Just Shrug... The Message of Atlas and Ayn Rand

First, yes in case you were wondering, the "Shrug Shirt" in the picture is availiable for a limited time by going here:=> Shrug Shirt

Second, in the spirit of full disclosure, I am a fan of some of Ayn Rand's ideas , fiction and non-fiction particularly her seminal masterpiece "Atlas Shrugged"... Now I say I am a fan of "some" on purpose... In my mind, there are just some things I can not completely reconcile in the way Ayn Rand was in her real life that would seem to contradict some of the tenets of the very philosophy she formulated and then went on to articulate in her, fiction, non-fiction, and various talks which is "Objectivism".

The 3 basic tenets of Objectivism are as follows:

1. Man must be guided by reason
2. Man’s proper ethical code is rational self-interest, which means that no man shall sacrifice himself for others, NOR sacrifice others for himself.
3. The political system that expresses the above two tenets is laissez-faire capitalism, which means unregulated and uncontrolled capitalism.

These 3 tenets were played out in a quite detailed way in "Atlas Shrugged". If you are unfamiliar with story I encourage you to read it. Published in 1957 and although the book is a bit "wordy" it still is a very well written story which has seemed to had an almost "Prophetic" message to what is actually going on today in our world.

Atlas Shrugged predicts a dystopian type world in a not-to-distant future where government control in every area of ones life has become more pervasive and where those with the "entitlement mentality" demand more from those who create and produce wealth and industry as a whole. It takes a look at the idea of what happens when those that produce just "go on strike" and drop out of society to let the now parasitic masses fend for themselves... If there is no longer any Wealth being produced by those who produce then there is no longer any wealth to tax to give to those that demand something for nothing.

"Atlas Shrugging" is a metaphor. What happens when the man who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders (Atlas) refuses to continue to take the abuse from those he carries?... He Shrugs

Rand argues in Atlas Shrugged that the freedom of American society is responsible for its greatest achievements. For example, in the nineteenth century, inventors and entrepreneurs created an outpouring of innovations that raised the standard of living to unprecedented heights and changed forever the way people live. Rand, who thoroughly researched the history of capitalism, was well aware of the progress made during this period of economic freedom. Samuel Morse invented the telegraph — a device later improved by Thomas Edison, who went on to invent the phonograph, the electric light, and the motion picture projector. John Roebling perfected the suspension bridge and, just before his death, designed his masterpiece, the Brooklyn Bridge. Henry Ford revolutionized the transportation industry by mass-producing automobiles, a revolution that the Wright Brothers carried to the next level with their invention of the airplane. Railroad builders like Cornelius Vanderbilt and James J. Hill established inexpensive modes of transportation and opened up the Pacific Northwest to economic development.

Likewise, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone during this era, Cyrus McCormick the reaper, and Elias Howe the sewing machine. Charles Goodyear discovered the vulcanization process that made rubber useful, and George Eastman revolutionized photography with the invention of a new type of camera — the Kodak. George Washington Carver, among myriad agricultural accomplishments, developed peanuts and sweet potatoes into leading crops. Architects like Louis Sullivan and William LeBaron Jenney created the skyscraper, and George Westinghouse, the inventor of train airbrakes, developed a power system able to transmit electricity over great distances. The penniless Scottish immigrant Andrew Carnegie built a vast company manufacturing steel, and John D. Rockefeller did the same in the oil industry.

These are a few examples from an exhaustive list of advances in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ayn Rand argues that economic freedom liberated these great creative thinkers, permitting them to put into practice new ideas and methods. But what would happen if economic freedom were lost?

Atlas Shrugged provides Ayn Rand's answer to this question. In the story, she projects the culmination of America's twentieth-century socialist trend. The U.S. government portrayed in the story has significant control over the domestic economy. The rest of the world has been swallowed up by communist "Peoples' States" and subsists in abject poverty. A limited degree of economic freedom still exists in America, but it is steadily declining, as is American prosperity. The successful are heavily taxed to support the poor, and the American poor are similarly levied to finance the even poorer people in foreign Peoples' States. The government subsidizes inefficient businesses at the expense of the more efficient. With the state controlling large portions of the economy, the result is the rise of corrupt businessmen who seek profit by manipulating crooked politicians rather than by doing productive work. The government forces inventors to give up their patents so that all manufacturers may benefit equally from new products. Similarly, the government breaks up productive companies, compelling them to share the market with weaker (less efficient) competitors. In short, the fictionalized universe of Atlas Shrugged presents a future in which the U.S. trend toward socialism has been accelerated. Twentieth-century realities such as heavy taxation, massive social welfare programs, tight governmental regulation of industry, and antitrust action against successful companies are heightened in the universe of this story. The government annuls the rights of American citizens, and freedom is steadily eroded. The United States of the novel — the last bastion of liberty on earth — rapidly becomes a fascist/communist dictatorship.

The result, in Rand's fictional universe, is a collapse of American prosperity. Great minds are shackled by government policies, and their innovations are either rejected or expropriated by the state. Thinkers lack the freedom necessary to create new products, to start their own companies, to compete openly, and to earn wealth. Under the increasing yoke of tyranny, the most independent minds in American society choose to defend their liberty in the most effective manner possible: They withdraw from society.

The Mind on Strike

Atlas Shrugged is a novel about a strike. Ayn Rand sets out to show the fate that befalls the world when the thinkers and creators go on strike. The author raises an intriguing question: What would happen if the scientists, medical researchers, inventors, industrialists, writers, artists, and so on withheld their minds and their achievements from the world?

In this novel, Rand argues that all human progress and prosperity depend on rational thinking. For example, human beings have cured such diseases as malaria, polio, dysentery, cholera, diphtheria, and tuberculosis. Man has learned to fly, erect cities and skyscrapers, grow an abundant food supply, and create computers. Humans have been to the moon and back and have invented the telephone, radio, television, and a thousand other life-promoting technologies. All of these achievements result from the human application of a rational mind to practical questions of survival. If the intellectuals responsible for such advances abandon the world, regression to the primitive conditions of the Dark Ages would result. But what would motivate intellectuals to such an extreme act as going on strike? We are used to hearing about strikes that protest conditions considered oppressive or intolerable by workers. The thinkers go on strike in Atlas Shrugged to protest the oppression of their intellect and creativity.

The thinkers in Atlas Shrugged strike on behalf of individual rights and political freedom. They strike against an enforced moral code of self-sacrifice — the creed that human life must be devoted to serving the needs of others. Above all, the thinkers strike to prove that reason is the only means by which man can understand reality and make proper decisions; emotions should not guide human behavior. In short, the creative minds are on strike in support of a person's right to think and live independently.

In the novel, the withdrawal of the great thinkers causes the collapse of the American economy and the end of dictatorship. The strike proves the role that the rational mind plays in the attainment of progress and prosperity. The emphasis on reason is the hallmark of Ayn Rand's fiction. All of her novels, in one form or another, glorify the life-giving power of the human mind.

For example, in Rand's earlier novel The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand emphasizes the independent nature of the mind's functioning — that rational individuals neither conform to society nor obey authority, but trust their own judgment. In her early novelette Anthem, Ayn Rand shows that under a collectivist dictatorship, the mind is stifled and society regresses to a condition of primitive ignorance. Anthem focuses on the mind's need for political freedom. The focus of Atlas Shruggedis the role that the human mind plays in human existence. Atlas Shrugged shows that rational thinking is mankind's survival instrument, just as the ability to fly is the survival tool for birds. In all of her major novels, Ayn Rand presents heroes and heroines who are brilliant thinkers opposed to either society's pressure to conform or a dictatorial government's commands to obey. The common denominator in all of her books is the life-and-death importance, for both the individual and society, of remaining true to the mind.

Objectivism in Action

In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand presents, for the first time and in a dramatized form, her original philosophy of Objectivism. She exemplifies this philosophy in the lives of the heroes and in the action of the story.Objectivism holds that reason — not faith or emotionalism — is man's sole means of gaining knowledge. Her theory states that an individual has a right to his or her own life and to the pursuit of his or her own happiness, which is counter to the view that man should sacrifice himself to God or society. Objectivism is individualistic, holding that the purpose of government is to protect the sovereign rights of an individual. This philosophy opposes the collectivist notion that society as a whole is superior to the individual, who must subordinate himself to its requirements. In the political/economic realm, Objectivism upholds full laissez-faire capitalism — a system of free markets that legally prevent the government from restricting man's productive activities — as the only philosophical system that protects the freedom of man's mind, the rights of the individual, and the prosperity of man's life on earth.

Because of Ayn Rand's uncompromising defense of the mind, of the individual, and of capitalism, Atlas Shrugged created great controversy on its publication in 1957. Denounced by critics and intellectuals, the book nevertheless reached a wide audience. The book has sold millions of copies and influenced the lives of countless readers. Since 1957, Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism has gradually taken hold in American society. Today, her books and ideas are becoming widely taught in high schools and universities.

My personal thoughts are this, although there does seem to be a lot of almost "prophetic" aspects in Atlas Shrugged, it is still very much a work of fiction, in a fictional world, where the rules of the world are a lot more black and white. For example, Capitalism, IMHO actually IS the best system we got... It certainly is NOT perfect though and I truly do not believe in the logical conclusion of social Darwinism like environment of it it being completely un-checked in a free market economy as Rand advocates in her philosophy and novels. I wish it could go unchecked, but unfortunately IMHO humans still are not honest or noble enough. I wish our world and the way it worked was as simple or as black and white as it is depicted in Atlas Shrugged, but unfortunately the world and how to solve certain issues are certainly more complicated in reality... But we can certainly can progress towards the worthy goal of making the world a better and more prosperous place for all.

For now Atlas Shrugged is just a very good story that has some powerful messages in it that definitely should make everyone think and reflect.

Thanks for reading and go get a Shirt...

Keith