By Leslie
This is the question asked by Rev Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute, a faith-based economic think-tank. When he first read Atlas Shrugged in 1970, he found in it something that resonated. And now,
I disagree profoundly with Rand; her attenuated definition of faith as unreason and her notion of sacrifice as wholly lacking dignity are unrecognizable to a Christian. Even her economics are better spelled out in Mises or Hayek. Her esthetic philosophy is paper thin and idiosyncratic; her malevolence toward children and the vulnerable is exceedingly distasteful.
For these and many more reasons, people who reverence Western Civilization must reject Rand. And yet, there is something in Rand that remains intriguing, and following years of pondering the question and speaking with others, I think I detect what people might see in her. (Patheos)
The human tendency is to swing from each end of the pendulum. In reading Atlas Shrugged I was struck by its precise relation to the circumstances of today. Some of the meeting scenes are stunning replicas of today's bureaucratic processes and it is not difficult to see the resulting apathy lived out on our streets day by day. Ayn Rand, or Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum as she was first known, painted a bleak picture of a society that chooses to operate without...what?
Not what - who. Who really was John Galt, anyway?
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