I have created this blog and named it “The Akston Lounge” as a tribute to Ayn Rand’s memorable character in her no less memorable Atlas Shrugged: Hugh Akston, the one time leading American philosopher, head of the Philosophy Department of the Patrick Henry University, in Cleveland, OH, who, one day, simply vanished: went on strike, decided the world no longer deserved to benefit from the contributions of his mind.
I confess that I, at the present time, though a philosopher like Hugh Akston, still believe, a bit like Dagny Taggart, the heroine of that book, that there is something I can do to try to prevent the world from going down the drain (as it certainly deserves, especially here in Brazil).
But I am seriously considering joining the strike. While I don’t, however, I will be fighting from this bunker.
In São Paulo, on the 13th of September of 2013
Dear friend, I wish you never join this awful strike. If the very few people that still believe in defending reason give up the fight, the world will become darker and grim. I believe the people that still keep their faith in God and in the whole humanity are a kind of lone walkers in the middle of a desert. Don´t give up the fight.