After the discussions in class and with other peers in my
school, I got a better understanding of the relationship between the society
that Ayn Rand created in “Atlas Shrugged” and the society we Americans live in
today. Although I am not politically savvy, I did comprehend the idea that the
government, as it was in the novel, is trying to control the people and their
businesses by taking wealth from the large, prosperous firms and spreading it
amongst the rest of the smaller businesses and people who are not as
successful. The equalization bill in the novel was what began these
regulations, and as I got farther into the novel I comprehended just how
detrimental this was to the companies, and how it affected the rest of the
country.
Despite the fact that many of the things I read in this book,
and heard in the discussion, seemed true and reasonable to me, I wish that I
would also hear the other side of the argument in order to make a just, and
completely formulated political opinion on what is going on in the United
States today. Because I attend a school in which pretty much everyone is a
republican, I never truly get the democratic side of the discussion and I feel
as though this would make me look at things differently. Nonetheless, I do
agree with the general concept that those who earn their share should not be
penalized for it, and those who do not work should not be getting “free money.”
It is simply unfair, and unreasonable, because it causes people to lose
motivation to work and make money because they know they will be able to get it
either way. Although I have a set opinion regarding that topic, I know that
there is a whole other book that could be written as to why whatever Obama is
doing is correct, and I would like to hear it. Not because I would agree, but
because in order to make a full and rational opinion I must hear both sides of
the story.
Something that triggered my thoughts was the fact that the
looters, or the people who demonstrated themselves as corrupt, dishonest people
who only took advantage of the honest ones, were never taken down or held
responsible. It was these people that caused the downfall of the government,
and because of them that there was so much chaos in the economy and the nation
as a whole.
Though the book was slow paced and repetitive at times, I did
enjoy the fact that Ayn Rand included the top, intelligent and successful
industrialists’ private life in the plot. Had those scenes not been included
in the story, the economic and political worlds would have been portrayed as filled
with people who only base their actions on emotionless reason, which has
not been the case at any point in history.
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