Mario the lone bookwolf's Reviews > Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
by
by
The premise: Everyone is stupid except the faith and ideology I want to spread with awkward, bad writing and glorifying sociopathy with a touch of ethical thoughts to make it not look even more inhuman.
Imagine the book with a different plot instead of good capitalist vs evil socialist/communist.
Let´s say
Intelligent, friendly believers of one faith vs the barbaric, cannibalistic tribe members of a sect.
Great, beautiful misogynist vs ugly women.
Any kind of wonderful fascism-, eugenic-, master race- driven lunatics vs all other humans.
Wise feminists vs bad men.
Environmentalists vs evil bureaucracies.
Ingenius racists vs the inferior population.
The good political party vs the evil political party.
Good leftists with pro Nordic model Keynesian strong social state vs evil turbo capitalistic, wait, no, that´s wrong, that doesn´t belong here.
Looks quite different, doesn´t it? One understands the sheer stupidity much better in such an ironized context and it shows the immense main problem of misusing fictional literature to implement agenda and bias in a work of fiction to manipulate so many people in real life to think that destructive ideas are great. Just because someone has had bad experiences with one group of people or a regime, as Rand had with marxism and communism, that doesn´t mean, in a simplified and stupid thought, that everything about the opposite is positive and great.
Why so many adjectives and extreme contrasts in her writing you may ask? Well, if an author is unable to explain things by showing, not telling, and being an objective and talented storyteller, there have to be many little helpers to make it understandable.
It´s impossible to read this without skimming and scanning, there is so much redundancy, info dumping, characters thinking and telling the same stupid premise again and again to themselves and others, and bad writing that it´s truly hard to stay motivated, but it´s a great exercise for learning how not to do it. As there is always said, to enjoy or produce good art, it´s important to consume the worst possible to learn by analyzing the mistakes. But if you aren´t playing around with speed reading techniques for decades, which includes daily training and consciously switching between both speed and intention of reading to understand, learn, or enjoy, it might be a waste of time to read this horrible book. I mean, what about dialogues or interacting with the world instead of endless, boring inner and outer monologues? Looks like some people never get out of pubertal defiant phase.
It´s not just one of the most dangerous and destructive books ever written, but a poorly written too. So many people saying that they got influenced by this piece of capitalist propaganda show how the misuse of literature can be instrumentalized to promote an inhuman and disturbing point of view. It gives privileged, mostly white, already rich WEIRD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychol... young people the legitimization to feel great about being elitist, bigoted, libertarian egomaniacs that think that being an important part of the mad machinery that destroys the planet is something good, worthwhile, and to be proud of.
Not even to talk about people who truly believe that it´s destiny, the product of one´s own work to be proud of, or other demented philosophies in the mix justifying it. I have the extreme luck of being a privileged white person, but I don´t think that I deserve it or use pop psychology, fraud humanities, or even economics to vindicate something that is just the coincidence of birth.
In the contrast, I tend to feel ashamed about my first world problems, lack of motivation, procrastination, all these luxury problems, and have a strong attitude towards improving the world by spreading the knowledge about the good, proven, logical, human, alternatives to the stupidity that ruled the earth for millennia. A kind of obligation to be thankful, mindful, positive, and progressive. I don´t get it why educated, intelligent people are still falling victims to ideologies, it must have something to do with a genetic predisposition to believe, no matter how illogical it is.
I really said myself that I wanted to objectively understand why people are adoring such a piece of trash like this, if it´s at least an entertaining work of art, but it isn´t even that. It´s the worst of both worlds, a bad fictional pseudo intellectual, fringe science, wanna be philosophical, collection of garbage and something pushing and downplaying turbocapitalism, neoliberalism, neocolonialism, and the destruction of everything needed to build a fair and sustainable economic system and society while giving the perpetrators a pseudophilosophical vindication for doing so. Because they are superior. Extremism is always the same, boring concept, look at all the great historical examples with the same mentality, I live in a country with a history lesson around that you might have heard about.
Trash like the Rands´ pseudoscience of objectivism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objecti...
is why I am meanwhile avoiding many humanities that are mainly fairytales built around elements of the replication crisis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replica...
and propaganda.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaga...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_m...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychol...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychol...
One of the best, short reviews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j56I...
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
Imagine the book with a different plot instead of good capitalist vs evil socialist/communist.
Let´s say
Intelligent, friendly believers of one faith vs the barbaric, cannibalistic tribe members of a sect.
Great, beautiful misogynist vs ugly women.
Any kind of wonderful fascism-, eugenic-, master race- driven lunatics vs all other humans.
Wise feminists vs bad men.
Environmentalists vs evil bureaucracies.
Ingenius racists vs the inferior population.
The good political party vs the evil political party.
Good leftists with pro Nordic model Keynesian strong social state vs evil turbo capitalistic, wait, no, that´s wrong, that doesn´t belong here.
Looks quite different, doesn´t it? One understands the sheer stupidity much better in such an ironized context and it shows the immense main problem of misusing fictional literature to implement agenda and bias in a work of fiction to manipulate so many people in real life to think that destructive ideas are great. Just because someone has had bad experiences with one group of people or a regime, as Rand had with marxism and communism, that doesn´t mean, in a simplified and stupid thought, that everything about the opposite is positive and great.
Why so many adjectives and extreme contrasts in her writing you may ask? Well, if an author is unable to explain things by showing, not telling, and being an objective and talented storyteller, there have to be many little helpers to make it understandable.
It´s impossible to read this without skimming and scanning, there is so much redundancy, info dumping, characters thinking and telling the same stupid premise again and again to themselves and others, and bad writing that it´s truly hard to stay motivated, but it´s a great exercise for learning how not to do it. As there is always said, to enjoy or produce good art, it´s important to consume the worst possible to learn by analyzing the mistakes. But if you aren´t playing around with speed reading techniques for decades, which includes daily training and consciously switching between both speed and intention of reading to understand, learn, or enjoy, it might be a waste of time to read this horrible book. I mean, what about dialogues or interacting with the world instead of endless, boring inner and outer monologues? Looks like some people never get out of pubertal defiant phase.
It´s not just one of the most dangerous and destructive books ever written, but a poorly written too. So many people saying that they got influenced by this piece of capitalist propaganda show how the misuse of literature can be instrumentalized to promote an inhuman and disturbing point of view. It gives privileged, mostly white, already rich WEIRD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychol... young people the legitimization to feel great about being elitist, bigoted, libertarian egomaniacs that think that being an important part of the mad machinery that destroys the planet is something good, worthwhile, and to be proud of.
Not even to talk about people who truly believe that it´s destiny, the product of one´s own work to be proud of, or other demented philosophies in the mix justifying it. I have the extreme luck of being a privileged white person, but I don´t think that I deserve it or use pop psychology, fraud humanities, or even economics to vindicate something that is just the coincidence of birth.
In the contrast, I tend to feel ashamed about my first world problems, lack of motivation, procrastination, all these luxury problems, and have a strong attitude towards improving the world by spreading the knowledge about the good, proven, logical, human, alternatives to the stupidity that ruled the earth for millennia. A kind of obligation to be thankful, mindful, positive, and progressive. I don´t get it why educated, intelligent people are still falling victims to ideologies, it must have something to do with a genetic predisposition to believe, no matter how illogical it is.
I really said myself that I wanted to objectively understand why people are adoring such a piece of trash like this, if it´s at least an entertaining work of art, but it isn´t even that. It´s the worst of both worlds, a bad fictional pseudo intellectual, fringe science, wanna be philosophical, collection of garbage and something pushing and downplaying turbocapitalism, neoliberalism, neocolonialism, and the destruction of everything needed to build a fair and sustainable economic system and society while giving the perpetrators a pseudophilosophical vindication for doing so. Because they are superior. Extremism is always the same, boring concept, look at all the great historical examples with the same mentality, I live in a country with a history lesson around that you might have heard about.
Trash like the Rands´ pseudoscience of objectivism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objecti...
is why I am meanwhile avoiding many humanities that are mainly fairytales built around elements of the replication crisis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replica...
and propaganda.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaga...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_m...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychol...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychol...
One of the best, short reviews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j56I...
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
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March 21, 2018
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[deleted user]
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Mar 31, 2020 09:46AM
Save it for the time you might run out of toilet paper
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Guess I would use leaves instead to avoid the possible danger of contamination with the toxic ink getting in my system through the skin. And I don´t want John Galt preaching to my buttocks.
Yes, sigh, I´m really trying to quit politics, economics, faith, and some strange humanities, but it´s the fascination of dread, perversion, and stupidity, onlooker syndrome style.
No, seriously, I want to review through what I´ve read so far in these fields and just read progressive, positive, useful, fresh, literature without integrated ultra BS, bias, agenda, and replication crisis, in the future.
But as with the last one, Enlightenment now or Factfulness, you motivate me to sort my notes to the usual leftist drivel, although I have absolutely no motivation to even just think about it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j56I...
but I have to get it out of my system.
Peter Thiel and the grandson of Milton Friedman started the utopia of the "The Seasteading Institute", the dream of moving all the big companies to sea and avoid the "initiation of violence" (using Rand's terms) of the big bad wolf called government. I think they might have inspired by this novel.
And you are right, if something is also bad literature, itś not worth our time. For instance, a know "libertarian", Heinlein, was insightful enough to produce narratives where the global colapse of government and the rise of megacoorporations made society a nightmarish hell of zones where violence was rampant and survival a luxury. (Rand can't even be relevant, forget get it right).
The fact that Rand's story is also disconnected with reality makes it more problematic. And uninterresting. I've been thinking about finally reading it for a long time, but you are not the first that warns me it's a bad long read. It's one of those cases where you hear and discuss and read about and research about a text but never get to read the text itself. Maybe I was finally inoculated against this :)
Great I could help, you just have to look at the massive amount of one star reviews and the many included arguments and links to why it´s both BS and dangerous.
The 5 stars are as good, as their arguments are really strange and inconsistent.
Hey, cool, I could almost help you save precious reading time for good stuff. Take the vaccine and quit reading it.
As you say, our whole system, all of it, is so poisoned by this doctrine and philosophy that it´s almost impossible to debate with all the brainwashed opportunists. That´s the reason why, as mentioned in comment 4, I´m leaving this section forever, as it´s just an epic waste of time leading to discussions with trolls and pseudointellectuals. Not the cool ones like me, but the nasties.
The comparison with Heinlein is cool, I am reviewing his works I´ve read so far at the moment too, and yes, he was much better. Or let´s say, he was a real author, but more switching between different strange mentalities, more bashing against what he didn´t like at the moment, but at least evolving in his opinion, having no all knowing God complex.
He was a searcher, influenced by nightmarish leading opinions that dominated those days, but he was interested in the individual, sometimes ironically even closer to anarchism than to libertarianism, but it would take far too much time to dive deeper into the topic. But it would be fascinating to read his works and compare it with the stations of his endless path of enlightenment.
However, everything is better than this, but I feel proud after I was first confronted with it over 20 years ago by the South park episode chickenlover and kept asking myself why. It quite kind of gave me the smooth kick in my lazy bottom that I needed to end wasting my time with such topics, something I have to thank her for, because a society, media, humanities,... strongly influenced by that don´t deserve any attention, just doing as if they wouldn´t exist.
Thanks!
Somewhat appalling agenda is a far too friendly description, especially when trying to guess how many billions of humans have and will suffer because of the worldview and economic model it´s promoting.
Thanks, I feel honored each time you decorate my shallow demagogic reviews with this classy quote and a smooth, emotional message at the end, rofl
Thanks, I feel honored each time you decorate my shallow demagogic reviews with this classy quote and a smooth, emotional message at the end, rofl"
I haven’t read it but from the reviews (not just yours) I would likely feel the same way. But I would likely be more succint. I kind of felt like this about The Alchemist. I did find your outrage amusing. Panning reviews often are amusing. :)
I was not being critical. Sorry if it came across that way. The lol meant to signify that as one does not smile in writing.
Thanks, I feel honored each time you decorate my shallow demagogic reviews with this classy quote and a smooth, emo..."
Thanks, I am always outraging about everything, that´s how I roll, my style.
Damn, my answer should be an ironic echo of your cool comment and nothing making you apologize without reason. Sorry about that. Omg, now the fateful cycle, that ends with the culmination of being able to say nothing except anymore, has begun
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
Sorry!
Oh, Coelho, you see, that´s a great example of the difference between nice art one just doesn´t like because of personal preferences and garbage like this. Coelho is something one hates and others love, but not because of being propaganda, but just because of being average to bad and completely overrated writing, just joking (or not?). But it could be that I don´t understand it, because I don´t read such genres, that´s why I avoid giving subjective ratings and reviews if not being sure.
That was going to be my strategy. I would like to get a gist of what she says but without the large commitment.
Thanks, I feel honored each time you decorate my shallow demagogic reviews with this classy quote and..."
Coelho has a certain thing he is preaching in the Alchemist, but it is so totally phony that I could not believe it. Someone said if you put together a bunch of bumper stickers, you would end up with this book. The universe will help you if you really want something is a good message if you are trying to get a good education, a job, or true love. But if your heart’s desire is to literally find treasure to dig up, it is a bunch of bollocks.
Sorry to disappoint you but truly, don´t do it., do yourself a favor. Or just watch Foxnews, it´s the same.
You could read 2 to even 4 shorter, good novels instead and it´s hyped by a mixture of people with very strange agenda and ideology and, as stereotypical as it sounds, the system of that time and their descendants. Both groups nobody wants to talk to.
Congratulations, I wish I would have been strong enough to resist the perverse temptation that was rising over the years. Ugly, slow leftists like me have no self control, but it was even entertaining in its badness and as a how not to write tutorial.
That was going to be my strategy. I would like to get a gist of what sh..."
This ingenious strategy of yours will be a founding element of my future nonfiction reading, first selecting and reading reviews to get an overview, let others do the dirty work of being one of the first readers, and see if there is something important in it and if not, skip it.
Thanks, I feel honored each time you decorate my shallow demagogic re..."
A female friend bludgeoned me to forceread, it was traumatic, one Coelho novel and it was quite as I expected, very fantastic realism , so spheric that it´s difficult to get a grasp of it, leading to the fact that I can absolutely, because of my lack of empathy and no similar readings, not say if that´s brilliant and deep or just overhyped pseudophilosophy. As said, I´ve absolutely no knowledge or competence about these genres, and subjectively not liking it doesn´t mean its bad.
It only seems that he had his one hit wonder and, because I believe in collective intelligence culminating in rating scores, except it just average works.
For fiction, it´s even better if its total info dumpy, has extremely long exposition periods, dozens of pages just describing one setting or action, and at least close to 1k pages. Sigh, that´s what fantasy and sci-fi dreams are made of, these extremely detailed descriptions are what makes a fictional world even more realistic.
If people don´t like so long books, I tend to friendly give a bystander in a dystopian setting the brick of a book I´m just reading while being disturbed with the classic one liner "Hold my book", stand up from my throne of books and skulls and explain the short reads fetishists in a nice, affirmative, and rarely bloody way why Long Books Rock! Kay?!
As you said, it´s highly genre and individual reader dependent, one womans´/ mans´ trash is the others treasure, something often reflected in the reviews and opponent, but in itself logical argumentations.
"Good leftists with pro Nordic model Keynesian strong social state vs evil turbo capitalistic, wait, no, that´s wrong, that doesn´t belong here." had me laugh out loud.
🤗 Thank you for that great review! I am physically unable to read this, I tried multiple times, but I get so angry, that I would rather get a heart attack, than be able to finish the book. I am glad I can experience it through good reviews though!
“Freedom FOR AYN RAND (n.): To CONVINCE OTHERS TO ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing. SO YOU CAN KEEP EVERYTHING FOR YOURSELF”
Also thank you for the Youtube link 🤣, but I really hope you keep on reading!
🤗 Thank you for that great review! I am physically unable to read this, I tried multiple times, but I get so angry, that I would rather get a heart attack, than be able to finish the book. I am glad I can experience it through good reviews though!
“Freedom FOR AYN RAND (n.): To CONVINCE OTHERS TO ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing. SO YOU CAN KEEP EVERYTHING FOR YOURSELF”
Also thank you for the Youtube link 🤣, but I really hope you keep on reading!
It´s extremely cool and wise to rethink your ideology, congratulations on that, it´s very rare. There are nuances of conservatism, depending on how strong the impact is, and you could certainly try to reduce the potential for extremes in your community. Local, private conservatism in an owns group that harms nobody without proselytizing and aggressive expansion is not bad, global dimensions linked with economics and politics are the problem.
Idolaters, that´s an appropriate definition.
Subjectively, ignoring or satirizing, a combination of don´t feed the troll or ridicule them, seems to be the best solution. Debating or trying to convince is mostly a waste of them, it has become part of their personality, they won´t change, no matter how illogical their actions.
🤗 Thank you for that great..."
Great to hear I could be entertaining in this depressing context.
Not getting emotionally invested is extremely tricky, my advantage is simply not having many feelings and conditioning me to control the few left ones with all these mind control Jedi tricks like meditation, positive psychology, autogenic training,...
Great you liked the link, I´ve just read that there was an old Greek philosopher or playwriter who South Parked and mixed extreme vulgar humor with deep, sarcastic cynicism about his time, but I don´t remember the name.
Well done. I could never get through much of this doorstop though I have tried.
Thanks, although I would say that I´m still far away from satire and closer to the grit and dirt of sarcasm.
Well done. I could never get through much of this doorstop though I ha..."
Wow, now I´ve already reached the point of basing opinions.
With the right skimming and scanning techniques, it´s not really that hard to get through such stuff. It´s more like learning or reading because one has to do it, not for enjoyment.
Nothing to add to that.
lol butts...
or allergic reactions! swollen butts!
www(dot)pbs(dot)org/newshour/economy/column-this-is-what-happens-when-you-take-ayn-rand-seriously