<p>In our Quiz Bowl tournament, one of the questions was who was the model for the actual steel piece of Atlas Shrugged that exists in real life and my friend Lauren--an extreme conservative--knew it was Reagan. I just though I'd throw that in their since collegeguy mentioned the book.</p>
<p>"All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies."--Vonnegut.</p>
<p>That was a good quote you selected Taggart, because it highlights Vonnegut's philosophy of understanding human nature. He is saying that he is going to uncover the despicable aspects of life that most people do not know, but can certainly understand and hopefully learn from. Ayn Rand would certainly differ from Vonnegut, in that she would say "It doesn't matter how bad life is, what matters is how it could be and should be. So go out there and don't worry about the cold hard facts of life, but just achieve, because you can achieve anything that can ever be dreamed." </p>
<p>Now I feel Ayn Rand is a bit ignorant in this manner, because she does not even care about the realities out there, she does not care that there is corruption, she does not care there is poverty, she does not care that governments all around the world, including the USA's, are treating people as pawns on a chess table. For this reason, she was considered a really strong conservative on the political spectrum. But she does have a romantic look on the human, in that she feels a human can surpass all of these realities, and just achieve whatever the hell they want, and essentially, that they can be perfect. Now that is something I want to hear, music to my ears, something beautiful, something romantic. </p>
<p>But if she is right, than why is our world so corrupt, so friggin messed up? Do people not want to be perfect and accomplish all that they want? I think all people naturally do, it is a born instinct in humans, to desire, to dream, to have ambitions. Have people not worked their butts off yet still failed? For instance, do all people who deserve to go to the Ivies get in? Is there not corruption in the admissions process, are there not legacies that allow stupid, undeserving kids to still get in?</p>
<p>This is where Vonnegut comes in, and shines. This is where Vonnegut talks about human nature, this is where Vonnegut uses his creative yet cryptic writing to try to install in the minds of his readers the gruesome facts of human nature and the nature of our society while still using humor and a satirical tone to keep the readers reading rather than instantly being disgusted and throwing up and never reading his words again. </p>
<p>Life is certainly not going to work like in The Fountainhead, where Roark basically says "F school, I don't need it," and then he goes out into the real world all alone, is broke, yet still finds a nice place to live for cheap, and once he is just about to be kicked to the streets for not being able to pay, some guy comes along who says he'll pay him to build an expensive mansion, even though Roark had minimal abilities to get his work out to the general public, and had no experience to gain the trust of the workers that would have to work under his lead. Not to mention in real life, the big evil guns would quickly play around with Roark, steel his ideas, and dismiss him. They wouldn't just ignore his potentially profitable innovation, but would at the very least keep it as back-up in case any clients would like it. So that, in short, is the difference between Rand's world, and reality.</p>
<p>My philosophy (which I am still in the process of creating) generally states that you should definitely have reverence for the human, for its capabilities, for its potential. But you can only achieve optimum success in this world not just by ignoring the depressing facts and simply continuing on with the rather selfish philosophy of "I'm a human being, I can achieve whatever I want," but by acknowledging the harsh yet true words of Vonnegut, by acknowledging that everything naturally has weaknesses, including humans, and by acknowledging that our will alone will not take us to the full extent towards success; knowledge and the understanding of human nature is necessary to play the game of life, and to win, to win big. And this is important, because I feel you can certainly win big conciously, life is not only determined by the fate of luck, a philosophy towards which Vonnegut has revealed an inclination (mostly due to the fact that he was mentally ill after WWII after witnessing of the largest bombing in war history and then helping to dispose of the 500,000 bodies--Dresden.) One can certainly achieve great success in anything they want, but only if they take into account human nature, and the evils of society, for as I said before, one needs more than just the strong will examplified in Howard Roark to beat the system, but rather needs to explore the system itself first, get a feel for it, and then dominate.</p>
