A friend sent me a link ( http://mcsweeneys.net/2008/11/20tucker.html ) to a "parody" of Atlas Shrugged wherein the writer, Jeremiah Tucker "updates" Rand's novel for the current financial crisis. Some people have commented about how brilliant this parody is and how appropriate for the times. Yes, they wail and gnash their teeth knowingly pointing at the evils of today and how it so fittingly proves Rand wrong. They scream and yell and post "brilliant" pieces of parody to prove it all. Maybe if they yell loud enough you'll join them. Maybe you won't read Atlas as you will accept there judgment of what Rand was saying in that book. Maybe. That is what they hope.
The truth of course is something else. Everyone already accepts that our financial system is capitalism (it isn't) and that too much freedom is what got us into this mess. They accept that because they don't know any better. Few realize that the two major parties in this country are both statist and anti-freedom. Few realize that it has been the politics of pull that poisoned the economy. Few realize that both parties are to blame as they try and enrich themselves with all the loot they can pilfer from the workers of the world. Oh that evil free economy! Here, take this nice dose of the same poison I've been giving you all along.
Rand's novel doesn't celebrate the looters of the economy. If she wrote it today it would not be about the people who invented credit default swaps and such. She wrote about producers. Did Jeremiah Tucker miss all the examples in Atlas of the evil industrialists? All those who wanted to use the government to club the competition and give them all the loot they could get there hands on? I can't see how he missed all those as they were most of the characters in the book. Maybe he should read it again.
Rand would not have celebrated the Enron's of the world. She would not have celebrated companies who used the government to get an edge against competitors and feed off of the "public's" money. They lied, cheated, and pilfered everything they could. Rand recognized that there were companies run like this. She filled Atlas with examples of them. Yet, when "brilliant parodies" like Mr. Tucker's are written, they always miss this. I can't imagine you could get this much misunderstanding from reading the Cliff's Notes version of Atlas. I can only conclude it's a case of willful deceit.
I'm not even going to waste my time writing a point by point take on Mr. Tucker's parody. His piece and others like it (e.g. Atlas Shrugged 2) already have been responded to, preemptively. Where? In a book called Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. So, I encourage everyone to do yourself a favor, make up your own mind and read the book, discuss it, see what was really said. For it is the sincere hope of every evil looting and mooching person out there that you wont. They hope you'll take their word for it. They'll tell you just what's wrong with the economy and just how they can fix it. Want to know how well that will work? Read Atlas Shrugged.
Atlas doesn't need to be "updated for the current economic crisis." Why? It already predicted it. What Rand really wanted you to do was think. Use your judgment. What people like Mr. Tucker want you to do is just the opposite. Trust them and the world will get what it deserves. I can guarantee you won’t like the result.
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