I wonder if it just takes a second reading...

Again, Atlas Shrugged shows up as something of a rallying point for politically concerned and, perhaps, frustrated citizens. I pasted an excerpt from an article in US News and World Report, talking about the phenomenon of Ayn Rand.

One of the strangest—but perhaps, predictable—trends that has accompanied the recession is a resurgence of interest in the writings of Ayn Rand and especially, the book Atlas Shrugged. Sales of the book have apparently soared over the last year. The book's hero, John Galt, has become a rallying figure for anti-big-government activists. You might have seen the latest appropriation of Randian thought in your newspaper: one of the ads used by the Employment Policies Institute (started by famous lobbyist Rick Berman) as part of a new campaign called Defeat The Debt. Check out the ad here.

Still, there are critics. But there's a lot of over-simplification and caraciture-creation going on. Those who try to minimize Ayn Rand's message say that Atlas Shrugged is just "pro-big business propaganda" as if Orren Boyle and Jim Taggart weren't prominent characters in the novel. Others say that Rand's characters are uni-dimensional and "perfect" as if the mistakes of Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart aren't a huge part of the story-line. I wonder if it just takes a second reading.