ayn rand

atlas shrugged

NOTE: This is an imaginary book discussion on a book that Hanson has mentioned in interviews that they have read recently. The views expressed are the author's and not necessarily those of Hanson.

(The family is relaxing on the bus.)

Avery: (She and Jessica are sitting at the booth, surrounded by containers of arts and crafts supplies.) Jessie, you make good goldfishies, but I’m going to make a mermaid. A SPARKLY one.

Jessica: (She watches her sister squeeze glue all over the paper.) Avie, you’ve got to only use a little like mine or else the glitter will make your mermaid look like a Spice Girl.

Avery: It’s going to be a SPICY mermaid!

Mac: Girls, look at what I’m doing on my Lite Brite.

Jessica: Mackie, that looks like a rocket ship. That’s neat!

Mac: Jessie, it’s not a rocket ship. It’s Ike’s new car. Ike, look at the big tires I put on there for you.

Isaac: (Looking up briefly from the laptop and smiles.): That’s cool, Buddy.

(Taylor is blowing bubbles for Zoe while she sits on his lap. She reaches for them and giggles. Her big brother occasionally catches some on the wand and blows into the bubble to make even more. Mrs. Hanson warns about blowing them too near the driver as she sorts and folds socks from a recent trip to the laundry mat. Mr. Hanson is watching CNN on a small t.v. while absently matching socks as well.)

Zac: (Listening to his headphones while drawing cartoons is softly singing along.) Motown/Philly back again . . .

Mrs. Hanson: Guys, it’s Labor Day, and you know what that means . . .

Zac: (He takes his earphones off and pauses in his drawing to say.) You’re in labor?

Isaac: (Throwing one of his sisters’ beanie babies at his brother) That wasn’t even funny, Zac. (Mrs. Hanson chuckles. Avie protests that she doesn’t want her beanie babies on the floor of the bus. Zac tosses it back to Isaac. They play catch while Avery yells, "Stop. I want my Bongo! It's mine. Give it back!" Finally their dad catches it and gives it back to her.)

Taylor: It’s time for home schooling, eh, bus schooling again.

Mrs. Hanson: And (dramatically), wouldn’t you know it . . . we’re about to arrive in Cleveland. And what famous fictional university was located there? I’ll give you two hints – I’m referring to a book discussion that is long overdue for you and Ike. The words, “Give me liberty or give me death!” come to mind.

Zac: I know the second part – that was us on the bus last night after Dad ate all that chili at Wendy’s. Whoa – death by gas fumes. (Waves his hand in front of his nose.)

Isaac: Zac, you know that "He who smelt it, dealt it!"

Mackie: (He starts to laugh and jump up and down.) It was Zac! It was Zac!

Mr. Hanson: (Leaps up) This is great stuff! Don’t say anything else until I get the video camera fired up. Hang on.

Jessica: Daddy, nobody wants to watch the boys talking about gross stuff. We can hear it live every day.

Zac: (Smiling) I think Jessie should be the star of the official tour video . . . (He grabs a Crayola marker to use as a mic and talks into it.) Miss Hanson, who’s your favorite Backstreet Boy?

Jessica: Didn't that Nick kid ask me if I was your brother? Strange.

Avery: Just like those girls at your concerts everybody SCREAMS for those guys! (She demonstrates. Everybody covers their ears. Zoe is startled and starts to cry. Taylor blows more bubbles for her. She forgets about crying and reaches for the bubbles.) I want to marry you, please! (Her face brightens with an idea.) Zac, do that monster dance.

(Zac gets up and starts to dance.)

Zac: Throw your hands up in the air! Wave them around like you just don't care! (Avery and Mackie join him.) If you want to party, let me hear you yell! Because we've got it going on again!

Mr. Hanson: (Has the camcorder up to his eye while focusing.) Boy, this is going to be the best vacation video ever. Diana, I hope we have enough film for all of this.

Mrs. Hanson: Walker, why don’t you get the Skip-Bo cards out and play a game with the girls. I’ll take Zoe in the back with me and the guys, to see if she’ll sleep alittle. Thanks to Miss Avie (She gives her a Mommy look and a smile.), a Hanson would be able to sleep through Armageddon. Mackie, where’s your Brio stuff? You can make a train track that goes from the back of the bus to the front. I think you can make an even cooler one than last time with more ramps and tunnels and stuff.

Taylor: Patrick Henry, Mom. You were talking about Atlas Shrugged and the Patrick Henry University.

Zac: Mom, those guys read that book. Can I stay and play Skip-bo?

Mrs. Hanson: That’s up to you, sweetie.

Zac: Great. Have fun, dorks. (Jessie starts to put the art supplies away. Zac takes the cards from Avery who brings them to the small booth that’s the table in the bus.) Let’s play with a 12 card stack.

Jessica: Mommy, I’ll help Mackie build that train. You guys can play Skip-Bo. (Mrs. Hanson winks at her oldest daughter.)

Isaac: Your loss, buddy (Sucks his teeth and shakes his head.) Tay, one day we will be charging admission to our book chats, right? And then what, Zac? You’ll have to pay for something you could have gotten free of charge.

Taylor: According to Ayn Rand, nothing should be free. We’d have to charge him today anyway. Everything has a fair price. He can earn a place at the book discussion after he spends three months reading it like we did.

Zac: Whatever. (Continues to deal cards as Jessica and Avery carefully lift their pictures to dry on the counter away from the table.) Guys, I’m dealing. Dad, you can’t look at your stack yet.

(Taylor hands Zoe to his mother. They proceed to the back of the bus.)

Mrs. Hanson: (She playfully swings Zoe around and sniffs her bottom.) I think a certain someone might need a diaper change. (She turns to the guys.) I know it took awhile to read Atlas Shrugged, but now comes the fun part. You guys get to tell me what you thought about it. Later you two can have a philosophical debate with each other on objectivism vs. Christianity. That will be the first official school assignment starting next week.

Isaac: Mom, did you want to stay for the discussion this time?

Taylor: Not that we don’t want you to stay . . . (He grins.)

Mrs. Hanson: Pretend Zoe and I are not even here. (She begins to change her diaper.) You guys just talk. I’ll be like one of those people from the Valley in the book, who just waits until you’re ready to ask questions and hear my answers.

Taylor: (Diving right in as he falls into a bench at the back of the bus.) There’s really no, one way, to sum up the book.

Isaac: Uh, it’s long? (He laughs uncomfortably – like a Beavis impersonation.)

Taylor: (Picking up on his brother’s cue) There’s a cool chick in it, didn’t you think so, Beavis? (chuckles)

Mrs. Hanson: If this is the level of your discussions when I’m here, I can’t imagine what they’re like when Zac is with you (She raises an eyebrow, but starts to tickle Zoe as she reaches for some baby wipes.)

Taylor: Mom, we can’t see you, remember? Are you speaking as an invisible voice?

Mrs. Hanson: (She pretends she can’t hear them.) Zoe, you have chubby cheeks. Yes, you do, sweetie! Mama loves you, yes she does!

Isaac: I just got the feeling that Ayn Rand pretty much, eh, HATES communism.

Taylor: (Goofy voice) You think? (Gets serious) She actually lived through the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. When they killed all the czars and it turned to communism and became the USSR? Her family got hurt in that somehow.

Isaac: This book was scary, actually, because it is something that happens in real life. Well, except for a group of America’s smartest people escaping to a Valley somewhere in the middle of nowhere . . . hehe . . . middle of nowhere – get it?

Taylor: Oh God! (He groans.) It’s okay, Ike. Colorado, it’s Colorado. Yeah, except that I felt the characters were extremes. I mean, nobody is really as, eh, good as Dagny all the time. And let’s just hope that her brother, James Taggert doesn’t exist today.

Isaac: It was ironic that James and Dagny were even related. But, I guess that Hank Reardon, the other main character who is Dagny’s best friend and, eh, (He glances at his mother.) lover – also has a low-life for a brother. (Mrs. Hanson starts rummaging in Zoe’s crate of toys for a book to read.)

Taylor: How do you think Ayn would answer the questions, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Isaac: Pretty much the same way Zac and I do – NOT! (He smirks.)

Taylor: Ike, how many times have you been hit with something in concert so far? It’s more than Zac and me since our instruments protect us. You could use a keeper.

Isaac: (He starts numbering things on his fingers.) Well, there’s those beachballs, beanies, all those glowbands, a couple of waterbottles, some roses – if they didn’t take the thorns off of those babies, you and Zac might have to finish the tour with Jason Taylor in my place. (Takes his hands and grabs his cheeks.) Oh my God, my face is all bloody and I’m hideous to look at . . . ! Just leave me alone! I want to be a-lone!

Taylor: (Laughing) I think that can be arranged, brother. But then we’d have to completely yank “More Than Anything” from the show and then – Oh my God! – we would have no one to sing to anymore. Our audiences would turn on Zac and me before storming out of the venue.

Isaac: Anyway, whatever . . .

Taylor: (Glances at their Mom. Then in an exaggerated voice.) Isaac, come on, we should be talking about the book!

Isaac: Oh, of course, the BOOK . . . Oh yeah. We never talk about ANYTHING besides that when Mom’s not here – why start now, right, Tay?

Taylor: Who is John Galt? (shrugs)

Isaac: Exactly. For the love of Pete, who is the guy?

Taylor: If we answer that, we could end this discussion right now if we had to. It would be like putting this book in a nutshell. A pretty big nutshell, of course.

Isaac: Okay, the book is about how this guy John Galt arranges for all the productive people in the world to go on “strike” (He makes that gesture to signify quotation marks.).

Taylor: You don’t find that out until Dagny does – near the middle of the book. She’s the main character who owns a railroad and knows how to run it intelligently. Her brother pretends to run the railroad, but has no clue. He and his friends say that greed is bad and that sharing with needy people is good. This sounds fine, but John Galt’s point is, “Do you really want to live in a world run on this principle?”

Isaac: He invites the people who know how to make money by their intelligence to leave society.

Taylor: All the intelligent people are like that Greek god, Atlas. He supported the world on his shoulders. But going on strike is like saying that he shrugged. He just decided not to do it any more.

Isaac: The people who end up running the world, are totally corrupt. When people know they can get something for nothing – by not working for it – they become lazy. They don’t DO anything.

Taylor:Yeah, Dagny’s best friend, Hank Reardon, invented this amazing metal that is so light and yet unbelievably strong. It would put all other metal works out of business. But, the press and politicians work together to try to get people to say that it’s dangerous – to stop him from making the millions he deserves. When he proves how amazing it is, they try to regulate his business deals. They end up trashing his factories in the end.

Isaac: John Galt who totally admires Hank Readon, actually helped to bring him down since he wants to prove that no truly REASONABLE person can win by compromising with the people who ended up taking over the world – people who want to “share wealth.” Hank and Dagny are the last two people to go on strike. They keep hoping to save the world on their own.

Taylor: John Galt has to try to destroy their industries because if they survived, they would be the ones who would keep the evil people – the people in control – from total collapse. And without collapse, those morons would think they had won.

Isaac: Dagny finds out in the last section – after about 600 pages – that the whole time she was really in love with John Galt without knowing it.

Taylor: Earlier she vowed she would kill him if she ever found out who he really was – He was the person who was working to shut down the railroad she had built.

Isaac: John wanted to expose the people in power for who they were – robbers. They thought they had the right to take other people’s stuff, because they NEEDED it, not because they EARNED it.

Taylor: The highest form of evil is using the good in other people as a weapon against them. You try to use guilt to make a person give stuff to people who haven’t earned it.

Isaac: Tay, greed is good. GREED (Wicked laughter) is good!

Taylor: Can you imagine what would happen if we only had free concerts – and the only ticket to get in would be to convince us that you deserved to be there because of NEED? Everybody who would come would be a huge whiner – and then, they would be breaking the only rule at a Hanson concert . . . (Grinning)

Isaac: It’s not like we force our fans to see us either – they make the choice by spending their money to hear the music.

Taylor: Yeah, it’s like all the people who thank us and tell us they could never repay us for everything we did for them . . . I mean, THEY bought the albums, they paid for tickets to the concerts, they bought MOE memberships. I guess the only free things are the people who won radio contests and stuff . . . but that’s out of our hands.

Isaac: So John Galt understands that real talent is wasted when it is given away to people who don’t earn its rewards. He himself built a motor that runs on a form of energy that would revolutionize the world and make him millions – He is, only the most brilliant man alive. Yet, the entire time he is secretly working as a brakeman on the railroad that Dagny owns because the world would only rob him of his invention by making him share the profits. They would take his idea without paying for it.

Taylor: At first, it sounds weird that really smart people have to act stupid and destroy things they love most. But the alternative is letting the evil people rob them of the freedom to be brilliant.

Isaac: What would it be like if we went on strike, Tay?

Taylor: Make people think we’ve become a character in one of those fanfiction stories where we turn into total drug addicts or something.

Isaac: You mean you, Taylor. Remember, I’m the one who sleeps around and Zac just gets beat up all the time.

(Mrs. Hanson looks up as she kisses a sleeping Zoe.)

Isaac: (Whispering) Mom?

Mrs. Hanson: No, I didn’t say anything. (Pause) There’s always going to be a darker side to everything. It’s not real. You’re just images to them. They don’t really know you.

Taylor: (He has his lips pressed together thoughtfully, and nods.) Just like Dagny’s first boyfriend, Francisco D’Anconia – the great copper guy. He made people BELIEVE he was only a playboy, because he wanted to cover up the fact that he was deliberately destroying his copper mines.

Isaac: Right. But, the whole time he was true to the only woman he truly loved, Dagny. (Exaggerated sigh.)

Taylor: We’re not exactly creating those images of us in fanfiction. Francisco deliberately used the press to make that false image of himself.

Isaac: If we did go on strike it would be against people who act like they DESERVE to be our friends.

Taylor: Isn’t it ironic that we could use the fact that they don’t know us to fool them into thinking they do? I mean, how many people believe that rumor about our parents pushing us because they are in it strictly for the money?

Mrs. Hanson: (Innocently) It’s all about the Benjamins, you know that guys.

Isaac: Mom, you’re not a Puffy fan now, are you?

Taylor: Actually, Mom, Ayn would say that was good. If that’s what makes us happy . . .if it’s our passion – what we love to do. And of course . . . (All together) IT IS. (They laugh.)

Mrs. Hanson: Francisco, John Galt and that pirate, Ragnar Danneskjold all went to Patrick Henry University and studied philosophy together.

Taylor: Right and they decide to build a society in the Valley in Colorado, based on the philosophy they learned. The only people who are allowed in, are “Men of the Mind.” People who are willing to earn their living by producing, rather than by accepting hand-outs they haven’t earned. It’s a Valley based on greed . . . but, that’s good – according to Ayn Rand.

Isaac: Dagny is one of the last people to join because she is so convinced that she can save the world. She doesn’t want to just give up on her railroad. John Galt has been in love with her for about 10 years, but he waits patiently for her. It’s like he’s been singing “Thinking of You” the whole time. In fact, “TOY” could be about Galt:

“I'm carrying this heavy load, I don’t know what to do, The only thing I know, Is I’m in love with you . . . Oh”

Taylor: Well, in love with Dagny AND his philosophy. He doesn’t make her stay as his prisoner when she first crashes into the Valley by mistake. He lets her go back out to try and save the world even though he works to destroy her railroad at the same time. But he follows her back, to try to protect her too.

Isaac: And she’s the one who betrays him in the end – without meaning to, she leads the government people right to him. They arrest him, without calling it arrest.

Taylor: She has to pretend to hate him so that the evil people won’t harm her and cut off his means of escape. They torture Galt to try to get him to convert to their side.

Isaac: When Dagny has to act like she hates him, what AdmiralTwin song were you thinking of? (Taylor nods in agreement. They hum together.) “And I’ve known traitors and deceivers, kinder than you. You’re such a saint, don’t leave me.”

Taylor: Their love comes from a deep mutual respect for each other – and a commitment to life. They both want to live in order to rebuild the world when the “evil, mean, bad people” are finished. Joke’s over. Game’s done.

Isaac: The best moment in the whole book? Or shall I say one of the weirdest?

Taylor: Are you thinking of that Dr. Evil moment in the torture chamber?

Isaac: (Austin Powers’ victim) It’s not working! I’m burned over 90% of my body, but I’m still alive. Can you hear me?

Taylor: In this book, when the torture machine that the bad people are using on John Galt malfunctions, he’s like “Do this, do that. And your generator will work. I’ll tell you how to fix the machine that you’re using to torture me, you idiots.”

Isaac: He was never going to become one of them. That part was cool. Something about him disturbed me though.

Taylor: I mean, you can’t help liking the guy for being so smart and, eh, noble. But, at the same time . . .

Isaac: I had this feeling that during John’s three hour radio speech, explaining his philosophy, he was attacking the Bible and religion.

Taylor: You had that feeling, because he was. But, being a Christian, believing in God isn’t necessarily irrational. I mean, the Bible would agree that using violence to take something that isn’t yours is evil. That’s what John Galt calls “non-being” – not using mind, but muscle.

Isaac: How would John Galt explain where the ability to reason came from?

Taylor: It takes just as much faith to believe in the power of God than it does to believe that reason sprang from a chaos of matter. My question is, if you don’t know where reason came from, how will you know why it’s here? Why are human beings even in existence?

Isaac: To believe in a God that designed each of us for a specific purpose is just as plausible as to believe that we’re here to live for OURSELVES, for the pleasure that this world offers – especially when you consider that there is something seriously wrong with this world. It can’t be all there is.

Taylor: The point is, that John Galt believes the Bible works against his philosophy. He believes that the ultimate good is freedom to live with reason as your only guide. The Bible not only supports this principle, but gives the origin of reason and why we have the ability to reason.

Isaac: One of the main problems John has with the Bible is the concept of Original Sin – which says that we were all born sinful.

Taylor: It’s because the bad people used it as a weapon to make people feel guilty. John Galt thinks that when Adam and Eve chose to sin, that's when the Bible says they became rational. He says the Bible condemns reason, morality, creativity and joy. How does he explain the first two chapters of the Bible that tell about how God created the world? I mean, the human heart alone is, like, so unbelievably amazing! A God without creativity would never have been able to come up with something like THAT! All those arteries and veins just pumping and pumping your blood to keep you alive. Whoa!

Isaac: Whoa! We're supposed to be made in God's image. The creation of the world, alone, should blow people's minds.

Taylor: The fact that our bodies are so incredible isn't the only evidence that God loves us. God gave us CHOICES because He loves us. Love means you've decided to give yourself to someone else. That person isn't making you love them back.

Isaac: Unfortunately, SOMEONE didn't make the BEST choice. There are always going to be questions that are left unanswered.

Taylor: Yeah, I mean, even Ayn Rand died. She couldn't answer THAT Final Jeopardy question -- could she? (grins) About sin though, the Bible tells us that God does not give hand-outs either. Someone had to pay for our sins – God doesn’t let injustice go unpunished.

Isaac: That’s where the whole story of Jesus Christ comes in. He paid for our sins. He died that no one can use guilt against anyone else.

Taylor: You don’t have to concentrate on the negative side. Just like the heart, there are amazing things about the world that God understands and reveals to us in small pieces – like Algebra. (He gives a fake cough.)

Isaac: Just think, you could spend your whole life studying math (shiver) and you STILL wouldn’t completely know it all. Or think of all the songs that are still waiting to be written . . .

Taylor: Yeah, like that album that we’re going into the studio to record. (He smiles.) Doesn’t it make more sense to believe that a higher being created all these incredible things? There are things that we can’t even begin to understand without studying them for an entire lifetime.

Isaac: It takes just as much faith to NOT believe in God.

Taylor: God wants each person to know that he or she is an amazing person created in His image. The world and wealth are not evil.

Isaac: How could they be? God gave them as gifts. People who receive them too easily, without working to earn the value of them, abuse them – Ayn’s right about that.

Taylor: At the same time, a person could work their butt off, and still never be rich. Sometimes it’s just “luck” too when a person becomes successful.

Isaac: The Bible wouldn’t call it luck -- maybe "blessings from above"? But I know what you mean.

(Mrs. Hanson is still holding a sleeping Zoe.)

Mrs. Hanson: Bravo! You guys really got more out of this book than I even hoped you would. This discussion had some great material that I know you can use in your debate. Ike, you’ll be in college sometime soon. You will encounter many different ideas – ideas that aren’t like the ones your dad and I have been teaching you in school. It’s best to study them so you can know what you agree with and what you don’t. I do not regret one minute that I spent as your teacher. Your dad would be proud too.

Isaac: Awww, shucks, Mom.

Taylor: Aren’t you afraid of our heads getting any bigger than they already are?

Mrs. Hanson: Didn’t Ayn Rand teach you anything in those 1075 pages – pride in real accomplishment is nothing to be ashamed of. If you haven’t earned it, well, then . . . go hide under a rock . . .

Taylor: Mom, when I look at the crazy reaction we get sometimes from fans, I know we don’t deserve THAT. People must have a built in desire to worship SOMETHING – and at the moment, it’s us.

Isaac: Yeah, it just happens to be us right now. The only real joy comes from worshipping the One who plants and waters and causes all things to grow. He is the one in whom all things find their purpose.

Taylor: The One who is our light and our hope – who makes the Christmas season possible.

Isaac: Yeah, the Morningstar, who is our Hope.

Mrs. Hanson: What will you guys come up with for the jacket of your live album? (She grins.)

(Zac comes bursting in.) Zac: What’d I miss? Huh?

(The three of them say, “Shhhh . . . “ simultaneously . Zac glances at Zoe.) Zac: So, you put the Baby Sumo to sleep – I guess the discussion was pretty thrilling.

Mrs. Hanson: (Smiling) Oh, we haven’t been discussing the book, Zac. Your brothers have been helping me write up your assignments for the year. We agreed that I was waaay too easy on them.

Zac: Funny, very funny . . .