My Country Tis Of Me
I rarely miss a chance here to disparage Ayn Rand, her books, or her “philosophy.” The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Economist have all reported recently that sales of Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged have been increasing as our economy worsens. In the book, Rand “…championed selfishness as a positive means of doing business, earning as many critics as she did advocates.” From The Guardian:
Atlas Shrugged tends to inspire either cult-like devotion or sarcastic mockery in readers, who are either thrilled or appalled by Rand’s vision of a world in which the “men of the mind” – inventors, entrepreneurs and industrialists – withdraw their labour from a society intent on bleeding them dry with taxes and regulations.
The call for a “strike of the wealth producers” depicted in the novel is being called “Going Galt” by conservatives — after John Galt, the novel’s protagonist. Because what the situation clearly calls for is more greed…oh, irony.
Stephen Colbert has this wonderful take on “Going Galt,” which The Guardian calls “the rightwing equivalent of “moving to Canada”‘:
March 17, 2009 8:27 am 
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