Introduction

I love Atlas Shrugged, even though I hate everyone else who likes it, and everyone I do like hates it. This is because everyone takes this books so fucking seriously. Like, way too seriously. I suppose it's because Ayn Rand's philosophy is unabashedly black-and-white; she even says so in this book. Consequently, everyone either sees it greater than the Bible plus Lord of the Rings times TEN, or else a piece of trash that's both evil and awfully written. Even my hero Sam Harris couldn't finish any of her books, and called Objectivism "autism rebranded".  That last part is probably true; at any rate, he's the very last person I'd presume to advise on ethics.

I won't be making any value judgments about the philosophy expressed in this book except to say that I suspect that if her philosophy were executed 100%, then all things considered, the result would be better than the status quo. I'm not very confident about this, and really, it's more of an indictment of the status quo than a praise for objectivism; we'd probably end up with something like the society seen in Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash, which would be fun, but probably isn't the best of all possible worlds.

Instead, I will simply contend that Atlas Shrugged is a cool story. At the very least, it's a unique story, with likable heroes, amusing villains, and very good prose. No one else seems capable of appreciating this without conflating the prose with the philosophy it endorses. It also doesn't help that the book is outrageously long. That's where I come in. Lets be real: who has time to read a 1500 page novel?

This will be my humble effort to bring the story of Atlas Shrugged to the masses. Sam Harris, I'm calling you out! If you ever wander onto this blog and enjoy it, I'll consider it one of the crowning achievements of my life thus far.