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Jun 08, 2009 18:25

 Every time I read Atlas Shrugged, I find passages that resound within me.

"....Its an ugly story. He was the youngest of the three, Eric Starnes.  He was one of those chronic young men who go around whining about their sensitive feelings, when they're well past forty.  He needed love, was his line.  He was being kept by older women, when he could find them.  Then he started running after a girl of sexteen, a nice girl who wouldn't have anything to do with him.  She married a boy she was engaged to.  Eric Starnes got into their house on the wedding day, and when they came back from church after the ceremony, the found him in their bedroom, dead, messy dead, his wrists slashed...

Now I say there might be forgiveness for a man who kills himself quietly. Who can pass judgement on another man's suffering and the limit of what he can bear?  But the man who kills himself, making a show of his death in order to hurt somebody, the man who gives his life for malice---there's no forgiveness for him, no excuse, he's rotten clear through, and what he deserves is that people spit at his memory, instead of feeling sorry for him and hurt, as he wanted them to be..."

And:

"Why yes, I can," said Midas Mulligan, when he was asked whether he could name a person more evil than the man with a heart closed to pity. "The man who uses another's pity for him as a weapon."

Harshly worded, in trademark Randian style, but all good thoughts. If you haven't read the book, its not exclusively brutal attacks on the cowardly and despicable nature of the 'looter', there's also passages of great joy in one's own accomplishment and ability. I'll throw a few of those up here later, as food for thought.

I suppose I should legitimately update as well. I'll get around to it, eventually, I'm sure.

thoughts, atlas shrugged, ayn rand

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