Have any of you read Atlas Shrugged?

Have any of you read Atlas Shrugged?

Is it truly an amazing book and well-written? Worth the very long read?

What was one notable theme that you took away from it?

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>"well-written"
>Atlas Shrugged
lol

It's written very badly, basically paperback romance novel in Walmart tier literature

Mein Kampf, jokes aside, is a better piece of political philosophy. gives the emotional motivation for national socialism not "wow it's bad the gubbamint does this thing when I exaggerate what they do".

Are you 12?

it's written like dogshit

the notable theme is "fuck you, pay me"

just listen to Rush albums instead

I read it. It's pretty bad. It takes her like 50 pages to make a single point

If you want to dip your toe in Rand, read Anthem first. It's way shorter, better written, and more applicable to today's leftist movements.

uh oh, school starts soon you better get reading :^)

It is, objectively, written horribly.
It is, however, an objectively good book with a great philosophy. Some people call it the capitalist manifesto.

It's worth reading. Better than most of the shite they puke out these days. It's a world where liberals start taking over, and white flight starts occurring on a national scale.

As you can imagine, when Jamaal can't get his welfare check, Rodrigo isn't provided housing, etc.. they suddenly realize how much they loved the hand that (used to) feed them.

Whoever says it's a "bad" book, poorly written, stupid, on and on.. they're just butthurt liberals that can't handle reading reality.

wealth is the product of mans capacity to think

thats pretty much the only notable thing in the whole book

>It is, however, an objectively good book with a great philosophy.

holy fuck Sup Forums really is full of 12 year olds

atlas shrugged is a piece of shit book with narcissistic characters and a 12 year old worldview. the author was also a huge dyke hypocrite

Ayn Rand couldn't write. She was a fucking total hypocrite too; that bitch died in public housing on welfare.

muh socialism

yes. it's a good book.
some bits are hard to read.
don't let the propagandists scare you away from an interesting and thought provocative classic book

>notable theme
nigga u for reel?
do u live under a rock or wat

I don't remember any characters in her books too old to work... yet depicted as "lazy" because they didn't work.

??; Either you have no idea what hypocrite is, or you're a biased dipshit.

Wait, maybe it's both?

I read it about a decade or so ago.

It's worth the read. It's not *that* long.

The theme you can take away from it is "Socialism is bad."

Alas shrugged is worth the read, but as others have said it's a slog to get through at some parts. The Fountainhead was better /easier

altruism is the single worst human characteristic imaginable

just go play bioshock instead, it even does the job of critical analysis and arrives at the inevitable conclusions of the views and philosophies presented for you

This is the most liberal minded post I've seen all year.

You see narcissism, I see confidence gained through success.

You see a 12 year old's world view, I see the view of people who value hard work and providing tangible value to those around them.

You have the view point of a 12 year old if you think success, confidence and providing worth to the world are bad things.

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.

One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
The other, of course, .. involves orcs

That's kinda the point in the philosophy so you having an issue with narcissistic characters is a non issue to the books intended meaning. It makes a perfect case in favor for captains of industry as characters who (when they genuinely work hard and aren't lazy bastards) deserve to be credited because a lack of motivation just stagnates an economy. It's also not meant to be super complex, it just presents the idea while most other books never present the greedy ceo as a possible hero of sorts.

"Man's highest moral purpose is his own happiness."
-Ayn Rand

In other words, fuck you and fuck everyone else. I'm gonna go get mine. Completely contrarian to how human civilization is supposed to work.

At its worst its just really boring. Characters will randomly launch into multi-page speech/rants about politics and philosophy. If you read it, remember that the plot seems to have been mostly an afterthought. Atlas Shrugged is first and above all meant to be a vehicle for the authors personal beliefs, philosophy, and morality.

Also, not to spoil anything but its built on the conceit that without wealthy sucessful businessmen the world would crumble into chaos.

that M Night Shyamalan ending tho

This. Anthem by Rush is everything you need to know about objectivism in 3 minutes of music

debunking the classic knee-jerk responses (typically coming from those who haven't read her books or much about her at all)

1. hypocrite
nope. she notes the immorality of theft for inefficient "public goods" like state hospitals. it doesn't preclude their use by those forced to pay for it.

2. terrible writer
said every vitriolic leftist faggot who hasn't read the book. also admire that one of the most read books of the last century was written by an english-second-language immigrant to the US.

3. selfishness! OMG! THE GREEEEEEEEEEEEEED
this is willfully ignorant. this term but it is rather carefully defined in her philosophy as (paraphrasing)
>men who serve themselves morally by working hard for their own self
she also acknowledges in an Austrian-economics style that
>this in turn best serves their neighbours.
she isn't a big war, government intertwined with business, republican or whatever.
these endeavors must be undertaken peacefully. she addresses the immorality of government quite clearly, so selfish takeovers of the gubment are not included in her "selfishness" doctrine.

things leftists really don't like about her:
1. she can actually talk about communism because she left it.
2. she's jewish, so
>muh antisemitism
or
>muh white privilege
can't be invoked here.
3. she's a woman. (see #2)
4. she's an immigrant to the US. therefore
>muh racism
card is blocked again.
5. she emphasizes and admires men for their drive and hard work
men is an umbrella term for mankind (i.e. men and women) but she pretty much acknowledges that men built the world.

just read the fuckn book. its important

She was not a dyke. In fact, she dedicated one of her books to her husband and also to her lover.

But I agree with the quote, completely. To me, the purpose of life is to live it in a way that makes me the happiest. There's no point in being a jobless, rambling nobody.. you can't help anyone when they need it, let alone yourself. The happier, more successful, etc that you are.. the more those around you benefit from it. The more capacity you have to help others.

I'd recomend her book Anthem instead. Shorter and much less pointless philosophy

The first part is kind of interesting because the main character, Dagny, is investigating something, on top of the mysterious "John Galt" stuff and disappearances that are going on in the background. Then the plot hits the brakes even harder and the flaws become really apparent. It's longwinded as hell, it's preachy as fuck, and all of the protagonists are bores--like a person who's an amateur stock trader who made a few bucks off the market so every conversation you have with him has to be couched in market talk so he can spend an hour covering the *excruciating minutia* of how it works, what he did, and why you should totally give him money to invest and he swears he won't take a big cut from your "spoils".

Plus Dagny is supposed to be a strong independent woman, but she doesn't have a single thought that can pass the Bechdel test. Every male character is a walking embodiment of CAPITALISM and she constantly talks about how sexy and fuckable they are and then goes on to fuck every. single. one of them. And they all take it in stride, content to be Eskimo brothers. The book is a fantasy novel about literally getting deep dicked by capitalism, but where deep dicking in this context is a good thing and not the kind of deep dicking up the asshole capitalism actually does to most people--especially lazy pieces of shit.

All of the villains are caricatures of money-grubbing beureaucrats, and that's fine because most politicians are, but so are the ones who hold this book to be their Capitalism Bible. And it's laughable that such """great men""" in the book, the inventors who CREATE stuff while the villains just reappropriate tax dollars and do fuck all, decide to just peace out on society and live in some kind of utopian commune in the middle of the fucking desert and that's supposed to be lauded instead of viewed as the childish "I'm taking my ball and going home" bullshit that it actually is.

But really it's just boring.

Wasn't anything special honestly.
It was kind of cucky, literally

This

Super long, and boring. But if you're into politics, then just power through it and read it.
The Prince is much better book. Its small but has excellent points.
Mein Kampf is long but interesting enough to keep the reader intrigued.

It's a decent book, and she has *some* good points, but if you're looking to see if Objectivism as a whole is some amazing philosophy then you will be disappointed, because it is not.

The Fountainhead was a better book than Atlas, though.

>Have any of you read Atlas Shrugged?
Yes.
>Is it truly an amazing book and well-written? Worth the very long read?
It's not long. It is poorly written with a dubious message that is rather hamfisted.
>What was one notable theme that you took away from it?
Capitalists are selfish assholes who think they are God's gift to mankind.

Let me ask you this question:

If you built a business from the ground up starting with next to nothing, and someone came and took it away in order to "Help those in need", how would YOU feel having YOUR creating taken from you by someone who never created anything? I bet you'd take your fucking ball and go home as well.

Actually, the people saying "fuck you" to a parasitic society and taking off were, in my opinion, one of the best elements of the book.

I'm not your fucking slave. I'm mine.

In the real world, especially in a capitalist economy, the inventors do the smart thing and pay off the people who pass legislation and/or band together and rile up the citizens to protest such actions. It's worked really well the past few decades, too.

In my top ten fav books of all time dont listen to theese weeb fags it changed my mind about capitalism

>dubious message that is rather hamfisted
[citation needed]
not an argument.jpg

Anthem is a short Ayn Rand book, about the same subject...

>reading fiction

Grow up, faggots, none of you will ever be Jack Abramoff.

>If you built a business from the ground up starting with next to nothing

This is a meme.

Nobody anywhere in the US has built anything from the ground up without some sort of help or welfare of ANY kind.

came for the angry flower comic about atlas shrugged.

leaving disappointed.

dumbshit. helping others can be part of pursuing happiness, but compulsion to help others by society is wrong.

how was it cucky lol

Ayn Rand took a the concept of liberty, which was a beautiful, pro-community statement for minimal government and voluntary interaction, and turned it into a pretentious, narcissistic philosophy of ego gratification for the individual. Classical liberals/libertarians still fight the stereotype that liberty is a hyper-individualist philosophy to this day. Jefferson is turning in his grave at how many people love Ayn Rand's version of what political and economic freedom mean.

Also, she is a shitty author with little understanding of human nature. She can't edit for shit and she puts lengthy, pretentious, endlessly preachy diatribes into the mouths of her characters.

Jesus, you're a fucking moron.

whatshertits fucked every male character in the book and none of them gave a shit

"I don't want the government and society to compel me to do things"
lol what a cuck

FALSE. it happens ALL THE TIME. what are you smoking?

I'm currently working hard to exactly thar - NE6 own boss one day through hard work, effort, and a desire to succeed.

Ironically, the people who actually do this are the Indian, Korean, and Chinese immigrants who start off on a small level and work their way to a medium level through hard work. But good luck communicating that fact to Shruggies--they either grew up with Free Dad Money and are incapable of seeing it for the free handout that it is, or they drink the MLM-style koolaid that tells them they too will one day be rich. The truth is you need some form of seed money, you need to be skilled, you need to put yourself out there enough to be in the right place at the right time, and, most importantly, you need to know a person or two that can give you a leg up.

Lol did you even read it, dude?

> (You)
>>dubious message
It's essentially Satanism (that the individuals pleasures and desires top all other motivations). I find putting individual needs over all others as a dubious ethical position.

As for hamfisted, that's an opinion. I suppose idiots might not notice how clunky it is put together.

Atlas Shrugged = Autism 101

Satanism? You mean hedonism?

>Most people suck there is only a very small bit of special people out there and they should have no pity for the lesser people in the world.
>You're almost certainly one of the special people because you bought my book.

Public schools, roads, access to water and electricity. All contribute to your success. No business is built in a vacuum.

This. The laughable idea that anyone is self made is truest in the immigrant population.

i think its pretty tight

and the moral argument is not
>ME ME ME
>WIN AT ALL COSTS
>FUCK EVERYONE
nice strawman faggot

her moral assertion is more like
>self-sacrifice for the supposed benefit of others is immoral

go taqiya somewhere else

Well.... if you *did* read Atlas Shrugged, I'm not surprised you misread the message. Your reading comprehension is pretty terrible.

Also, your statement is a lie. Statistically speaking it has happened. And I can say with surety that it has happened without welfare many, many times. I've seen it happen and I've done it myself.

But of course, because you've never seen it happen, your own anecdotal viewpoint MUST be real, right? Typical though process of someone the very book we are discussing warns against.

I read it without having any strong opinions on capitalism, socialism, libertarianism, etc. and thought it was going to be good because it's so popular. Its literary deficiencies stood out really strongly and I couldn't help but wonder how this book became so popular...until I started listening to the people who put it on a pedestal. Those people seem to be some mixture of:

>only cares about the message regardless of the quality of the writing
>likes things because people they like like those things
>looking for any reason to hate socialism without having to form their own argument

This.

therefore
>WE DID IT
>EAT THE RICH
>IT BELONGS TO US

Found the sanders supporter

I read this in Trump's voice.

>I'm not surprised you missed the message. You're really a bad reader, your reading comprehension is a joke. Your statement is fake news. Statistically, it's happened. I know it's happened, we all know it's happened. I can say with 100% certainty that it's happened. It's true. Without welfare. Many times. Many, many times. I've seen it happen and, frankly, I've done it myself. Many times. But you've never seen it happen so you go around telling lies.

I like how you didn't even cite an example. Either a troll working hard, or a bullshit artist.

The book is genius. It's easy to reduce a book with a cynical sentence on Sup Forums that lacks any argument. Read the book yourself. Think for yourself. Live for yourself.

Take ownership of your own mind and your own life and your own opinion.

This is the message Ayn Rand fought for with her writing.

it burns pretty good.

Yeah, uh, they pay for those services via something called "TAXES", dipshit.

That isn't free, assistance, or help.

Jesus you're stupid. Is your next argument going to be that because roads exist.. the US is socialism herpy derpy?

every leftist
>>only cares about the message regardless of the quality of the writing
>>likes things because people they like like those things
>>looking for any reason to hate capitalism without having to form their own argument

Read it for bioshock

great game

it was also nice to see Rand's philosophy finally amount to something

So are you saying the book is meant to shit on the idea of a person building a business and then the govt coming in and stealing it from them? Other than the banks who helped to crash the economy in 08, name three examples in the last 30 years where this happened?

Every ideological fanatic does this, from all points in the spectrum.

*system shock 2

Not a fan of Ayn Rand but all of you saying "nobody finds success in a vacuum" and talking about "muh roads"-

You are all fucking idiots. Ironically it was Ayn Rand who helped popularize the towering ego concept as relates to capitalism. The philosophy of liberty, which is free markets (capitalism) and political freedom, does not pretend to elevate the individual in a vacuum. For fuck's sake. It champions voluntary ASSOCIATION between individuals without imposition by any third party, which usually means a government or religion.

More than that, anarchists of liberty (not these ridiculous anarcho-communist morons but people who subscribe to the ideas of Mises and Rothbard) have articulated very workable models for voluntary creation of roads, along with a voluntary model for the courts, police and firefighters. ('For a New Liberty' by Murray Rothbard if you're interested.)

>selfish fuck
>becomes more selfish fuck
>pretends to be a common man
its a piece of shit

>Other than the banks who helped to crash the economy in 08
more like the ratings agencies and GBEs but OK
u really gotta read Tom Woods - Meltdown
its short too, don't worry

Imminent Domain.
Affirmative Action.
Political Correctness.

youtube.com/watch?v=6O6uacXDAHg

Ayn Rand is a genius. This is an excerpt from The Fountainhead. The speech made by the villain. Worth listening to.

You are the person that asserted it never happens. The onus is on you to support your statement. I'll refute once you manage to provide even a modicum of a point for your opinion.

best book of all time! .. to use for toilet paper

something just in the universe about wiping your ass with 1168 pages of rubbish scribbling, and at that length it's cheaper than a 24 pack of lavatory paper.

lol wut?

>Howard Roark laughed.

The greatest novel ever written.

"suicial"

Jesus. That alone shows how moronic the person who created that pic is. How do you misspell that, lol?

Fucking liberals, gah.

Sticky glue-trap for weak minds.

Selling selfishness is easy.

Real solutions are hard.

>Imminent Domain
If a farmer or rancher is on the land, you could argue that this shitty govt program is stealing their business. This, however, is a long stretch from the type of business forfeiture that Rand writes about in Atlas.

>Affirmative Action
A racist policy isn't stealing a business, no matter how racist it is.

>Political Correctness
Misguided censorship pushed by lefty shitheads is also not an example of the govt literally stealing your business.

All three of those things are reprehensible in their own way, but I want examples of the US govt actually coming in and taking over a business so the bureaucrats can control it and spread its profits among the citizens.

Worse yet, the dipshit who posted it has posted it countless times.. without realizing it himself.

haha!

>her moral assertion is more like
>>self-sacrifice for the supposed benefit of others is immoral
sure
but the crux of the matter is that Ayn Rand's philosophy is self-indulgent to a sociopathic degree. she isn't taken seriously in academic philosophy for a reason: she tries to rationalize a system of ethics that precludes a society in which right and wrong have tangible meaning. that book is a confused ouroboros that tries to create an interesting "system of ethics without ethics," but unlike Nietzsche or other contrarians, she fails to make a defensible position of it and fails to accomplish much outside of an epic, sparsely edited, confusingly paced rant.

>What was one notable theme that you took away from it?
not doing your summer reading homework for you

>be born in a rich family
>soviets rise to power
>become as poor as the rest of society
>move to america
>family becomes rich again
>grow to hate a strong central government
>write a bullshit fiction novel with invisibility and physics defying machines
>idiots praise your shitty imagination as gospel
>grow wealthy spoon feeding your shit to politicians
>return your family to affluence via the same cronyism your family originally exploited

So poetic.
[spoiler]it's trash[/spoiler]

read 3/4 and threw it in the trash

This.
>Imminent Domain
Not to mention you're compensated when it is declared.

That wasn't me, bud. I'm just pointing out that someone stated something didn't happen, you said "nuh uh" without citing a single example, and that's case closed for you. You're asking that guy to prove a negative. I hope in a few years you get to go to college and there you pick up a few classes that let you learn how to argue a point.

her father was a pharmacist
this is not exactly a good example of a crony getting rich because of incredible connections to those in power

citation needed

All 3 are examples of government taking over business and sharing the booty with others.

Imminent Domain, because that's EXACTLY what that fucking is, moron.

Affirmative Action and PC because they both create an environment where businesses are sued into bankruptcy, fail because of shit-tier employees, etc. In all cases, assets are acquired by the government and dolled out.

Admittedly, only the first one is "fast".. as you seem to require. The longer our conversation goes on, the more your requirements.

>name three examples in the last 30 years where this happened?
just google "IRS seizes local business"
>inb4 you should pay your taxes
business taxes are so complex that even with an accountant that specialized in corporate tax law it is all but impossible to fully comply with tax law
and when the IRS audits a business they seize all the corporate assets as soon as they find anything even remotely fishy, which they will find because of aforementioned law complexity
this seizure does not require any court issued warrant, and once it happens the only way to get the assets back is to sue the IRS
then because it is a civil suit, not a criminal case, the IRS just has to prove that it is more likely than not that the business has not paid its full tax obligation

It's kinda like autism in book form.

>terrible writer
I did read it. It's poorly written. The terrible writing is mostly a result of trying to put an economic philosophy into the framework of a novel. Characters are not characters, so reading it ends up being a chore. That being said, if you read it as philosophy, the poor writing is more bearable.

I do agree that the book is important, whether or not you agree with its nonsense, but reading it is a waste of time. You can get a grasp of her ideas more efficiently elsewhere.