"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand

When I was a student at Iowa State University in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a student had to pass the "Senior English Exam" before he or she could graduate. The Senior English Exam was not really a test as you think of tests; it was a writing assignment. The point was not if you knew a subject from a verb, but how well you could write a sentence or a paragraph or an essay. Many of us had heard the story of one student who had taken the exam 17 times before finally passing it; so some of us took it during our junior year to give us a little leeway in case we flunked it the first time (or 16th) time.

When we got to the test center, we were told that we could pick our choice of a topic to write about, things like how we spent our summer vacation, our goals in life, or a book we had read recently. I had read Ayn Rand's AtlasShrugged during the previous summer, so that was my choice for a book.

I don't remember now what I wrote about Atlas Shrugged, except that I rejected the socialistic approach of the society against which John Galt and others were struggling. I recently began reading the book again and am amazed at how relevant the book is in our current society, which seems like it's being led into socialism by the current administration and Congress. [My son-in-law is reading the 5th Harry Potter book and, in a recent discussion about Atlas Shrugged, which he has not read, but is thinking about reading, he said he sees some relevance in the Potter book, in terms of centralized control, cover-ups, an "I-am-right and you're-not attitude, etc.]

As I write this, I have a radio talk show turned on. The host just quoted Ronald Reagan: "We are a nation that has a government; not the other way around." America seems to be headed more and more toward the idea that we are a government that has a nation, and the government is in charge.

As you read Atlas Shrugged, you begin to understand that what made America great was the freedom for the individual to invest his energies and resources into the pursuit of a personal goal, whatever it may have been: new inventions, new ways of looking at things, etc. The individual was also free to fail and did not expect anyone else simply to give him the money to pick himself up and get working again. When he succeeded, he reaped the benefits. When he failed, he reaped the results of failure.

In Atlas Shrugged, society as a whole has moved to the point of protecting itself against individual success and taken upon itself the goal of insuring, as much as possible, an equality of results, rather than an equality of opportunity.

Here are a few quotes from Atlas Shrugged, quotes which will give some sense of the problem: "It has been generally conceded that the interests of society as a whole must always be placed first in any business undertaking..." (page 22)

"The only justification of private property is public service." (Page 45)

"The Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule" was intended "to limit "destructive competition" by saying that no more than one railroad could operate in a certain area." (Page 75)

The Equalization of Opportunity Bill (Page 212) is passed not so much to provide equal opportunity, but equal results. It penalizes individual initiative and success.

There are some obvious connections with the United States.

First, the whole mortgage crisis and the resulting worldwide financial turmoil is a result of government trying to insure that people could own their own homes, regardless of their ability to pay. The result has been a collapse of large financial institutions, which have survived only because of government intervention and bailouts.

Second, there is an antipathy toward big business and a desire to "punish" them with higher taxes.

Third, private property has increasingly become subject to seizure through eminent domain, not because of public projects, but because local governments want to let private developers come in and build and, in the process, increase the tax basis.

Fourth, the interests of society can best be served by allowing individuals to develop products and services. If the public doesn't want them, fine. If the public wants them, the individual will profit.

I don't agree totally with the underlying message of Atlas Shrugged, but reading it is a helpful corrective to the encroaching socialism we see in the United States. What makes us think it will succeed here when it has failed miserably in so many other parts of the world?

Source:

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (New York: Plume, 1957)