What would Henry Rearden (from Atlas Shrugged) do?

Atlas Shrugged is taking a long time to read.

I was on Yahoo Answers, and asked a question about it.

Henry Rearden, from Atlas Shrugged is a "self made man".

His brother Philip doesn't do anything, and expects Rearden to support him financially. The whole society ends up doing the same sort of thing: not producing anything of their own but relying on the successful industrialists, like Rearden and Dagny, to give up their time and effort.

This all makes sense, in a world where people like Philip Rearden could get up off their arses, get a real job, and turn their lives around.

What if Rearden lived in Germany during the second world war. What if he were put in the place of Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List. Would he scoff at the government but say to himself that it's useless to try to change them? Or would he end up using his personal money to save people, at no benefit to himself?

Here's my opinion:

The more I think about it, the more I think that Rearden is very similar to Schindler. I think because of the fact that he's a self-made man, he understands the value of work, and doesn't like getting work for free.

Somewhere in Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand says something about how Rearden was adamant that a business deal had to be beneficial to both sides.

I think he would have the same kind of struggle in his mind, and eventually come to the same conclusion: his money wouldn't mean anything if it was earned by the blood and tears of slaves.

I think Rearden would do almost the same thing as Schindler: except he might stubbornly still try to make the factory productive. Even though he'd be supporting a group of "looters".

Uh...now I have to think up a title for this?

I haven't blogged for awhile. I think I might have lost my ability to be concise.

I've been reading Atlas Shrugged, ever since I got home for Christmas. I was planning on reading it in the airport and on the plane, then to stop reading it once I got home. But I didn't. I couldn't figure it out, but there was something about it that I really liked. It was exciting to like a book and not immediately know the reason.

What I like is competence.

That's why I almost understood Dagny and Reardon's affair: it wasn't some romance for the sake of being a romance. It was two smart, competent people, who work hard during the day and present an unemotional image to the rest of the world.

There was something I was going to say, someone in real life I was going to mention. Someone who's competent, good-looking, a year younger than I, of the opposite gender, fun to be with, and I think he likes me too.

Aside from those things, I think subconsciously that I consider us equals. I don't consider myself any better than him, nor do I consider him hopelessly better than me.

This guy does interesting things in his free time (not like some people who play video games all the time). He's good at what he does and wants to learn more things.

I'm not too good for him, and he is not too good for me as long as I don't get lazy. As long as I try my best in whatever I do, I think we're equal in terms of competence.

I had a thought a while ago, that I was different than a lot of girls. That I don't blog about a guy that I like. Of course, a while ago I thought I might be gay, also a while ago I thought that the notion of intimacy was "icky" and for "adults".

Hm...he could read this, and would probably know it's him I'm talking about. Oh well, I'm still posting it anyway.

(Image from someone's flickr.)

And...some footnotes:

* (competence...ah the irony.) When I first discovered Atlas Shrugged was when they sent out a free copy after I entered a scholarship contest. The scholarship contest was to write an essay on The Fountainhead. I read over half of the book then ran out of time and sent in an essay that was mediocre at best. The funny thing is, I don't like mediocrity much.

** (sure, edward presents an unemotional image too.) But Dagny and Reardon are more real, more human, and more interesting than Edward Cullen. Also, Edward is creepy and watches Bella sleep (Sorry, fans of TWILIGHT!!!1 I'm not saying it's a bad book, I just like books that make me think, and in which the main female character doesn't lose all her ability to think out of her own free will.)

*** (of the opposite gender.) Not that being of the opposite gender is too important, because I don't mind the idea of being homosexual and have entertained this idea in my mind. In the end, though, I think I'm straight. And it's a relief, even though I could've accepted being gay.