Ayn Rand nuts?
Guys -- I think Ayn Rand is great, but taken out of context her stuff can be ka-razy sounding:
"The traffic cops of morality chortle and tell them that man, by his nature, is unable to walk."
- atlas shrugged
"The traffic cops of morality chortle and tell them that man, by his nature, is unable to walk."
- atlas shrugged
Traffic cops of morality?
Powering on.....
posted by mrdarius at
Thursday, February 19, 2009
7 Comments:
People repeat stuff from The Bible out of context all the time. What's your point?
I think you'll appreciate what you read more if you try to take an author's point without getting hung up on odd nomenclature. It may sound a little strange, but she was writing fifty years ago.
If you think about it, though, I think this example makes sense: assuming the top three cops of morality are pedagogues, priests, and parents, don't they always blame your mistakes on your lack of dependence? You didn't read enough so and so to get the right answer (instead of doing it better yourself); you didn't pray to God enough for help (instead of doing it better yourself); you should have asked for more help from me or your brother or whoever else (instead of doing it better yourself). It's less common, though more encouraging, really, to hear "You can do it without any help from God, the government, or anyone else. Try again!"
Could you direct me to the source of your quote from Ayn Rand?
atlas shrugged
It's been a long time since I read it and I can't recall the section that's from. Do you have a page number?
it's from the part right before jim taggart's wife commits suicide. end of chapter 4, part 3. the page of my version are messed up, so i won't bother.
Thanks very much. I should have Googled it, it seems. I found it on Big Dom's blog. Actually this passage resonates with me, now. I should read the book again.
http://tinyurl.com/b4j74l
“The lights went back to the green of safety – but she stood trembling, unable to move. That’s how it works for the travel of one’s body, she thought, but what have they done to the traffic of the soul? They have set the signals in reverse – and the road is safe when the lights are the red of evil – but when the lights are the green of virtue, promising that your is the right-of-way, you venture forth and are ground by the wheels. All over the world, she thought – those inverted lights go reaching into every land, they go on, encircling the earth. And the earth is littered with mangled cripples, who don’t know what has hit them or why, who crawl as best they can on their crushed limbs through their lightless days, with no answer save that pain is the core of existence – and the traffic cops of morality chortle and tell them that man, by his nature is unable to walk.”
(Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged. Copyright by Ayn Rand, 1957. p.906)
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