Thought is the tool by which one makes a choice...

“Thought—he told himself quietly—is a weapon one uses in order to act... Thought is the tool by which one makes a choice... Thought sets one's purpose and the way to reach it.”
— Narrator (referring to Hank Rearden)
Atlas Shrugged (Part 1, Chapter 7, Page 214)

In our book club, some time back, we read Atlas Shrugged. Atlas Shrugged is one of my favorite books of all time. It came to me at the perfect point in my life. I was in my mid-30's, politics were ripe with corruption and dissention, I was bored, disgusted and disillusioned with most authority figures, and I was ready to sink my teeth into some nice free-the-world-get-off-my-back-and-out-of-my-pockets rebellion. It gave me everything I wanted and more.

“The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence... The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law.”
— John Galt
Atlas Shrugged (Part 3, Chapter 7, Page 1,062)

I was involved in a long commute at the time, and so I bought the book on CD. It was something like 45 discs, or maybe 52, anyway, it was a lot. But, I had a lot of driving to do and so it worked out for me. There were several points during the course of the listening that I would get to where I was going and ended up either a: driving around a little longer or b: pulling into a parking spot and hanging out in the car for another 10 minutes to finish the disc or the chapter.

“...through all the generations of political extortion, it was not the looting bureaucrats who had taken the blame, but the chained industrialists, not the men who peddled legal flavors, but the men who were forced to buy them; and through all those generations of crusades against corruption, the remedy had always been, not the liberating of the victims, but the granting of wider powers for extortion to the extortionists. The only guilt of the victims, he thought, had been that they accepted it as guilt.”
— Hank Rearden
Atlas Shrugged (Part 3, Chapter 5, Page 933)

I became completely embroiled in the life of Dagny Taggert. Everywhere I looked I saw evidence that I was living in an Atlas Shrugged society. I made comparisons continually. Always looking for the true motivation and meaning behind things. While I did not ascend to the level of conspiracy theorist, I did become suspicious of anyone selling me a line, whether it was with sales people or politicians...or anyone else for that matter.

“The symbol of all relationships among such men, the moral symbol of respect for human beings, is the trader. We, who live by values, not by loot, are traders, both in matter and in spirit. A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved.”
— John Galt
Atlas Shrugged (Part 3, Chapter 7, Page 1,022)

I wanted to be Dagny Taggerts friend. I wanted to scoff and berate her brother for being such a sleezeball. I wanted to live fresh and free running through the world making discoveries and creating inventions and contributing things that mattered. I was ready to buy stock in Rearden Metal and kick his wife Lillian to the curb. These were my kind of people, my kind of take-charge-quit-your-whining characters. They worked hard, and they earned their keep...and they were betrayed...and often, and so everytime there was an upturn I cheered, and everytime a lowturn I booed.

“...joy is the core of existence, the motive power of every living being... it is the need of one's body as it is the goal of one's spirit...”
— Hank Rearden
Atlas Shrugged (Part 2, Chapter 6, Page 564)

That's all I'm going to say about the story. You'll have to read it, or listen to it, yourself for the rest.

“The man who refuses to judge, who neither agrees nor disagrees, who declares that there are no absolutes and believes that he escapes responsibility, is the man responsible for all the blood that is now spilled in the world.”
— John Galt
Atlas Shrugged (Part 3, Chapter 7, Page 1,054)

If you don't have time to read it I highly advise getting it on audio and enjoying it. Great story for a variety of reasons. Be prepared though because there are a lot of very vehement Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand haters in the world.

It's the kind of book that, generally, people either love or hate, usually with equal passion. People who hate it though, tend to become unreasonable when you try to discuss the theories and ideas. They tend to accuse you of insensitivity, selfishness and lack of social awareness. They throw around the idea that if you like the book you have bought into its philosophies and practices hook line and sinker and then, in turn, if you don't live the philosophies of the book, that you are a hypocrite. Really, it's more productive to have a hearty and animated discussion over the things that were read and how you could see them right or how you could see them wrong. Unfortunately it often becomes a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

To like the book, even to love the book, does not mean that you are an Ayn Rand Kool-Aid drinking son of a gun, it just means that perhaps you get it. You get a different vision, and maybe--just maybe--you think that people should work more and bitch less.

So--that said--be aware.

“He was a man who had never accepted the creed that others had the right to stop him.”
— Narrator (referring to Nathaniel Taggart)
Atlas Shrugged (Part 1, Chapter 3, Page 59)

Most of the women in my book club group really enjoyed it, though there were a few dissenters, which is good because it makes for a lively discussion. During the course of our discussion, we talked about how great it would be if it were made into a movie. We talked about who should play what character, and who shouldn't, and 3 years or so later...here we are.

The new Atlas Shrugged movie will be released as a trilogy, with the first movie being released on April 15th, 2011...Tax Day...couldn't be a better choice.
I am so excited for this to come out I can hardly stand it. Bring on Dagny and Hank, and James and Francisco, and of course John Galt..no doubt we will still always ask "Who is John Galt?"...but now their will be a face to go with the name. ;)

http://www.atlas-shrugged-movie.com/

“Fight for the value of your person. Fight for the virtue of your pride. Fight for the essence of that which is man: for his sovereign rational mind. Fight with the radiant certainty and the absolute rectitude of knowing that yours is the Morality of Life and that yours is the battle for any achievement, any value, any grandeur, any goodness, any joy that has ever existed on this earth.”
— John Galt
Atlas Shrugged (Part 3, Chapter 7, Page 1,069)