Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Why I wrote Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned! by Stephen L. Goldstein

I wrote Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned, a novel, a work of (what I call) fictional truth/truthful fiction for three compelling reasons: 

1: To save people from reading 1084 pages of unreadable propaganda (in my paperback edition). Unless you are a masochist, you don't have to read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged before reading my novel Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!--or remember it if you have. I wrote the first chapter of Atlas Drugged so EVERYONE would be brought up to speed on the ruthless philosophy of Ayn Rand and the broad outlines of Atlas Shrugged.

2: To see if it would be easier to "get through to people" through fiction. Ayn Rand did it. After writing well-researched, fact-based opinion newspaper columns for going on 13 years, I came to the unavoidable, bizarre realization that (too many) people will believe fiction more readily than fact. Tell them that the sky is blue, and they'll tell you it REALLY isn't. Tell them that the sky is chartreuse, and they'll bend over backwards to confirm it--like saying that, after all, at sunset you can see streaks of yellow-green in the sky.

3: To do my part to wake Americans up to the fraud, deception, scam, sham, and flim-flam of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged--right before the 2012 Election. For too long, her work of COMPLETE FICTION has been accepted as ABSOLUTE TRUTH. Too many generations of Americans have used it to justify their acting out of heartless selfishness and greed. Tragically, its free-market philosophy has influenced elected officials and public-policy makers in Congress and the highest levels of government. It has turned the USA into the Corporate States of America, average Americans be damned. I'm not a self-deceiving megalomaniac; but, if enough people read and spread the message(s) of Atlas Drugged, maybe, just maybe, people will begin to see and understand how destructive Ayn Rand and her followers have been--and keep the tea party/GOP from taking over the country in 2012.

You may order Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned from Amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Drugged-Ayn-Rand-Damned/dp/1555717098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339688257&sr=8-1, BarnesandNoble.com, or directly from the publisher http://www.hellgatepress.com/

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Tony Smith: Review of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned

Dr. Stephen Goldstein does a brilliant job in "Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!" of giving a fictional, or perhaps frighteningly truthful, look at where unregulated capitalism is leading us today. It's a surreal journey from the founding fathers of the United States of America to Ayn Rand's "Corporate States of America." "Atlas Drugged" reveals the struggle between the wealthy corporate few and the other 99% of Americans, an all-out struggle between good and evil. It is a world where free-for-all economics, as opposed to pure Democratic meritocracy, rules. All for some, but none for ALL.

"Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned" is a must-read wake-up call before the November 2012 General Election, when some will try to elect people who believe in ramming free-for-all economics down everyone's throats. If you love this republic we call the United States of America, read "Atlas Drugged" now.

You may order Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned from Amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Drugged-Ayn-Rand-Damned/dp/1555717098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339688257&sr=8-1, BarnesandNoble.com, or directly from the publisher http://www.hellgatepress.com/

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Stephen Merrill: Praise for Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

“Don’t for a minute assume this novel is a highbrow critique of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, in prose as impenetrable as hers. No, this is a razor sharp attack on the selfish strain in American culture and politics that accounts for the financial crisis, economic disparities, political impasse, and poisonous public discourse. Read this book and you will realize how short a leap it is from 'Occupy' encampments to 'Cooperville, Central Park, NY.' But you will also realize what we all need to do to reverse our disastrous course.”
--Stephen Merrill, economic policy analyst

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Noted Columnist Anthony Orlando: Review of Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned!

       "Stephen Goldstein does to Ayn Rand acolytes what Stephen Colbert does to Bill O'Reilly. Atlas Drugged is the most unflinching satire of the Right I've ever read. Goldstein has a mellifluous voice, and he puts it to deliciously ruthless use. Conservatives and libertarians will complain that it's unrealistically over-the-top, and so-called "centrists" will complain that it's unnecessarily partisan, but as shown in recent interviews with and stories about the true Randites in the top 1 percent, this book is closer to nonfiction than...well, than any of us should be comfortable with. And that's the point. You shouldn't be comfortable with the status quo. You shouldn't condone sociopathic greed, much less succumb to it. To do so is to violate the very moral precepts that make our civilization possible. Goldstein's achievement here is to show us a world without those precepts and to challenge us to prevent it from becoming a reality." -- Anthony W. Orlando, South Florida Sun-Sentinel op-ed columnist, Wharton-and-LSE-educated economic historian, and Los-Angeles-based businessman

 You may order Atlas Drugged: Ayn Rand Be Damned from Amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Drugged-Ayn-Rand-Damned/dp/1555717098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339688257&sr=8-1, BarnesandNoble.com, or directly from the publisher http://www.hellgatepress.com/
Enjoy the YouTube video on the "Damnation of Ayn": Even "Queen" & "Pope" weigh in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FESYMufQWjY