"'If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders ... still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength ... what would you tell him to do?'
'To shrug.'"
It's done 🙏... One month and 1,069 pages later, I am finally finished reading Atlas Shrugged.
And I finally understand why it is such a controversial book; it calls out a lot of people on their BS 😅 Nobody wants to read a book that offends them, unless they wish to do personal reflection.
Therefore, as someone from the outside looking in, someone who heavily identified with character Dagny Taggart, I decided to read it for the ones who won't. (Even I found the book intimidating at first; again, it's 1,069 pages!)
Our story takes place in 1950s United States of America, during the onset of unprecedented times. Businesses are collapsing, men are disappearing, and Dagny Taggart is desperately trying to keep one of America's last lifelines alive: the railroad system.
(Image created using an AI art generator on NightCafe)
However, the odds are quickly stacked against her. Equalization and fair opportunity laws are passed, so that everyone -- every business -- is required to receive their "fair" share. Socially conditioned men no longer want to take responsibility, but instead need to be told what to say and how to think. Everyone believes they are entitled to everything without contributing. Inventors and industrialists are viewed with disdain, rather than recognized for improving man's way of life.
While the railroad industry continues to crumble, Dagny unknowingly comes across a society of secret men, living hidden in the mountains. They are all of the men who disappeared, the "men of the mind," the ones with the ability and capability to do and think.
Together, they have begun to build a new world, and they warn Dagny about the fate of the current one: doom and death.
Dagny returns back to New York. She continues to save the railroad to the best of her ability, but eventually acknowledges she cannot continue to carry those who do not give anything back. Cities begin to burn and riot, people begin to starve, resources are eliminated... Until the last remaining pillar -- the Taggart Bridge -- is destroyed, completely eliminating the last remaining lifeline...
It is then that Dagny realizes that hope for society is futile. She departs from New York to finally go and live in the new Society of men, leaving the old one to its intended fate: to die.
"She could not get rid of the feeling ... the passengers, to her, were not living or human. It seemed senseless to waste such enormous effort on preventing catastrophes, on protecting the safety of trains carrying nothing but inanimate objects."
Atlas Shrugged does a wonderful job of showing the detrimental effects that altruism can have on society: when we place others' needs above our own. Ayn Rand explains how positive human emotions, such as love and empathy, can be exploited for another's gain.
She goes on to show how, ultimately, the downfall of man will be by envy -- envy of values, of money, of achievements, of joy.
Rand breaks down how the downfall of a society takes place. First, the schools will not teach you HOW to think, only WHAT to think. They will strip you of instinct and reason so that you are left at the mercy of being told what to do.
"Yet man, whose tool of survival is the mind, does not merely fail to teach a child to think, but devotes the child's education to the purpose of destroying his brain."
Because the next thing it makes you susceptible to, is to "have compassion." You will then be expected to make sacrifices for "the common good."
30% of your income must be spent on social services, that you will never use once in your life. You will only use the universal healthcare system once a year, but you'll still be expected to pay your "fair share," so a meth addict can happily OD for the fifth time that month. Money will be sent overseas to assist in a war between two countries you've never heard of.
And if you object to any of it -- you are a heartless social outcast.
(Source: The perfect example of this scenario was during COVID. Fear was used in an effort to control people. Science and facts were changed in order to fit a narrative.
"In times like these, when their fat little comforts are threatened, you may be sure that science is the first thing men will sacrifice."
We were expected to sacrifice our bodily autonomy for the obese, the old, and the immunocompromised, and inject an experimental vaccine into our bodies, in the name of "public safety." Thought was jeopardized, and we were quickly taught what to think as we saw the ones who spoke up receive punishment for doing so.
Because, if you DID speak up? "Plague rat," jobs lost, protestors thrown in jail.
"'We WANT (laws) to be broken. ... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one MAKES them.'"
I have witnessed it during the homeless "crisis." You are expected to be tolerant of people openly doing hard drugs on the street. You are expected to be tolerant of people who do not want to improve themselves, or contribute back to the society that actively gives to them. The billionaires are demonized while the homeless are martyrs -- for destroying and draining their communities.
(I used to be one of the drug addicted homeless. Don't worry! I know where I'm coming from! 👍)
"'The motive of your sacrifice, it tells you, should be LOVE ... a morality that teaches you to scorn a whore who gives her body indiscriminately to men -- this same morality demands that you surrender your soul to promiscuous love for all comers.'"
(Source: https://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/08/09/riots-spread-london-other-british-cities)
On top of one thousand other issues: compassion for illegal immigration and criminals, newcomers taking precedence and receiving handouts simply for existing, airplanes expected to compensate for 400 lb. individuals, etc. The image above is London on fire. The reason? one can probably infer based on recent years.
So, I can understand why a lot of people don't enjoy the book's message. 90% of the population fell for the fear-mongering of the common flu, and continues to have the wool pulled over their eyes for every other issue today. Typically, identifying with a leech is viewed as a negative. Unfortunately, one has to wear the shoe...