Carmelita - Atlas 2

Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged: Keep the Motor Running Carmelita Thompson PhD Student in Educational Leadership College of Education Prairie View A & M University Educational Diagnostician Bellville Independent School District Bellville, Texas William Allan Kritsonis, PhD Professor and Faculty Mentor PhD Program in Educational Leadership Prairie View A & M University Member of the Texas A & M University System Visiting Lecturer (2005) Oxford Round Table University of Oxford, Oxford, England Distinguished Alumnus (2004) Central Washington University College of Education and Professional Studies _______________________________________________________________________ _ ABSTRACT Atlas Shrugged (1957) is a story of a world essentially forcing its creative minds to strike. Ayn Rand (1957) tells a tale of politicians creating economic crises by over regulating government policies and laws. These policies and laws create a need for more programs and laws which cause a downward spiral in the economy. Atlas Shrugged (1957) is a depiction of a world essentially forcing its creative minds or thinkers to strike. Ayn Rand (1957) skillfully reveals the plot and ties certain elements of physical actions to important human values. Rand (1957) allows the characters to express their actions based on the integration of their minds, values, and bodies to convey the abstract principles of the characters. _______________________________________________________________________ _ Introduction The theme of Atlas Shrugged is the role of the mind in human existence. The human existence and its progress depend on the independent thinking of those who

choose to think. Rand (1957) developed a philosophy that holds that man gains knowledge only through reason. Rand (1957) subsequently developed this philosophy which she called “Objectivism” through Atlas Shrugged. Rand asserted that man must pursue his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life. Atlas Shrugged is a depiction of American society with socialistic moral values which promote altruism and collectivism, and an economy crippled by government regulation, taxation, and laws. The great thinkers do not have a moral social system in which business innovators are allowed reason, individualism, and market economy. The protagonist, John Galt, leads a strike for industrialist, businessmen, scientist, artist, philosophers, and the other great thinkers in society to rebel against government policy intent on evenly sharing the proceeds of their work throughout society. Purpose of the Article The purpose of this article is to discuss Rand’s view of the role of the individual man’s mind and how too much intervention by the government could underscore society. Rand (1964) believes that each man has the moral obligation to fulfill his own happiness. A thinker of moral value and self esteem will do productive work and make great contributions to society. The world begins to disintegrate when the government exploits the thinkers through overregulation, confiscating profits, and undervaluing the contributions of individual thinkers to society. In Atlas Shrugged the government is overrun by bureaucrats and their laws. Suddenly, there is a progressive disappearance of the great thinkers. John Galt convinces the thinkers to strike against the government and its unjust laws by refusing to contribute their inventions, art, business, technology, and research. Along with John Galt, other thinkers withdraw from society to “stop the motor of the world”. Ethics In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand presents bold ethics of rational selfishness. Ethics tell individuals how to survive. Ethics is the study of the nature and proper principles that guide a social system. Rand (1964) advocates rational self-interest. In Atlas Shrugged, Rand’s characters deal with the conflict between individualism and the welfare of society. Rand (1957) displays her disdain for collectivism and altruism in support of the virtues of individualism and laissez-faire capitalism. She believes that self-interest is the standard of morality and selflessness is immorality. Rand defines ethics as a man’s guide for life, “What is morality, or ethics? It is a code of values to guide man’s choices and actions the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of life” (Rand, 1964, p. 13). Rand (1964) also believes that there are no moral duties except to do what is best for oneself. In Rand’s view, her philosophy is the only philosophy that respects the integrity of each individual human being. Ayn Rand states, “Since man’s mind is his basic tool of survival, his means of gaining knowledge to guide his actions-the basic conditions he requires is the freedom to

think and act according to his rational judgment” (Rand, 1964, p.125). Rational judgment is good because it is by this means that human beings live. Life is morality's only defensible standard of value which is the only possible criterion by which we can meaningfully designate anything as good. Happiness is one's own individual purpose and becomes one's highest moral purpose. “Man must choose his actions, values and goals by the standard of that which is proper to man-in order to achieve, maintain, fulfill and enjoy that ultimate value, that end in itself, which is his own life” (Rand, 1964, p. 27). Productive Work Ayn Rand’s view of productive work is the core of her ethics. She says productive work is the central purpose of a rational man’s life. In Atlas Shrugged, the heroes are all productive individuals. Rand states, Productive work is the road of a man’s unlimited achievement and calls upon the highest attributes of his character: his creative ability, his ambitiousness, his self assertiveness, his refusal to bear uncontested disasters, his dedicate on to the goal of reshaping the earth in the image of his values. (Rand, 1964, p. 29) According to Rand, productivity is a matter of life or death. Productivity is the cardinal moral value which is unleashed in free-market capitalism. Productive work has an aesthetic foundation in “Objectivism”. Rand (1964) believes that all human progress and prosperity depends on rational thinking. Humans have created inventions and made great achievements as a result of the rational mind. In Atlas Shrugged each character has an aesthetic symbol which characterizes him or her. Galt’s motor and Halley’s fifth concerto are aesthetic elements that give value to those characters. When the government threatens the characters individual rights and political freedom, the characters begin to withdraw their contributions from society. The thinkers strike against an enforced moral code of altruism and collectivism. Rand contends that man gains his basic sense of control over existence through productive work. In Atlas Shrugged the withdrawal of the great thinkers and their productive work cause a collapse of the economy and prove that the rational mind plays a great role in the attainment of prosperity and progress in an economy. Self-Esteem Throughout Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand maintains that a prosperous society is possible only if individuals have the moral right to pursue their own self-interest, dealing with each other by mutual consent, with government restricted to protecting their individual rights. Individuals should live for their own happiness and must create the

means of their physical survival and spiritual well-being. In Atlas Shrugged, the most productive and competent individuals simply disappear. They are the individuals of great minds who create wealth for themselves and, in the process, prosperity for the economy. Eventually they refuse to participate in an economy that exploits them with overregulation and too much taxation. They also abandon a culture that scorns them for their productivity and competence. The unproductive benefit from the work of the productive, incompetent businesses profit from thriving businesses, competition is eliminated, and profit is distributed evenly among the population. Rand says, “The great merit of capitalism is its unique appropriateness to the requirements of human survival and to man’s need to grow” (Rand, 1964, p.143). In the system depicted in Atlas Shrugged, the looters feel no need to grow and the thinkers are not only responsible for the looters, they are stifled by government overregulation. Rand’s (1957) principle belief is that men of self-esteem will not work as slaves. A man of self-esteem will not feel guilt for their achievements and virtues. A rational man must choose proper values in order to achieve, maintain, fulfill and enjoy his life. Rand states, “Only a rationally selfish man, a man of self-esteem, is capable of love— because he is the only man capable of holding firm, consistent, uncompromising, unbetrayed values” (Rand, 1964, p. 35). Nathaniel Branden noted that a man of selfesteem is a man in love with himself and his life to the extent that he will do what makes him happy. In Atlas Shrugged John Galt says, …that to live requires a sense of self-value, but man, who has no automatic values, has no automatic sense of self-esteem and must earn it by shaping his soul in the image of his moral ideal… (Rand, 1957, p. 934)

He further states, “that the first precondition of self-esteem is that radiant selfishness of soul which requires the best in all things” (Rand, 1957, p. 934). Self-esteem is the expression and reward of a mind fully committed to reason. A commitment to reason is the commitment to the maintenance of full intellectual focus and one’s understanding and the expansion of knowledge, to the principle that one’s actions must be consistent with one’s convictions. The man of self-esteem has a psychological need for constant intellectual growth and productive achievement.

Morality Rand (1964) believes what is good for man to flourish and advance his life is moral. A moral code defines what is good and what is evil. This moral code is asserted in regard to persons, actions, conduct, and morality in general. Rand (1964) believes that good and evil could be ascertained as black and white. Upon defining what is good and what is evil, what is black and what is white; one must choose one or the other. All decisions derive from that which allows man to flourish is good, that which harms our prospect to live is evil. All decisions derive from one choice, to live or to die. According to Rand (1957), morality insists that selflessness is not morality but slavery. The characters in Atlas Shrugged illustrate ideological conflict. This is illustrated between characters such as Dagny Taggert and John Galt who oppose each other throughout most of the novel although they appear to be on the same side according to their beliefs and love for each other. On a larger scale, Galt’s revolution is a struggle against society’s system of overregulation and collectivism. Rand (1957) displays her understanding of morality as determined by individual and social standards. Atlas Shrugged glorifies capitalist work ethic as the ultimate moral goal because capitalist workers gain profit according to their labor and skill. Galt, the protagonist, criticizes the corrupt system which gives reward to the undeserved or unworthy on the basis of human equity. The damage to society is caused by the lack of effort from the needy and responsibility must be ameliorated from the productive workers. Therefore government uses regulations, laws, and guilt to compel the thinkers, or productive workers, to participate in the system. The economic Atlases who were supporting society on their shoulders decided to let society fall. In a conversation with Reardon, Francisco asked, …if you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down on his shoulders-what would you tell him to do? (Rand, 1957, p.422) Reardon confesses that he did not know what he would say to Atlas. Reardon asked Francisco the question and Francisco answered, that he would tell Atlas “To shrug”. One day Atlas would become exhausted and he would give up. He would shrug and let the world collapse. Reardon understood this because of the government regulations and

taxes on his business. He could no longer handle the unfair treatment. This was Galt’s view and understanding as well. The metaphor held true. In Atlas Shrugged, the thinkers in society allowed the world to collapse because they were tired of holding the looters up on their shoulders. Dagny and Galt also believed in the morality of capitalism. Dagny remained in society to prevent its collapse. Galt abandons society to give other productive workers Galt’s Gulch, a place which celebrates capitalism and ultimately moral value. Mind The importance of the mind is a central theme of Atlas Shrugged. Rand’s (1957) philosophy supports her view that a man’s self is his mind and man is a self-made soul. Atlas Shrugged stands in sharp contrast to the anti-mind mentality. Ayn Rand dramatizes the power of the mind in a story that is, in effect, an ode to the scientific, technological, and industrial revolutions. (The Mind as Hero in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, 2002) Man should live by his own mind. The “strike of the mind” led by John Galt is a demonstration of the importance of the thinkers to society. The novel’s mystery is heightened by the question, “Who is John Galt?” John Galt was an intelligent engineer who created a new motor. He also discovered the secret to what is wrong with the world. The world had become an oppressive bureaucratic system that embraced collectivism, altruism, and mediocrity. John Galt removed himself from society. He systematically removed other great thinkers and society quickly spiraled downward. The economy collapsed. Rand utilizes this strategy to convey her philosophy concerning the importance of man’s mind in understanding that labor, productive work, is responsible for prosperity. The mind enables the thinkers to be productive workers; which achieves prosperity and runs the engine of the world. These elements go hand in hand. In Atlas Shrugged, the mind is the true hero (The Mind as Hero in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, 2002). Concluding Remarks In conclusion, Ayn Rand’s “Objectivist” philosophy hold’s that man should pursue his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life. A social system based on the principle of individual rights, capitalism, allows the economic freedom for great thinkers to be productive workers. In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand fictionalized a society that portrayed the government controlling large portions of the economy which result in corrupt business practice, overregulation, heavy taxation, and antitrust action against successful companies, massive social welfare programs, and dishonest politicians. John

Galt decided to rebel against a government that supports altruism and collectivism. Other individuals that were productive, the thinkers, also began to withdraw from society. This resulted in a collapse in the prosperity of society. Ayn Rand used Atlas Shrugged to promote the value of man’s mind. She surmised that society will be more prosperous as it encourages independence for thinkers, freedom from the government, productive work, and individualism. References Bernstein, A. (2002). The Mind as Hero in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Retrieved March 26, 2009, from www.stanford.edu/group/SOC/archives/eventMindAsHero.html - 3k Rand, A. (1957). Atlas shrugged. New York: Penguin Putnam, Incorporated. Rand, A. (1964). The virtue of selfishness. New York: Penguin Putnam, Incorporated.