Rand and This Moment - Ramesh Ponnuru - The Corner on National Review Online
Rand and This Moment [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Sales of Atlas Shrugged are surging. It has been a good long while since I read the book, but my bet would be that the current economic downturn will reduce rather than increase the circulation of Rand’s ideas.
Talk about wishful thinking. Let’s see, now: sales of Rand’s signature novel, Atlas Shrugged, are surging, and so (without so much as a cursory segue) “the current economic downturn will reduce rather than increase circulation of Rand’s ideas.”
Ramesh has just posted a self-refuting statement. What I think he meant (I hope, at least, otherwise he’s a dumbass) is that while more people may be induced to read Rand’s ideas by the downturn, folks will not buy her Objectivist ideology because the downturn will frighten them too much to accept the notion of standing on their own two legs and toughing things out without government help or intervention.
That, at least, would make sense. But what he actually posted is a dog’s breakfast.
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I read The Corner pretty regularly, but a year or so back I began skipping Ramesh’s posts. They all seemed to be either social conservative stuff with assumptions I do not share, or lightweight stuff like this.