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Henry Rearden's Concerto of Deliverance Comes to Life

Posted by mshupe 4 years, 10 months ago to Philosophy
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Armed with nothing but meaningless phrases, this boy had been thrown to fight for existence, he had hobbled and groped through a brief, doomed effort, he had screamed indignant, bewildered protest, and had perished in his first attempt to soar on mangled wings.²

How did anti-conceptual slogans become proof of intellect? Why does joining a mob pass for courageous self-expression? When did the threat of violence and mass looting of innocent lives become justice?³

He saw a lout scurrying across a patch of lamplight, swinging a lethal pipe at a wall of glass panes, battering them down with animal relish, dancing like a gorilla to the sound of crashing glass.²

All Comments

  • Posted by $ jbrenner 4 years, 10 months ago
    Remember the part of Atlas Shrugged about how the Wet Nurse has his defining moment and makes his first attempt to soar on mangled wings.

    I just have a really bad feeling that we are going to have a situation like the sabotage of Rearden's steel factory at Mount Rushmore and/or multiple monuments on July 4th. I feel like I ought to be in Frank Adams' (Francisco d'Anconia in disguise) role right now.
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  • Posted by OzzieWest 4 years, 10 months ago
    The Canary in Coal mine of MouchWorld was an independent pharmacy. That canary has gone tits up long ago. We are pretty far along the road to serfdom, well past time to Go Galt.
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  • Posted by j_IR1776wg 4 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Running away from the violent never begat civilized behavior. Reasoned discourse with a mindless mob is an illusion. Only breaking a bullies' nose penetrates his thick skull.
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  • Posted by term2 4 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    make their club smaller. trim down the size of government, We are NOT all in this together. This country is made up of two very different groups that cannot co-exist. America should split in two
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 4 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The guy that was a true John Galt to me is Albin Czernichowski, who invented the plasma arc reactor (very much like the Mr. Fusion from the Back to the Future movies) at age 19 in in 1959 in Poland (yes, behind the Iron Curtain). He didn't make money off of it until he and I and several others formed Florida Syngas. We converted waste to fuel (breakeven business) and chemicals (about 20% profit) to assuage environmentalist guilt until then candidate Obama made it clear that he would favor our solar energy competition, after which the entire company read Atlas Shrugged and we sold the company.
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  • Posted by mshupe 4 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If he was 70 in 1997, that would make him 30 in 1957. Hey, you're onto something!
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  • Posted by mshupe 4 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I think that's always the essential thing when discussing this insanity with others. We have to own our own lives first. These people screaming for social justice would be much better off living their lives rationally first.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 4 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I am generally optimistic about things I can control, but Seattle is out of my reach. Let the rotters rot.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 4 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That's right. We are closer to the end than even I thought. I do actually know an A/C electrician named John Galt, but he is not THE John Galt. I am still looking for him, although I used to work with one worthy of the title back in 2007-2009. That person is now 80 years old.
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  • Posted by mshupe 4 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Your post yesterday? It was a great summary, and this was already in the works.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 4 years, 10 months ago
    I thought that I had summarized everything from Atlas Shrugged that had happened in recent years in a recent post, only to see mshupe post this about the Concerto of Deliverance, the next chapter in Atlas Shrugged!
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  • Posted by mshupe 4 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That is the question, and Rand was always optimistic. She believes that our capacity for reason can and will prevail, and that catastrophe can be avoided. I suppose like any kind of addict, enough of them have to reach bottom before they rehabilitate themselves. In the mean time, active minds need to take back higher education and corporate board rooms.
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  • Posted by j_IR1776wg 4 years, 10 months ago
    Kudos to Ayn Rand for her magnificent ability to understand and describe the anti-mind motivation of the looter.

    The yet unanswered question is what must be done to stop "the mindless face of the thug with a club" when the people in government have abnegated their sworn responsibility to protect the lives and property of the producers?
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  • Posted by mshupe 4 years, 10 months ago
    If this doesn't sound like Seattle, 63 years before the fact, what does?

    "Then announcing their secession from the country, as if fighting murder with suicide: went on to seize all property within their reach, to declare community bondage of all to all, and to perish within a week. Their meager loot consumed, in the bloody hatred of all for all, in the chaos of no rule save that of the gun, to perish under the lethargic thrust of a few worn soldiers sent out from Washington to bring order to the ruins."
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