Sales of “Atlas Shrugged,” never less than robust, have these days been spiking, as commentators like Glenn Beck tout the book as an antidote to the supposed socialism of President Obama’s domestic program. Only a handful become lifetime followers of Objectivism, Rand’s codified philosophy, which holds that reality exists as something concrete and external, not created by God or by a person’s consciousness that emotions derive from ideas and that self-interest rather than altruism is man’s ethical ideal.īut a sizable number of readers seem tempted to return to Galt’s Gulch during leftward lurchings of the body politic. Most readers make their first and last trip to Galt’s Gulch-the hidden-valley paradise of born-again capitalists featured in “Atlas Shrugged,” its solid-gold dollar sign standing like a Maypole-sometime between leaving Middle-earth and packing for college. In her central pronouncement of political belief-the character John Galt’s radio address, which begins on page 1,000 of Rand’s 1957 novel, “Atlas Shrugged”-allowance is made for the state to run an army, a police force, and courts, but that’s it. Of all Americans who have appeared on the nation’s postage stamps, Ayn Rand is probably the only one to have thought that the United States government has no business delivering mail.
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