For some reason I’ve been having several discussions lately with some of my more rightward leaning friends about how Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is a must (re)read. I guess fear of the unknown, fear of losing livelihoods, fear of losing minds, fear of losing anything and everything has led to a resurgence of psychological ossification.

Kung Fu Monkey says it beautifully:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

Orcs aside, many of my less spiritually engaged friends have found that the loss of significant wealth has forced them to reconsider and re-prioritize their lives based on two criteria: what is needed versus what is wanted. This realization might be a gift to us all. Continually checking to see if horrible potential outcomes close us down or do they open us to what is always prior to the arising of any situation, positive or negative? Do we, in other words, fall prey to the hardened egoic tendency to “Go Galt” as a way of dealing with our fear and concommitant anger, or do we surrender to the reality that we are all interconnected, like it or not, and that we have an adventure that we are being forced to share together… for the good of all beings.

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