Atlas Shrugged, and he's not the only one!

I've always been amazed by Ayn Rand's staying power. I first discovered her when I was a teenager, still in high school. The first of her books I read was Anthem, a little parable of a book that introduces most of her favorite themes about the evils of collectivism and the glories of individuality. Then I went on to The Fountainhead, which appealed to me even more, since it was all about Howard Roark, an architect, whom I identified with another of my boyhood heroes, Frank Lloyd Wright. My first career choice was to be an architect, something I stuck with through the first year of college, then abandoned for the less lucrative field of literature. Boy, what would Ayn think of that?

I wasn't the only fan of Ayn Rand at my high school. She appealed to several of my friends, some of whom continued on to read her most recent work, the interminable Atlas Shrugged, which apparently has now been made into a movie. I'm curious to see how well this goes over: a movie about industrialists and capitalists versus the government. Now there's a popular subject. In fact, it seems old Ayn Rand really appeals to the more muscular sort of politician. This seems logical, given that she appeals so well to teenage boys, who adore her rebellious individualism and self-centered view of the world. Is there anyone more self-centered than a teenaged boy? Oh, yeah, a politician!

But seriously, I doubt I'll be watching the new movie. Although as a kid I was a big fan of Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal in the 1949 film based on The Fountainhead, when I came across it on television recently, I found I'd somehow lost interest. It just seemed silly if not actually preposterous. And isn't there something rather disturbing about a guy willing to blow up his own building because he doesn't like the way somebody else wants to change his plans. But then maybe that's why some of the jokers in congress are now yelling "shut it down" and say they're willing to see the nation default rather than raise the debt ceiling or, even worse, raise taxes to pay our debts.

Heaven only knows what Ayn Rand would say about all of this, although I doubt she would think that likely, since she didn't believe in heaven. But she did, as I recall, believe in abortion. They say politics makes strange bedfellows, but when the same folks who profess to being pro-life are applauding the work of Ayn Rand, it kinda makes you wonder what the heck is going on. Still, I admire anyone who can get all the way through Atlas Shrugged. As I recall the hero, John Galt, even organizes a strike, but then he's no ordinary union man, he organizes all the smart and creative people. He was the one who said Atlas should just shrug his shoulders. Well, there must be more to it than that, but as I said, somewhere along the line I lost interest.