents those who "make" their wealth by productive genius, I've never read the book myself, but I'm always amazed that something that seems to center around the ability to affect political change via industrial action (i.e. strikes) is so popular in the U.S., which generally seems very anti-union. Certainly the groups pro-Rand and those pro-union don't seem to overlap much.
- xenophanes 16y ago
  Atlas Shrugged is not about a "strike" meaning the thing unions do. When a union strikes they are saying, "We aren't going to work, and you can't replace us either, just shut down until you give in to our demands." In Atlas Shrugged, people quit and leave and make no specific demands at all. They do not care if they are replaced and they aren't using it as a negotiating tactic.