Atlas Shrugged

I have been reading Atlas Shrugged- I should finish it tonight. It has been a very expansive book. It covers many topics of the philosophy of the individuals relationship with society, with our obligation to our self and to each other.

The book has caused probably more questions in my mind than answers. Ayn Rand’s over-all philosophy is that we should never shrink from our greatness and that if we acted in perfectly selfish ways, we would never do anything to harm someone else because of how it would affect us in the end.

Rand proposes that there are three groups of people…

1- the producers- those who produce much more than they need for themselves

2- The maintainers- those who only produce what they need

3- The looters- Those who live off of the production of someone else.

I agree with Rand that these groups exist. The place I disagree is the proportions of each. I feel that over-all people are good and that they want to produce. They want to make a difference if given a chance.

In this book- the producers go on strike- and the looters are left to find other means to take care of themselves because there were no producers left to live off of.

One of Rand’s characters state… “I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

This is one of the main tenants of her philosophy. I agree with it in the context of the man who CHOOSES not to take care of himself, but what about the man who CAN’T take care of himself? If everyone espoused Rand’s philosophy, those who need our help the most get left behind, and we all become judges of who that man is.

The producers in this book leave society as we know it and create their own society. As I read about it, I kept thinking about how wonderful it would be to live in a place where everyone was passionate about making a positive difference in the world and producing more than they consume. I am all for it as long as we can take those who can’t take care of themselves along with us. I would hate to see them left to the looters, talk about adding insult to injury…