Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

Paraphrase from Ayn Rand (Movie - Passion of Ayn Rand) - Love is an issue to the individual, it is a reward for hard work in a relationship, love is for personal self-interest. The book represents a naive look at business - presenting in the belief system of the book that most business leaders are motivated by social concerns and are very dedicated to the social good of their business enterprises. Rand also talks a lot about blame and blamelessness (especially in respect to delivery delays and business success and failure) when results are all that really matter and the market will remove non-performers regardless of blame - all business leaders bear the responsibilities for the performance of their enterprise. Thus they, in reality, are to blame for the failure - or the success of their endeavors. Rand, though, was writing at the height of the cold war and envisioned a US surrounded by and heavily influenced to be sympathetic to communism/socialism. It seems that these issues were more of a personal issue with Rand as the end of the cold war was the direct result of the economic success of capitalism vs. communism. Perhaps Rand helped hold the line in our thinking against the best arguments of the commies - if that is true, we owe her a giant debt of gratitude. Rand died before the fall of communism in Eastern Europe – so, ironically, she never saw the fruition of her labors. In contrast, we should all be thankful that her views on objectivism were not as successful as her views respective of socialism.

I wonder whether Dagny Taggert represents what Ayn aspired to in life - Dagny was born well, worked hard, and bucked the tide of rampant socialism - somewhat similarly to Ayn. The book started out with promise and seemed to point toward an exciting ending - but at about page 800 veered off into weirdo land. It all turned sour where John Galt jammed the broadcast of the (president? Mr. Thompson) with a three hour tirade of philosophic rhetoric that was extremely ponderous. In real life, everyone would have turned it off - and the hero (John Galt) would have had an audience of about 11. The ending was very disappointing - John Galt was tortured with electric shock - the government totally broke down and the Galtians proceeded to do their own thing. Leaving the rest of the country in total turmoil. Anarchy ruled. If this was the aspiration of Ayn for the USA, I'm glad that she achieved only limited fruition of her dream. Perhaps the contrast of her dream helped end the cold war - I suspect so. But did she really have to torture us for 1168 pages to be effective? Does Atlas Shrugged really represent her dream of a totally free country? I hope not - but after seeing "The Passion of Ayn Rand" I wouldn't be surprised! And I am glad that her dream was never achieved.

Poor Eddie Willers.

He has loved Dagny Taggert for 1168 pages and his love is unreturned. Perhaps he hasn't earned the love he seeks. He surely isn't the overtly heroic figure of Francisco D'Anconia, Hank Rearden, or John Galt. Eddie just does his job superbly day in and day out. He loves and adores his boss. He never gives up. In the end, he ends up still with the train - sleeping on the railroad tracks in frustration, working toward an elusive technical solution. He doesn't abandon the society that he is a part of. He does the best he can with what he's got. He doesn't impose pain and suffering on the innocents caught in the middle. He doesn't foster revolution. He's no part of starving people to death. I'm sure (if he were a real man and not an underdeveloped stick figure in a book) that he would vote, make decisions on government issues with objectivity and argue capitalism to his influence circle - which is what we all would do in his situation. And what reward do we get for our integrity and objectivity? We are thrown to the dogs by the "giants" of the book. Galt, D'Anconia, Rearden and ultimately, Dagney, abandon us all to leaderless wandering, pain and suffering, bloody riots and anarchy. This is obviously what we have earned? Who is more noble? Dagny? Taggert? Francisco D'Anconia? Hank Rearden? I vote for Eddie Willers. He's the real hero.