| Name of the Book | Atlas Shrugged |
| Author | Ayn Rand |
| Publisher and Year of Publishing | Penguin USA; Anniversary edition (1 September 1996) |
| Price | ₹261, Paperback |
CHECKLIST RATING: 4/5
Reviewer: Dr. Aniruddha Babar
I was asked one question by a student during the discussion on various issues related to Human Rights (POL 504). “Sir what is my individual position in a society where elders’ ‘decision’ is considered final, village-church-tribe-clan-family has control over the individual, where do I stand as a free human being with free mind, self-respect and right to make a choice”? This question detonated my gray matter and I was lost in thoughts for a while. Somehow I told him-“Learn to find your own path”. I know that was not a very powerful or convincing statement; bit cryptic maybe, but then I guess he was not mentally and emotionally prepared to take more and I decided not to introduce him to ‘Ayn Rand’.
I generally avoid talking about Ayn Rand and her writings for the reason being she is too complicated to be understood and explained; consequently very high chances of misunderstanding her philosophy by a mind which is not intellectually mature, emotionally stable and trained in higher philosophy.
Ayn Rand was hated throughout her life and even after her death for the seeds of thoughts that she planted in the world. However, even her haters could not do much apart from hating her unabated. The Books that she wrote like The Fountainhead, The Atlas Shrugged, Anthem, We the Living, The Virtue of Selfishness, Capitalism: The unknown Ideal, The Romantic Manifesto, The New Left, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, The Unconquered etc. have reflected the core ideals of her own philosophy-THE OBJECTIVISM in different forms and shapes.
“THE ATLAS SHRUGGED”- A book which I read for the first time when I was Thirteen Years old, in class Eight. This was gifted to me by a Gentleman from Greece who was a co-passenger in a flight. With smile I accepted the book but eventually got extremely disappointed because I could then understand nothing. I had to read the book with the help of a dictionary but nevertheless I completed it with a satisfaction thinking that I read something without actually understanding it. The reading of Atlas Shrugged continued and forgotten as I grew older. In the month of December last year I had a long unplanned telephonic conversation with one of my friends from New Delhi on Objectivism and Ayn Rand; that was a spark enough for me to get back to a Book once again. Here I am proudly writing about it. Now after all these years I can claim that I am fully able to grasp the core ideals without any psychological confusion, moral entrapment, intellectual exhaustion or emotional suffocation; that Ayn Rand cherished throughout her life.
THE ATLAS SHRUGGED-I have great respect and love for this Book. Even though thousands of people have written on it from different perspectives; many have been on the negative side which is quite understandable. The Book is a huge volume over a thousand pages which is written by Russian, Jewish, American Writer Ayn Rand or Alisa Zynovienvna Rosenbaum which is her real name. She was an immigrant from Soviet Russia, born 1905 and arrived at United States and became a US citizen. She was one of the biggest defendants of free capital and capitalism in its initial form.
So it is a story that follows a life of business lady- a protagonist called Dagny Taggart she is an owner of one of the biggest railroad companies in the United States named “Taggart Transcontinental Railroad” and she is trying to make it work in the world which is a kind of dystopian United States- the world that is not clear whether it is in the future or past or the present. This world is very complicated where the state has turned ‘Socialist Totalitarian’, corporate companies keep failing, the state keep nationalizing private companies, assets and estates by legislating and invoking zillions of regulations and laws which are all aiming for good, to help poor, the deprived; to give equal opportunity to everybody but what it eventually achieve is actually the opposite and the country is gradually running itself into the ground as well as many of the successful business enterprises.
As I see, the book is a kind of apothesis of the free will, the free individual, free capitalism against collectivism, socialism, against the state which is control freak authoritarian nature trying become a welfare state but actually achieving exactly the opposite causing misery, poverty as well as scientific decline and destruction in the society. In this context of the Book it is very important to mention the background of Ayn Rand. It is important to note that she was from a bourgeoisie family in Russia, they were of Jewish religion who owned Pharmacy and peacefully leading an upper middle class life before revolution broke out. With the dawn of ‘communist’ revolution her family was disowned and everything that they owned or made were taken over by the Government which force her family to flee and leave their home and return back only to live in abject poverty and under the constant state surveillance. The reflections of her childhood experiences can be seen throughout the book- the hatred that is being exhibited, despise and contempt to state regulations, nationalism, collectivism, socialism you can feel that almost like an offense in her reflections upon taking away successful businesses of hardworking, entrepreneurial, creative, intelligent people and giving it to the mediocre. Through the book she attempt to justify her position which strongly maintains that the system of socialism is producing more and more mediocrity because it has no ‘incentives’ for the free thinking, creative individuals with entrepreneurial spirit.
In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand takes us to a very important understanding that in collectivist societies where government takes over private properties and assets with a purpose of nationalizing them for larger social benefit take everything in a big mesh and gives away to the people depending on their needs not depending on their ‘virtues’ and this is one major piece of Philosophy in the Book which is about getting things that one deserve and that is the reason that Free Thinkers, Capitalists, Entrepreneurs revered this book so much because it justifies this philosophical position that even love, honour or respect ; anything in life you have to deserve-there are no freebies- even the life that we intend to live must be deserved and earned by us.
The protagonist characters in the Book, like Dagny Taggart, Franscisco’d Anconia, John Galt, Henry ‘Hank’ Rearden, Eddie Willers, Ranger Danneskjold are independent individuals who has supreme belief in own ‘independent existence’ and their self-nurtured ability to ‘move and stop the wheels’ of the world. These characters are not tied to petty identities, they are neither God fearing nor are they bound by any suppressive moral rules of society or any political ideology. Their bright God like presence in their own individual life is the sole motivating factor behind their actions. Their ‘Ego’ becomes an engine behind their larger than life image and success in their professional and personal life. They dedicated their life to professional success which becomes their sole calling.
Moreover, generally we get to see lot of people complain about their life and job. They often love to blame people and the circumstances. However, the characters in Atlas Shrugged take absolute, unconditional ‘ownership’ of their actions without any hesitation which shows their mental clarity, focused nature, strength of character and ultra-positive attitude which sets their character apart from the ‘herd mentality’.
There is another topic in this book which is interesting and that is feminism and this is why a lot of people especially Corporate business ladies like this book because the main character is a woman and its written by a woman as well and you can feel that throughout the book that the main character Dagny Taggart is a really powerful lady, she is very Hot, sexy and driven by her passions and willing to pay any price to overcome the obstacle that come in her way towards ‘victories’. She’s very individualistic, she finds pleasure in pursuing goals rather than pleasing people; she is like a true independent lady in this book, she super brilliantly justifies how a woman can have a place in the society where she can be independent and she has so much to contribute to a business world. She also describes the kind of prejudices against women which they still face in the corporate world, so lot of women readers can really identify with her character.
“You don’t have to see through the eyes of others, hold onto yours, stand on your own judgment, you know that what is, is—say it aloud, like the holiest of prayers, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” Says Dagny Taggart.
Dagny is also sexually very active and give justice to her inner most ‘hungers’ in the most positive and constructive way. She is beautiful; she also had several lovers throughout the book. A lot of people may argue Dagny and some of the characters in the book seem colder, very rational, very idealized and this is how they are as Ayn Rand often argued in defense of Atlas Shrugged. Through the unique personalities of the characters in the book she attempt to visualize how an ‘ideal’ man should look in her world. This attempt goes parallel to Fredrich Nietzsche’s theory of “Ubermensche”- The Superman-the highest point of human evolution where man becomes God-the Creator-the Player and the Destroyer. Through the complex interactions among characters in Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand inject doses of ‘Objectivism’ into the brain cells of her readers.
“This was men’s moral code in the outer world, a code that told them to act on the premise of one another’s weakness, deceit and stupidity, and this was the pattern of their lives, this struggle through a fog of the pretended and unacknowledged, this belief that facts are not solid or final, this state where, denying any form to reality, men stumble through life, unreal and unformed, and die having never been born.”
However, if Dagny Taggart represents the female version of ‘higher level of human evolution’ in Ayn Rand’s world in Atlas Shrugged, then among the male characters it is no other than John Galt represents the ‘Ubermensch’ ideal of writer. So who is this John Galt? This is the question with which the reader is compelled to start to read a Book. John Galt is the most important character in the novel and the driving force behind its action. The strike that he conceives, organizes, and carries out is the book’s central, defining event wherein he encourages and inspire the best brains in the society to join him to create a new world in some secret remote place called “Galt’s Gulch” as against the suppression by authoritarian socialist state where ‘individuality’ is enslaved and killed. However, his identity remains a mystery until two-thirds of the way through the novel. Gradually as mystery unfolds John Galt turns out to be ‘THE’ Hero of Atlas Shrugged. This is a character in which Ayn Rand finds a perfect, ideal man of her world. She describes him as physically beautiful, super intelligent, go-getter, profoundly brilliant, and enormously accomplished. Not only has he been able to develop a revolutionary motor, he has also created a philosophy of reason and become a statesman capable of leading the world’s most talented & creative men who became ultimate victims of socialist policies of the Government. Most importantly, Galt is unwaveringly rational and deals directly with the objective facts he encounters without getting trapped in subjective interpretations of reality. He says, “Do not let the hero in your soul parish, in lonely frustration, for the life you deserved but never have been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.”
In John Galt, rationality and emotion are fully integrated. Though ruled by reason, he is able to express and experience his emotions as well. Just as Rand creatively uses Dagny to shatter the paradoxical mind-body dichotomy that separates physical pleasure from higher thought, she employs Galt to reject the split between reason and emotion.
Galt’s philosophy is about working hard and owning up the ‘self’, so he behaves accordingly, practicing what he preaches. Galt is also largely defined by his strike and his motor, which are epic quests that are bigger than one person. His actions seem to transcend his own person at times. Ayn Rand’s Heroes and Heroins are haunted by their individual visions and imaginations which keeps them busy in their respective world where ‘TIME’ and ‘REST’ does not exist.
In radio address, Galt defines himself by referring to themes of motors, minds, and strikes:
“I have stopped your motor. I have deprived your world of man’s mind. Men do not live by the mind, you say? I have withdrawn those who do….While you were dragging to your sacrificial altars the men of justice, of independence, of reason, of wealth, of self-esteem – I beat you to it. I reached them first….I showed them the way to live by another morality – mine. It is mine that they chose to follow.”
Dagny who calls John Galt ‘Destroyer’ and regards him as her Arch-enemy also sees Galt in very heroic, legendary terms. He becomes her ideal even before she personally ‘knows’ him:
She thought: “to find a feeling that would hold, as their sum, as their final expression, the purpose of all the things she loved on earth….To find a consciousness like her own, who would be the meaning of her world, as she would be of his….A man who existed only in her knowledge of her capacity for an emotion she had never felt, but would have given her life to experience.”
Throughout the book, people like Galt, Hank, and Dagny insist that what seems heroic, joyful, and seemingly rare should be normal. Heroism should come naturally and therefore heroic should be commonplace, because everyone should be heroic. So in that sense, Dagny sees Galt as a normal (in her sense) person.
At the end of the Book we find John Galt faces arrest by the authorities who are accidently led to his whereabouts by Dagny Taggart, however, after getting tortured in custody; he is rescued by his partisans. Eventually the socialist government collapses and New York City loses its electricity. The novel closes as Galt announces that the way is clear for the strikers to rejoin the world- the new system-THE FREE WORLD
Ayn Rand’s view of the ideal government is expressed by John Galt: “The political system we will build is contained in a single moral premise: no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force”, whereas “no rights can exist without the right to translate one’s rights into reality—to think, to work and to keep the results—which means: the right of property”. Galt himself lives a life of laissez-faire capitalism who by his actions becomes a Hero of Free World.
Throughout her life Ayn Rand advocated Rationalism and Reason. She has often been accused of being a darling of Capitalists however from my own research I have found that Ayn Rand was a very intelligent lady who advocated right to rational self-determination and freedom of choice. She can be very radical the opposite of a super radical, socialist person like a proper communist, she went into the other end of the far right even though she has some left ideas that supported by the Democrats. Therefore, it becomes very dangerous and immensely challenging for an immature, uncultivated mind to handle and negotiate with her philosophy. Ayn Rand was little bit of everything and therefore it would be very wrong to ‘box’ her personality and character, for eg. on one hand; through her writings we feel she is supporting Capitalism, on the other hand she supported abortion, she believes in the rights of women to have a choice and in general in the choice of individual, she is not constrained to one doctrine only, she was making up her own mind and she is calling others to bring the reason back into their life. Ayn Rand says, “By the essence and nature of existence, contradictions cannot exist. If you find it inconceivable that an invention of genius should be abandoned among ruins, and that a philosopher should wish to work as a cook in a diner -check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”
As a thinker & a student of Philosophy I am of the firm belief that we can still have multiple set of contradictory ideas in our mind and still be able to make sense to them- one can still ‘choose’ to have radical open mindedness and this is how I read her book with open mind-with reason and rational approach.
I take lessons from this book that makes sense to me and my individual standing for eg. I like the strive of the individual towards excellence; I have experienced it myself, I like the freedom of choice, I like the contempt for the helplessness. Self-pity and the self-created traps of like “What can we do that there is nothing that can be done”, I personally from deep inside me hate this kind of thinking. I like adventures & adventurers; I like entrepreneurial mindset-a mindset of self-initiative when rest of the world around you is either sleepy, lazy to wake up or has discontent & hatred against you; so this is what I like from this book however there are other parts of the Ayn Rand’s objectivism which my conscience don’t permit me to agree with. I reserve my right to disagree.
Finally, I recommend this Book to all those who are in search of ‘Self’ in the nauseatic fish-market of ‘Societal Dictatorship.
CHECKLIST is a review column initiated by Tetso College that aims at giving students, reviewers and writers a platform to review and reflect upon books, movies, television shows, documentaries, magazines, restaurants and catering services, games, software, and product reviews. The reviews should be a reflective writing encompassing the writer’s opinions about the subject matter while avoiding unprecedented subjective bias. This is an unsponsored review column. The views expressed here do not reflect the opinion of the Institution.
Type your review in a Google Docs or MS Word document and email it to dottalks@tetsocollege.org.