I tend to smile when I hear people who have discovered Ayn Rand’s philosophy of objectivism for the first time. Through her novels, to include her longest and arguably most important novel, Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957, Ayn Rand shared predictions of pending social and economic collapse as a result of moving away from laissez-faire capitalism to statism or collectivism. Rand believed the natural evolution of highly regulated markets, with increasing government intervention, would eventually lead to the nationalization of industries to benefit the common good without regard for those who created them. Yaron Brook, the current president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, who published an article in The Wall Street Journal in 2009 asked, “Is Rand Relevant”, referring to Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged, where, “Rand tells the story of the U.S. economy crumbling under the weight of crushing government interventions and regulations. Meanwhile, blaming greed and the free market, Washington responds with more controls that only deepen the crisis. Sound familiar?” Brook asked.
The predictions of Ayn Rand are eerily familiar when juxtaposed against our current economic condition. For many, Rand’s 1957 novel is an allegory which not so succinctly illustrates where today’s liberal ideology will takes us in the end.
A very quick summary of Ayn Rand's, Atlas Shrugged
The “looters”,” parasites”, and “moochers”, led by the state, demand the benefits derived from society’s most productive members while cursing them for their wealth at the same time. When these leading innovators begin to disappear and are no longer driving the economic engine on which so many rely, economic conditions begin to crumble. When they inquire as to where those who had been maligned as the root cause of all society’s ills had gone, they are left only with an ambiguous question, who is John Galt?
With the drivers of innovation gone and the state run businesses in ruin, John Galt is finally revealed as the leader of an organized "strike" against those who used the laws of the state and "moral guilt" to confiscate the wealth generated by the great industrialists for the benefit of the common good. Rand then used a lengthy 56 page address by Galt to reveal her philosophy of objectivism.
I have recently heard many followers of the tea party, libertarians, and conservatives finding refuge in Rand’s fictional novel that is so eloquently written. It is interesting however, that Rand, a self professed atheist, states in an interview with Mike Wallace in 1959, “man’s highest moral purpose is his own happiness”. She follows by saying, “man has no moral duty to serve others”; in fact she considers the precept of man’s need to serve others to justify his existence and the moral duty to serve others above his own interests, is immoral if not impossible. She goes on to say it is our current altruistic moral precepts that will enslave everybody to everybody and we will move toward disaster until, and unless the concept of a welfare state has been rejected. “The majority of the people have never been given a choice, both [political] parties are for socialism in effect, for controls, and there is no party, there are no voices, to offer an actual pro capitalist, laissez-faire, economic freedom and individualism”.
These are but a few excerpts from a three part interview by Mike Wallace with Ayn Rand provided by You Tube for public re-broadcast. For those interested I highly recommend you watch all three parts.
I mention this because I hope that before we use concepts to profess, or support, our ideologies, we don’t simply use sound bites that support our ideologies. These are incredibly complicated concepts and they deserve the time and attention to understand the whole of the concept before we neatly tuck them in to our world view. Our mainstream news media, today, provides us with “yellow Journalism” not to inform but to provide sound bites which target specific demographics to provide stories that support specific ideologies. The use of exaggerated news stories, fear mongering, and stories taken out of context are designed to simply sell advertising by increasing viewership. It takes work and time to become informed. One of Ronald Reagan’s signature phrases was to “trust but verify”, and I encourage and support this approach when attempting to adopt a view that appears to resonate truth.
So why did Atlas really Shrug? Was it because those for whom the economic weight is carried despise those who carry it? Or was it by virtue of the great industrialists, and most productive members of society who decided to withdraw their goodness from society because it no longer served their rational self interest to provide it? Or perhaps because of Rand's not so apparent intention to introduce objectivism as a replacement theology; where the great minds of men are consider to be the only place where truth and virtue reside, and when society no longer appreciates this truth and virtue, it will be withdrawn; the masses left with nothing but immorality. Does this sound familiar?
Why do I tend to smile? I smile simply because these great men of industry used the concept of the providing enterprise for public good to acheive immense wealth and power. The railroads, steel, oil, all industries helped and supported by the the hand of government and after enough wealth and power was extorted, they used their wealth and access to power to wrestle the good of the public away from the public to perpetuate their own interests. If Ayn Rand would have been more historically accurate about how the "captains of industry" acheived so much, then I would give objectivism more weight. But then again, that's the problem with ideology, the ideal is often more attractive than the reality. If you follow Ayn Rand down this rabbit hole, you will be on your own in every conceivable way. I wish you the best. Maybe Atlas shrugged simply because he too was asked the question, “Who is John Galt"?
