Like many others, I’ve been fascinated by the magnum opus of Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. This huge tale of Good vs. Evil, workers vs. looters, entrepreneurs vs. moochers starts off slow, but once one gets the plot, this tale of a future USA descending into the evils of Soviet-style Socialism is gripping and eerily relevant.
This is also a seductive novel. One easily gets a feeling that the solution to all major problems can be found in this tome, and then becomes an Objectivist, an adherent of the philosophical system created by Ayn Rand.
Possibly the best cure for this feeling (note a subtle paradox here) is reading the Rand biography Goddess of the Market (subtitled “Ayn Rand and the American Right”) by Jennifer Burns. Respectfully adorned with dollar signs opening each chapter, this is the book to set the ideas of Rand into the interesting perspective of her own life. These comments of mine will hopefully inspire interested readers to pick up the volume and learn for themselves.
It is also walkthrough, for her life is interesting and illuminating.
Evil in Russia
Ayn Rand was born Alisa Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her father was running a drugstore and her Jewish family was generally very well off. The first defining event of her life was when heavily armed Communists walked into the store and confiscated it “for the good of the people”, neglecting entirely that her father had run the drugstore for the good of his customers for decades. This was, in the clear perception of the 12-year-old Alisa, Wrong.
Atlas Shrugged
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Not that this deterred her from consuming everything she could get access to of culture, music and movies. Movies in particular, of which she watched hundreds. But freedom was being curtailed rapidly. To the backdrop of once-immaculate but now decaying St. Petersburg, renamed Petrograd, renamed Leningrad, Alisa would seek out whatever education was possible in a university system increasingly under Communist control. Eventually it became obvious to her family that to protectd the life of their outspoken daughter, they needed to get her out. Preferably to America, where the freedom, and the Hollywood movie industry in particular, were strong attractions.
From Alisa Rosenbaum to Ayn Rand
The decision to change her name was her own. She had devoured the works of Friedrich Nietzsche in Russia, and was heavily influenced by his philosophy. On the boat to America, she simply decided that this was what she wanted. No reason to look back.
Once in America, she moved to relatives in Chicago. The Jewish family and community were not quite to her liking, nor was her typewriting of stories late at night conductive to family harmony. After six months, she moved on to California, to be her destiny.
Once there, Ayn worked from the ground up, with diligence and audacity, to become a name in Hollywood. A loner from birth, she would not waste her time on socializing or parties, preferring instead to stick to her passion for movies, plots and characters. One can’t help but admire the stark discipline of this woman, hiding from her date Frank the extent of economical distress she was going through during the 1930’s. Their marriage lasted until his death.
The Fountainhead (Cent...
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Scriptwriting became a breadwinner, enabling her to spend time on her first novel, We, the Living set in Soviet Russia. 3000 copies sold won her a royalty of, ehm, $100. A second novel, The Fountainhead, became sidetracked due to her involvement in politics, where she worked for the Republican side against Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, which she considered a collectivist assault on what made America great. This is where she understood the greatness of capitalism as the driving force of a free, prosperous society.
After several false starts and rejected submissions, Ayn Rand finally secured a contract to publish The Fountainhead, assuming she could finish it on time. Increasing her stamina with a daily dose of Dexamyl (an amphetamine-based drug), she managed to get her breakthrough novel out on time, and in spite of reluctant reviews, it became a solid and profitable success, supported by a 1949 movie adoption. Her continuous use of Dexamyl through three decades was some price to pay, though, as she stuck to it to increase her ability to work and debate through the night.
Goddess of the Market:...
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The libertarians vs. The Collective
The powerful individualistic message of The Fountainhead earned Ayn Rand the friendship of the emerging libertarian movements. Persons like Rose Wilder Lane (editor of the Little House on the Prarie book series), Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, Henry Hazlitt and Murray Rothbard would be regular contacts of her. The odds and ends of defining a libertarian philosophy were not easy. One source of controversy was that of compromise: If a fully libertarian society is not attainable, should one compromise? Ayn Rand passionately asserted: “No way!”
Her passionate and uncompromising style of argument didn’t exactly win her many friends. A close circle of persons interested in her philosophy would meet with her on a regular basis. This circle would call themselves “The Collective”, in a striking paradox to the philosophy taught by Rand. The young Alan Greenspan was one prominent member of this inner circle, earning Rands respect by teaching her formal economics. The staunch libertarian Murray Rothbard had the offer of joining the circle, but become appalled by The Collective and the noticeable draining effect it had on his mood and energy.
The Collective was Rand’s main social environment while working on her ultimate novel, Atlas Shrugged. She would read it to the members for their feedback and reactions, and rely on the reaction of this narrow “echo chamber” – instead of doing what would seem obvious, consulting with her scholarly libertarian contacts Mises, Hazlitt and Rothbard. Their analysis of the fine points of economics as social interactions surely would be able to contribute more to her novel than the unquestioning adoration from The Collective.
We the Living
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The obsession of Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged was released in 1957, with great expectations from Ayn Rand and The Collective that it would achieve widespread critical acclaim and usher in a new era of Objectivism and rationality, finishing off suffering and needless diversions. The reviews were damning. Partly in a reflection of her alienating large parts of the conservative community, major conservatives slammed her book, sending her into the depths of depression.
Yet sales of her tome picked up, as word of mouth was much more favorable than the formal reviews. Readers liked the passion and the unusual plot, becoming a more powerful marketing force than the initial advertisement blitz. A full-blown defense of Capitalism was a novelty in literary circles, where the influence of Roosevelt and the Capitalism-condemning New Deal and the ensuing Great Depression were still in living memory. A work of literature condemning sacrifice “for the greater good,” encouraging thrift and self-fulfillment was a welcome breath of fresh air.
A lacking assertion of capitalism
For all the refreshing qualities of the book, I have several points of contention with Atlas Shrugged: When doing a passionate 1300+ page tribute to Capitalism, one would expect that the main underlying premises are threated in detail and with finesse. That would include not only the importance of hard work (Communist Russia knew that, too), which Rand handles extensively through her main characters.
December 26, 2009
