Fucking Ayn Rand! ARGH!!! (Nov 17, 2007)

Current mood:scared

I'm about 75 pages into a book calle Atlas Shrugged. I'm sure you can guess who the author is. I can tell you now that Ayn Rand is NOT the best author in the world. Far from it. Her work is in a general way, dull and dragging.  But she has become one of my favorite authors and if you can get through the first part of her books enought to beome interested, you won't be able to put the book down.

I'm saying all this because I need to fucking vent. Like I said, not even 100 pages in and I'm bloody well pissed. THAT is the sign of an author doing their job. Anyone that can draw that kind of emotion out of someone just by writing words... wow...

One of the characters in the story, Rearden, seems to just want to do his own thing, live his life and be happy. I don't see what the fuck is wrong with that, do you...? He has a nice big house, owns his own business, lets his mother, and I think his brother, all live there with him and his wife. But, instead of being happy that he's doing well, instead of being grateful that he lets them live there and share in his wealth, they BITCH about it. They constantly harass him. What the shit....?? He runs a metal plant thing, right? And hes SO excited because he's come up with this new miracle metal. No one wants it. No one trusts it. But someone finally places and order for it and he's ecstatic. He makes for his wife a bracelet. Not a well made one, but a bracelet out of this new metal that hes so happy about. But... instead of thinking ANYthing along the lines of, aw, how sweet, she says shit like, "You mean its fully as valuable as a piece of railroad rails?" and "I shall be the sensation of New York, wearing jewelry made of the same stuff as bridge girders, truck motors, kitchen stoves, typewriters, and- what was it you were saying the other day, darling?- soup kettles?"

OMFG, I'd have fucking strangled her. He takes it all in stride. His mothers no better, the whole while caling him selfish and conceited, just because he does what he does. The brother hints around that he wants all this money for his job, but then when they guy GIVES it to him, JUST to see him happy, he gets nothing. Not so much as a "Why, thanks, you're a swell chap!"

Then, then theres the railroad line, right? BIG giant huge company. And there are 2 people mainly in charge of it. A rother and sister. The sister seems right on. This is what he wants to do, shes effecient and what not. The brother... The brothers a goddamn communist. I mean, he and his buddies are sitting around a barroom talking about shit and they're all like "Ok, so theres all these lines and they all need parts. Well there's all these places that supply parts, but all of them are backordered and failing. But then one comes along and it HAS supplies, it HAS what everyone needs. It can deliver on time. But thats NOT FAIR to the other companies. Why should they have to suffer because the one place has it all and they don't?"

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!? I actually had to put the book down and SEETHE for a minute. That place got where it is because of its own means. Why the fuck SHOULD they have to share all their crap with the other companies who have apparently fucked up? They want to bitch about monopolies and whatever, well fine, monopolies suck. But that doesn't mean you have to go and equally distribute shit. 

The sister, shes in charge of some shit. She does good work. Good and mostly thankless. But she likes it and does it and now she runs some things. So there's and issue that comes up. There are 2 rail lines that need attending. ONE is a well used line, makes em a shit-ton of money, but its badly in need of repair. Then the other, well, the other runs to Mexico. There's nothing there. They're LOSING money on it. The brother wants that line though, NEEDS trains on it "because we are obligated to help better the lives of the mexicans because, well, they just can't do it without us." But its COSTING them money. So she puts the old trains on that line. The ones that aren't all awesome and new. Adn she runs the schedule to one passenger  and 2 freight  runs a day.

The brother goes nuts. Why? Because we NEED to better those people. And because we didn't have a TEAM of people to vote on it. Because GOD FORBID someone actually make their own goddamn decisions.....

And here's the kicker.  Start thinking about our government......