Wendell
Pfeffer
Final
Reaction: Atlas Shrugged
10/15/20
I remember the first
day I opened Atlas Shrugged. I was
quite intimidated by its size and small letters. But right when I began to read,
businesses and problems associated with expansion, profit and an increase in
production were introduced. Businesses flourished in the beginning of the book,
until the government decided to intervene which created chaos in the economy.
The United States government known as the “looters,” was every successful
business man/woman’s and inventors worst nightmare. They would impose many
rules that would affect them directly. Thus leaving the successful business
people and inventors to question why they would ever do such a thing? The
government would simply reply that it was only for “the common good.” But as I
began to reach the culminating stages in the novel it becomes clear that the
only reason the “looters” were creating all of those rules was to only assert
their power and acquire “unearned love, unearned admiration and unearned
greatness.” The looters accomplished this by stealing brilliant ideas,
innovations and money from the countries brightest men. Through this process
they covered up their atrocious acts by flooding the public’s ears with a
monotonous amount of bullshit, more specifically information that talks about the
benefits of such a discovery. They need the public’s support, without their
support they will have no one to reconcile with, which will eventually cause
their demise. This novel was published in 1957, what I find significant about
this date is that even though this novel was created eighty years ago much of
what Ayn Rand wrote relates to what is happening today in the United States:
Obama care, the democrats, Chrysler and GMC motors going out of business and
the government shutdown. Obama and the democrats are the true looters in our
society, all of their regulations and bills help support the lower class and
middle class families, but it constricts the true potential of the United
States to thrive in the economy and the world markets today. Before I read this
book I had no clue to what was happening in the government, in the economy or
politics in general. Honestly, I did not take any interest in what was going on
in the United States, I only cared about school and college, but now I have my
own opinion on today’s government and I have somewhat an idea of what the
government is trying to do all because of Atlas
Shrugged.
Right
now the financial problem of the United States is critical, not only is it
affecting American citizens but many countries all over the world. I hold relatively
the same thoughts as John Galt, Dagny, Francisco and Ragnar. The only way this
economy and political system is going to improve is by promoting capitalism or
Laissez Faire Economics. These rules and bills are decreasing people’s
motivation to improve their industries/businesses and create new ideas. Francisco
serves as a perfect example; in the beginning of the book Francisco was the top
producer of metal in the United States. He was leaving his competitors like
Orren Boyle no chance to survive, especially when he created a new
revolutionary metal that deemed to outperform and outlast regular metal. The
government sponsored group known as the “Science State Institute” intervened
and at first turned the public against Rearden metal by inventing some nonsense
that his metal was unsafe to use, people listened and believed what the
government sponsored group was telling them. But Hank ignored and continued
with the production of his metal. Then the government decided to take even more
drastic measures, they used Lillian to help blackmail Hank into giving them and
Orren Boyle his metal. Unfortunately there was nothing he could have done at
that time and was forced to sign his metal over. His most prized possession and
achievement, what he worked so hard for is gone. On top of that the government
imposed new rules that limited the production of his metal, they even devised a
scheme known as the “the steel unification plan” to trick Hank Rearden into
helping Orren Boyle be the new primary producer of metal. The same with Dagny,
the government created new rules that limited her transportation and speed of
her trains in order to assert their power and give other people a chance. Based
on these examples you can see that the looters contradict themselves, they keep
repeating to the people of the United States that they will work to improve the
economy and solve all the financial problems. How can you be able to fix the
economy or solve any financial problem when your methods are based off deceiving,
stealing, limiting and hurting others for your own personnel benefit? The
looters are a cancer; they need to be removed in order to insure a more
successful future. Other than John Galt, Dagny and Hank are the strongest out
of all the other business leaders, they continued with their companies even
when things looked dark, if I were them I would have disappeared to Galts Gulch
a long time ago.
The
ending of the book turned out to be no surprise at all; the business owners
were all getting tired of the looters. They knew that without them they would
not survive and so they began to quit one by one all because of John Galt. Galt
– the man, the myth and the legend is what made the impossible happen. The
combination of his perfect speech to turn the public against the looters and
his creation and use of Galts Gulch are what ultimately defeated the looters.
There were other factors associated with their defeat but other than that I’m a
glad thing turned out the way they were supposed to.
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