Atlas Shrugged

finally finished reading this ... ya ya I know - 15 years too late .... bummer! ... but I preferred music over books when I was a teenager - so sue me!
yanni-ways getting back to the book - first off - I was not overly impressed. Nothing wrong with the message - loved it in fact ... but the story telling was too bloody detailed ... almost a screenplay plus background score and then some more - detailing the position of hair on the faces of the characters ... a bit too much for my fancy and lack of time - probably should have read it 15 years ago when time was not such a commodity!!!

Loved the message - thought-inviting perspective on socialism and the flaws in that theory ... as it is I was a confused capita-socialist, for the sake of coining a term, and now I'm just more capitalist I guess ... or at least I think I see more clearly, the problems with socialism - the spread of laziness, corruption, lack of productivity etc. etc. ... things you see in a typical government organization or in 3rd world countries like Angola where ability is not the only criteria that justifies your compensation.

I agree to a certain extent with Rand's philosophy that productive achievement is man's greatest achievement ... but the world today is not driven by producers - it is driven by traders, stock brokers, hedge fund managers and the likes ... people who really do not produce anything but somehow "assist" in production ... sure they "assist" - but should they be in charge because of that???
I'm not so sure and I think something is wrong with this monopoly of the trading system, that have all so conveniently accepted and adopted.
Then again - not all of us have the same capacity or support system to produce as per abilities ... oh well ... I guess a blend is what's required ... but then again a blend is just that - a dilution of sorts.

hmm ... points to ponder and reponder ... and while deliberating on all this I lopped up Five point Someone by Chetan Bhagat - super read but more on that later.

img courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/