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I wish my father had read Atlas Shrugged

Posted by richrobinson 10 years, 2 months ago to The Gulch: General
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I have mentioned before that my family owns a small business. While our earnings reports may not move the Dow Industrial Average it is all we have and it is successful enough to support us. My father began working at this business in 1962. Another in a series of jobs he took to help support the family of farm. As the farm fell on hard times dad quit school to help support the family. He married and soon had kids to support. In 1964 his father was murdered. Tough times became tougher. He ultimately became a full partner in the business we now own. Unfortunately his partner was stealing . He bought her out and while all is well I think if dad have read Atlas Shrugged we would have abandoned the thief who was his partner and we would be fine. She would be much worse off. As I thought of this tonight I wondered if other Gulch members wish their relatives had read Atlas Shrugged. It has a way of changing lives.


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  • Posted by khalling 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    pirate is soo cute! she is wearing her A is A shirt today. headed to the big city today to cause some trouble!
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  • Posted by 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    My dads side was all Democrat as well. I think Jimmy Carter did him in. Our business flourished in the Reagan years. My grandmother never switched. She loved Truman and voted Democrat thru her last vote in 1992.
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  • Posted by 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I just got the audio and I'm listening to it myself. I will definitely ask him and the rest of my family if they are interested when I am done. I think because he was always so active and working a lot he never liked to sit and read. The movies and audio are a great alternative.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 10 years, 2 months ago
    Amen to that. My Dad was a lifelong Democrat because his father was and his father was one because Teddy Roosevelt cut out hunting in Yellowstone. Simple as that. Dad was at one time State Partyi Secretary in Oregon. and a huge Wayne Morse fan.

    Being retired infantry etc. I asked him one day sort of out of the blue why his generation fought WWII and then voted the same type of political beliefs into power at home.

    Well that got things going at first heatedly but he thought about it. By the end of his life he had become a Libertarian in his voting and one day shocked us all wearing a Limbaugh T Shirt.
    Didn't like the guy though. Just did it to push buttons on the rest of us.

    Just before he died he wrote a paper and described the 1900s as the Century of the Socialist Wars each version struggling for supremacy. By then he was voting Libertarian or for the better Independents.

    That's my story.
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  • Posted by kathywiso 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yes, audio... I messed up last weekend and got the abridged version. Found the unabridged on Amazon today for $10.00 more.. Is there another reason you haven't given him the book ? I think a simple, hey Dad, when you have some quiet time, working in the shop alone or driving, pop this in the CD player, it is very important to me and I think you will like it and hand him the audio...just a little friendly advice. I was fortunate enough to have my Dad hand the book to me at a very young age.. We still have great conversations every time we talk that includes OUR philosophy, molded by Ayn Rand. We compare people to her characters and recognize it in people we encounter. Life is good :)
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Probably not much. These are internal values that you likely developed on your own, AR merely gave you a "voice" to crystalize those values around.
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  • Posted by Bryan 10 years, 2 months ago
    My father never read the book, either, to my knowledge. After I read it twice and saw the first two movies, I gave a copy to each of my 4 daughters. Each had a personal inscription tailored to their own personality. It's important that we all spread the message to those we can influence.
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  • Posted by teri-amborn 10 years, 2 months ago
    Neither of my parents would have been able to conceptualize the truths of Ayn Rand's philosophy...however I was shocked to learn that my niece has read and loves her writings. Hope for the next generation.
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  • Posted by 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That's surprising. I think I just assumed that a producer would be drawn into the message. I remember being surprised as a kid when I saw a picture of my grandmother when she was young. She was proudly holding up all the rabbits she had gotten hunting that day. It was a different era.
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  • Posted by 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I'm listening to AS everyday on my work commute. I'm really enjoying it. BTW it was -6 over night here. Hope you're having fun. 😀
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  • Posted by $ rockymountainpirate 10 years, 2 months ago
    My dad was also a business owner. He already applied some of the philosophy to his life, but not all. His family was hit really hard financially when he was young so he had to produce for himself. I have heard tails that if he wanted breakfast before school he had to catch it himself by fishing off the Redondo pier. He worked hard, learned a trade and then started his own successful business. He was a capitalist, but I am not sure he would have liked the book.
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  • Posted by $ rockymountainpirate 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Audio books Rich. Get the unabridged version. I hear the 'I don't like to read' copout all the time and audio books solve that issue.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    My younger daughter is a fine young lady of 17 now. Dads rarely seem cool to teenage daughters.
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  • Posted by 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Weird? Well yeah maybe a little. It's great that you got them both exposed to AS at such a young age. I think one day they will understand why and you won't seem so weird.
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  • Posted by 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    My dad goes to church now but not while I was growing up. He had a falling out with the Pastor at his family church when he was quite young so I don't think that would have been an issue for him. It's great that your dad lived such a long life. I guess reading AS and accepting AS are two different things. I think my dad would have gotten a lot out of it.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago
    One of my daughters liked reading AS and watching the movies. My wife liked the movies but doesn't read. My other daughter agrees with most of AR's values, but just thinks I'm weird.
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  • Posted by coaldigger 10 years, 2 months ago
    My father never read AS and would have been puzzled by the lack of a link to Christianity. He was a hard worker, had a strong sense of ethics, smart with numbers but not a deep thinker. He was a Freemason and seemed to get a lot out of that association.
    I was an only child and very rebellious from the start which created a gap between us that did not close until I was an adult and we could have a drink and shoot pool together. I introduced him to golf when he retired and he became a fanatic playing almost every day until he became ill at 91 and died at 92. Some of our best times were spent on golf courses even after he was more interested in finding lost balls than in playing the game.
    When he was very sick he asked me what I thought happened when you die which was the first time our conversations bordered on philosophical issues. I told him that if he was looking for a comfortable answer he was talking to the wrong person and that I thought the answer was nothingness. He said aren't you scared that is true and I said no and would only regret it if I felt I had wasted my life. He said I thought that is what you would say and we never spoke of it again. Due to his background, I think he would not have benefited a lot from reading AS but nevertheless had beliefs and traits that many have acquired from reading it.
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  • Posted by 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I probably would have done the same thing. I don't look back often but I do occasionally let myself think of how different I would be if I read AS when I was a teenager.
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  • Posted by 10 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Dad hates to read so the movies would be a good start. I was thinking last night about how hard he has worked his whole life and allowed moochers to feed off his efforts. His business partner was the worst. A total leech.
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