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Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand also, not a book but very good "The last question" Isaac Asimov [1] [1] http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html http://www.multiv

by devgutt 11y ago

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand also, not a book but very good "The last question" Isaac Asimov [1] [1] http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

vijayr 11y ago
Could you explain why you find Atlas Shrugged mind blowing? I read "we the living" and "The fountainhead" and found them quite annoying. Haven't read Atlas Shrugged, just curious if I am missing something.
- sixaxe 11y ago
  I read The Fountainhead when I was 18 and I found it absolutely mind blowing. Needless to say, I was quite impressionable at the time, and a young atheist. The book served as positive reinforcement to me, emphasizing on belief in oneself, rather than belief in God. It was also the perfect fodder for my teen angst, wrapped in delicious ideological and intellectual mysticism. This led me to be an unapologetic jerk to everyone around me for a year or so. I laugh thinking about it now.
  - semateos 11y ago
    Hahahahaha - that's awesome. Just think - that happens to some people and lasts their whole life.
  - dylanjermiah 11y ago
    >This led me to be an unapologetic jerk to everyone around me for a year or so. How would that behaviour be rationalised from Foutainhead?
- abawany 11y ago
  Not the GP but here is my answer. NOTE1: spoiler alert. NOTE2: please don't think of me as some heartless Objectivist - I have adjusted my views since I read it about 10 years ago but at the time, the following points were earth-shaking revelations to me: * It revealed to me how influence peddlers in society use a combination of coercion and guilt to suppress an individual's individuality * It revealed that these "thugs" are interested in suppressing your thoughts and controlling your money. I read this book during the Bush years and the suppression of speech in the name of "patriotism" rang true, while prior regimes' punitive taxation policies also rang true as meeting Rand's definition of thugs. * She basically posits that an individual's greatest purpose of existence is to create and to do the best for themselves that they can. Within the above kernels, which with moderation I feel are very powerful insights, are interspersed a lot of distractions. Her writing style is retch-inducing and her hatred of native people in continents that were abused by colonialism is bafflingly naive. My edition of the book had about 1100 pages, 100 or so of which were Galt's long speech - it was an endeavor to finish this book but I am happy to have learnt the above insights.
  - semateos 11y ago
    I appreciate the thoughtfulness of this response. I spent my high school junior year of english reading most of Rand and writing a 30 page paper on her. She has some very useful and powerful insights - but beyond my initial enthusiasm I grew to find her morally repulsive. There is some really weird shit in there like her constant need to be submissive to powerful men. Still, 20ish years later I'm a designer, engineer and entrepreneur and I find myself often referring to moments and characters in her books. However, I find it slightly upsetting that Atlas Shrugged is so often on people's #1 list.
sergioschuler 11y ago
Atlas Shrugged is indeed mind blowing. The reason is because you can actually see this sort of thing happening (depending on where you are, in my case, Brazil). It gave me a new respect for entrepreneurs.
zodiac 11y ago
For me the main thing that Atlas Shrugged made me extend my conception of civil disobedience to economic laws. I believed that civil disobedience against for eg racial segregation laws is morally correct. Atlas Shrugged made me agree that in some cases, economic law can be unjust as well, and it would be moral to disobey it. It did so by presenting a fictional instance of unjust economic laws. At least I read it as pure fiction - whether such unjust laws actually exist anywhere in the world is, I think, best treated as a completely separate question.

by devgutt 11y ago

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand also, not a book but very good "The last question" Isaac Asimov [1] [1] http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

vijayr 11y ago

Could you explain why you find Atlas Shrugged mind blowing? I read "we the living" and "The fountainhead" and found them quite annoying. Haven't read Atlas Shrugged, just curious if I am missing something.

sixaxe 11y ago
I read The Fountainhead when I was 18 and I found it absolutely mind blowing. Needless to say, I was quite impressionable at the time, and a young atheist. The book served as positive reinforcement to me, emphasizing on belief in oneself, rather than belief in God. It was also the perfect fodder for my teen angst, wrapped in delicious ideological and intellectual mysticism. This led me to be an unapologetic jerk to everyone around me for a year or so. I laugh thinking about it now.
- semateos 11y ago
  Hahahahaha - that's awesome. Just think - that happens to some people and lasts their whole life.
- dylanjermiah 11y ago
  >This led me to be an unapologetic jerk to everyone around me for a year or so. How would that behaviour be rationalised from Foutainhead?
abawany 11y ago
Not the GP but here is my answer. NOTE1: spoiler alert. NOTE2: please don't think of me as some heartless Objectivist - I have adjusted my views since I read it about 10 years ago but at the time, the following points were earth-shaking revelations to me: * It revealed to me how influence peddlers in society use a combination of coercion and guilt to suppress an individual's individuality * It revealed that these "thugs" are interested in suppressing your thoughts and controlling your money. I read this book during the Bush years and the suppression of speech in the name of "patriotism" rang true, while prior regimes' punitive taxation policies also rang true as meeting Rand's definition of thugs. * She basically posits that an individual's greatest purpose of existence is to create and to do the best for themselves that they can. Within the above kernels, which with moderation I feel are very powerful insights, are interspersed a lot of distractions. Her writing style is retch-inducing and her hatred of native people in continents that were abused by colonialism is bafflingly naive. My edition of the book had about 1100 pages, 100 or so of which were Galt's long speech - it was an endeavor to finish this book but I am happy to have learnt the above insights.
- semateos 11y ago
  I appreciate the thoughtfulness of this response. I spent my high school junior year of english reading most of Rand and writing a 30 page paper on her. She has some very useful and powerful insights - but beyond my initial enthusiasm I grew to find her morally repulsive. There is some really weird shit in there like her constant need to be submissive to powerful men. Still, 20ish years later I'm a designer, engineer and entrepreneur and I find myself often referring to moments and characters in her books. However, I find it slightly upsetting that Atlas Shrugged is so often on people's #1 list.

sergioschuler 11y ago

Atlas Shrugged is indeed mind blowing. The reason is because you can actually see this sort of thing happening (depending on where you are, in my case, Brazil). It gave me a new respect for entrepreneurs.

zodiac 11y ago

For me the main thing that Atlas Shrugged made me extend my conception of civil disobedience to economic laws. I believed that civil disobedience against for eg racial segregation laws is morally correct. Atlas Shrugged made me agree that in some cases, economic law can be unjust as well, and it would be moral to disobey it. It did so by presenting a fictional instance of unjust economic laws. At least I read it as pure fiction - whether such unjust laws actually exist anywhere in the world is, I think, best treated as a completely separate question.