Hoo boy.
This monster book is the manifesto of the philosophy
which Rand calls "objectivism" and which
is hard to summarize, but let's say: reason and
competence should defeat all else.
Objectivism's politics are therefore
not too
distant from modern Libertarianism.
The premise of the book is that the
looters leech off those
who are capable and/or hard-working, and the reason
the looters get away with it is because we let them.
Well, we can't let them
starve can we? So we feed
them. Thus, to get free food, simply don't buy it yourself.
Meanwhile, government is all set up to maximize its
ability to live off its consituents, etc, etc. Soooo,
what to do? Easy: get the capable and hardworking people
to just quit. Don't bust your butt trying to make their
broken system work - that just gives them more to leech
off of.
So, one by one, the essential people who really make the
world go round stop playing, and of course, the world
falls to its knees - Atlas shrugs and the whole world
shakes.
There's all sorts of things here which go a bit far, and
some extremely preachy chapters (eg This is John Galt Speaking,
and see
"So you think that money is the root of all evil?"
),
but I think this is a worthwhile read.
Even if you disagree with some or all of Rand's
conclusions, there's some good stuff here and
at least you'll get insight into the other side.
I think this is really good for people in their early 20s.
