Frothy Paradise

Imagine for a moment that you’re a self-absorbed, selfish asshole. That all of your life you’ve been a self-absorbed, selfish asshole and people around you have been telling you that you’re behaving poorly. That you need to be charitable, and love your neighbor, and not be an asshole, and all that other stuff that Western civilization prizes.

And then, when you’re 13 or 14, you find this wonderful book. And in it you read this lovely parable where all of the True Kings of the World are self-absorbed, selfish assholes and they’re right. Suddenly a new worldview appears: all of the people trying to make you change are wrong, and that you should just go right ahead and be a self-absorbed, selfish asshole. And anyone who tells you differently is a parasite.

That’s the appeal of Atlas Shrugged. It’s a book that tells them it’s okay to be a bunch of greedy fuckers and not feel bad about it. And that if you’re not a greedy fucker, you’re a bad person. You can see why greedy fuckers would really like the book and its worldview.