The Emerald Rose

Back in my high school pre-summer days I loved to read, (I Still Do of course),  and I had heard from a buddy that we were going to be assigned to read,  “Atlas Shrugged”, by Ayn Rand, so I wanted to get a jump on it and read it in May, every page in it. (Of course he was wrong,…..BUT, keep reading!)  Now, I like to let it all settle (translate as ‘let some time pass” before I pick up any  book for “second time” reading. (It’s better than a movie, and every time you re-read it you get more meaning and more reality out of it, because there is a “new” freshness to it!

Well, here I am, give or take almost fifty-five more years later , and I am proud to say “this reread-time” is about my fourth or fifth time rereading it, (and I’ve read all the rest of her works as well since then, and she is my “go-to” author for a meaningful re-read every time.)

I don’t want to begin a philosophic discussion, BUT if you’ve never read it READ IT. Then sit back with a glass of good Cabernet Sauvignon, every time you do read it, think seriously about what you just read,……think about what has happened in our countries business, and companies, and how the “WE’s” of this country react! We don’t fight back, we bow to the “powers that be” , and yield our own rights to become greater.

This time, when I re-read it,  I tried it on an Audio book, (unabridged, of course) and it’s just as good. But here, is the real point to consider and take away.

Charles Krauthammer, (1950-2018), the noted commentator and author on political situations, passed away this year, at age of 68. Despite being paralyzed from the neck down since he was 22 years old, he earned a medical degree, from Harvard University in Boston, graduating with his class, went on to become an eminent psychiatrist, author and political commentator after that. He help the belief that in your “younger years”, meaning late high school through College you had a real “liberal” belief system, but in later life your beliefs mellow toward a more conservative bent, and eventually to a full fiscal conservative!

Makes sense, for at 18-20 years old, “entitlement liberalism”, virtually dictates you are “owed ” a good job, and living, but then, usually you get married, begin to raise a family and realize in your 20’s THAT YOU HAVE TO RAISE THEM, and while you are working hard, and finding frustration like you never knew before, and one day it strikes you, like a lightning bolt that YOU are the guy paying the “taxes” now and that “they” (the Government)  is creating the increased burden on you to try and support your fledgling family,…….. and then later on when you are at or about 35-40 you begin to realize the taxes you have been paying are steadily escalating, BUT your  family “costs” are escalating even faster, and buying a home, finding the right neighborhood, the right schools, making the right investments and getting that “College Fund”for your coming children funded before the time gets there to “pay the Piper”, and watch it dwindle faster than an ice cold beer on a summers day. The next thing you note in the mirror as you shave is that you have become not only a conservative, but a VERY committed FISCAL conservative, and the liberal sect is spending your taxes and money faster than you can earn it,…..and live comfortably!!

Well, back to Atlas Shrugged, …The entire philosophy of Atlas Shrugged, shows that in it’s “brief” pages and to be more accurate, even more pages, by a Russian author who died in 1956, it was a “life’s work” , long before, but repeatedly, before we really saw the political turmoil in which we have been and even now live!!

It started basically in the 1930’s when we watched our economy get crushed, both criminal and political objectives driving the nation to a war we never wanted to see happen, and our involvement and EXPECTED LEADERSHIP to crush it, BUT,…..WWII was upon us, even back then in the 30’’s! We had the end of OUR own depression, and a poverty and a desperate nature of life, just to survive, and hold our family together “until tomorrow.”

We did win, but the price was monumental! Out wives had to go to work to manage the family, without their “menfolk”, and they had to learned new trades, like welding, designing, building, because our men were all in Europe of the Pacific, trying to overcome the forces of the “Axis” powers, Germany, Italy, and Japan. BUT we prevailed, to spite coming off the worst depression in our History!

However we now had fatherless families, who were just coming home six or seven years later, women who had become “self-sufficient”, and much more than just housewives, and who were enjoying the newfound freedoms and “rights” it afforded them. All of that , in and of itself was bringing many new “societal conditions” to the forefront of America

I’m not going to expand on the book, it’s premise, or content any more than that, But I personally and STRONGLY recommend you read it. Even if you have read it,….you really NEED to re-read it today!

I have struggled with all three aspects or “cycles”of our world, and our lives, the Liberal Phase, the “USUAL way it should be”,  and the CONSERVATIVE, and FISCAL CONSERVATIVE belief cycles that we have all grown up with through our lifetimes.

READ IT, ATLAS SHRUGGED!!

If you see no parallels to today’s life,…..please write me!!

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July 28, 2018