Your Chains

"... so long as men struggle to stay alive, they'll never produce so little but that the man with the club won't be able to seize it and leave them still less, provided millions of them are willing to submit ..."

In other words, it is your love of life that keeps you working for the looters. Complain all you want, you will still work harder to get ahead. As a result you provide the looters with everything they want but are unable to produce themselves .

This is how they use your love of life to forge the chains to bind you.

Galt and Christ

I have to wonder how much Rand was using the story of Christ as a foil to make her point. Galt openly says that he does not believe in original sin, and in the book he is the only one free of it. Galt is perfect and without sin. Then, he is betrayed (accidently) by one he loves. They attempt to kill (crucify) him, but in this case salvation depends on him NOT dying - since heaven is to be found here on earth.

To Enter Heaven .... errr ... Atlantis

The night before Dagny is to leave, Galt tells her:

"You have seen the Atlantis they were seeking ... but one must enter it naked and alone, with no rags from the falsehoods of centuries, with the purist clarity of mind - not an innocent heart, but that which is much rarer: an intransigent mind - as one's only possession and key."

I could not help think of Christ's admonition to the rich man that he had to give everything away to enter the kingdom of heaven. And it is after his refusal that Christ says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to go to heaven.

What is it that holds Dagny to the world beyond Atlantis?

Fact or Fiction?

Just when you thought Atlas Shrugged was fiction ....

Christian Science Monitor: Congress grills oil executives about the price of oil and CEO salary. Too bad Congress never holds hearings on its own salaries.

Of course, what sparked the hearings is a six year high in oil prices, forgotten is that no one was holding hearings six years ago when oil was at a 50 year low.

Even better, some are proposing a windfall profit tax that oil companies would have to pay if oil goes over $40 a barrel. One wonders whether this proposal would include subsidies if oil dropped below $20 a barrel.

The article claims that "At issue: How much trust should be placed in free markets? And more pointedly, how free is the market for energy?" The answer - alot more trust than one should place in congress to determine prices.

What is telling is what does not seem to be at issue - The oil companies built the refineries, wells etc. shouldn't the profit be theirs by right? By what right does congress have a claim to any of their profits?

Vote for John Galt

Tuesday, November 8th, 2005. Today is election day. I doubt Galt would approve of either NY Mayoral candidate. It does make me wonder, though ... Where were the elections in Galt's Gulch?

The Oath

The oath that Galt, and every other striker, has taken is:

"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

What does this mean? Would you take this oath?

Atlas Shrugged

For those of you who find your way here, the topic(s) of discussion will be generally The Philosophy of Business, and specifically the books my students are reading - Atlas Shrugged and The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea. Any and all comments relating to these books and questions about class are welcome. Readers are also welcome to post thoughts and ideas on the Idea Exchange bulletin board.