June 7, 2008

We Are Living "Atlas Shrugged"

Hatched by Dave Ross

Last October, the 50th anniversary of the monumental novel by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, was celebrated by freedom-loving people all over the world.

This life-changing book, second only to the Bible in its influence on 20th Century Americans, was a quasi science fiction that predicted what would happen if the people who actually create things, the inventors, industrialists, the entrepreneurs, drop out of society and left the world to the people who think that the most noble job is to “serve mankind” rather than make money, be happy and live one’s life to the fullest. Predictably, the world grinds to a halt.

I have a friend, who is a specialist in the life of George Orwell and his equally groundbreaking work, who has said for years that Orwell’s predictions about Big Brother are all coming true.

I think it is just as demonstrable that Rand’s dystopian vision of government bureaucrats running peoples’ lives and ruining the economy is coming true -- and the worst is yet to come.

Barack Obama, giving commencement speeches, sneers at graduates whose vision is to own their home or business. Instead he exhorts them to do something about global warming or other manufactured crises of the left.

“You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should by,” he said about a week ago, as if this were an ignoble pursuit.

He would prefer this:

But I hope you don’t. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, though you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, though you do have that debt.

“It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story.

That interpretation of the promise of America might be a surprise to the people who actually did build the country. You know, those who hitched their wagons to oxen, not ideology. That’s how this country was built. Obama might know that if he had ever actually created a job, instead of attacking those who have.

Hatched by Dave Ross on this day, June 7, 2008, at the time of 8:05 PM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: KarmiCommunist

It's a mess, and will only get worse under Obama. I hope the leftists enjoy Big Brother...

The above hissed in response by: KarmiCommunist [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 7, 2008 9:33 PM

The following hissed in response by: cdquarles

There are few demonstrations that socialism is a religion than BHO's "collective obligation" statement.

Barack, I don't have an obligation to the less fortunate, and I certainly do not have an obligation via a null entity {just as there is no such thing as social justice, there is no such thing as collective obligations). I do have a personal obligation to G-d that requires me to personally serve my fellow man and to love him just like I love myself (and that which is mine). I cannot, in fact, meet my obligation to love G-d with all of my being if I don't.

The above hissed in response by: cdquarles [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 7, 2008 10:03 PM

The following hissed in response by: Geoman

“You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should by,”

So...hows that working out for you, Mr. Obama? I can't help but notice your wealth, nice house, and fancy suits. Best of both worlds, eh?

The above hissed in response by: Geoman [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 9, 2008 8:50 AM

The following hissed in response by: laumac

I am now just reading the novel for an essay contest but all throughout the book I've been saying to myself that this novel has come true, this is the world we're presently living in.

The above hissed in response by: laumac [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 26, 2008 2:11 PM

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