Glawe: Masochism of ‘Atlas Shrugged’
By Michael Glawe, michael.glawe@iowastatedaily.com | Updated Feb 17, 2013
Just this past week a bill was introduced to the Idaho state senate by Sen. John Goedde requiring high school students to read “Atlas Shrugged” and take an exam on it to graduate. He wasn’t being serious, though, as he has stated he has no intention of pushing the bill through the legislature. It was brought up merely to “make a point” about some of the arbitrary decisions being made by Idaho’s Board of Education.
Whether Goedde was subtly and frivolously lauding his favorite book, or just “making a point,” his actions highlight Rand’s influence on politicians nowadays.
Prominent politicians Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Paul Ryan, and other devotees of Ayn Rand’s magnum opus “Atlas Shrugged,” will have you believe that the work is a realistic political parable, even more relevant today than ever before. Sales of the book have soared to great heights (according to the Ayn Rand Institute, more than 7 million copies have been sold), with business leaders emulating the heroines of Rand’s dystopia every day.
Detractors like myself, however, dismiss the work as a silly homage to greed. I should admit, though, that I was once an aficionado of Rand’s ode to capitalism. I snapped out of the fantasy, however, after I realized my egotism was driving my friends and family away. In retrospect, my love of objectivism was, perhaps, just a “phase.”
You can see why “Atlas Shrugged” appeals to most, if not all, businessmen, nowadays.
The novel itself was used as a channel through which Rand could push objectivism, a philosophy based around the pursuit of one’s own happiness as the moral purpose of life, absent of any sort of altruism.
Can we possibly imagine a society that has adopted these principles? I suppose we’d be reinforcing what humans are already good at doing — being self-interested. Rand contends that this is necessary to man’s survival, but haven’t we moved beyond these primitive means? The human solidarity renders objectivism a supererogation. Caring for others is a part of that solidarity. It is our nature to not only be selfish but also selfless.
Many libertarians and conservatives who’ve adopted Rand’s work seek to defend businesses from the “tyranny of big government.” The list of politicians pushing Rand’s ideology is extensive. The major figures include Ryan, Paul, Ronald Reagan and Gary Johnson, all of whom were serious contenders for the presidency. The major political endorsements of “Atlas Shrugged” has, in turn, dramatically altered the political landscape. Because people believe Rand “prophesized” the future of capitalism, a pseudo-revolution against the government has erupted.
Our allegiance to capitalism has rendered us masochists, of which the infliction of pain is given by the corporate sadists who deliberately crash their company in exchange for bonuses. To praise a pure capitalist society, where the powerful “innovators” willfully harm our economy, is the definition of sadomasochism.
I believe the government has the power and the responsibility to prevent the infliction of pain on the participators of our economy. In Greek mythology, Atlas beared the celestial sphere on his shoulders. Oftentimes, the citizens, the true Atlases of our country, must bear the same burdens. Though, the true Atlases will never shrug.
http://www.iowastatedaily.com/opinion/article_b58ce8a6-761a-11e2-b4df-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=jqm
“I should admit, though, that I was once an aficionado of Rand’s ode to capitalism. I snapped out of the fantasy, however, after I realized my egotism was driving my friends and family away. In retrospect, my love of objectivism was, perhaps, just a “phase.””
You misunderstand the genesis of your egotism. It had nothing to do with Rand’s writings, and you have no shrugged off that particularly odious stench of your self-importance.
He is an outright liar.
He claims to have been an “aficionado” of Rand - I’m calling BS on that claim.
No doubt he read Rand because it was the “cool” thing to do - I doubt that he does ANYTHING without major attention to the “cool coefficient”. He read parts of the book, was able to talk about it in a “cool” way that he thought made him sound “cool” and “lettered” and smart. No doubt he conversed as he writes with repeated verbal clumsiness and outright faux pas.
When Rand’s cool coefficient dropped low enough, he quit dropping her name in what he considered “cool” circles. He never understood what Rand wrote. Never understood why it was so esteemed. He simply used it, as he does his Nye worship and his “atheism”, as a tool in his quest for cool.
One cannot be an “aficionado” of Rand without understanding and appreciating the underlying philosophy. One cannot appreciate the underlying philosophy and only to disparage it later in favor of big government statism.
Ergo - he was never a Rand aficionado.