Christopher's Reviews > Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
by
by
As Ayn Rand's immortal opus, Atlas Shrugged, stands as a tome to a philosophy that is relevant today as it was in her time. Basically, the major moral theme is that there are two types of people in the world: the Creators and the Leeches.
The Creators are the innovators who use the power of their will and intelligence to better humanity. The first person to create fire is often referenced as the paradigm for these people. In the book, each of the major protagonists also represent Creators improving the human condition with their force of will.
The Leeches (my word) are the people who create nothing, but thrive off feeding on the Creators. In Rand's view, they are the bureaucrats, politicos, regulators, etc. Throughout human history she tells us, these people have benefited through no ingenuity of their own, but merely from piggybacking on - and often fettering - the success of the Creators.
Where the conflict in this book arises is when the Creators decide they have had enough and revolt. I won't spoil the book by describing specifics, but let's just say it causes quite the societal drama. For Leeches can't feed where there's no blood.
All that is fairly significant and involved and worth the read to begin with, but where this book really stimulates me is in the fact that it is still relevant. Today we have Creators and we have Leeches. Some titans of industry and technology move our culture forward and others hold it back to their own benefit. I work in Silicon Valley and I see this all the time. That's why in many ways I consider this voluminous novel to be as important to a business education as Art of War.
To cite other readers' posts, you don't have to agree with what Rand is extolling, but I think you'd be foolish to try and deny the existence of this struggle since it is ingrained in humanity. Yes, Ayn does get long winded and arrogant in parts as she draws the battle lines, but I don't think an author could have crafted such a powerful conflict without copious quantities of ego to accentuate the differences.
The Creators are the innovators who use the power of their will and intelligence to better humanity. The first person to create fire is often referenced as the paradigm for these people. In the book, each of the major protagonists also represent Creators improving the human condition with their force of will.
The Leeches (my word) are the people who create nothing, but thrive off feeding on the Creators. In Rand's view, they are the bureaucrats, politicos, regulators, etc. Throughout human history she tells us, these people have benefited through no ingenuity of their own, but merely from piggybacking on - and often fettering - the success of the Creators.
Where the conflict in this book arises is when the Creators decide they have had enough and revolt. I won't spoil the book by describing specifics, but let's just say it causes quite the societal drama. For Leeches can't feed where there's no blood.
All that is fairly significant and involved and worth the read to begin with, but where this book really stimulates me is in the fact that it is still relevant. Today we have Creators and we have Leeches. Some titans of industry and technology move our culture forward and others hold it back to their own benefit. I work in Silicon Valley and I see this all the time. That's why in many ways I consider this voluminous novel to be as important to a business education as Art of War.
To cite other readers' posts, you don't have to agree with what Rand is extolling, but I think you'd be foolish to try and deny the existence of this struggle since it is ingrained in humanity. Yes, Ayn does get long winded and arrogant in parts as she draws the battle lines, but I don't think an author could have crafted such a powerful conflict without copious quantities of ego to accentuate the differences.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
January 1, 1999
–
Finished Reading
February 12, 2008
– Shelved
Comments Showing 1-50 of 51 (51 new)
When I say "...Creators are the innovators who use the power of their will and intelligence to better humanity..." this can apply as easily to my grandmother as it can to a homeless person or child. The essence of my argument is that Rand defines an internal philosophy and moral code. One's stature in life and/or actions are not the sole barometer of one's adherence to this. One's internal perspective and the way with which they greet the world also counts and in many ways is the most important part. So, if you have an invalid, or a homeless person who believes in self-betterment, but finds themselves in an awful situation brought upon them by life, I would say that person in Rand's view is probably a Creator just because they want to be and have that internal perspective. In many ways, just having people who think like that is a betterment to humanity.
Although if one's sole goal internally and externally is to feed off or exploit other people's ideas and contributions, then yes - in a Randian world - that person is a Leech. I'm not saying I totally agree with that, but that is my read of her highly-polarized perspective.
Of course, all life is a spectrum, and there are people who "just don't care" in the middle, but I would argue even they are slightly expressed to one side or the other even if it is barely perceptible.
Tom
nope.
Thanks Ashley and Betsy!
In her words:
“He knew no weapons but to pay for what he wanted, to give value, to ask nothing of nature without trading his effort in return, to ask nothing of men without trading the product of his effort.”
— Narrator (referring to Hank Rearden)
Atlas Shrugged (Part 1, Chapter 10)
Nice review. I just started a Good Reads account and of course five starred Rands books because I love them. What really is hilarious is how people dont review the book but shoot it down by ad hominem and loud words. They try to embarrass people who agree with her themes or philosophy and intimidate those who never read it by calling people stupid. The irony is that people judge these books with the same ferocity they claim Objectivists love her books. You can always tell the quality of a review by the way people reply to the review. Some people should be ashamed.
Thanks for the review.
Thanks for the review.
Yes, Rand makes specific reference to money being the ultimate determinant of which camp we each belong to, but it is the QUALITY of our money, not the QUANTITY that matters. Money earned through one's own labor (no matter how menial) is heroic. Money earned through manipulating or fettering another's efforts is reprehensible.
The best quote for this is from Francisco d'Anconia. "Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce."
I don't read any of that to mean that only rich people's money is heroic. Quite the opposite. I read this as saying anyone trying to earn their own money through their own efforts - a teacher, a fireman, a poor poet - is a Creator/heroic being.
The mistake above is the categorical use of fallacious argumentation to imbue intimidation into those who agree with Rand's concepts. He does this by attempting to fit numerous opaque generalizations into his narrative without really saying anything or qualifying his assertions. Jeremy made this mistake a lot, which appears to be fueled by a unique amount of pretentiousness rather than an emotionally coherent depth of acumen.
I told a cousin I would read AS but started second guessing when I saw all the hate it was getting. You've given me a new angle to keep in mind as I read this monster, so thanks.
GREED is truly the most terrible challenge of our times, and capitalism is its tool, its means to power and more greed.
Greed is a (contagious) mental illness, an unfillable hole, a hunger that denies justice, a brutal expression of broken egos.
Greed is having a million times as much as the poor and still feeling you don't have enough.
Greed consumes the earth without respite, and is a cancer on humanity.
Greed destroys us and our children and their future.
Greed is death.
The only leeches I see are the ones feeding their pathetic literary egos need to have an opinion that their fellow man is a leech for doing what all humans should do and that’s get shit done.
The ideas are popping into my brain at a speed that I’d rather let someone else deal with the rest.
Ayn Rand 😉
Kilala Princess>>>>>>>>>>>Atlas Shrugged.
How about--
-your employees?
-your spouse?
-your grown children?
-me?
-your neighbor with the weedy yard?
-the homeless guy at the freeway?
Tom