Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,
There is a tendency in the world of ideas to divide thinkers into saints and witches. Some are singled out for a hagiographic treatment. When others discover issues with their thoughts or lives, the switch is flipped and they become worthy of being burned. They are either valorized or demonized. This has happened to countless intellectuals: Voltaire, Jefferson, Darwin, Marx, Freud, Heidegger, and thousands more.
It’s all quite infantile. The better approach is one born of maturity. Read everything and everyone and learn what you can and toss out what’s wrong. Of course this requires work and thought. In fact, the saint/witch dichotomy is merely a mask for laziness. It’s a way of finding a fast track to truth that dispenses with the arduous task of actual research.
Few have been victimized by this habit as much as the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. People might encounter her work in high school and decide to adopt it as a personal credo, only to find out later in life that the world is more complicated than she describes and they turn against her.
This is all unfortunate. She was a singularly insightful intellectual from whom there is a vast amount to learn.
And yes, she is guilty too of ridiculous excesses, as brilliant minds are.
That said, there are precise contributions she has made that make her writings an indispensable guide to understanding modern life, both the problems and many of the answers.
1. Economic Freedom.
Have you heard that so much of our times reminds one of “Atlas Shrugged”? Indeed it is uncanny. In the novel, the state exercises overweening power and attempts to centrally manage economic life in all aspects big and small. Rand explains with evocative detail the cascading effects of such bureaucratic control and how it wrecks supply chains, demoralizes workers, puts aside innovations on behalf of incumbent technologies, and puts lives in grave danger. It forces a growing impoverishment on society by curbing the exercise of human ingenuity. Lesser minds rule great ones, spreading ignorance and brutality far and wide.
In one of my favorite sections, a leading industrial bureaucrat, Wesley Mouch, frustrated that production and inflation are not under control, issues an edict (Directive 10-289) to force everyone and everything to be exactly this year like it was last year. This included enough exceptions to win the loyalties of select industrialists who could later be blackmailed. Yep, it is all a pretty good approximation.
In her book, she imagines that there is a strike by the owners of capital who gather in a sanctuary that they have created to be safe from the crumbling that ensues throughout the society. There they share wisdom about freedom and rights and make plans to rebuild society after the final collapse.
The book contains passages of brilliance that take your breath away. It also has many pages that will have you rolling your eyes in frustration. Yes, it is a mix of tremendous insight plus painful pedanticism. Because it includes both, it has uncritical champions on one side and vicious critics on the other. This is all rather silly. It is a brilliant and flawed book in equal measure. Why can’t we live with that tension?
2. Envy.
One of the seven deadly sins that was preached in the Middle Ages was envy. This is not just jealousy of another’s good fortune. It is the desire to plot destruction of the successful. It is taking satisfaction from the ruination of one’s betters. Sounds pretty ghastly, doesn’t it? Surely it is rare in society.
Actually, as you age and experience a wide enough range of professional life, you encounter envy everywhere. It is not rare. It is lurking around every corner. With every good fortune, you will recruit killers around you, people who smile to your face while waiting with a knife for you to turn your back.
I’m unaware of any author who has such a profound understanding of the personal and social evil of envy in the world. It’s odd because it is hardly written about at all. This is a major reason Rand is so valuable. Her works put a bead on the entire subject and help you prepare for something that you will deal with throughout your entire life. I would say, in fact, that this feature of her work is the most profound and impactful.
3. Moral Courage.
In popular understanding, Rand was a champion of “selfishness.” I’ve always wondered if her deployment of this term was due to her sometimes obtuseness about the subtleties of a language that was not hers by birth. It seems like that really meant a more classical understanding of self-interest: namely that there is no inconsistency between what’s good for the individual and what is good for society.
No doubt that if she heard me say that, she would violently disagree. However, when we look at the behavior of her heroes in the book, each of them makes profound personal sacrifices to stand up for moral principles. Indeed, the ethical obligation to exercise painful degrees of moral courage is a major theme in her writings. Similarly, many of her most grotesque villains do only what is in their short-term self-interest regardless of the impact on others. It’s a bit of an odd feature of her writing that we can get a better picture of her true ethical opinions by the actions of her characters than her own attempt to codify an ethical system in her non-fiction work.
4. Personal example.
I’ve heard it said often that she had great writings but her personal life was a disaster. And so they admire her as an intellectual but not as a human being. It’s hardly news that she was flawed. I’m rather tired of the shock that comes when discovering that. Plus, if we are looking for people who exercise profound moral courage in their lives, she certainly qualifies. She was born in Russia and slated to live under the Bolsheviks. Instead, she plotted her way out with a clever scheme to visit the United States to study film. She defected, penniless. She lived for a time with relatives in Chicago but felt stifled so she took a bus to Hollywood where, not knowing anyone, climbed her way up to become an important script writer. Then she started writing wonderful novels and eventually became a best-selling author and one of the biggest intellectual influencers of the century. That strikes me as a heroic life. People who want to deny her credit for her own achievements are mostly to be ranked among the envious.
5. Dystopia.
One of the most brilliant features of her dystopias is just how realistic they truly are. The total state does not create a world of amazing technology but just the opposite. It is a world of material and moral impoverishment that is always going backwards in time. If you don’t have time for “Atlas Shrugged,” consider her beautiful novelette called “Anthem.” It is short but to the point: the state in this book has banned the light bulb. When I first read that, I thought that was impossible. But here we are today with a just-implemented light bulb ban, not to mention electrical outages, and coming restrictions on meat eating and so on. She understood something others miss about the state: it is ultimately a reactionary institution.
These are good times to read and understand Ayn Rand. No need to valorize every aspect of her work, much less denounce her for inaccuracies, exaggerations, and excesses. Her aggressive atheism in particular strikes me as a pointless diversion—and she would certainly disagree with me in that judgment.
Even given all that, she has so much to offer. Contrary to the usual line that her writings are only compelling for kids in their late teens and early twenties, her contribution is best understood by mature thinkers who can take the good and the brilliant with the mistakes and missteps along the way. She deserves a high place in the canon of mighty literary contributions toward realistically understanding the world around us.
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My biggest issue with her is her lack of support for altruism. People DO gain from giving to and helping others. Just because there is no money changing hands or being returned for the good deed doesn’t mean that the giver is not enriched by the gesture. Her adamant disbelief in a divine is also completely shortsighted, but obviously tied to her other faults. Amazing how much the Soviet system destroyed her humanity.
Mr. Liberty,
I’m not well read on Ayn but her lack of support for altruism is not without merit.
I used to give to the Red Cross and quit after finding out how corrupt that org. is. I always heard good things about the Salvation Army. Then, about 3 years ago I found out the same repulsive crap is played by the Salvation Army.
The only contributions I make are to sites like TBP, other alternative news and direct contributions to individuals.
So, what I’m trying to say is maybe she had it right?
You chose to outsource your assistance. You ceded control and got burned twice. Have you never helped a neighbor, family member, or just a stranger who was in need? Did it not make you feel good about what you were doing? I’m not endorsing anything forced. I’m not saying that there won’t be some regrets. But in the long run, your choice to assist will generally be positive.
Out sourcing altruism leaves you open to being used by professional do gooders. I think you are on the right track.
Amen, thanks for giving me the words.
Bullshit, she attacked unlimited altruism (at least in Atlas Shrugged.)
Only a fool believes that people can or do practice altruism. People always act in their own self interest. Always. If they give or help someone else, it is because at some level, they are consciously or unconsciously helping themselves. Only idiot liberals deceive themselves to believe any differently.
The human mind is a confused and chaotic thing, and often works in illogical ways, but it always works to what it perceives is in its best interests. This is not to say that people cannot act in ways that appear to be self sacrificing, they can, but their motivation is always self serving. Whether it is the belief in a reward in the afterlife, or the subconscious desire to live on through their children, the root motivation for all human behavior is always self benefit. You see none of us are really intelligent compassionate beings. We are half-evolved animals capable of logical thought, but controlled by animal instincts.
Here’s a question that might offer an insight into what constitutes self-interest.
You are given the choice of you being tossed into Hell forever or your wife. What do you choose to do?
The question is not what you do, it is why are you doing it. If you think it is because you are unselfish then you are lying to yourself, and not honest enough to admit it.
A completely selfish person, if even one even exists, would choose his wife to go to hell, I suppose. The rest of us would wrestle with the feeling of guilt/sorrow/ whatever as we contemplate the consequences to ourselves of sending someone, anyone really, to endless suffering. You are right that decisions relate right back to self-interest, but in degrees depending upon the, say, righteousness of the decider. Sure, everyone has a self- interest, is selfish, but that is not saying much. I suppose there are libtards and others who don’t see themselves as anything other than virtuous, so they live a lie that drives them to deny the obvious resulting in the internal turmoil we see in their faces and actions.
good point
When I was in grade 9 typing class there was a man who sat behind me. He told me that he had dropped out of school early and just wasted about. He had then recently read the Fountainhead. His life was immediately changed and he had resolved himself to proceed with his abandoned education. He recommended that I too should read Ayns book. I did read the Fountainhead, and more, although it was a few years following his advice. I had occasion to watch this man go through high school and absolutely ace every class. No joke, he had almost perfect marks right up to graduation. I lost sight of him then.
I read The Fountianhead also. I’m pretty sure she could have shortened the book by about 300 pages and reached more people. I believe the book is close to 700 pages long.
Pedantic is making light of her pedanticism in Fountainhead.
None of us have every piece of the puzzle, and we each have cognitive and other bias. We need each other. And we need free speech. We each have something of value for each other, including our mistakes. Ron Paul felt the need to name one of his kids after the woman. Ron’s extremely observant; Ayn Rand was an atheist. Ron saw enormous value in her work, and likely forgives her shortcomings. No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater, nor let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Separate the wheat from the chaff, eh?
Alls i know is the large majority of modern women are trash, society is fukt, and the west is doomed. I’m moving back to the woods asap. I want no more part of this shitshow called modern life. Everything is a joke, and fake/gay.
Nothing is serious. The serious people have abdicated.
Just about everything deserves to burn. I hope it does, and something new and better is born from the ashes. Nothing about the modern world is salvageable. You cannot create anything sustainable from this point. It’s time for a hard reset- from what point in history i’m not sure but the late 19th century may provide some templates. Fuck shwab and his great reset. Make a reset of your own.
Just burn everything to the ground, go thru the dark age(s), and hope some semblance of civilization emerges afterward. The alternative is an utter Hellscape, no matter how you slice it.
Bring on the Dark Age
Rand had a serious impact on me in my early twenties. Got me to thinking about anything and everything as to consequences to myself and to society. Then in my thirties I read Harry Browne, “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World.” Now we’re talking! In my forties I immersed myself in Krishnamurti’s “Truth is a pathless land” and “You are the world.” Emerson, Twain, Jefferson throughout my life. Now it is “Thinking and Destiny” by Harold Percival.
Now that I am 82, I know my name, but I do not know what it is that is conscious and knows that it is conscious. The me that I have constructed over these many years is what? An assortment of results from consequences/actions? Is the me a product of the society, individuals, and events that I have experienced and known? How banal. What is original? Surely the me is not, it being a product of incidence, of comedy and tragedy all added and mixed together in a barrel or pot of memories and emotions.
But Karma. Now that is something beyond the me, but at the same time not beyond the me. Universe set down the laws. I/me can try to skirt them but there are consequences to that effort. There is no skirting them, try all we like.
As water judges a man’s rightness in swimming, God judges a man’s rightness in living. -Rose Wilder Lane
Yes! The water/Life offers resistance with which we are able to move, to go somewhere, anywhere. The better we are able to swim, to live, the better is . . . what? Our lives? Just that? Are we seeking rewards for best swimmer? No. But what then? It might be said that rightness in living is its own reward, but reward is not the goal at all. What is it that the Universe is telling us by setting down laws? We are informed of the laws just like the water informs the swimmer. We do or we drown. Is that a reward? No, that is life itself. We are here to live rightly, to learn what to do and not to do. Karma takes care of it all, in this life or the next multitude of lives. We may have already lived millions of lives. It would seem obvious that the Universe wants justice for one thing. Clif High says It wants novelty.
Where shall we end up? Percival says inevitably we will, all of us, know what it is that is conscious. That being then itself has a destiny, I assume. I know so little, but it is enough to get me started in living rightly. With appreciation for the opportunity.
Damn, you’re old , bigfoot.
Yes, over, I’ve always been lucky with the plentiful hard times coming out right and now in my old age I gaze upon the ocean from a bluff and live with my third wife of twenty some years who is 69, kind, smart, robust, and beautiful! Eating right is very important! Beef mainly. And fermented foods. That starves the doctors and pharma. Luck on you, friend.
Pretty much everything Ayn Rand wrote was prophecy…
Rand’s heroes ar unicorns. In the real world very wealthy self made men are rarely moral and almost always not benevolent. Like Ron Paul her philosophy doesn’t mesh with human nature very well.
Because she denies God.
I disagree on the whole about the “rarely” comment. Morality is not that uncommon. I know in my own case, though I am not “very wealthy,” I thought too highly of myself while in the middle of being at a public high point. It is hard not to be an idiot about things. Being moral was not an issue and I know of plenty of well-off people who are moral and plenty of less well-off people who I don’t trust at all. “Benevolence” if anything is heightened in wealthy people as a rule and that leads to unattractive behavior as in acting like a king with subjects, so it seems to me that benevolence is a far different thing than morality.