Have you ever wondered why there are hardly any
pro-capitalist novels? The only book that I’m aware of that is pro-capitalist,
is ‘Atlas Shrugged’, by the Russian emigre, Ayn Rand. I suppose it's because
capitalism is seen as representing a largely immoral self-serving system that
ultimately enriches a few.
In the novel 'Cannery Row', by John Steinbeck, the marine
biologist ‘Doc’, says to Mac and the boys:
“It has always
seemed strange to me that things we admire in men, kindness and generosity,
openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure
in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness,
meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men
admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second."
In Ayn Rand's novel 'Atlas Shrugged', her heroes are the
capitalist, who like Atlas, hold the sky aloft on their shoulders. Her point is
that the ignorant mass of people are totally indebted to the efforts and skills
of a small number of talented people, to who they owe their conditions in life
and their very existence. Ayn Rand despised altruism, believed in laissez-faire
capitalism, and railed against welfare systems. She defined her philosophy like
this: metaphysics - reality; epistemology - reason; ethics - rational self-
interest; politics- capitalism.
Yet in later life, as her health declined, she finished up
claiming Social Security payments and Medicare benefits, under her married name
of Ann O'Connor. But like her fellow Russian, nostrum monger, Madame Blavatsky, she sucked a lot of
people in with her spurious theories, but she's just another charlatan who
couldn't even live up to her own ideals
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