Posted by Jeff from d14-69-62-196.try.wideopenwest.com (69.14.196.62) on Monday, June 30, 2003 at 10:23PM :
In Reply to: Son Of Anti-Comunism posted by Re-built Farid from ? (148.233.93.127) on Monday, June 30, 2003 at 11:34AM :
I finished "The Fountainhead" and I am 2/3 the way through "Atlas Shrugged" but there are a few things that strike me as odd in Rand's writing.
First, why does she make the strong, "too masculine for their time", "leader-type", immaculate-seeming female characters sex-crazy and obsessed with submitting to men...Why the contradiction? Is there some greater point that I'm missing here? I can understand a female character like that in one book, but in two of her major literary works? Why?
Second, it seems that both of these books represent Rand's greatest fear, that lazy, no-good, bastard, worthless people (i.e. communists) will try to get a free ride on the backs of those hard working, industrial, ingenious people (i.e. capitalists) who create product and profit.
Communism will never exist in practice like it is in theory. Capitalism will never exist in practice as it is in theory. Duh.
I don't quite understand how she can be so emphatically and completely against every single last ideal of communism and so incredibly pro every single last ideal of Capitalism. It seems to me that the only government that would ever come close to being "the perfect government" would be a mix of socialism, capitalism, communism, and a few new ideas thrown into the mix. It hasn't happened yet, and may never happen, but any person who is looking to be convinced that one is better than the other will be a die hard capitalist after reading either of these books. There is a chance that some day, a beautiful government will exist that performs the functions it needs to perform yet limits itself to those limited functions only... but pure Capitalism is not the answer, and pure communism is not the answer. It looks like little Bush (aka shrubya) is taking the worst aspects of both and blending them into some sort of hellish paradise... for himself and his cowboy hat-wearin', oil sellin' buddies.
You can't help but to love Roark (who, when I read the Fountainhead, reminded me of a young and energetic Frederick L. Parhad) and you can't help but love Dagny Taggart... and you can't help but hate those god-damned lazy whore bastard lifeless sons-of-bitches whose aim is to bring down these beautiful people. I might not agree with everything Ayn Rand writes, but I do enjoy reading these books more than I would have expected.
Oh, and her statements about religion are dead on most, if not all, of the time.
-- Jeff
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