Why Atlas Won’t Shrug

Posted on July 13, 2004 in Poems

  

To hear them tell it

  if they let go of the sky

  we’d be blinded by blue

  But they won’t show you their hands

  they won’t show you their hands.

To hear them tell it

  they are the keystones

  that hold up the arch

  but they never mention the pillars,

they never mention the pillars.

Without you they are only rocks in a field

 rocks in a field

 they are only rocks in a field

  unhewn and half-buried.

Their hands are unblemished

Their hands are unblemished

Their hands are unblemished

  pink and smooth.

The sky will not fall

The sky will not fall

The sky will not fall

  because it needs no support

Let them walk away

Let them walk away

Where they have beaten the dust to nakedness

Plow the earth and plant poppy and pea.

  plant poppy and pea.

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This poem/chant is a statement against Randenoia, the belief that society depends on “great men” to hold it together. In her famous book, Rand supposes that the wealthy walk away to allow society to fall apart without them. The truth is that they have never done this: they would rather incite civil war, military rule, oppression, and steal elections than give the common people the chance to govern themselves.