By all means, WildBill, read the book. Do not be tempted to learn about the book, much less about Ayn Rand, by reading the fairly unanimous comments of others here, whether they have read the whole book or not. A Conservative? A Liberal? A Fascist? A Progressive? Read the book, Bill, and make up your own mind.WildBill wrote:Should I read the book first?
As said by Dagny Taggart, Ayn Rand's leading character in Atlas Shrugged, [Page numbers from original text]
"You don't have to see through the eyes of others, hold onto yours, stand on your own judgment, you know that what is, is-say it aloud, like the holiest of prayers, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise." Dagny Taggart (p. 892)
"If ever the pleasure of one has to be bought by the pain of the other, there better be no trade. A trade by which one gains and the other loses is a fraud." (p. 425)
As for Ayn Rand herself, here is the author on individual rights:
"Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual)."
"Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man's genetic lineage--the notion that a man's intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors."
"The policy of the Southern states toward Negroes was and is a shameful contradiction of this country's basic principles. Racial discrimination, imposed and enforced by law, is so blatantly inexcusable an infringement of individual rights that the racist statutes of the South should have been declared unconstitutional long ago."
And for a look from the other side,
"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." -- Paul Krugman
[Credit to Michael Shermer]
Elmo