Or...something.
Courtesy of CM, this...
Sales of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” have almost tripled over the first seven weeks of this year compared with sales for the same period in 2008. This continues a strong trend after bookstore sales reached an all-time annual high in 2008 of about 200,000 copies sold.
“Americans are flocking to buy and read ‘Atlas Shrugged’ because there are uncanny similarities between the plot-line of the book and the events of our day” said Yaron Brook, Executive Director at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. “Americans are rightfully concerned about the economic crisis and government’s increasing intervention and attempts to control the economy. Ayn Rand understood and identified the deeper causes of the crisis we’re facing, and she offered, in ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ a principled and practical solution consistent with American values."
Er...yeah. Rand's solution may indeed have been principled. How practical a secret Colorado gulch protected by a magic ray-screen thingy, occupied exclusively by genius entrepreneurs who construct all their own shelter and infrastructure using materials that just sort of appear as needed, and powered by an even more magic static electricity generator would really be, I leave to the engineers and physicists among us to determine. Truth is Miss Rand left out a few important details, and some of us would like access to them. Please.
Nevertheless, there's no question where the Gulching movement got its name if not its impetus, and however we latter-day gulchers may enjoy poking sticks in Objectivist orifices we do owe her the courtesy of credit where it's due. Plus, whatever its literary shortcomings - another common inspiration for many a late-night campfire discussion - Atlas Shrugged does keep being relevant and never more so than now.
So, blessings and peace be upon her, and light up a Lucky Strike in her honor.
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