The American Spectator : Atlas Is Shrugging

Atlas Is Shrugging

The headline in Investor's Business Daily, September 16, 2009: "45% of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul."

The headline in the Boston Globe, September 28, 2009: "States risk it, raise tax on rich."

The problem with four of nine U.S. doctors saying they "would consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement" is that "the number of doctors is already lagging population growth," reports Investor's Business Daily.

Add millions of new patients to a shrinking supply of doctors and the obvious result is an English-style queue, longer waits in pain, and a centrally-directed rationing of service.

The aforementioned Boston Globe article on soaking the rich explains that New York's increased confiscation of income from the "deep-pocketed rich" through higher taxes is producing a "millionaires' exit."

Said New York's lieutenant governor, Richard Ravitch, regarding the flight of the state's millionaires and the decline in government revenues that has already occurred as a result of the higher tax rates: "People aren't wedded to a geographic place as they once were."

In Atlas Shrugged, a novel by Ayn Rand, the most productive and creative citizens in the United States --- the innovators, risk-takers, artists, entrepreneurs, capitalists, intellectuals, industrialists --- overturn the conventional concept of victimhood and go on strike, refusing any longer to be exploited by society, refusing to be demonized as too successful, too rich, too individualistic, too free.

Led by John Galt, the novel's hero, the industrious organize a strike against the ever-expanding yoke of government coercion. They strike to halt the murder of man's spirit, to halt the confiscation of man's work, to defend individualism, reason, liberty, human achievement and the market economy.

They strike by mysteriously disappearing, by withdrawing their productivity from society, by withdrawing their minds and ingenuity, in a walkout that Galt describes as "stopping the motor of the world."

Near the climax of the novel, Galt takes over a radio broadcast to reveal the strike and its rationale, explain why society has collapsed into an ever-growing crisis of scarcity and misery, and deliver a manifesto for liberty to a corrupt society:

I am the man who has deprived you of victims and thus has destroyed your world.… All the men who have vanished, the men you hated, yet dreaded to lose, it is I who have taken them away from you. We are on strike against self-immolation. We are on strike against the creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. We are on strike against the dogma that the pursuit of one's happiness is evil. We are on strike against the doctrine that life is guilt…

There is a difference between our strike and all those you've practiced for centuries: our strike consists, not of making demands, but of granting them. We are evil, according to your morality. We have chosen not to harm you any longer. We are useless, according to your economics. We have chosen not to exploit you any longer. We are dangerous and to be shackled, according to your politics. We have chosen not to endanger you, nor to wear the shackles any longer.

You have sacrificed justice to mercy. You have sacrificed independence to unity. You have sacrificed reason to faith. You have sacrificed wealth to need. You have sacrificed self-esteem to self-denial. You have sacrificed happiness to duty…

Your ideal had an implacable enemy, which your code of morality was designed to destroy. I have withdrawn that enemy. I have taken it out of your way and out of your reach. I have removed the source of all those evils you were sacrificing one by one. I have ended your battle. I have stopped your motor. I have deprived your world of man's mind…

While you were dragging to your sacrificial altars the men of justice, of independence, of reason, of wealth, of self-esteem, I beat you to it --- I reached them first. I told them the nature of the game you were playing and the nature of that moral code of yours, which they had been too innocently generous to grasp…

The inauguration of Barack Obama took place on January 20, 2009. The Economist magazine reported that week that Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957, had moved up to 33rd place among Amazon's top-selling books.

Letter to the Editor

Deborah D| 10.6.09 @ 6:49AM

Over the weekend I read a great column by David Warren of the Ottawa Citizen comparing Obama to Gorbachev (similarities and differences). He notes one significant similarity those two share along with other rather brain-dead liberals who want to tear down the private sector while they build up the public one:

"This is perhaps the most essential, if seldom acknowledged, insight of the post-modern 'liberal' mind: that if you take the pillars away, the roof will continue to hover in the air."

Where do they think the money to support the edifice comes from? I don't think they care. They'd rather rule over a third-world country than share power over a first-world one. Or, are they just that stupid?

Son Of Sam| 10.6.09 @ 8:53AM

They're not stupid: they're criminals and lunatics. And we need to not only throw them out of office, we need to put them behind bars. We will never be a free people again until we are free of them.

stand strong until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam
http://www.samadamssos.bravehost.com

T.Barr| 10.6.09 @ 6:58AM

Rand's novel will, I have no doubt, move up in Amazon's ranking. At least it is my fervant hope.
Lest this great nation is "transformed" to it's doom.

TennesseeVolunteer| 10.6.09 @ 7:20AM

Reading Atlas Shrugged three years ago changed the way I looked at politicians and our country. It made it very easy to see our politicians as the problem (Obama and the Democrats were a fast death, The Repubs a slow one).
Going Galt Lite has already started: small businesses closing or down sizing until things get better, citizens moving to free market states like Texas, the purchase of ammunition and guns.
You will begin to see the growing of gardens and other ways for individuals to conserve and spend less, even if they could buy things.
Americans hate being lied and cheated. Our government is now dismissive, derisive (Obamas words) and the American people are voting with theri feet, their pocketbooks and their religion.
We must act in 2010 to remove ALL politicians who do not put the Constitution first with their actions. It is our sacred duty.

Appleby| 10.6.09 @ 7:29AM

Canada has already Gone Galt in a quiet way -- that is why it is so spectacularly unsuccessful and why its people are so discouraged.

Although the address to the world that John Galt makes in the book would have been stupefying as a Castro Harangue in reality, someone should extract it and publish it in a *pamphlet* form and start handing it out to the populace at large. Not that the populace will understand *self-immolation* which repeats endlessly -- and the attacks on religion are tedious and distracting and evidence Rands own communist background more than reality -- but there is substance there that might possibly start some of the proletariat thinking that serfdom might not in fact be their destiny.

Not here in Canada. We are doomed. But you on the outside can still save yourselves.

Tom Anderson| 10.6.09 @ 2:40PM

Appleby, Rand's fundamental point, stated in philosophic terms, is this: man has a right to live his life for his own sake. There is a fundamental moral difference between Rand's view and Christian morality. Linking faith to capitalism hurts the credibility of capitalism and ultimately undermines it.

Bud| 10.7.09 @ 1:37AM

Although I like Galt's admittedly long speech, there is a part of the book that is a real gem: Francisco D'Anconia's discourse on the moral meaning of money. It cuts the looter and the moocher to the quick.

Brad| 10.7.09 @ 7:01AM

I couldn't agree more! D'Anconia's discurse on money really explains money, and peoples attitudes towards it, very well. To me, that is the most moving part of the entire book. It is something that should be taught in every public school - yea - right - that's gonna happen.

Galen| 10.6.09 @ 7:48AM

I don't get it; who's this John Gault?

Deborah D| 10.6.09 @ 8:16AM

Funny, Galen.

(Galt not Gault, however)

LQQKY| 10.6.09 @ 8:35AM

BTW: Did anyone else notice the report that the messiah provided the white coats for his turncoat doctors? It just keeps getting better and better (or is that curiouser and curiouser?).
C.D. Lueders

Bill| 10.6.09 @ 3:02PM

Not only provided the white coats for the masquerade, but these"Doctors" were not picked by accident, The Doctors for America are non other than the Doctors for Obama of the campaign. All these stiffs were there suppossedly representing an unpartial cross section of American doctors..just another Obam fraud on the American people!
And, who finances the Doctors for America? An environmental land conservation group,any one smell George Soros?

Steve G| 10.6.09 @ 9:26AM

In the novel Rand takes on the redistribution of wealth and demonstrates how pernicious it quickly becomes.

The heirs of a highly successful motor vehicle manufacturer impose a new compensation regime on the company's officers and employees, based on the communist's "From each according to his ability. To each according to his need." The heirs delegate to the employees the distribution of the company's profits (after taking a good chunk for themselves). The employees all vote on each employee's pay for the next year and soon find that they have to weigh one employee's "need" (real or manufactured) against the others, and how this results in the employees finding that they can get a raise only if they can show that their "need" is greater than the others. Imagine having to debase yourself and demonstrating your lack of skills in order to get a raise for the year. Of course, the company's product suffers and it goes out of business.

If this is where we are headed, our best and brightest will find more attractive places to work, invent, write, think, invest, and just live, as this will become a very depressing country.

Ted| 10.6.09 @ 11:41PM

Consider the plight of General Motors and Chrysler.

owyheewine| 10.6.09 @ 9:38AM

This could be the start of a brand new unregulated industry called physiologic improvement, set up outside the existing "health care" infrastructure. This is America, the land of opportunity and innovation.

Old Soldier| 10.6.09 @ 9:50AM

The next year or so before the really massive taxes increases kick in will be an economic race against time. I'm doing all I can to get to a sustainable position prior to 2011, then I will have the option of "going Galt" if I can't keep at least half the fruits of my labor.

Larry C. Roberts, MD, MA| 10.6.09 @ 10:46AM

Having just returned from the annual meeting of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, I was both disheartened and encouraged. Disheartened by the reports from conservative Congressmen present that Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are going to force the Nazi nightmare of Obamacare down our throats, regardless of overwhelming opposition. Encouraged by the ever-growing number of freedom-loving physicians who, like me, are enacting their own Emancipation Proclamation and opting out of the Medicare system. To paraphrase a popular 1960's Dylan hit, "We ain't gonna work on Obama's farm no more."

Tim| 10.6.09 @ 10:57AM

Doctor Evil! You racist, tonsil stealing bastard! How DARE you quit without permission! Don't worry, under the New Order you kulaks will be sorted out and set right. A taste of the whip is what you need.

Seriously though, it really angers me to see Doctors get trashed by the political class. Good luck sir.

Ron Pavellas| 10.7.09 @ 8:35AM

I just finished reading Solzhenitsyn's "Cancer Ward." There is much to commend it, including especially chapter 9 in Part 2: "The Old Doctor." It shows what state control of medicine did to the profession of medicine in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. There are other totalitarian goodies exposed, some of which you can read in my blog. There are parallels from that time (around mid-1950s) with today. Scary.

Sue| 10.8.09 @ 12:09AM

At the end of the book, Mr. Galt is kidnapped and tied up to electrical wires and told "he must help them reestablish order." He is shocked repeatedly and refuses to cooperate. The wires burn out and a "hack" is ordered to fix them. The "hack" can't repair them because he has no working knowledge of electricity and was "set up" in the job. Mr. Galt rises up from the table and offers to fix the wires himself. The "hack" runs from the room. Great read!!!!!!

If the doctors' refuse to participate in the Medicare/Medicaid system, the government will "force" them into it and they will quit.

The Country will become lost and it will take years to recover, if ever. I know one thing for sure, the baby boomers will be the largest segment of population affected and the angriest!

Tim| 10.6.09 @ 10:53AM

I'd like to see the stats on where those diplaced wealthy people settle after leaving New York.

Dixie Pixie| 10.6.09 @ 4:47PM

To: Tim
Florida, That is why Florida is turning into New York South.

Nevadaman| 10.6.09 @ 7:34PM

Yes, and Florida will have the same problem we here in Nevada have with Californians. They leave CA to escape the taxes and regulation, but drag their politics with them and in so doing are turning us into California Lite.

Mark30339| 10.6.09 @ 10:54AM

The withdrawal by producers to the Midas Mulligan utopian enclave was a useful literary device but entirely naive as an legitimate option. The most important message from Shrugged is that the leftists never have an answer for the disasters they create, they just use each crisis to justify seizing more and more -- and expect the enslaved to make it work. The key to seizing authority is to insist that the producers should be guilt-ridden for their profiteering; they sucker the public into yielding authority to them with guilt. The class envy card has been played for decades. The guilt cards in vogue today are carbon and race. If you pay attention, the core of these controversies is a strategy to get you to voluntarily surrender your rights and your property. The proponents have no virtue themselves, they just wish to overwhelm you with
gross distortions over the earth being in jeopardy and over America being a malevolent failure to people of color. Once enough of us feel sufficiently guilty for using carbon or being white, they seize our rights and our property.

Ray| 10.6.09 @ 1:09PM

"The withdrawal by producers to the Midas Mulligan utopian enclave was a useful literary device but entirely naive as an legitimate option."

This really is a legitimate option and it is already occurring. Look at all the companies that are 'outsourcing" labor overseas. Look at all the companies that have relocated their headquarters, their manufacturing base, and their operations overseas.

The Exodus is already occurring, one company or corporation at a time.

We all know why this is occurring. Well, some of us know why this is occurring. It's occuring because, for the good of America, the polititions punnish sucess while rewarding failure. They tax the sucessfull business and use those taxes to subsidize the failing ones.

But what to the people who are forcing this exodus do, those politicians who repeatedly raise taxes and impose levies on imported products while subsidize failing industries and creating yet another entitlement program? They complain that those business are "hiding" income in overseas banks and that there is a "brain drain" occurring. They insist that this is not acceptable so they institute even more taxes and regulations in an attempt to counteract the effects of the exodus that their policies inspired. They add fuel to the fire yet never seem to understand that they were the spark that ignited the blaze.

Dr. Bombay | 10.6.09 @ 11:00AM

I realize far-left loons like Bill Maher don't believe that profit should be involved in health care. Thus, the government takes it over and makes it "fair" for everyone. So a guy making minimum wage is now contributing to this big government pot to help pay for Bill Maher's health care. Just a thought.

Appleby| 10.6.09 @ 11:36AM

Even better, the minimum wage earner is taught that it's good for his child to die on a waiting list provided Bill Maher's child dies five minutes sooner.

That is, socialism does not want equality. It wants revenge.

Bud| 10.7.09 @ 1:34AM

Yes, revenge. Revenge for the fact that the person who is independent makes the slackers see themselves as lesser beings.

Pingback| 10.6.09 @ 11:10AM

Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Atlas Is Shrugging [spectator.org] o links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…the_spectator The_Spectator philipaklein Philip Klein amspec American Spectator 112 Show more Shortened Links Linking to the spectator.org page http://bit.ly/7Kpp info 2 tweets Tweet The American Spectator : Atlas Is Shrugging spectator.org/archives/2009/10/06/atlas-is-shrugging – view page – cached The headline in Investor's Business Daily, September 16, 2009: "45% of Doctors Would Consider Quitting…

Tom| 10.6.09 @ 1:05PM

Socialism works fine - until you run out of other people's money.

Bill| 10.6.09 @ 1:57PM

Obama is smoke and mirrors, the "Docros for America", actually are the previous "Doctors for Obama"! White coats provided for this masquerasde of non partial, 50 state doctors were courtesy of the props department of the White House! They have something for every one!
They should have been wearing clown noses and frilly wigs!
What a fraud!
From the get go Obam governs as he has before never take a clear stand on anything, fence sit until the heat comes up then deny your position while never stating a new one clearly!
That way no one can ever pin you down, if you never take a clear stand!

Ken (Old Texican)| 10.6.09 @ 2:00PM

As an officer in a growing public company, I can personally attest to the reality that ("working-capital has already gone Galt"). The cash for growth is GONE!

Growing healthy companies need cash to expand and hire. We also need a stable...PREDICTABLE... governmental tax and economic policy on our side.
Ladies and gentlemen, this administration gives us neither. I must agree with Rush: "This is all by design."
Holy moley! They really do want you and I back on the farm behind a mule, (a mule that doesn't fart and pollute the atmosphere.)

Start hunkering down, folks!
Grain by the bag...(wheat and corn)
dried beans by the bag. (crucial)
A BB gun to shoot birds (protein)
.22 cartridges as many as you can buy...for barter
gold...for when things start to get better

And then prayer, that we can stop these jerks before they can tear everything down. 2010 is the very last chance for our republic; choose wisely.

Al Adab| 10.6.09 @ 2:20PM

Ken,
How can I arrange to immigrate (legally) to the Republic of Texas? A free nation in North America would be a welcom sight.

melintexas| 10.12.09 @ 2:30PM

Buy an acre in the country and put an rv on it. You'll be welcomed by your neighbors.

Al Adab| 10.6.09 @ 2:13PM

Already my Dr. refuses to accept medicare coverage due to the ever increasing difficulty in getting payment. We contract with him to assure we will not use medicare as our payee. Private or emplyer insurance is accepted.

Should government mandates actually take effect, he like many others, will simply close their practices and patients will be left with fewer choices and fewer doctors. Hence the longer waiting lists and times.

Yeah, government solutions are what we all desire. NOT.

terrymac| 10.6.09 @ 3:03PM

The withdrawal is beginning. People are not only refusing to work for the slavedrivers, they are finding ways to do what the slavedrivers claim as their special purpose: arming themselves in self-defense, teaching their own, planting gardens, networking with their neighbors, laying in stores, disengaging from the debt treadmill.

This government is facing a credibility crisis. Best not to be dependent upon government when people notice that the "full faith and credit" account is badly overdrawn.

Klabautermann| 10.6.09 @ 4:16PM

Bill Maher, being a member of Lumpenaristokracy, will not be subjected to the same treatment as the “masses.” How long will this situation last? Not long. The Governor of New York has already commented on people leaving for “Galt’s Gulch.” This is a natural phenomenon. People are rational beings, if possible, they move where conditions are better. Look at the bright side. Call it the greening effect. Aerial photos of Detroit show that vegetation is now reclaiming that once vibrant city. Is this intentional? Ask Robert Mugabe. His financial advisor, Gideon Gono, is secretly advising the Obama administration. Mugabe has managed to raise the life expectancy of the average citizen from sixty all the way up to thirty. This should be front page news. It is not. We are nearing the climax of this farce. The looters will not be able to finance their dreams. The roof will not “continue to hover in the air.”

Johnny Knuckles| 10.6.09 @ 4:24PM

Unless you're already indispensable, removing yourself from society is a waste. The public doesn't miss what they didn't have. (Like your precious talent.) FDR was Obama on 'roids and a million talented individuals "on strike" wouldn't have helped. Stalin killed every talented person who didn't escape his USSR and he was a god among the Soviet masses and Western intellectoids. People that elect or support a tyrant that drives a society into the ground will NEVER come to their senses no matter how gifted the speaker. The cause and effect of gov't health care and the shortage of doctors is too long for idiots to make the connection. They don't make the connection in Canada, UK, and elsewhere. You can't retreat and win. Since there is no New World to run to, we need to stay involved and fight back.

Ken (Old Texican)| 10.6.09 @ 4:36PM

Al Adab
I will personally stamp your Visa as a Texan who got(back) here as soon as possible. 713-569-3896
God bless, and welcome.
Ken

Mike Lee| 10.6.09 @ 11:02PM

Ken. Do you have room for this NY Yankee. This administration wants to force the states that are not insane to adopt the policies of the states that have abandoned economic common sense. (NY Cali call your office)

Al Adab| 10.7.09 @ 12:21AM

Ken,
When I remember the restaurants in Fredricksburg, I do get tempted. Can I bring my "Come and take it" flag?

melintexas| 10.12.09 @ 2:34PM

Bring your flag and your brain. We welcome the independent producers who are willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with us to retain our freedom.

Michael L. Hauschild| 10.6.09 @ 4:55PM

Don't worry, be happy. The RNC and their RINO candidates will ride over the hill with another "gang of ____" and save the day.
Now, would some dingbat duffus interject the forty million dollar loser Romney, tell us how he will save us economically with his Massachusetts Health Care plan and then make light of Sarah Palin.

Thom| 10.6.09 @ 5:25PM

The downside to going “Galt” is you do have to have a real place to go. It is one thing for some “rich” to leave a state but the Federal tax monster follows regardless. The former Soviet Union went “Galt” for the better part of 70 years and will probably never recover from that experience. Our current “Galt” situation is primarily the result of the top 3-5% not making any taxable money in the market but the “government” is still spending like it has the income. That is where the bulk of the financial support comes from for the existing Marxist government we have. There is no accountability in a Dumbmocracy outside of a rope and a tree. It is going to take more than a few disgruntled middle class people to change the minds of the majority that see nothing wrong with government stealing from one person in order to buy the vote of another. 51 sheep are going to keep winning elections as long as there is enough blood and drive left in the remaining sheep dogs that they depend on. In about 6 years the bulk of the sheep dogs are going to become part of the problem and add more weight to “Galt” but someone has to pay the bills of those that are then dependent on all that they have supported throughout their productive lives. If the system collapse, we all lose something but the dependent sheep are still around and history doesn’t paint a pretty picture on how that works out. The Constitution was specifically constructed to prevent this kind of suicide pact but the Constitution has been ignored so long that no one is willing to make the case that the bulk of our government is unconstitutional. We made our first installment in destroying the Constitution in 1913 by creating different classes of citizens, income producers vs. consumers of that income and now we have a class based society divided right down the middle of what that produces. As long as we have a “classed” based society the Constitution and what it protects will be worthless in the eyes of the law. It is going to take more than John Galt to save what is at risk here.

Bud| 10.7.09 @ 1:33AM

I cannot disagree with your pessimism. The folks who've come to think they'll be cared for by government edict are in for a very rough ride, indeed. They will run out of things to loot long before their appetites are sated.

By the way, the carnage started long before 1913. The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 essentially dictated how railroads charged for freight. Justice John Marshall was one of the key players in the neutering of the 10th Amendment.

Marc Jeric| 10.6.09 @ 6:00PM

Community organizations = soviets; White House advisers = komissars (not czars). Abu Hussein from Kenya = the Great Leader, or Community Organizer-in-Chief. Are we getting any clearer?

Richard Baker| 10.6.09 @ 7:32PM

Read on Field and Stream's website that many of the major firearms makers are considering moving to Idaho. The Galt migration is beginning. When the Western US secedes from the Union, they'll have their own gunmakers. Armed America will not be enslaved by lazy Americans and tyrannical government. Stay tuned, sportsfans.

N. Stahl| 10.7.09 @ 4:34PM

The western American Free States will have plenty of help in taking California, Oregon, and Washington courtesy of the Americans remaining in those states. Access to the Pacific will be vital to the free states' economic growth, and the "lazy Americans," really eurofascists, will fight to deny that access.

Richard Baker| 10.6.09 @ 7:33PM

If you've not, I suggest you read "Atlas Shrugged." Outstanding.

DaveS| 10.6.09 @ 8:23PM

Government is a parasite - except for the DoD.

Pingback| 10.6.09 @ 8:28PM

“Atlas” Has an Itch | Axis of Right links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…is it so acceptable to discriminate against a specific class of people (the wealthy) and not expect blow-back once a threshold is reached? Good for them, I say! As the American Spectator’s Ralph Reiland points out (spoilers in link ), once Obama was inaugurated Ayn Rand’s 52 year-old tome Atlas Shrugged jumped to #33 on Amazon’s top-selling books. It’s unfortunately an important book for…

Osamas Pajamas| 10.6.09 @ 10:11PM

In the 42 years since first I read the novels and other books of Ayn Rand, I have developed one significant criticism of her, and I shared it with her in a handshake line at Boston's Ford Hall Forum where she'd given one of her many lectures, decades ago. "The problem, " I ventured," is that I can read faster than you can write great books." She stared at me like I was from outer space, and said, "That, I take it, is a compliment." I laughed nervously and beat feet for the bus back to Marblehead.

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Osamas Pajamas| 10.7.09 @ 2:09AM

You're a pollutant of the discussion and I'm coming for you.

Osamas Pajamas| 10.7.09 @ 2:20AM

Truman once threatened to draft doctors into the army and for whatever screwball reason, his intended victims let him live to serve out his term as president. Fast-forward to today ---- if the Healthcare Hijacking is made into "law" [uh, like a "law" of nature, for example?] ---- what will be the response of doctors? Not OhBummer's faked-up doctors visiting the White House for a faked-up photo session, but REAL doctors? This Healthcare Hijacking bill is a turkey, and it should be tossed into a 55-gallon drum with a couple of live grenades and blown straight to hell. Yee haa.

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Vinnster| 10.7.09 @ 6:28AM

There are indeed many folks already going Galt...many have never read AS, but they see the writing on the wall. I live in the mountains of North Carolina, about 90 miles north of Atlanta.

I am friends with many real estate brokers and they noticed a spike in a 'certain type of customer" just after The One was elected. The customer is usually a professional or a small business owner. They seek a "second home" that the brokers have heard described over and over...secluded (easy up here), water source on the property, as much as possible self sustaining (propane generator with huge storage tanks), southern exposed section of land for a large garden. Meat and fish are plentiful here from the native wildlife and streams.

I also have a gunsmith friend who two years ago was doing OK...now he is custom building AR15s as fast as he can and selling them at a premium.

On three occasions I have met these folks, one lawyer, one accountant, and one electrical contractor...to a man they said the last place they want to be if things go as they think, is in the city. One even went so far as to say, "Where do you think the criminal types are going to go first when the grocery stores have no more food...to the middle-class homes of those unarmed."

PolishKnight| 10.7.09 @ 10:42AM

Sadly, Atlash Shrugged is similar to Orwell's 1984 but with a different conclusion: As the producers in Orwell's world were destroyed or controlled and problems and shortages arose, the state found ways to exploit those very problems to increase it's power via blaming spies from EurAsia and getting more gratitude from the people by doling out the remaining benefits. If YOU weren't grateful for having your chocolate rations "increased" to 1/2 of what they were yesterday, someone else surely would be!

It's a perfect allegory for the Democrat welfare state where believers shamelessly both blame and mock excluded special interest groups for the failures of their ideology while bragging about all they have "accomplished." Rotting public school systems that need more money are "starved" by evil republican right wingers and, at the same time, are paragons of success in educating children. Medicaid is bankrupt and it's reform will pay for socialist medicine which will be modeled on... the great success Medicaid!

It is not sufficient for producers to go on strike. It's clear that the leftists already have a game plan for that. But if they MOVE somewhere and mock them, then THAT is a problem. That's precisely what America is, relative to socialist Europe, and why the left hates it so much. It's not a matter of why doesn't America become more like "superior" western Europe but rather why doesn't the USA need to?

John OB| 10.7.09 @ 12:09PM

Their are many John Galt's speaking today, they are on the airwaves and sites like this one. The return is underway. Millions of Eddie Willers have been rescued from the tracks and have made their way to the town halls, the tea parties and the 9/12 marches. They must now stay on the attack and move their energy into concrete political action in the next election. They must work for and support leaders who can pledge allegiance to: restoring the Constitution to its original intention, limiting big government, ending onerous taxation and regulation, and unleashing free-market Capitalism--the mind and motor of our nation!

Pingback| 10.7.09 @ 12:49PM

Who is John Galt? – GRIFENHAGEN DOT COM links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

… The comments on the website (at the end of the article) are genuine, heartfelt and, for the most part, full of fear, uncertainty, doubt and significant anger. And they’re certainly worth reading. Click here when you’ve read the article to read the commentary. SBG Atlas Is Shrugging By Ralph R. Reiland on 10.6.09 @ 6:06AM The headline in Investor’s Business Daily, September 16, 2009: “45% of…

Bill| 10.7.09 @ 5:37PM

The message I got from the Atheist's rantings in Atlas Shrugged was to not let power, economic and political, concentrate in the first place. Don't allow Taggard and others to accumulate such wealth and power to start with. Obama is correct: we must deconcentrate (spread) the wealth before the secenario dreampt up by the fanatical Atheist comes to pass.

John OB| 10.7.09 @ 7:10PM

And if we had done what Obama wants in the first place, Al Gore would not have invented the internet and you, Bill, would be writing with a feather and sending your messages by pidgeon.

Bill| 10.8.09 @ 11:30AM

I bet you also think that if you had never existed, your wife would be spinster librarian, don't ya?
Atlas Shrugged and It's a Wonderful Life are works of fiction. There is no Pottersville.
Thanks for your comment.
bye

Richard Baker| 10.7.09 @ 7:16PM

Bill:
The scenario comes to pass in the book because the leeches like yourself destroy the means of wealth creation and production. So where does the money for your salary come from, Hugo Chavez? Try reality, sport if you can take it.

Bill| 10.8.09 @ 11:26AM

The money for my salary comes from the people who voluntarily purchase my services; I wish they had more money to spend on the classes I teach; and, yes, it is a private University. The reality is that jobs are created when people purchase the output of those jobs. Bill Gates has never met a payroll; The CFO a Microsoft meets the payroll there out of the sales proceeds of Microsoft's products; what is left over goes to Bill Gates; that's how he got wealthy, takimg money out, not putting it in.
Thanks for your comment, sport.
bye.

ET| 10.8.09 @ 1:06AM

Atlas Shrugged is a fascinating story with a powerful message.
It's therefore kind of sad to see it, along with Ayn Rand in general, used as a kind of Pinata for the bashing of such concepts as free markets; these sneering, snotty references to people who like Ayn Rand books as mindless robots of capitalism have become the increasingly predominant dialectic regarding "Atlas Shrugged".
Has anyone else noticed this, or am I just another paranoid Randian zombie, just as the media describes?
It was thus with satisfaction that I noticed, on a subsequent visit to the bookstore, another guy picking up a copy. I assured him that he would enjoy it.

Oh, and I couldn't agree more - Francisco D'Anconia's speech on the concept of money is my vote for "Best part of the book".

MrsH| 10.8.09 @ 2:40AM

I began working a "real job "during the Reagan years. Right after he cut my govt research job, God Bless him. He saved us all from the dismal fate of govt employment. My company produced fine, custom products for profit. My boss raised me to "Run your department like it's your own business". Heaven in so many ways. Alas, after maybe 10 years, new management, sharks came in. They wanted posession of my skill. To command my abiity on a schedule to make them look good - their name on the final product. to bury the truth that our most difficult clients would only work with me, not the "suits". They did wear such very nice suits. see Atlas Shrugging as Management began to believe they owned my brain, could command its creative ability and criticize my self as I produced. achieved obscene profits.

MrsH| 10.8.09 @ 3:20AM

Well, the suits took over, and forced Creativity out, for we cost too much. Now they have their empty shell and we are free and thinking, perhaps consult Francisco about money. We shall raise our sons, nearly Men now. We'll talk and explore on the camp or the beach, play cards, enjoy my man, see a movie, enjoy our sons with their Father. We'll take the time to live in this historic moment. We 've read many books, and more will come. The best of these? Ayn Rand's ANTHEM. Never to subject myself again to those needy people who are called WE. And in these days, when so many believe in the WE, that they have forgotten, or never have known: I. Myself. . . This time Living an Anthem for Myself. My creativity to call mine, and share where I will.
This new life is good and God will lead me & mine

Pingback| 10.8.09 @ 9:02AM

When Atlas Shrugs With Doctors « Quipster links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…Not so good if you don’t. Reasonable if you have government sponsored coverage through Medicare or Medicaid. Worse if your doctor takes an early permanent vacation when Obamacare is instituted. Atlas Is Shrugging. The American Spectator takes us back to the 1957 novel “ Atlas Shrugged ” by Ayn Rand. …the most productive and creative citizens in the United States — the innovators,…

Dr. Gregory Garamoni| 10.8.09 @ 4:21PM

As you know, Washington is poised to inject a lethal dose of statism into the heart of the health care system.

The massive dose of marxist medicine would induce grave waves of arrhythmia - inflation, price controls, lower quality, doctor shortages, waiting periods, and rationing.

These disturbances would become so emotionally distressing to the American people that Alinsky-inspired statists — opportunists that they are — would be able to exploit each new “health care crisis” as another opportunity to inject another dose of marxist medicine into the system.

In July 2009, the House Ways and Means Committee, marking up the Health bill (HR3200), REJECTED 22-19 an amendment from Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) that would have prevented providers from being forced to participate in the public plan.

This vote should tell you what the liberals in Congress and their loyal block of greedy-needy voters have in mind for health care professionals like me: Slavery.

We must not let this happen without putting up a fight!

I am doing what I can to stop this leftist-led, lemming-like leap into health care hell.

Anticipating this possibility, I founded Doctors on Strike for Freedom in Medicine on July 4, 2009 to preserve, protect, and promote the rights of patients to make health care decisions in consultation with their doctors -- without interference from government bureaucrats.

Our longer range objective is to provide health care professionals with a principled, vigorous defense of freedom in medicine based on a philosophy of rational self-interest, individualism, and capitalism.

Most of the arguments advanced in the public debate concern the economics of health care reform -- the costs and benefits of doing this or that, for this or that group, facing this or that problem. Serious debate about the philosophical issues underlying government-run health care is unusual.

We need to focus more intellectual attention on the philosophical war in health care — the war between the axis of coercion (altruism — collectivism — statism) and the axis of freedom (rational self-interest — individualism — capitalism). Unless the philosophical issues are joined, the statists will surely win their long war against free market healthcare, while we, like Emperor Nero, foolishly fiddle with the economic issues.

To help doctors unite and wage a more effective philosophical war for free market medicine, I wrote The Declaration of Independence for Doctors and have been stockpiling an armory of intellectual ammunition from the Founding Fathers and other philosophical defenders of freedom, including Ayn Rand. This material is located on the "Intellectual Ammunition" page of our website.

Inspired by Atlas Shrugged, we have been encouraging doctors to prepare themselves to “go on strike” by (a) refusing to participate in any new government health care plans and (b) opting out of existing plans like Medicare and Medicaid.

Some health care practitioners might not be willing or able to pull this off.

But many others --like me -- would.

The clock is ticking. We will know soon enough whether a strike is necessary.

Google "doctors on strike" and you will find examples of strikes all over the world.

So people would be foolish to think it can't or won't be done here in America.

Will doctors “go Galt” silently, individually, and gradually as the “men of the mind” did in Ayn Rand’s novel, “Atlas Shrugged”?

Or will a few leaders emerge who are willing and able to get doctors to “go Galt” together in a massive, orchestrated, and public show of solidarity?

Under this scenario, doctors around the country might unite to destroy their provider agreements with Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and SCHIPs. For maximum effect, this might be done several days before the scheduled vote on the final bill that emerges from Congress. (Of course, doctors would take steps to do this in a way that legally and safely transitions their patients to other providers.)

Whatever doctors decide to do, I encourage them to reflect on the meaning of the “sanction of the victim” expressed by John Galt, the hero of Ayn Rand’s novel, “Atlas Shrugged,” in the following passage:

‘Then I saw what was wrong with the world, I saw what destroyed men and nations, and where the battle for life had to be fought. I saw that the enemy was an inverted morality—and that my sanction was its only power. I saw that evil was impotent—that evil was the irrational, the blind, the anti-real—and that the only weapon of its triumph was the willingness of the good to serve it. Just as the parasites around me were proclaiming their helpless dependence on my mind and were expecting me voluntarily to accept a slavery they had no power to enforce, just as they were counting on my self-immolation to provide them with the means of their plan—so throughout the world and throughout men’s history, in every version and form, from the extortions of loafing relatives to the atrocities of collectivized countries, it is the good, the able, the men of reason, who act as their own destroyers, who transfuse to evil the blood of their virtue and let evil transmit to them the poison of destruction, thus gaining for evil the power of survival, and for their own values—the impotence of death. I saw that there comes a point, in the defeat of any man of virtue, when his own consent is needed for evil to win—and that no manner of injury done to him by others can succeed if he chooses to withhold his consent. I saw that I could put an end to your outrages by pronouncing a single word in my mind. I pronounced it. The word was “No.”’

Inspired by this passage, I feel now is the right time to say, “Enough is enough!”

This time doctors need to draw a line in the sand.

If Congress and the Administration cross it, we should be fully prepared and firmly resolved to shrug and unburden ourselves of the unbearable weight that government regulations impose on us.

When the dust settles, doctors and patients might then champion a new ethic of voluntary trade to govern their relationships in a free market:

“The Traders Oath: I swear by my life, and my love of it, that as a doctor, as a patient, as a human being, I will forever defend the right of every doctor, every patient, every human being to be treated as a trader among traders, not a slave under masters, nor a master over slaves.”

Dr. Gregory Garamoni
Clinical Psychologist 
Doctors on Strike for Freedom in Medicine 
http://www.doctorsonstrike.com

Bill| 10.8.09 @ 4:53PM

Go ahead. Get. We don't need you. We have the internet; we can diagnose ourselves; medical tourism; foreign trained doctors will flock here to replace you.
The problem with the themes of the atheist's, Ayn Rand's, novels is much like the problem with the theme to the move It's a Wonderful Life: she, and you, seem to think that you are irreplaceable, you are not; no-one is.
If Bill Gates had never existed, we would still have word processor's, etc. If you had never existed, your wife would not have eshcewed other men and became a spinster librarian. When Ronald Reagan refused a role an retired to the country, the role was opened up to others with more talent; If A-Rod dies, another with more talent will take his place; If Farve retires, another, probably better, quaterback will take his place; the quality of play improves all the time.
With all due respect to Mrs. Rand, there are no indispensible people in this world. The world will keep going without you.
Franscisco D'anaconia is a fictional character; he did not make a speech about money; Ayn Rand wrote this piece of fiction; Galt did not make a speech on the radio; this is all a figment of an atheist's imagination. If one man had never existed, our town will not turn into Pottersville. I never thought I would have to be telling people this.
bye

Klabautermann| 10.10.09 @ 6:42PM

Bill, I like your attitude. It made recall a TV commercial with a guy sitting at a kitchen table with a knife. He is on the phone with his doctor who is giving him instructions on how to perform his own surgery. We don't need productive people. We can get along without them. Bill, get out of the academy while you still have time to get in touch with reality. Even the most productive person is dispensable in a large society. The harm that one looter does is not noticed. What happens when a million productive citizens go a.w.o.l.? How about when the looters become 40 percent of the population? Look at Zimbabwe, by removing a few thousand farmers they where able to create a paradise where the life expectancy shot up to 30 year from an abysmal 60 year life expectancy. Thanks to the financial genius of Gideon Gone virtually everyone became an instant billionaire. Come on over Bill. We can share some koolaid.

Richard Baker| 10.8.09 @ 8:22PM

Just because someone doesn't agree with me regarding God or the absence thereof doesn't mean that they don't have anything intelligent to say. I am a Catholic but read Christopher Hitchens, a very public atheist, because he sometimes has a very cogent point. It's called intellectual discourse. I've personally read Mein Kampf, the Koran, and The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a czarist fraud. I disagreed profoundly with each of the volumes but enlightened myself in the classic "Liberal" way. Her atheism doesn't disqualify Ayn Rand from having valid points. Aside from her atheism, the Founding Fathers would have at least read her regarding her ideas about the Individual. They read Rousseau and other provocative writers of the day.

Richard Baker| 10.10.09 @ 6:03AM

Bill:
Before there was a CFO, bozo, Gates and Allen built the company by putting a great deal of their profits back into the business. The resulting profits are so large and have been so for such a long time that Gates and Allen, as founders, are wealthy billionaires, as a result. Do you understand anything about basic economics? I forgot, you're an academic.

The American Spectator

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