atlas sucked

allow me a moment to chortle
at the news that
ayn rand is making a comeback
in these times of a crappy economy and shouts of
dread socialism

the thought that people are turning to this creed
of glorified selfishness
in the midst of a storm wrought by that very thing
is too funny for words

of course it's not as simple as that one might point out
rand's paper cutout heroes were titans of industry
people who made stuff
whereas the uber-capitalists of today are titans of paper
of the buying and selling of imaginary things they don't own

the people crying foul over socialism and taxes and the redistribution of wealth
to the unworthy
are not creators or inventors
they're frustrated and average
and pissed off that their own well being
pragmatically requires lending a hand to those less special

objectivism was popular in college
many an engineering student looked on rand's
noble yet beleaguered techno-capitalists and
saw themselves
unique clockwork flowers whose gifts were
underappreciated and squandered on the masses

it's a tempting worldview
but even if you are such a creative genius
it's naive in a very freshman-year-at-college kind of way
to think you don't need other people to truly bring that to life

and what's more damning
is the powerful counterexamples set by the likes of
andrew carnegie and bill gates
who engaged the world's problems
not withdraw from them

so you'll have to forgive me
if i have a good laugh at the idea that an
investment banker might pick up atlas shrugged
and say
'hey the rest of the world's keeping
me
down'

me i make things for a living
but i'm not special
i'm just another person who
tries to make the world a little more so

if these idiots want to go live in a magical secret valley of
elitist assholes
they can be my guest
because the punchline is

they won't be missed