Atlas Shrugged
One of the most influential books of the twentieth century, Atlas Shrugged is not largely accepted as a great piece, primarily, in this writer's opinion, because the author of Atlas Shrugged demands that people think and live for themselves. That is, this should the primary goal of anyone. If one focusses on this, one can then use one's resources to further oneself, to help others or whatever is on one's list of priorities. Thinking is much harder work than physical labour. When coming home at the end of a day working on a construction site, one might feel physically tired, but it would not be long before a second wind returns. At the end of a day involving great degrees of thinking, particularly involving problem-solving, there is no second wind. What escapes people is that while having an opinion is easy, an educated opinion takes effort.
In Atlas Shrugged, it becomes apparent that we live in a society that punishes hard work(i.e. If you earn more money, you are punished by paying a larger portion of your earnings to taxes) and favours those who prefer to bring others down to the common level. People are often jealous of those who advance further than they do. Those same people are content if the person loses that advancement.
In Atlas Shrugged, John Galt sees this and has a solution. If you take it upon yourself to read this book, there is only one caveat: The speech at the end is so very long, it may take a great degree of patience to read through it. The point of the final speech, for Ayn Rand, was to impart a very important message that could not be summed up in a few paragraphs -- pages, apparently.For a nice exerpt, you can read some of the book here.
This book is highly recommended for everyone.
