If, like me, you were Ayn Rand naïve, you may have only been exposed to her in the media either as a poster-girl for libertarianism, or as a far right political hero, or as the butt of a joke for left-winged satire.
What fascinated me, however, was the obsession with her. Why so much attention for a Russian-American author who did most of her writing in the early 1900s? I decided that in order to answer this question, I would read her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged.
One does not pick up Atlas Shrugged casually. This novel is immense. Both in sheer length and in depth of content. To give you an idea of its length, consider that the audiobook runs over 60 hours.
The novel is centered around the heroine, Dagny Taggart. She is the Vice President of Taggart Transcontinental, a monolithic railroad company that supports all major industrial endeavors. While she is the de-facto operator of the railroad, she is shadowed and hampered by her brother James Taggart who is useless at best and obstructionist at worst, but is ultimately the President of the company. He spends the vast majority of his time rubbing elbows with Washington elites, and his schemes unfortunately make more problems than solutions for Dagny.
Atlas Shrugged is a tale of the destruction of the American Industrial Complex by the continuous overreach and interference of a government claiming to place the need of the “public” over the wealth of a few industrialists. Their policy of “to each according to his need” as opposed to “to each according to his ability” initially seems noble, but what Rand shows us is that the industrialists are the “producers” of a society and are ultimately the only ones keeping the lights on. After squeezing them to oblivion, she shows that the only result is the fall of modern society. Her story goes to certain extremes to prove this point, and in the middle takes a very sci-fi-esque turn, but her point is clearly presented.
Rand presents some of her more complex arguments through monologues. My two favorites are the “money monologue” by Francisco d’Anconia and the “final monologue” by John Galt at the close of the novel. It is through these monologues that the reader gets a glimpse at Rand’s very own branch of philosophy, Objectivism. In her own words, she describes Objectivism as “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."
As I read the book, what haunted me most was that it felt like she was commenting about America today. Rand wrote this book in 1957. She is prophetic when it comes to warning us about the growing overreach of government and its interference with true laissez-faire capitalism. In the book Dagny calls the politicians and lobbyists in Washington “looters.” I love this because it is so irreverent towards an institution we are taught to hold in such high esteem, but Rand shows us that it is perfectly fitting. She calls them “looters” because they essentially insert themselves between the producers and consumers in the free market, and then demand a slice of the pie while contributing nothing.
The other issue that Rand calls attention to is the danger of losing the free and independent thinker. She describes the human mind as the ultimate engine of the modern world, with reason as it’s only fuel. We must be wary, Rand warns, when the “looters” encourage the public to not think at all. They will lie and misinform the public in order to obtain and retain power. They will command maximum attention by continuously forecasting terror and cultivating fear and doubt. And finally, their power will lie with the threat of violence. They desire a population of mindless beasts, not thinking humans.
Atlas Shrugged for me correctly describes the modern political climate, and for a novel written in 1957, I find this fascinating. The source of her insight is very clear given that Rand herself escaped a communist Soviet Union. She saw firsthand what the final destination of a “people’s state” was. The source of her hope and joy, however, she only reveals after the end of the novel, in the acknowledgements. There she professes her love for the United States of America. She calls it out as a distinctly unique country in the grand history mankind. She cherishes this country’s freedoms, particularly the freedom of speech and the freedom of thought. It is only in America that an individual can rise to the height of his capability and ambition, however high that may be.
I am thankful that I was born in this country, and I am thankful for the opportunities it has afforded me. My family went from well below poverty to amongst the most fortunate people on the planet within a single generation. I don’t think this would have been possible anywhere else. I am excited for Luca to grow up in America, and I will raise him to be a free thinker and producer.
So, before you pass judgment on an author, or a thinker, do what I did and actually read what they wrote. I think, like me, you may end up pleasantly surprised.
Also, to hell with the looters.
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