Book review of "Atlas Shrugged"

Check out the (very brief) book review of Atlas Shrugged I wrote for my OAC class:

“I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

Thus, the hero of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged chooses sides in an epic struggle for man’s soul – not in heaven, but on earth. The central plot of Atlas Shrugged is a mystery story: as Dagny Taggard, a successful railroad executive, watches the entrepreneurs and inventors of her society disappear one by one, she seeks to discover the source of the scourge that is destroying her world. She witnesses the consequences of the ethics of altruism and collectivism as her society descends into socialism, productive men are turned into slaves, and mooching beggars into her masters.

Throughout the novel, Ayn Rand presents clear examples of her philosophy in action through strong heroes and treacherous villains who demonstrate the importance of philosophy and the consequences of moral and immoral lives. Her characters ask and answer numerous important questions such as “Is reality independent of our minds or is it shaped by them? What is the result of basing our actions on emotions and what happens when we base them on reason? Why are so many successful individuals hated for their success? Should love be free or must it be earned? What is the proper role of government?” However, the most influential question Atlas Shrugged answered for me was “what kind of life must a man lead to achieve a state of guiltless happiness?”

The influence of Atlas Shrugged on my life has been so profound that I am still learning new applications of the philosophy Ayn Rand presented every day. This book is for everyone who has ever questioned the ethics of altruism and asked “what is the purpose of my life?”

Who's funding the peaceniks?

Ever notice how the media never mentions what groups are behind the protests? They make it seem like the protesters spontaneously come together in a collective orgy of anti-war sentiment, but as this WSJ editorial points out(subscription required, see one of the peacnik sites for their own list of backers), the case is far from it. Many leftist, environmentalist and plain Marxist groups are actually fueling this “popular movement.” Here are some of the financiers (Saddam must have chosen to remain anonymous):

Anti-Capitalist Convergence
Americans for Social Justice
Black Radical Congress
Code Pink for Peace
Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism
Disarm
Ecological Options Network (EON
Green Party of the United States
US Peace Council
Greenpeace
House of The Goddess Center for Pagan Wombyn [sic – lol!]
International Socialist Organization
War Resisters League [gee, sound familiar?]
Socialist Party USA
Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Pride At Work, AFL-CIO
Nukewatch

and so on…see any trend here?

the peaceniks are at it again…

Check out this photo of this weekend’s protest in Houston, from the Houston Chronicle. See the token black guy in the center? (Why else do you think the paper choose a photo of him?) That’s none other than Rob, longtime associate of Laurel and I and perhaps the most clueless philosophy major I know. Rob, I know you’re a regular reader of my blog, so let me tell you now that of all the stupid slogans you could have possibly chosen, you picked the absolute worst one. “No Blood for Oil” would have been preferable to your “The World Says NO.” The world’s opinion (as if a whole species could have one) has no bearing whatsoever on whether than opinion is right or not – something I’ve been trying to hammer into your brain for the last few years. Seriously, there are legitimate and critical questions to ask before a nation goes to war, and while I believe taking out Saddam is necessary and just action, a discussion of these issues would be a
proper thing to do. However NONE of the arguments presented by these new-age hippies have anything to do with the real questions we should be asking (is Saddam a big enough threat to the US to justify the cost of taking him out) and everything to do with typical liberal moral subjectivism, pacifism, and a general distate of western values. There’s really nothing more for me to add that I haven’t already said in my essay The anti-war protesters: what are they for?.

Fundies….

A few days ago, I was feeling argumentative so I sent off a scorching rant to an editorial by “Brother Kelly Boggs” a Creationist pastor (see letter a few blogs below.) I didn’t really do it for their sake, and didn’t expect a reply, but lo and behold, not only did “Brother Kelly” send be rebuttal, but so did a member of “The Baptist Press.” The responses aren’t really worth mentioning, since they missed the point of the email. The best part though was the “biblical evidence for why we should attack Iraq” in one of the emails (apparently supporting evolution and/or atheism automatically makes you a peacenik.)
Ah, bashing religious fundies by day and liberal wackos by night – are there any sane people left in the world?

grrr

Someone stole my bike. They didn’t just steal it, they snatched it between 6 and 8pm from outside my apartment, with me at home, the windows wide open, and my computer playing music. It was a really nice new and expensive bike too, that I had just been getting used to enjoying. I think any sentiments of what I think of the thieves or the College Station police department would be superfluous.

On a more positive note, I’ve been working on my art collection. On of the highlights is a gallery of bad art. Half of the pieces are famous examples of modern art, going for millions of dollars, and half are made by amateurs/kids/me. Which is which?

Sea lions in the NAVY….yes, real ones

On a more positive note, Sea lions are being used to guard U.S. ships in Gulf. I think it’s kinda cool: “the animals were trained to mark people but not to kill. The mammals can dive to 1,000 feet, swim at speeds up to 25 miles per hour, as well as see and hear better under water than any human or mechanical device the military has.”

Some more thoughts on the Koreas:

MSNBC reports that much of North Korea’s income comes from slave labor camps whose products are “filtered” through China and often ends up at U.S. markets. (I wonder if most libertarians support that as “free trade”?) North Korea has basically become one big slave labor camp — one which many people are deperately trying to escape at the punishment of death (or worse.) As anyone but a Marxist would realize, North Korea’s communist economy has been a miserable failure:

“At the end of the Korean War nearly half a century ago, incomes in the North were actually higher than in the South. Since then, average income and living standards have been falling in inverse proportion to their rise in South Korea. Now, according to CIA estimates, the average North Korean exists on roughly $1,000 a year, compared with $18,000 a year for South Koreans.”

North Korea’s fanaticism however, hasn’t diminished:

“Refugees who were picked up in China just trying to make a living are likely to get six months’ imprisonment in North Korea, but there is no crime worse than wanting to defect to South Korea.
“It is the severest crime,” said one of the refugees who escaped last year through a foreign embassy in Beijing and did not want his name used. “Surely they will be executed. Or even if they are not shot, they will be sent to a political prison, and they will have to suffer there all the rest of their lifetimes, and they will die there.”