Who one chooses to emulate - whether fictional or real - is for the individual to determine - as are their respective strengths and weaknesses. To me, there are two separate and distinct keys to a motivating story: a protagonist who betters himself/herself through overcoming trial AND a happy ending. I'm not going into the character side of the story here - I'm looking at the happy ending side of the equation. It's entirely missing.

Winning converts is a battle for where one places one's energies with respect to an end goal. Without that happy ending or vision, the story isn't effective at generating the internal energy necessary to overcome cultural inertia. Show me that happy ending and you have identified the key to proselytizing Objectivism. The next step is to put that key up against what other philosophies and religions are offering and see how it compares - not from the eyes of an Objectivist but from a view of the end goal and what it offers. I'm going to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek: what does Objectivism offer in contrast to 72 virgins? Reincarnation? Becoming "one" with the universe? Being "saved?" This is entirely a rhetorical question.

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Does the "common Joe" see opportunity in a collapse? I'd argue that evidence from the 1930's argues against that - especially when the government is doing their utmost to keep screwing things up. We saw the same thing again in 2008-2016 under Democrats. Producers (not the "common Joe" I would add) simply sat on their money and waited until Trump got elected to invest. The rest simply had to deal with the mess - they certainly didn't have the power to change it.

I think Rand's vision here in Atlas Shrugged is 100% accurate - you can't look to the "common" people. You need a leader to step up, present a vision, and get people behind that vision. That's what Galt is trying to get Dagny to realize - that while she is incredibly competent within her profession, her vision of a productive and effective railroad system for Taggart is being completely undermined by her brother's vision and superior position of authority in the company - especially coupled with destructive government policies.

If they sell the book there, they have no fear that it will overcome their propaganda. Most people won't believe the book's content can be true.

I bought the book at their bookstore, but read it after my visit.

1909 the Carnegie Foundation for World peace. Huh world peace....Both situations were described and memorialized by G Edward Griffith.

The government is no longer a rational entity and far from Ayn Rands "Objectivism". Many agencies have become irrational and emotional. The bureaucrats have become enthralled with political power. Some news reports state that the bureaucrats say that they run the country, not the congress or president. They have become the mob! Or should I say that they have become like the Russian Oligarchs? In fact, they are influenced by the Russian machine (watched biography about Vladimir Putin on VICE cable channel the other night). what I gather from the program is that Putin hates this country and has the communications outlets along with Russian hackers to spread misinformation in the US. Putin views the discord in the US is in his favor. While many Americans don't understand what is happening to our gov't and country. Objectivism will never gain a foothold in the gov't or congress. Putin would love to see our country emotionally fractured. I see this happening the closer we get to November!

Perhaps if the producers had given Galt some CGI super powers, the movies would have been more successful. Light him up like a Tesla coil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeFNg...
[sarcasm]

👍

The state had a pretty good propaganda show at the mansion when I visited years ago. Read the book The Creature From Jekyll Island before you visit so you really understand its significance. Take a walk on the beach to think if you have the time.

Plans to destroy America's rugged individualism were initiated by those families starting at Jekyll Island, GA, as documented in The Creature from Jekyll Island. A visit there is worth a few hours if traveling through Georgia on I-95.

Ah- but- there are types of characters in Atlas ..
The Galt type is superhuman. Readon, and Dagny, are flesh and blood. Very clever, hardworking, ethical, and maybe conservative in that opinions they hold outside areas of expertise and experience do change but only after anguish. Most readers will admire Galt but few will identify. Most readers will identify with Readon and Dagny, if we are not quite up there in all the positive attributes they are role models. The reader knows enough about Readon to have confidence that setbacks are dealt with- in work, play or love.
When tyranny collapses "common Joe" is not expecting quick happiness, jobs and prosperity but does see opportunity.

The problem over the last 100 years is that trustees of the mega Rich Families Foundations .
Ford , Rockefeller ,Carnegie , Guggenheim have sought to destroy Americas rugged individualism .They had taken over the Education system Generally speaking and have sought to control the diplomatic Corp. Norman Dodd exposed it.
Here is a link to his transcript. http://www.supremelaw.org/authors/dod...
It would be pretty unbelievable if we hadn’t lived through the results. This is his video if you want to hear it from the horses mouth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8irQi...

Reason and logic resistant like penicillin resistant.

It is certainly going to be up for each reader to decide how they interpret the book.

Personally, given how Reardon gets dumped by Dagny in favor of Galt, I can't think of any reason why someone (especially a male) would see Reardon as the primary hero in the book to emulate. Sure Reardon came up with a cool metal, but Galt has a generator which everyone - including Reardon - has to depend on. AND Galt gets the girl! Where's the happy ending for Reardon?

But maybe the "common Joes" have sometimes been put down for trying to excel past their fellow workers, and can learn to see things, by reading that book, from Rearden's point of view.
I didn't, at the start, necessarily see myself as a great productive person.

Absolutely true! However, I've spent a lifetime into science, technology, and computing and will always keep in touch with that. However, now that I'm retired I'm changing focus into something else I've always loved, but never took the time for, which is music. Currently I'm taking lessons in music theory and playing the keyboard (piano/organ/synth). Holy moly, this field is far more huge than I imagined and I'm having a ball with it. As a side plus, it may even keep my old brain from freezing up as I age more.

The learning never ends.

And sure - that's the vision of the Gulchers, but does the "common Joe" know about it? No. What do they see? They see that someone who had the power to override the radio waves across an entire nation does so for the express purpose of soundly berating them before retreating back into the shadows.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. You think people who are miserable and scraping just to survive are going to be praying for the return of some nebulous voice - who didn't even offer encouragement to them? No. And this is why I point out the lack of a happy ending.

I've read many of your posts and if I were about 50 (or even 40) years younger, I'd be signing up for your courses!

I agree. Most people don't want to use their brains to reason, they want to use their hearts - which doesn't work very well.

The public schools are beyond salvation. I am a professor at Florida Tech, a private university where we emphasize curiosity, making intellectual connections, and creating value.

Parasites are remarkably resourceful, almost as resourceful as students who cheat on tests.

They might; but by that time, they have no means left.

And perhaps someone could start a school which would be a company, with more than one branch school (like Montessori?), an Objectivist chain that would teach children's minds to think rationally. Plus, we could also encourage home-schooling in addition. (I have begun to think that the public schools are beyond salvation. Perhaps similarly to the way Martin Luther gave up on the Catholic Church when he left).

At the end, when the tyranny has collapsed, and at last they are going to return and rebuild the world. So the "common Joes" can be happy, with jobs and prosperity.

Being rational means to reason with respect to objective reality. Most people do not reason rationally but reason without discovering true premises with respect to reality thus using reason's main tool, logic, with false premises. Most likely that is the case because it is had to track down the truth when overwhelmed by emotion, unquestioned beliefs, social pressure, threats, fears, etc.
That leads to intellectual laziness in reasoning.