No, it isn't allegorical. Her stated primary purpose was to describe the ideal man in fiction. The characters are people (who use their minds), not our minds in an allegory. The withdrawal was a plot device to illustrate the role of the mind in man's existence, and her purpose in that aspect was to prevent what is happening now, not to advocate that people go on strike.

The collapse was portrayed fictionally in a greatly accelerated form -- a few years rather than the generations of it we have seen -- and abstractly focusing on the accelerating destructive elements as the essence, without the zigzagging we have experienced within a net downward trend despite occasional corrections (slowing it down) and bursts of progress like technology that bureaucrats didn't understand enough to control in time to prevent general progress in that segment of the economy.

But these are observations and descriptions she gave afterwards, not something explicit in the novel. And you don't have to wait more than 40 years to reread it and enjoy it again :)

Also people today who cut back aren't just achieving in the imagination of their own minds, but in personal actions in their own lives. At some point that becomes much less possible in societies like communist countries. In a mixed system some individual success is still possible, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't matter what kind of political system you live under -- We the Living illustrates that perfectly.

EWV;

So Atlas Shrugged is allegorical? The shrugging achievers are our minds when we withdraw? I read AS 40 years ago. I wasn't a sophisticated reader then.

My experience in the communist/ex-communist world is the achievers, if they can't flee and aren't killed outright are usually reduced to an existence less comfortable than the takers and prevented from achieving. For that reason they have no further impact on the society around them. You may say they can achieve within their minds, but I don't think I'd consider that a satisfying existence.

Wanderer: "She hoped the achievers would quit and band together and achieve in their own world. In real world experiments it doesn't seem to happen that way. The achievers finally give up, lay down and live in the same misery as the takers. "

Ayn Rand did not hope that achievers would quit and band together in their own world. The plot in AS was intended to show the role of the mind in our existence by showing what happens when it is withdrawn, not to urge a strike. She wrote that quitting as an attempt to influence the looting to stop is futile, and opposed 'libertarian' proposals for creating new 'nations' or societies.

She did observe that, one at a time, many of the best minds do in fact naturally cut back or withdraw rather than put up with the punishment as their 'reward'. But achievers do not 'give up' and live in the same misery as the looters. When they cut back to avoid the full brunt of the punishment they continue to achieve in personal ways less susceptible to the government looting. The collapse of various attempts at unrealistic "utopias" is another matter.

Regardless of a reduced material well-being, no individualist who is an achiever could live in the 'same misery' as the looters, who suffer from their own mental and psychological squalor. For all the royal opulence of the Obama's lifestyle living off the taxpayers, what sane person could want to be like them?

"You’re changing everything up in ways that are difficult to copy. Not only that, but you’re urging consumers to ignore our products and use only Nespresso brand capsules in Nespresso machines. This is unfair!" Boo hoo... build your own machines. Life isn't fair. It is like lowering the bar so the least capable don't feel bad. But why then should anyone excel? Mediocrity for all!

What, nobody uses the old coffeemaker anymore? Anyway, this reminds me of when Lysol put out their hands-free soap dispenser. Then they created a new version and the new soap refills wouldn't fit in the old dispenser. I don't know if there were any lawsuits about it, though.

Actually, some consumers got creative with that product and figured out how to open up the soap dispenser and put any liquid soap of their choosing inside it. I'm surprised no one figured out how to do something similar with this coffee machine. Oh, wait, they probably have, now that I think of it. I've seen commercials for something like this, I think.

But I digress. That's pretty shocking. 'Predatory technology'?? Did the horse-and-buggy industry call the automobile by that name? This isn't even that much of an innovation--it's a differently shaped coffee device. I mean, if you have the tech to make it in the first place, changing its shape shouldn't be all that difficult, should it?

So where are we.... second generation?

Ouch. I completely forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me!

When the State took away Hank Rearden's rights to his invention, they changed Rearden Metal to Miracle Metal to show he no longer had a monopoly..

I'm feeling a bit dumb for asking this, but what Miracle Metal?

Just had to reply because I've been using the phrase "Age of Mediocrity" for years now. And it IS here NOW ! Just look at work ethic, work result, even articles written on news websites. All of it atrocious and not something we would have accepted a mere decade or 2 ago.

It's a great book. I loved to highlight the passages that really spoke to me. Hope you enjoy the rest of it.

That brings up an interesting point. We have plenty of achievers who have embraced government force as means of redistributing wealth...Bill Gates, Ted Turner, etc... How to convince them that their acceptance of those who use the collective force of government to control outcomes is immoral???

Snort. Love and sleep. Lol. Funny thing, Huxley' s brother Julian is mentioned quite often in Credentialed to Destroy.

had to research ... Aldous Huxley's Brave New World:: [from wikipedia]=====
Beyond providing social engagement and distraction in the material realm of work or play, the need for transcendence, solitude and spiritual communion is addressed with the ubiquitous availability and universally endorsed consumption of the drug soma. Soma is an allusion to a ritualistic drink of the same name consumed by ancient Indo-Aryans. In the book, soma is a hallucinogen that takes users on enjoyable, hangover-free "holidays". It was developed by the World State to provide these inner-directed personal experiences within a socially managed context of State-run "religious" organisations; social clubs. The hypnopedically inculcated [sleep-programmed] affinity for the State-produced drug, as a self-medicating comfort mechanism in the face of stress or discomfort, thereby eliminates the need for religion or other personal allegiances outside or beyond the World State; the book describes it as having "all the advantages of Christianity and alcohol, [with] none of their defects."=====
for me, love and sleep take care of it!!! -- j

"predatory technology"....hmmmm what about predatory law suits...brought about because someone dare have a better idea than you could think of for your own machine. Who's the real predator in the room??

My husband says "soma" every once in a while too. I need to read that book. Is it from brave New world?

yes; BHO -- mmm, mmm, mmm, and we adore Mustafa Mond and take our soma and fit in. WoW. -- j

Yes...that's exactly what common core is against. Think outside the group tank and the teacher's assessment will get a deduction. In a matter of years when the older teachers retire our kids won't have a chance. (I know this is a bit off topic but your statement hit a nerve. I'm reading Credentialed to Destroy...)

I would stop selling the new machines in France and keep the technology secret. It's really only about the froth and a bit better extraction anyway. The competitor capsules don't fit properly and the coffee is inferior.

next, we'll be penalized for having an original thought -- back to the cooler, you! -- j

Ouch. Yes, you're right. Miracle Metal.

sounds like they belong over here ... er, wellllll, ummm, they belong in the Gulch! -- j