10

What is your favorite part of Atlas Shrugged?

Posted by $ jbrenner 6 years, 7 months ago to Economics
104 comments | Share | Best of... | Flag

Mine is from Galt's speech: A farmer will not invest the effort of one summer if he’s unable to calculate his chances of a harvest. But you expect industrial giants - who plan in terms of decades, invest in terms of generations and undertake ninety-nine-year contracts -to continue to function and produce, not knowing what random caprice in the skull of what random official will descend upon them at what moment to demolish the whole of their effort. Drifters and physical laborers live and plan by the range of a day. The better the mind, the longer the range. A man whose vision extends to a shanty, might continue to build on your quicksands, to grab a fast profit and run. A man who envisions skyscrapers, will not. Nor will he give ten years of unswerving devotion to the task of inventing a new product, when he knows the gangs of entrenched mediocrity are juggling the laws against him, to tie him, restrict him and force him to fail, but should he fight them and struggle and succeed, they will seize his rewards and his invention.


All Comments


Previous comments...   You are currently on page 5.
  • Posted by $ 25n56il4 6 years, 7 months ago
    YOU ASK ME TO PICK? I'VE READ IT AND SEEN ALL THE MOVIES AND YOU ASK ME TO PICK,,,,I COULDN'T POSSIBLY, BUT I WILL READ IT FOR THE THIRD TIME AND SEE IF I CAN POSSIBLY. LOVE AND KISSES,
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 6 years, 7 months ago
    This is the part of Gult's speech that got to me the most.

    "Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all."

    "Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours."
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Comment hidden due to member score or comment score too low. View Comment
  • Posted by mshupe 6 years, 7 months ago
    The narrative about the passengers on the train in the tunnel was memorable and instructive. It was like a corollary to the sanction of the victim idea.
    Reply | Permalink  
  • Posted by Zero 6 years, 7 months ago
    The speech for me, too. I read it like a dog lapping water. Got chills the first time.
    That and the tunnel. How the various passengers "earned" their place on the train. Really made me think.

    Funny, a friend of mine used to read AS again every Christmas but he would skip right past Galt's 60 page speech - he'd never read it even once.
    I couldn't believe it when he told me that. I guess I thought fellow OBJ's would love the same things, but of course....
    Reply | Permalink  

  • Comment hidden. Undo