Ayn Rand understood the inevitable consequences of the collectivist ideology because she experienced them first hand in soviet Russia. Atlas Shrugged is her illustration of those consequences and ranks with 1984 and Animal Farm as a terrifyingly real image of the near future. Atlas Shrugged is no longer fiction if it ever was.

When I asked that question, my friend who had read the book said, "If you want to know what it's about, you'll have to read it yourself. I cannot answer your questions." That particular advice, stressing the importance of individual thought and action, is appropriate for many situations, but particularly for Atlas Shrugged.

What is Atlas Shrugged?

If the weight of the world were on your shoulders. .....and the harder you worked to keep it aloft it only bore down harder on you....and the answer to your problem were in a book.....would you read it?

"Atlas Shrugged" takes us inside a world in chaos: Those who value reason, capitalism and individualism remove themselves, stopping the engine of the world., Can dissenters turn it back on?

Iron Man. Spider-Man. Superman. Batman. Our culture is full of the stories of the hero who appears out of nowhere or rises from nothing to save the world from impending doom. "Atlas Shrugged" is about a hero who realizes that mankind's worst enemy is itself, and that the only way to save humanity is not to save it from the results of its own choices, but to make it face those consequences head on.

It's pretty easy to blame everyone else for your problems. What happens when you run out of people to blame?

from Joel Turtel, jturtel@yahoo.com
* Atlas Shrugged is where gov’t sponsored looting is not allowed
* Atlas Shrugged is where you can’t loot your neighbor through your Senator
* Atlas Shrugged is where gov’t is our agent, not our master
* Atlas Shrugged is where tyranny has been banned from the American dictionary
* Atlas Shrugged is America’s happy ending.
* Atlas Shrugged is where Americans do not trade liberty for “security”.
* Atlas Shrugged is a liberal's worst nightmare
* Atlas Shrugged is where you get what you deserve.
* Atlas Shrugged is where we understand that without liberty, there is no “security’.
* Atlas Shrugged is an America that does not trade liberty for "security."

* Atlas Shrugged is the antidote to liberal poison
* Atlas Shrugged is the blueprint to a free America
* Atlas Shrugged is answer to vile socialism
* Atlas Shrugged says we have the right to live for ourselves.
* Atlas Shrugged is the moral champion of the producer.
* Atlas Shrugged is the enemy of parasites everywhere.
* Atlas Shrugged is an idea whose time has come.
* Atlas Shrugged is a salute to the best within us
* Atlas Shrugged tells us the glory that America once was, and could be again.
* Atlas Shrugged is a salute to an America that once was, and can be again.
* Atlas Shrugged is a liberals' nightmare
* Atlas Shrugged is a sword in the liberal heart
* Atlas Shrugged is a place where liberals get their just deserts
* Atlas Shrugged is capitalism's savior and socialism's deadly enemy
* Atlas Shrugged delivers us from the evil of socialism
* Atlas Shrugged shows us a future we can look forward to.
* Atlas Shrugged is our children's only hope for a better future.
* Atlas Shrugged can save America from Obamaland.
* Atlas Shrugged can save America
* Atlas Shrugged can bring back freedom and prosperity to America
* Atlas Shrugged sticks it to liberals
* Atlas Shrugged says we are NOT our brother's keeper.
* Atlas Shrugged says gov't has NO right to force us to be our brother's keeper.
* Atlas Shrugged says it's OK to be selfish and happy.
* Atlas Shrugged can be America's shining future
* Atlas Shrugged would have been a best seller with our Founding Fathers.
* Atlas Shrugged is the way to defeat the liberal parasites
* Atlas Shrugged is how America could be, and ought to be.
* Atlas Shrugged is the map to America's bright future.
* Atlas Shrugged is a salute to the human spirit
* Atlas Shrugged is a salute to the human mind
* Atlas Shrugged puts a stake into the heart of liberal's taxes and strangling regulations.
* Atlas Shrugged is the anti-Obamaland.
* Atlas Shrugged is where the Obamas of this world NEVER gain power over us.
* Atlas Shrugged is an America where you get to KEEP what you earn.
* Atlas Shrugged is an America where we have freedom and prosperity NOW, not in some sick socialist future.
* Atlas Shrugged will give your children a future.
* Atlas Shrugged is an America with limitless energy and an unlimited potential.
* Atlas Shrugged puts an end to gov't looters and parasites.
* Atlas Shrugged is what the American Revolution was all about.
* Atlas Shrugged buries socialism, once and for all.
* Atlas Shrugged says that YOU, not govt looters and parasites, own your own life.
* Atlas Shrugged is a world where the human spirit can soar and prosper.
* Atlas Shrugged turns America into a happy ending.
* Atlas Shrugged gives America a second chance.
* Atlas Shrugged is America's sunrise
* Atlas Shrugged is America's springtime after a vile socialist winter.
* Atlas Shrugged ends America's experiment with vile socialism.
* Atlas Shrugged cures the deadly disease called altruism/socialism
* Atlas Shrugged is America, when it was free and young
* Atlas Shrugged is your children's only hope

Atlas Shrugged is a foretelling of an individual-less future. It is a clarion call of dignity and pride to men and women who know themselves to be more than mere drones working at the pleasure of society or government.

It 's a thriller. What would happen if the best and brightest among us started vanishing one by one?What if all they produced (planes,engines, oil, gas, bridges) was either destroyed or left in chaos? What if they all had gone on strike? Look around you. It's happening. Who is John Galt?

"What is Atlas Shrugged?" Simply put - The Objectivist Manifesto

Three groups of people.
Producers: Those that provide goods and services from their own efforts..
Looters: Those that take from the producers by force (law) and redistribute to-----
Moochers: Those that demand as their right the fruits of productive efforts which they can not and will not obtain on their own.

When asked about Atlas Shrugged I say at it's most basic level it lays out the relationship between the individual and the group (society as a whole) ,

It's the story about a man who said he would stop the motor of the world - and did!

Atlas portrays the worst points of Communism. Look around the world today, there are many, many comparisons.

Individualism vs Collectivism.

A group of men who refuse to be victims or slaves. Driven by the motor of one man, they bring the looters of the entitlement state to their knees by taking them at their word and giving them what they asked for. It's about justice. It's about freedom. It's about the greatness and nobility of the individual.

Atlas Shrugged is about government control of the economy, encompassing, among other things, allocation of resources, the effect this control has on a) the Laws of Supply & Demand and, b) on productive and honest people.

Atlas Shrugged is a story about the undeniable end result of a culture of entitlement and political correctness.

One of the greatest and most inspirationally American stories ever written. Sadly, it was prophetic.

Atlas Shrugged a book written before it’s time. Author Ayn Rand writes about a free society that systematically loses its freedom by a government who goes after the destruction of private businesses which we know is the core to the success of a functioning free society. Accomplished by implementing unconstitutional laws, the violation of rights, over regulations, raising taxes, and fees. Does this sound familiar? Who is John Galt? It’s essential you find out!

Atlas Shrugged explains why we must be thankful, even reverential, to the men and women who create, produce and supply all the products, services, ideas and technology that we consume. These creators, like Atlas, bear the burden of all human progress. Consumers, politicians and regulators often act as if they are “entitled” to the creators' products, assuming that Atlas would continue to bear the burden endlessly. The novel asks and answers the question: what if Atlas shrugged? The entire edifice of modern civilization would collapse.

Atlas Shrugged is very timely for our country right now. It is the story of magnificent minds and creative leaders who forge new paradigms of excellence in their businesses. But the parasites and small minds use government take control of their ability to produce in such a way that shackles the heroes - the giants of industry, and also punishes them for production. The parasites of society are rewarded for non-productivity. One man, John Galt, stands up to this injustice and shows them that it is better to withdraw from this evil paradigm which will destroy their spirits. One by one, the great minds of the nation disappear and walk away from what they have created. Where do they go? To a place that fosters and rewards brilliance and productivity.

Atlas Shrugged describes what happens under a statist government when those capable of running successful businesses, the victims of Utopian scheming, decide they will no longer be victims. They quit. They disappear. Those who remain prove it is impossible to build a productive economy based on corruption, cronyism, influence peddling and penalizing those who produce while rewarding those who don’t. They discover that production can’t be mandated by directives or executive orders. In the end, society regresses into isolated bands of warring tribes when it runs out of victims, the producers.

Atlas Shrugged is about freedom and mans desire for it. It's about choice - your right to have an opportunity to choose your own fate. It encourages man to think not accept others misguided ideals.

Imagine a world where the truly capable people stopped carrying the rest of us on their shoulders. They have left humanity on the side of the road, and are now on the other side of the ravine picking daises.