The Historic Significance of Atlas Shrugged By Robert Tracinski
October 12 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ayn Rand's classic novel Atlas Shrugged, so in the coming week we can expect to see a flurry of articles about the novel--many of which will, unfortunately, offer highly inaccurate descriptions of the novel's meaning and significance.
A recent New York Times article about the influence of Atlas Shrugged among businessmen and Fortune 500 CEOs, for example, contained one confused businesswoman's opinion that "Rand's idea of 'the virtue of selfishness' is a harsh phrase for the Buddhist idea that you have to take care of yourself." It is hard to see how Buddhism--a philosophy of mystical asceticism--can be seen as equivalent to a philosophy of rational self-interest.
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