Feelin’ a Bit Rand-y

I’ve almost finished Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’. It’s definitely more ‘cult-like’ and extreme in nature when compared to ‘The Fountainhead’. Even still, her yearning for society to find their individualism in a world in which it is easily lost and sacrificed rings out to me.

It is true that we are taught that self-immolation is the highest of virtues, and that the fruits of our labor ought to be distributed to those in need. In Rand’s view this notion is evil, and self-sacrifice need be replaced by selfishness. This is her ‘objective’ reality. This is the basis of her life’s work. I can understand to a certain degree -and even agree. There have been a lot of times in which I’ve questioned the virtue of self-immolation without reason. It’s something that, honestly, I could never find reason to honor -the conclusion leaving me feeling guilty and evil. All my life I’ve been questioning ‘goodness’ and what it means, and it seems so intangible, so unattainable, so subjective in nature that I can’t ever feel confidence in ‘being good’.

Then again, I can’t live in Rand’s cold world -a world which selfishness and happiness is found within the individuals own morality. Objectivity definitely exists, A is A in a lot of situations. I also believe that true happiness must be found in oneself and being proud of one’s accomplishments and not necessarily in giving ‘alms’ to the undeserved. But I can’t believe that everything is so black and white and that virtue and happiness can come from a multitude of sources -not just from oneself and their own world. I look at Rand’s world and her characters as ideals -her ideals which can never be fully realized because it is flawed and extreme in nature.

What is ‘need’? Who is needy? What determines neediness from helping those who are able to help themselves? There are definitely people out there in ‘need’ -people who are born in impossible situations which requires the ‘virtue’ of others to step in a help. But who are they?

In Rand’s world, you are either a creator or a ‘leech’/’second-hander’. What about those who are born with physical handicaps? What of those who are born in war-torn nations? When she speaks of ‘savages’ she speaks as if the ‘unfortunate’ are victims of their own inability to survive -and thus ‘leech’ off those who can. In my opinion that is where she falls short-sided. It is in this view that intellect fails.

In any case, she has made me question what the value of self-sacrifice, or rather the meaning of it, really is, and what I, as an individual does with it.