I am re-reading books from the past, some that influenced me, some that pissed me off, and some that created movements that piss me off today.

Today’s book fits the latter category. As I was browsing through used books a few weeks ago, I came across a paperback anniversary copy of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, so I picked it up.

Atlas Shrugged is a 1032-page unreadable novel, in which Ms. Rand misrepresents ideas from some rationalist philosophers, mostly of the 19^th Century variety, without attribution (probably a good thing), adds the wonder of solipsism, ices the concoction with a dollar sign, and brags about inventing a new political philosophy/religion called “objectivism”.

The capitalist god Ms. Rand uses to present this “objectivism” is John Galt.

The “nut” (pun intended) of the book is found on pages 927 through 984, which comprises God Galt’s rant to the public. My favorite part of this condescending soliloquy:

…. With the sign of the dollar as our symbol—the sign of free trade and free minds—we will move to reclaim this country once more from the impotent savages who never discovered its nature, its meaning its splendor. Those who choose to join us, will join us; those who don’t, will not have the power to stop us; hordes of savages have never been an obstacle to men who carried the banner of the mind.

Then this country will once more become a sanctuary for a vanishing species: the rational being.

It is worth noting that “rational being” is one divorced from any belief in higher beings—God.

On page 984, God Galt states: “I swear—by my live and my love of it —that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

Ayn Rand, God Galt’s creator, atheist evangelist for selfishness (her word), preacher against anything smacking of “welfare”, and heavy cigarette smoker, found herself, as she was facing death, becoming a “welfare queen”. She considered Medicare a form of welfare. She had no choice in the end but to ask for help from “another man”—the state.

This atheist author, and this novel, with its ill-conceived ideas and poorly constructed paragraphs and sentences, became a bible for the likes of Ronald Regan, Ron Johnson, Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Clarence Thomas, Gary Johnson, etc. It became an integral part of the tea party and today’s Libertarian Party, and a sizable sect of today’s Republican Party.

These “Christians” cheery pick from Ms. Rand’s novels, as they do from their Bible, what they want to believe, and what they want to use as cudgels with which to mold this country to their ideas.

I wonder where the rational beings are?