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"Romantic art is the fuel and the spark plug of a man's soul; its
task is to set a soul on fire and never let it go out." Ayn Rand,
The Romantic Manifesto, p. 152.
Despite the enduring popularity of Atlas Shrugged for nearly half a century, lots of people "still don't get it." The misunderstandings, misrepresentations, and misapplications of this classic novel continue unabated.
Four decades ago, in a passage echoing with defiant loneliness, Ayn Rand faced the stark reality of the critical response she and her highest literary achievement had received:
While some might dismiss this passage as an example of self-righteous sour grapes, Rand's centennial year continues to provide clear evidence of how negatively her opponents view her final novel. Even self-confessed libertarians declare that her writing is "clunky," "turgid," "drained" of "all life and beauty,"; that her ideas are "eccentric," "extremist," and "unrealistic."
One prominent libertarian expressed sympathy with a television cartoon character's statement that Atlas Shrugged is "garbage" and a "piece of shit." Another found parallels between the novel and "communist or fascist propaganda" and derided the central ideas as nothing more than "dogma" laced with "odder features" that falsely portray opposing viewpoints as straw men.
Given these "failings," one must wonder how Atlas Shrugged has managed to dupe so many millions of readers for so many decades...
A conservative television commentator demonstrated a similar -- though more positive -- tunnel vision when he informed us that Atlas Shrugged had "one good idea": that capitalism is "splendid." Had she lived to hear this less-than-insightful "analysis," Rand might well have sighed and shaken her head...but she would have understood its cause, as well the source of the motivations that elicit such left-handed compliments.
Despite the misapprehensions of many, Atlas Shrugged is not about capitalism. It is not even about politics. Or statism. Or individualism versus collectivism. Or reason versus irrationality. Perhaps most shockingly and surprisingly, it is not even about philosophy or Objectivism.
Any thoughtful observer of modern life is well aware that life can sometimes feel like an endurance contest. Each of us must wrestle with these difficulties. At work, we may have to face obstreperous customers or annoying coworkers. At home, rebellious children, distant or thoughtless spouses, or household calamities may try our patience. At leisure, crowded beaches and false promises of relaxation may require a vacation from our vacation...
Emotional ups and downs, bouts of sickness and disease, precarious financial concerns, periods of drudgery, mistakes and failures...death...all take their toll.
Beyond this common heritage of humanity, for that small minority of folks who still understand, appreciate, and hope for liberty, there are wider, even more insoluble cultural complications added to the already sometimes overwhelming burden each of us must, at times, carry. The constricting noose of government restrictions on our freedoms of expression and self-defense; increasing losses of privacy at the hands of the State; mounting taxes that steal our wealth directly and soaring inflation that does so via stealth; deteriorating educational and health care systems; burgeoning wars scattered across the globe; a State that claims a mandate to micromanage our lives...such encroachments on the dignity and autonomy of the individual contribute to a depressing loss of personal control; a questioning of how much the system can endure before the whole unwieldy mass collapses under its own weight; a serious doubt about how much more we can bear before we lose the last shredded bits of our humanity.
It is at such a crossroads that hope can sour into despair, happiness warp into sadness, enthusiasm wilt into apathy.
At these dark crystalline moments in our lives, we can not only benefit from an uplifting of our spirits, we need such a rejuvenation if we are to continue existing as fully functioning human beings.
"Art does have a purpose and
does serve
a human need; ...a need of man's consciousness. Art is inextricably tied to
man's survival...to the preservation and survival of his
consciousness." (RM, p. 17)
"The primary value [of art] is
that it gives [a person] the experience of living in a world where
things are as they ought to
be. This experience is of crucial
importance to him: it is his psychological life line." (RM, p.
170)
The proponents and supporters of statism and collectivism, of the irrational and the mystical, of altruistic sacrifice and abject self-denial have no shortage of venues that reflect their views of life and the world. We are immersed in a steaming bath of those ideals. In television and movies, in books and magazines, in politics and churches, messages reinforcing the essential evil of humanity, the impotence of the human mind, and the relativistic nature of reality abound.
Luckily for those who reject immolation from within and without, a few peaks manage to rise above the suffocating fog that has become the norm. Freedom-lovers cling to those isolated havens, knowing that to abandon them would lead to a depressing demise of unpleasant intensity.
But most such avenues of renewal are undependable fountains, at best. In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand achieved a consistency of vision and depth of execution unparalleled in the freedom movement. Though some libertarians lambaste Rand and Atlas Shrugged for its "totalism," that very coherence is, of course, one of the book's greatest strengths. The consonance between theme and plot, the congruity between character and action create a symmetry of structure and a unity of purpose and achievement that has rarely been duplicated.
"...my life purpose is the creation of
the kind of world (people and events) that I like -- that is, that
represents human perfection..."
"In a book of fiction the purpose is to
create, for myself, the kind of world I want and to live in it while
I am creating it..." (Rand, The Journals
of Ayn Rand, p. 479.)
As Ayn Rand made clear, the primary purpose of Atlas Shrugged was not to present the struggle between opposing political, economic, or philosophical systems. Unlike many of her readers, she clearly distinguished the goal that she sought to reach in her fiction writing and the means she used to accomplish that task.
Having grown up in a totalitarian regime in the U.S.S.R. and having witnessed the steady erosion of American liberty under FDR, Rand felt more keenly than most the slow, withering disappearance of a social milieu that touched her on a deeply emotional level.
For very personal reasons, then, Rand undertook the monumental task of creating the world of Atlas Shrugged.
"The motive and purpose of my writing is
the projection of an ideal
man." (RM, 162)
What Rand could not readily experience in her daily struggles, she sought to distill in the framework of her novel. Who existed and how they acted in that projected universe formed the core of her task. As she said, "...I write -- and read -- for the sake of the story." (RM, p. 163) In making her decisions on how to proceed, she was guided by a fundamental principle:
Precisely because so few others had endeavored to reach this destination in a manner consistent with her view of the world, Rand took upon herself the mission of furnishing the "emotional fuel" she so desperately desired. Her gift to herself secondarily became a boon for any readers willing to embrace her grand perspective.
Despite momentary fits of despondency at the unmerciful demands of her work and the ocean of apathy and hostility in which she swam, Rand knew she could and would succeed in her primary design. Part and parcel of this certainty was her belief in the benevolent universe premise and how that meshed with her sense of life.
While Rand did not believe that the universe was literally "benevolent," she did accept that:
She knew that if one acted in accordance with reality, then success in achieving one's goals should be the expected rather than the unusual. When setbacks occur, one deals with them, not surrenders to them.
Rand defined a sense of life as "...an emotional, subconsciously integrated appraisal of man and of existence. It sets the nature of a man's emotional responses and the essence of his character." (RM, p. 25) It is "[t]he integrated sum of a man's basic values..." (RM, p. 29) and "...is experienced by him as a sense of his own identity." (RM, p. 31) For each individual, "'The...subconscious criterion...is: 'That which is important to me' or: 'The kind of universe which is right for me, in which I would feel at home.'" (RM, p. 28)
While a person's sense of life is experienced in and influences many areas of existence, one of the most important venues for its expression is in art. Art functions as a kind of "...metaphysical mirror; what a rational man seeks to see in that mirror is a salute; what an irrational man seeks to see is a justification..." (RM, p. 39)
These points help explain why even many libertarians virulently denigrate and demean Rand and Atlas Shrugged. To accept the sense of life infused throughout Atlas Shrugged would be for them to reject their own views that life requires "compromises"; that "principled action" is "impractical"; that a cohesive world view is either impossible or undesirable; that mysticism and sacrifice aren't so bad.
These are the people who "seek...a justification," an excuse for their lapses in thought and their failure to achieve their dreams. For them, Atlas Shrugged provides a slap in the face, not an avenue for discovering an invaluable supply of emotional fuel. Better to be obtuse, evasive, and ignorant, they vaguely feel, than to change the fun house mirror that is their own sense of life. For them, the universe of Atlas Shrugged is not something to be coveted.
Rand's sense of life, however, led her in an entirely different direction: towards the rarest type of artistic endeavor to be found today.
Romantic art provides "...the emotional
experience of admiration for man's highest potential, the experience
of looking up to a hero -- a view of life dominated by values, a life
in which man's choices are practicable, effective and crucially
important -- that is, a moral sense of life." (RM,
p. 147)
The greater the size and frequency of hardships one experiences, the more one will yearn for a sense that one is not alone; that one's efforts are not pointless; that life is not futile. Many readers return again and again to the well Rand constructed half-a-century ago. Luckily for them, Atlas Shrugged provides any number of opportunities for the receptive reader to find "fuel for the soul," to recharge his mental and emotional batteries. Indeed, the story traces an arc from gloom to glory, a rising pathway that mirrors the steps many of us have trodden on our journey to freedom.
In Atlas Shrugged, Hank Rearden expresses just how isolated and deserted a lover of liberty can feel and how draining that condition can become:
But regardless of the inroads into our rights that society makes, regardless of the pain that others inflict upon us through their acts of thoughtlessness and willful betrayal, we can find solace in Rand's benevolent universe premise and know -- as Dagny Taggart understands -- that eventually "this, too, must end":
Many -- if not most -- people in our society would claim that they want to establish "freedom." Yet when presented with the steps actually necessary to achieve liberty, they shy from those suggestions with alarm and denial. Unlike Dagny, they have yet to grasp that their hollow words devoid of action condemn them out-of-hand:
No matter how clearly a defender of freedom presents his case, no matter how many objections from his detractors he answers, no matter how fully he explains and expands and elucidates, he will inevitably face those who do not want to know, who implicitly demand that no one "confuse them with the facts." Allies in the defense of the individual are, sadly, a scarce commodity. As Dr. Robert Stadler tells Dagny about those who seek to destroy greatness in their aberrant attempts to preserve the status quo:
Even many who declare their allegiance to liberty are more concerned with how the statists "feel" about them than they are in the fact that it is the enemies of freedom who should fear our condemnation, our judgment of their corrosive ideals and destructive actions. No one should feel guilty in identifying as immoral those who would prefer to hide behind a facade of respectability and compassion. Hank Rearden faces this brand of cowardice and appeasement from fellow businessmen who fear that his directness and honesty in declaring his own value and rights will somehow create difficulties for them:
The unique experience when we first realize that the ideas, the wishes, the opinions of those seeking our slavery are, on a fundamental level, unimportant and trivial is incredibly refreshing and liberating. Hank Rearden comes to such an awakening when he recognizes the true nature of his wife, Lillian:
As important as it is to reject the unwarranted negative judgments of people seeking to use us for their own ends, it is even more vital to reject our own baseless criticisms of ourselves arising from a misplaced trust in the ideas of those unworthy of any honest commitment. Hank Rearden at last breaks such self-imposed mental shackles:
Freed from his intellectual and emotional fetters, Hank is ready to accept the core of any proper social relationship, the essence of what it means to live a fully human life:
The world that Rand created is one that defies traditional expectations, traditional thought, traditional morality. To understand and to live completely in a world that is truly free and based upon the best in humanity rather than the worst requires more effort, more challenge, more focus than most people are willing to expend. Yet as John Galt makes clear to Dagny, neither he nor she deserves anything less...and that can be a hard lesson to learn:
In explaining this to Dagny, Galt makes it clear that the only thing holding us back from breaking from the calcified ideals of the past is ourselves:
Attempting to "fool" people into supporting liberty -- trying to disguise the reality of what freedom is and what it entails -- will not only not work but is, worse, a treason to the very things we cherish and seek to obtain:
What is disheartening for those of us struggling to advance freedom is that the values many people exhibit in their private lives vanish when the context is switched to the "public" arena. The evil actions they would readily condemn in their neighbors or themselves are somehow transmuted to golden "virtues" via the simple act of voting. When the majority of those heroes-in-waiting hear -- truly hear -- and understand Galt's words, accept them, and transform that knowledge into action, then, perhaps, we will be far on the road to restoring better than ever the legacy of freedom, justice, and dignity that is our birthright:
We can leave no better legacy to those who come after us than to create within ourselves -- and through our deeds, within the world itself -- a society based on reason, purpose, and self-esteem; a nation that honors rationality, productivity, and earned pride; a country that demonstrates in reality as well as in words that independence, integrity, honesty, and profound respect for the individual, his values, and his goals are not merely empty sounds but the solid framework for a moral universe fit for a truly human existence.
"...since [a person's] pursuit and
achievement of values is a lifelong process -- and the higher the
values, the harder the struggle -- man needs a moment, an hour or
some period of time in which he can experience the sense of his
completed task, the sense of living in a universe where his values
have been successfully achieved. It is like a moment of rest, a
moment to gain fuel to move farther. Art gives him that
fuel...
"The importance of that experience is not in
what he
learns from it, but in that he experiences it.
The fuel is not a theoretical principle, not a didactic 'message,'
but the life-giving fact of experiencing a moment of metaphysical joy -- a
moment of love for existence." (RM, p. 170)
In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand succeeded with admirable skill and thoroughness in realizing her remarkable goal of creating people and a world that ought to be. Each of us needs a respite from the woes that beset and bedevil us as we wend our way through life. Atlas Shrugged provides us that indispensable breather we need to face our burdens as we work to craft our own values. For that gift alone, Rand deserves our thunderous applause.
In return, Rand figuratively asked for only one thing from those of us who have benefited so immeasurably from her achievement:
