’’I swear - by my life and my love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine’’
’’Who is John Galt’’
Thus begins the epic of Atlas Shrugged. I refer to this book as an epic as it cannot be classified as a novel and neither solely as philosophy and surely, 1074 pages defend its definition as an epic.
Atlas Shrugged describes a world where prime movers go on strike. Prime movers are the creators, the intellectuals. Second handers live and feed off the creators. The question is why the creators allow the second handers to feed on them? Why has this kept happening throughout the history? What will happen to the world if there are no creators or prime movers? Atlas Shrugged is a quest to understand why the world is controlled by second handers and what would happen to the world without the prime movers.
Crudely speaking, Atlas Shrugged defends selfishness by defining it as moral right of man to charge others for products of his brain. It does not limit selfishness to businessmen alone but also includes artists and people from working class too.
Atlas Shrugged has got a host of characters each with an independent view of what he/she is doing and the logic behind his/her actions. Here I would like to discuss the cast of characters but a little mistake on my part would spoil the book for future readers.
I read the book twice to get the complete meaning and I plan to read it a third time in the near future too. Atlas Shrugged is a must read for any serious reader but at 1074 pages with miniscule print, it requires serious effort to complete this book.Maybe, that is a test too.