Atlantic Shrugs Atlas

The Atlantic picks a very helpful quote from Ayn Rand‘s 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged that goes a long way to explain why Whittaker Chambers’s review makes sense:

Bill Buckley once said he thought Whittaker Chambers had gone too far when he wrote in his review of this book, “From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: ‘To a gas chamber — go!'” I’ve been reading the book with an eye toward Chambers’ judgement.

Shortly after we are introduced to John Galt, he solemnly intones these words: “Ever since I can remember, I had felt that I would kill the man who’d claim that I exist for the sake of his need — and I had known that this was the highest moral feeling.”

So, Chambers was right.

…This really is a repulsive thing to put as the highest moral feeling.

Read the whole Atlantic article here.

Read the Chambers’s review “Big Sister Is Watching You” here, courtesy of National Review.