Who was Ayn Rand?
To some she was
an immoral sociopath who preached morality and virtues in destruction of
others. To others she was in intellectual icon who delivered a philosophy
dedicated to self-esteem, self-interest and self-regard. It is here where I
shall attempt to distil the facts for the benefit of those who are curious and
knowledge-hungry.
She was a writer
and philosopher who used her life to spread the nature of the philosophy, named
Objectivism. Objectivism, based upon the idea that there is an objective
reality in all of our lives, has been described as a philosophy for living on
Earth. Objectivism requires a person to use their mind as the one basic tool of
survival and as a means of achieving one’s desires and achieving happiness. It
is also required by objectivist principles that a person should act as an
individual without any duty-given obligation to any other person, and says that
a person can be moral by acting in such a manner.
Ayn Rand was
born as Alisa Rosenbaum in 1905 within Russia and, growing up at the time of
the Soviet revolution, was marked by a deep sense of loathing of the
collectivist nature of the communist society in which she lived in. In 1926 at
the age of 21 she escaped to the United States of America in order to live in a
free nation and to take up work as a writer.
In 1943, after years of work as a screenwriter and
playwright Ayn published the novel that made her and her philosophy famous. The
Fountainhead told the story of an individualistic architect, Howard Roark,
who wouldn’t sacrifice his talent for anyone. Howard Roark is held as being an
ideal man for operating within the objectivist philosophy and not compromising
his beliefs on how he should lead his life as an individual.
Metaphysics being
philosophical analysis of the nature of the world, the metaphysics of
objectivism states that reality, the world external to a person, exists
independently of anyone’s beliefs, desires or fears. Reality is, to
objectivism, whatever a person may perceive, rather than whatever a person may
create or invent. Ayn Rand encapsulated this idea with the statement “A is A.”
Objectivist epistemology (epistemology being the nature of knowledge) extended
that idea by stating that the reasoning capability of a free and rational man
is more than capable to know the full facts of reality. It was held by Ayn Rand
that intelligent reasoning was the only way for a person to acquire knowledge.
In 1958 Ayn Rand published her magnum opus, a novel of more
than 1000 pages in length, Atlas Shrugged. From it’s now famous opening
line (“Who is John Galt?”) Atlas Shrugged spells out the full philosophy
of objectivism and tells the story of business leaders (those who bare the
weight of the world of their shoulders like Atlas) in the railroad and metal
industries who decide to stop being exploited for their talents and labour by
an ungrateful society which calls them greedy capitalists. They go on strike,
they shrug.
Capitalism
provides the political philosophy for objectivism. Complete laissez-faire capitalism
is held to provide a scenario where government plays no role in the life in a
free, independent and rational person and man is left to live in liberty. It is
a system where no man’s life can be taken away from him and where consensual
trade between men can bring about benefit for all.
Ayn Rand
dedicated the latter part of her life to giving lectures on Objectivism as well
as writing and publishing non-fiction works about her Objectivist philosophy,
including The Virtue of Selfishness, For the New Intellectualand The
Romantic Manifesto. Ayn Rand died in her New York City home in 1982, having
used her life, and the value she placed upon it, to change the world and the
realm of philosophy.
I’ll leave you
with a thought from John Galt, a key character in Atlas Shrugged:
“The world will
change when you are ready to pronounce this oath: I swear by my Life and my
love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another
man to live for the sake of mine.”
By Glenn Bullivant
