The other Rand…

We’ve all heard about Rand Paul’s upset victory in Kentucky, but there is another Rand — one whose work portends an ominous scenario that we witness today.

When Ayn Rand published Atlas Shrugged in 1957, it is unlikely that she ever envisioned its longevity to generations of readers. I was thirteen years old in 1957, but I was in my twenties before I first read this amazing work. To this day, I pick up the book and read it every year purely to ingest is wisdom and try to fathom how people cannot see the warning signs it clearly illustrates.

The novel paints a vivid picture of the dangers of an expansionist government who systematically takes control of the economy, all the while crushing private business — the engine that fueled the rise of America.

If you have not read the book, you need to get a copy. To give you any idea of its popularity, it sold over 600,000 copies in 2010, greatly outstripping the works of many mainline authors. Its devotees are of all ages, ranging from very young people to those who have read the work over and over throughout their lives.

Not only does Atlas Shrugged is as much cautionary as instructive. It gives the reader an inside view of how hard work is stifled when government sticks its nose under the tent. Do the initials GM hint at the prospect of what is going on right now?

Just this past week, a panel of 18 people began to decide precisely what health care procedures should be “essential” to your life. How nice. Remember the animal allegedly created by a committee? The camel is not exactly the beauty pageant winner of the animal world.

Although these folks have medical backgrounds, it rankles me that the planning mirrors what happened in the wake of the oil problem in the Gulf of Mexico. Not one of the people deciding on the future of offshore drilling had any experience in the oil industry. That’s like appointing a group of illiterate people to plan school curricula. Go figure…

Atlas Shrugged is timeless. Its warnings are as applicable today as they were in the 1950s. What’s more, it holds the reader’s interest. It is not a short book. It takes time to digest its content, but every moment is worthwhile.

Don’t just consider reading this novel. Do it. Turn off the tube, power down the cell phone and the computer. Curl up in a cozy place and immerse yourself in what may be the last best statement of what it means to have hard work rewarded and the dangers of unbridled government.

Delve into what may be the most important book you ever read. Get a copy of Atlas Shrugged. You’ll be glad that you did.

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