All Aboard the John Galt Line

As Katherine Mangu-Ward recently noted, sales of Ayn Rand's capitalist manifesto Atlas Shrugged have been soaring in recent months. In a symposium entitled "Going Galt," National Review asked an assortment of writers and editors for their thoughts on Rand's relevance in Obama's America. Some choice excerpts follow.

Bradley J. Birzer:

Offensive, ignorant, and devoid of faith, hope, and love, Rosenbaum ends her novel [Atlas Shrugged]. Her philosophy and her reputation should have ended there as well.

Burt Folsom, Jr.:

Ayn Rand's legacy and durability may be most apparent in her nonfiction works. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal points us in the right direction in its treatment of markets. Her criticism of antitrust laws and her praise for entrepreneurs are well done. For example, she describes James J. Hill's solid construction of the Great Northern Railroad with no federal subsidies while exposing the bankruptcies of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific when they had extensive federal aid.

Joseph Bottum:

Taken simply as fiction and prose, Ayn Rand is something an adult reader would hesitate to shove in a laundry bag, for fear it would soil the dirty socks. William F. Buckley Jr. and National Review did the world a favor, all those years ago, by throwing the randy Randians overboard. Do we really have to let them climb back on the ship now?

Gregory L. Schneider:

Rand's relevance is not in her personality cult, but in her ideas. She was an unapologetic "radical for capitalism," which she equated to a moral and ethical system superior to any other. She was also an astute critic of collectivism in any form, including organized religion…. Her defense of capitalism and critique of collectivism is more necessary than ever today and explains why her work is seen as prescient and relevant in the Age of Obama.

Read the rest here. In March 2005, Cathy Young explained why Rand remains "more relevant than ever." In October 2007, Brian Doherty reflected on Atlas Shrugged's 50th anniversary. Click below to watch Doherty discuss Rand's legacy on Reason.tv:

Comments

[FTG]

As Katherine Mangu-Ward recently noted, sales of Ayn Rand's capitalist manifesto Atlas Shrugged have been soaring in recent months.

So have gun sales - the revolution is afoot.

[Shelby]

Should've gotten Matthew Yglesias's thoughts as well. Apparently not reading Rand is no bar to condemning her.

[Libertymike]

Hey Bottom-

Doc Manahattan knew you were going to write that envy driven drivel before the first time you ever jerked off and if he could vaporize Rorschack......you had better complete your estate planning pronto!

[Libertymike]

How about Rand's appearance on the Phil Donahue Show, circa 1979? That was some good stuff!

[robc]

Wasnt it the Birchers, not the Randists, that Buckley threw overboard?

[TallDave]

Heh. Ayn sure makes leftists mad.

Except for that Jesus guy, it's hard to think of another author whose ideas they hate more.

[JP]

Why does Birzer use her given name (Rosenbaum)? Is this some kind of antisemitic thing?

[John]

Apparently the jounrolist issued orders to trash Rand. I am not a Randian. That said, idiots like Greenwald make me want become one. Its a stupid book. Yeah, Glenn that is some intelligent debate.

The fact is that trolls like Greenwald and other media liberals are craven, shallow and devoid of serious intellectual thought.

[shecky]

The thing about Rand is that she means anything anyone wants her to mean. Forget that the left doesn't understand Rand. It seems much of the right doesn't understand Rand either, or at best, willing to go Galt in the name of keeping their government teat from going dry.

What she created is a quasi religious following more than a coherent philosophical world view.

[Another Phil]

Why does Birzer use her given name (Rosenbaum)? Is this some kind of antisemitic thing?

The fact that Rand didn't identify as a Jew infuriates my (Jewish) grandmother. If Birzer is Jewish, that could be it. Or it could just be knee-jerk rejection of any of Rand's preferences, no matter how trivial. Or I guess it could be antisemitic. If so, it would have helped if he were a bit clearer about it.

[Orange Line Special]

I wasn't clued in to exactly what "going Galt" meant, so I went to WP for the truth. I then found out that her book has a pirate. I sat staring at the word "pirate" for several seconds, trying to imagine exactly what Captain Hook or someone like that was doing in her book.

Then, I found out that it all makes perfect sense!

Ragnar seizes relief ships that are being sent from the United States to The People's States of Europe. As the novel progresses, Ragnar begins, for the first time, to become active in American waters, and is even spotted in Delaware Bay. Reportedly, his ship is better than any available in the fleets of the world's navies. People assume that as a pirate he simply takes the seized goods to himself. However, while many other protagonists take pride in making a personal profit from the proceeds of their creativity, Danneskj?ld's motivation is to restore to other creative people the money which was unjustly taken away from them - specifically, their income tax payments.

Wow. Not just immoral, but proactively immoral.

P.S. It's too bad Ragnar wasn't around after the Tsunami. He would have showed them!

[JP]

Or it could just be knee-jerk rejection of any of Rand's preferences, no matter how trivial.

I would bet that's the reason. Like people who used to insist on calling Muhammad Ali "Cassius Clay."

[Joel]

A very great deal of snark, some of it positively adolescent, in that "symposium." I guess to be anti-Rand is necessary if you want to be in at NR.

I sometimes wonder what Rand's influence might have been if she hadn't poisoned her own legacy with the "cult of personality". I've never been able to separate what she wrote from what she practiced, which wasn't any sort of "individualism" I'd care to be near.

[Lefiti]

Shouldn't that propaganda pimp Jesse walkeer weigh in on this?

[Orange Line Special]

I have to ask, why are there so many posts here today? Is it a snow day? Is Reason on drugs? Are they trying to get one particularly embarrassing post off the front page? If so, which one of the ones?

[Cabeza De Vaca]

SHUT THE FUCK UP LONEWACKO!!! NO ONE GIVES A SHIT WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT ANYTHING. WHY CAN'T YOU GET THAT THROUGH YOU'RE RACIST FUCKING SKULL.

[Hazel Meade]

Rand isn't the only person to have critiqued collectivism or extolled individualism. There's a long philosophical tradition pre-dating her on that count, including Max Stirner and Fredrich Nietzche. She just popularized their ideas.

[John]

"I sometimes wonder what Rand's influence might have been if she hadn't poisoned her own legacy with the "cult of personality". I've never been able to separate what she wrote from what she practiced, which wasn't any sort of "individualism" I'd care to be near."

Very true. I read her books before I ever met a Randian when I was in junior high at the urging of my father. My dad and I both read them as great pieces of futureism warning of the dangers of government action and collectivism. It wasn't until later in college that I met the cult. I have never had a problem with Rand or her novels. Just her followers. But they are still, cult or not, preferable to douschbags like Yglasias.

[Anonymous]

Cabeza De Vaca, great parody of a Leftist, all shouting down your opponent with insults and exclamation marks.

[Fluffy]

Considering the despicable depths to which NR has sunk, it's a little absurd for them to try to judge the work of just about anyone else on the right.

And Birzer's shtick about "Rosenbaum" isn't anti-Semitism per se; it ties in to her statement that Rand lacked "faith". It's meant to place her among the set of atheistic post-Jews who were responsible for "international communism" and "the ACLU" and what have you.

[Fluffy]

And Bottum's comment is particularly amusing, since it was precisely the fact that Buckley chose the Christian fundamentalists as allies and threw the atheistic "pharisees of liberty" like Rothbard and Rand overboard that doomed liberty in this country and culminated in the events of the last nine years.

[Sean W. Malone]

Hear Hear Fluffy!

[Marc]

Wow. Not just immoral, but proactively immoral.

As if I didn't have enough reason already to despise LoneWacko.

Almost invariably, opinions voiced about Rand say more about those voicing them than they do about Rand.

[Marc]

I have never had a problem with Rand or her novels. Just her followers. But they are still, cult or not, preferable to douchebags like Yglasias.

Most of those people calm down considerably after college.

[Cabeza De Vaca]

Anonymous,

Go fuck yourself.

[Mari Dupont]

A nice, succinct summation on Brian Doherty's part. I wish he'd take a stab at the Objectivism entry at Wikipedia; it's unnecessarily confusing.

[henry]

Well, if you can judge someone by the enemies they make, my opinion of Rand just went up 10,000%

[Aaron Brown]

When I read the Birzer quote I imagined it spoken in a Louis Farrakhan voice.

[Anonymous]

Go fuck yourself.

With reasoning like that, who wouldn't come to reason to dispense it?

[blink]

I don't get the focus on "The Age of Obama." Why not the "Age of Bush"? Or we could call it the "Age of Bushama." Obama's not doing anything radically different from what Bush was doing or what John McCain would have done or any other mainstream poll.

[The Bearded Hobbit]

I had a good headstart into freedom by devouring all of Heinlein's works that I could lay my hands on as a teenager. I read AS in my mid-twenties at a friend's urging (he used to carry copies to hand out, where I got mine. I have since done the same, although without nearly as much zeal as my friend.)

I finally grokked it several years later and here, thirty years after my first reading, I seem to be living it.

.. Hobbit

[The Bearded Hobbit]

Something about the parenthetical comments there doesn't seem grammatically right. Apologies to the English majors here.

.. Hobbit

[Cabeza De Vaca]

"With reasoning like that, who wouldn't come to reason to dispense it?"

That sounds just like something Orange Line Special would write. Did I hurt your feelings Lonewacko?

[bill]

If you ask me the most important book Rand ever wrote was "The Virtue of Selfishness". It was the first Rand that I read, in my mid 20's, and it changed my life. It gave voice to what I had been feeling was the proper way of life. After reading it I no longer felt like I was alone in the world in my beliefs. A close second would be "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal". Both of these should be required reading for high school freshmen. Maybe after the Revolution they will be.

[Anonymous]

Wow, and he mistakes insulting him for insulting reason. It's like rewriting reality to fit your ego.

Is there anything Leftism can't do?

[Cabeza De Vaca]

"Is there anything Leftism can't do?"

It can't change the fact that you're a douchebag.

[KipEsquire]

To the best of my knowledge, Atlas Shrugged is the only book that people actually brag about not having ever read.

That alone should make it required reading for anyone who would dare label himself an "intellectual."

[Libertymike]

KipEsquire-

How about L. Ron Hubbard's classic, Dianetics? Although I will admit that I have toyed with Scientology street recruiters, how could anyone dismiss Hubbard's literary style, in general, and his work in Dianetics, in particular, without having read them?

[Pain]

Very true. I read her books before I ever met a Randian when I was in junior high at the urging of my father. My dad and I both read them as great pieces of futureism warning of the dangers of government action and collectivism. It wasn't until later in college that I met the cult. I have never had a problem with Rand or her novels. Just her followers. But they are still, cult or not, preferable to douschbags like Yglasias.

The only thing worse than a Rand fanboy is a Rand hater.

At least the fanboy will argue with you about what she actually wrote.

[Metal Messiah]

I've had nothing but bad experiences with all of the Randroids I've met. (Granted, I can count them on one hand...)

A former friend in high school was huge into Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, always trying to get me to read them. Turned out that this "friend" also stole about $500 worth of CDs from my car, so that single event has pretty much prejudiced me against Rand and her sycophants. They're just as full of shit as any leftist or conservative in my book.

And, yes, I have read Atlas Shrugged (finally, when I was in college) and couldn't make it through The Fountainhead.

Thought Atlas was a rather bad novel; it might have been decent if Rand didn't have an Aspergers-like obsession with her own philosophy and might have actually written some interesting characters instead of mouthpieces and strawmen. It was this bizarre 40s/50s style melodrama, shot through with rape scenes and death rays, and filled with characters who would stop the action, stare into the camera, and make long-winded speeches.

And, yes, I did get those CDs back.

[Sam Grove]

it might have been decent if Rand didn't have an Aspergers-like obsession with her own philosophy and might have actually written some interesting characters instead of mouthpieces and strawmen.

But that was her intention, though those straw men are perhaps a little more real than you grant.

[Sam Grove]

Perhaps Rand's best fiction for reading purposes is "We, The Living".

Given that she experienced the communist revolution firsthand, perhaps she should be allowed a little righteous anger.

[JB]

People attack Rand because she encourages people not to be victims.

Most people either want to be victims or have power over other people. They are threatened by the free exchange of goods and ideas.

[MaterialMonkee]

"I wish he'd take a stab at the Objectivism entry at Wikipedia; it's unnecessarily confusing"

Something I always find interesting is when you look at an article in wikipedia look at the list of languages on the column in the left and to click on them

Even if you don't speak the language

(if you got one latin language you can understand about 4 more pretty well reading)

you can still kind of get a sense of how well disseminated into a culture different philosophies/historic events etc are by the length of the articles

I was saying this cus I was chatting to a Spanish philosphy student the other night and obviously got into a bit of a rant about objectivism, libertarianism, georgism and classical liberalism. She hadn't heard of objectivism, (non collectivist) libertarianism or Georgism and only had a vague concept of classical Liberalism

I was flicking through French Spanish and Italian wikipedia articles and there really isnt much on the four concepts

Obviously there are huge articles on socialism which is the default ideology for any european under the age of 30

Back to my point the drunken rant on Objectivism that I was slurring at a pretty confused looking spanish girl was that basically the whole Objectivist metaphysical part of objectivism is bolocks

It just delves into that pointless realm of philosophy that deals with unanswerable questions

and apart from that its just pretty much basic liberal-capitalism

the whole cult of personality shit comes absolutely from the objectivist metaphysical philosophical shite

Writing pretty alegories about how statism sucks is all good but basically Objectivism is dull

capitalism with added beard stroking, pipes smoking beret wearing douchbagness

Nietzsche was a complete cock same goes for Satre

"Objectivism states that "Existence exists" (the Axiom of Existence) and "Existence is Identity." To be is to be "an entity of a specific nature made of specific attributes."[3] That which has no attributes does not and cannot exist. "

how fucking dull

[MaterialMonkee]

They say you can't judge a book by its cover but here goes

marxist beard stroking, pipes smoking beret wearing douchbagness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Karl_Marx_001.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beauvoir_Sartre_-_Che_Guevara_-1960_-_Cuba

real men have bad ass sideboards and hate communism

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/John-stuart-mill-sized.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Darwin_seated.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Elvis_Presley_1970.jpg

[Mad Max]

'And, yes, I did get those CDs back.'

You're just like the people who persecuted Howard Roark - hassling someone with superior vision just because he appropriated someone else's property for his own (undoubtedly more valuable) use.

[Mad Max]

'People attack Rand because she encourages people not to be victims.'

Unless you hire an architect and he ends up blowing up your building instead - then your obligation is not to protest, because that would simply interfere with a superior man's vision.

People should be more like that girl Howard Roark raped - she was *glad* to be a victim! She *enjoyed* it!

[The Angry Optimist]

A former friend in high school was huge into Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, always trying to get me to read them. Turned out that this "friend" also stole about $500 worth of CDs from my car

How pathetic. The first libertarian of whom I became aware was Colloidal Silver Guy; imagine if I had been as ignorant as you.

People should be more like that girl Howard Roark raped - she was *glad* to be a victim! She *enjoyed* it!

When is rape not rape? Oh, when it's consensual.

Material Monkee - you're completely unreadable. Try again, plz. It seems obvious that you're completely devoid of intellectual appreciation or curiosity, so maybe Objectivism isn't for you. Try Christianity (Mad Max can help you with that).

[MaterialMonkee]

"you're completely devoid of intellectual appreciation or curiosity"

charmed!

when it comes to civil liberties and economics I've come to some general conclusions about what political system would enable human beings to generaly maximize their physical well being

when it comes to metaphysics
I'm absolutely lost and i think anyone who
claims to have "seen the light" is a chump

Lots of philosophy is admittedly beautiful
Tao te ching is great
but essentially just poetry
Objectivism isnt even particularly nice poetry
It just seems dull

[The Angry Optimist]

metaphysics is not, nor should it be, terribly complicated. If you want a more artful life, I wouldn't recommend finding that art in metaphysics.

[MaterialMonkee]

"nor should it be, terribly complicated"

It just seems something totally unverifiable
and therefore more akin to art

more a crutch for people to deal with reality

the older I get the less i actually feel the need for crutches

as the Taoists say

"the further one goes the less one knows"

that could be a crutch in its own right

🙂

[Sam Grove]

how fucking dull

Most, if not all, philosophical discussion is pretty dull in my experience. Something like geometry proofs.

Maybe it was just my philosophy instructor.

[Ugh]

Ayn Rand was an atrocious writer. No wonder so many naive conservatives fell in love with her.

It was their version of high art.

[Ugh]

"A close second would be "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal". Both of these should be required reading for high school freshmen. Maybe after the Revolution they will be."

Wow, you sound like a fun guy.

[Ugh]

"Almost invariably, opinions voiced about Rand say more about those voicing them than they do about Rand."

You mean that those people are more likely to understand human beings, history, nuance, and a host of other factors that usually coincide with having a reasonable grasp of reality?

Of course the comments say something about the people making them, just like the seething replies suggest something about the faith of those who idolize Rand.

This blog has been dumbed down so swiftly that it almost seems calculated.

[JB]

Mad Max,

Yeah, you seem like the type that likes being a victim.

[Hazel Meade]

Sam Grove:

I'm with you on "We, the Living" being Rand's best book. It's certainly the most moving. Almost auto-biographical portrait of life in Bolshevik Russia.

But the metaphysics part of objectivism is totally unnecessary and unsophisticated to boot.

[Hazel Meade]

If you ask me the most important book Rand ever wrote was "The Virtue of Selfishness".

If you like that you might try the original: "The Ego and His Own" by Max Stirner (1844)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ego_and_Its_Own

[bill]

@Ugh

WTF is that supposed to mean? You don't fucking know me. Just because I think young adults should read one book that defends individualism and one that defends liberty as they enter the first level of higher education I'm a fucking square? I drink, smoke weed and fuck hot chicks. Is that fun enough for you, you fucking douche?

@Hazel

Thanks I'll check it out.

[zoltan]

Mad Max,

Yeah, you seem like the type that likes being a victim.

Well, he is Catholic.

I drink, smoke weed and fuck hot chicks.

Check it out guys! This dude is cool.

[MNG]

"Try Christianity (Mad Max can help you with that)."

Oh my, it's rare when I say this, but isn't that TAO winning the thread?

[MNG]

I think We The Living is a tremondous book. In fact, I think it is the best book with a female main character I've read.

I think some of Rand's later work is just terrible as either novels or philosophy, but look, the woman wrote some great literature and also had a big influence on American life and letters. She deserves to be in the American Canon. I mean, have you read Upton Sinclair? He's in there, and he let his political leanings mar his writing all the time.

[bill]

@zoltan

Cooler than you'll ever be gaybait.

[Suki]

A character in a book I was helping my friend with is supposed to read Atlas Shrugged every year.

The character does not like John Gault because "instead of continuing be productive, he goes out starting a lot of trouble".

Is this a possible perception someone who knows the book well can have? Neither me nor my friend has read Atlas, just comments about the book.

[Other Matt]

Obama's not doing anything radically different from what Bush was doing or what John McCain would have done or any other mainstream poll.

Somehow, I think that McCain would show a much higher level of restraint in regards to spending, and a much lower level of using a perceived financial crisis to jam through every bit of boneheaded bullshit he could dig up.

[Suki]

Sorry for misspelling "Galt" earlier. My fault for posting while sleepy.

If anybody has an opinion on what I posted it would be appreciated. Assistance on making it work if that is not believable is welcome too.

[Cabeza De Vaca]

Suki,

It's been about ten years since I've read Atlas Shrugged. So I'm far from an expert on the subject, but I would suggest reading Galt's rant in the book. It pretty much sums his philosophy & why he decides to take the course of action he does. Then use that as the basis for any criticism of the character.

[Suki]

Cabeza De Vaca,

Will try to look at it. I think the character's perspective is that she would like a bright man she finds attractive, does not seek fame but is successful. But she does read Atlas annually and her friends assume she is looking for John Galt, although he is not exactly what she ever wanted.

[Cabeza De Vaca]

Suki,

Here is a mini version of John Galt's speech.

http://www.working-minds.com/galtmini.htm

[Suki]

Cabeza De Vaca,

Just finished reading that!

I think what my friend wrote should work, but will forward this to him too, if he has not seen it here already.