So, I’ve managed to get through Atlas Shrugged. It’s a monster of a story in so many ways: difficult to digest, easy to criticize, full of stupid assertions and brilliant quotes. I’m not entirely sure what to take from the book. On the one hand it’s a story about the rational mind, it’s power and ethical implications on using it. On the other hand, it’s a titanic straw-man argument where Rand portrays a world filled with witless sheep-like people only waiting to be ruled by whoever brings the most “pull” (influence, power) to the table. It’s a polarizing story about extremes of philosophy and government, with some kind of a benevolent anarchy on one side and a totalitarian oligarchy on the other.
Rand presents good story in the sense that it’s thought provoking, forcing me to think about my motivation for doing things, make me consider what I’m doing with my life and even think about the meaning of “doing things” for myself or others around me. Some of the central points in the book are that it’s ethical just to produce more than one consumes and to do ones best regardless of ability and situation. Getting a reminder of this is always good, but where the story does well is by telling why this is ethical and good, then put it in context and made abundantly clear.
The sad thing is that Ayn Rand makes these points by creating a world and system based on preposterous claims like “there is no truth, no rationality and we can never be sure about anything” as a central philosophy. Rand picks a bunch of philosophic tenets (like Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am”) out of context and presents them as foundations worth building a society on. The result is of course an evil and corrupt one, which Rand then proceeds to destroy. It’s almost like Rand ignores the conversational aspects society and science, that society is a collective effort where the climb upward goes both over the shoulders of midgets and giants. The world view she proposes also hinges almost exclusively on some genius-savior being the requirement for success in all activity, and that there is no way the mindless masses can do without the leadership of these titans. Maybe I’m an optimist to believe that people are smarter and more resourceful than Rand’s picture of the “common” man.
Still, it’s a good book and definitely worth my time. Even if she ignores it in the story, the book itself is an argument in a conversation – a somewhat questionable argument – but one that needs being reminded of: that Rationality is king, and everything hinges on it, no matter the state of the society you live in. 