-
Gravy posted an update 5 years, 1 month ago
Unsettling when current events consistently cause you recall passages from books like Atlas Shrugged. I feel that the line separating our “reality” from a work of fiction grows thinner each day and the rhetoric becomes a mirror.
NYT:
“Critical thinking, as we’re taught to do it, isn’t helping in the fight against misinformation.”
“Stop overthinking what you see online.”
“the way we’re taught from a young age to evaluate and think critically about information is fundamentally flawed and out of step with the chaos of the current internet”Atlas Shrugged:
“So you think you’re sure of your opinions? You cannot be sure of anything. Are you going to endanger the harmony of your community, your fellowship with your neighbors, your standing, reputation, good name and financial security—for the sake of an illusion? For the sake of the mirage of thinking that you think? Are you going to run risks and court disasters—at a precarious time like ours—by opposing the existing social order in the name of those imaginary notions of yours which you call your convictions? You say that you’re sure you’re right? Nobody is right, or ever can be. You feel that the world around you is wrong? You have no means to know it. Everything is wrong in human eyes—so why fight it? Don’t argue. Accept. Adjust yourself. Obey.”
The Giza Forum (Legacy)
Closed Archive of The Old Forum
Reading Atlas Shrugged the first time opened a whole different spectrum of thought.
https://aynrand.org/ideas/philosophy/
I can’t say that I share her philosophy or world view on the whole, but felt that her grasp of truth on some topics was extremely powerful.
My understanding is that she experienced the bolshevik takeover first hand and escaped to the West. What I find especially uncanny is the number of mantras in the book (from the 1950’s) that are regularly chanted by the ministry of truth media and popular culture in general.
Although books like these are not my favorite thing in the world, they cause me to sit up and take notice when the concepts and ideas are so consistently replayed today. For example:
“to refuse is out of the question, in times like these one has no choice”
“It’s for the good of the people. The people need it. Need comes first, so we don’t have to consider anything else.”
“There’s got to be some victims in times of national emergency.
It can’t be helped.” “We have the right to do it!”