{"id":2024,"date":"2007-10-10T18:21:36","date_gmt":"2007-10-11T01:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2024"},"modified":"2007-10-10T18:23:48","modified_gmt":"2007-10-11T01:23:48","slug":"atlas-shrugged-is-50-years-old-today-all-work-is-an-act-of-creating-and-comes-from-the-same-source-from-an-inviolate-capacity-to-see-through-ones-own-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2024\/atlas-shrugged-is-50-years-old-today-all-work-is-an-act-of-creating-and-comes-from-the-same-source-from-an-inviolate-capacity-to-see-through-ones-own-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlas Shrugged is 50 years old today: “All work is an act of creating and comes from the same source: from an inviolate capacity to see through one’s own eyes…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is philospher David Kelley in the Wall Street Journal<\/i><\/a>. I think BloodhoundBlog presents a nice reflection of this argument, a joyous, fearless, unapologetic pursuit of new ideas.<\/p>\n

Economists have known for a long time that profits are an external measure of the value created by business enterprise. Rand portrayed the process of creating value from the inside, in the heroes’ vision and courage, their rational exuberance in meeting the challenges of production. Her point was stated by one of the minor characters of “Atlas,” a musical composer: “Whether it’s a symphony or a coal mine, all work is an act of creating and comes from the same source: from an inviolate capacity to see through one’s own eyes. . . That shining vision which they talk about as belonging to the authors of symphonies and novels — what do they think is the driving faculty of men who discovered how to use oil, how to run a mine, how to build an electric motor?”<\/p>\n

As for the charge, from egalitarian left and religious right alike, that the profit motive is selfish, Rand agreed. She was notorious as the advocate of “the virtue of selfishness,” as she titled a later work. Her moral defense of the pursuit of self-interest, and her critique of self-sacrifice as a moral standard, is at the heart of the novel. At the same time, she provides a scathing portrait of what she calls “the aristocracy of pull”: businessmen who scheme, lie and bribe to win favors from government.<\/p>\n

Economists have also known for a long time that trade is a positive sum game, yet most defenders of capitalism still wrestle with the “paradox” posed in the 18th century by Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith: how private vice can produce public good, how the pursuit of self-interest yields benefits for all. Rand cut that Gordian knot in the novel by denying that the pursuit of self-interest is a vice. Precisely because trade is not a zero-sum game, Rand challenges the age-old moral view that one must be either a giver or a taker.<\/p>\n

The central action of “Atlas” is the strike Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is philospher David Kelley in the Wall Street Journal. I think BloodhoundBlog presents a nice reflection of this argument, a joyous, fearless, unapologetic pursuit of new ideas. Economists have known for a long time that profits are an external measure of the value created by business enterprise. Rand portrayed the process of creating value […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10161,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10161\/atlas-twitched\/","url_meta":{"origin":2024,"position":0},"title":"Atlas Twitched?","author":"Scott Cowan","date":"October 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In effort to stem public outcry the government today announced that they were limiting the salaries of the top 175 executives for companies that have received federal bailout money. Will this be the event that causes the best and brightest our country has to stop being exactly what we need\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18470,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18470\/overnight-news-see-atlas-shrug-shrug-atlas-shrug\/","url_meta":{"origin":2024,"position":1},"title":"Overnight News: \u201cSee Atlas shrug? Shrug, Atlas, shrug!\u201d","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Legitimacy, ultimately, is a bargain: In exchange for my not fighting City Hall, City Hall agrees to do its deal as efficiently as possible and to stay out of my business otherwise. What happens when City Hall gradually reneges on the deal? Not rebellion out right, certainly not right away,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14093,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14093\/coming-to-the-silver-screen-atlas-shrugged\/","url_meta":{"origin":2024,"position":2},"title":"Coming to the silver screen Atlas Shrugged.","author":"Scott Cowan","date":"February 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Could this be a movie for Bloodhounds everywhere? I know that just about everyone who reads here at BHB has read Ayn Rand and has their opinions on whether she was a brilliant author. I personally find her works Anthem, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged to be some of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/6W07bFa4TzM\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14596,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14596\/senator-rand-paul-the-claim-of-a-right-to-health-care-implies-a-belief-in-slavery\/","url_meta":{"origin":2024,"position":3},"title":"Senator Rand Paul: The claim of a “right” to health care implies a belief in slavery.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Say what you will about the Tea Party, it's a small victory just to have words like these enunciated on the floor of Congress: This is Ayn Rand from Atlas Shrugged making the same argument:\u201cI quit when medicine was placed under State control some years ago,\u201d said Dr. Hendricks. \u201cDo\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18099,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18099\/overnight-news-like-orren-boyle-in-atlas-shrugged-redfins-glenn-kelman-makes-rules-because-he-cant-make-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":2024,"position":4},"title":"Overnight News: Like Orren Boyle in Atlas Shrugged, Redfin\u2019s Glenn Kelman makes rules because he can\u2019t make\u00a0money.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Is Glenn Kelman the Orren Boyle of real estate? While Basecamp is graciously showing the world how to be based in business, Kelman is the social savior who has a solution for every problem except Redfin.com's currently-completely-useless marketing strategy. The flavor of the micro-second? Pocket listings. I don't like them,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11470,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11470\/splendorquest-should-we-celebrate-john-galt-day-on-june-1st\/","url_meta":{"origin":2024,"position":5},"title":"SplendorQuest: Should we celebrate John Galt Day on June 1st?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote this coming on four years ago, one of my last posts to PresenceOfMind.net, my philosophical\/political\/literary home on the web. The planned strike of our undocumented friends has come and gone, but the underlying idea -- a strike against the looters on June 1st -- still resonates with me.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}