Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream

AYN RAND and the GOP

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
—Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged



For those of you out there who consider yourselves politically savvy, I have a question to ask. Have you read Ayn Rand?


She's an author whose most notable works are from the 1940's and 1950's. She brought "Objectivism" to the lime-light of american politics and culture. I consider her "Atlas Shrugged" to be analogous to the Communist Manifesto--except for capitalists, not socialists. If you are confused at all about the current Republican philosophy, seemingly chaotic in purpose and execution, I'd claim that many of the their objectives indirectly revolve around Ayn Rand's work. The GOP may not know this, and in fact they have strayed quite a bit from their fundamental message, but let me explain why I believe this to be so.


I was introduced to Ayn Rand in ninth grade. A friend lent me, "The Fountainhead." I later read, "Atlas Shrugged." Rand introduced to me a revolutionary way of thinking. What if, instead of relying upon man for acceptance, welfare and enjoyment, we relied upon ourselves? What if the highest moral priority was for man to be happy? Not in a, "look at me, I'm a pig wallowing in mud, and I just ate some delicious garbage," but a deeper happiness as defined by a continual sense of purpose, accomplishment and beauty.


Objectivism may initially sound selfish and potential harmful, but let's look a little deeper. First, this will not result in anarchy. Deep happiness is not achieved by doing immoral acts. This would be contradictory to the premise of happiness. In fact the self-sufficiency demanded by the philosophy entails a deep sense of responsibility for ones actions and achievement. For these things are integral to ones being. Ones 'worth' as a human and 'worth' as a productive member of society become nearly identical (the only difference being that 'productivity' has intrinsic metrics, not all seen by society). A watered down version of Objectivism would not result in the collapse of society.


The arguments and fictional 'case studies' in Rand's novels illustrate these principles much better than I could. For a deeper treatment of the issue, I would strongly advise you to read Rand. Her novels affected my life philosophy in many ways. Even if you are a liberal till death, her work will give you insight into your 'foe' while giving you reason to pause and reflect on convincing and logically sound counter arguments to your ideology.


This all said, I think it would be a huge mistake to fully adopt her philosophies into society. She fails to realize that some people are largely incapable of self-productivity. She presents a cold, sharp knife to those who will not follow their prerogative. She trumpets reason over humanity and ignores the effect of environment on achievement.


And so we have a wrestling match between Socialism and Objectivism which colors our political climate. Welfare vs. self-reliance seems to be the greatest point of tension. But that's as it should be. Both philosophies present useful opportunities and ideas. And both have their downfalls. Only a naive person would fully claim one over the other. One would hope that our politicians could come together and synthesize the best system from both philosophies. The democratic party seems to be doing its' job, but the Republicans seem to have gotten lost on side issues. They're not doing their job properly and largely abstaining from meaningful debate and reason.


I would be happy to see objectivist ideas integrated into our society--to an extent. They have their place and could ultimately make America happier, more economically stable and independent. That's the sort of arguments I would hope to see clearly presented by the GOP. I'm waiting to have the call for self-sufficiency and reason answered by politicians in office--but until that time comes I remain distant from political affiliation.