Life as an Individual:
The Morality of Independence.
Capitalists
abuse the world. Capitalists are evil men of greed. Capitalists destroy the
prospects of the workers. These are some broad statements which may be found in
any left-wing school of thought and, perhaps, they can be found in the minds of
many members of the population. But I’m not so sure of their validity. If the
capitalists of the modern age ever stop to think, whenever they take a break
from their daily task of grinding the faces of the poor, may quickly realise
that quickly realise that the world hates them and their kind. They may
reasonable decide “Enough! I have all the money I could ever want. The people
of the world accuse me of abusing them for profits. I’ll end their misery and
my own misery too. I’ll close my businesses and go off to enjoy my life. I’ll
go on strike.”
This is the main
theme of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand,
a writer and philosopher who spelt out the moral basis of capitalism in her
novels, essays and lectures. In Atlas
Shrugged the capitalists of the world tire of their businesses being
over-taxed in the name of a common good, and, as a result, go on strike. They
bore the weight of the world on their shoulders like Atlas and they shrug, abandoning
the world and allowing it to seize up through a lack of economic activity. John
Galt, the leader of the strike in the novel, tells the world plainly that after
being called evil abusers of humanity the capitalists and closed their
businesses. The world is left with no capitalism to fill wage packets or to
power the industry that produces food. There’s no longer any tax for the
government to claim and redistribute. After the capitalists have gone the world
in Atlas Shrugged is left filled with
unemployed workers on the brink of starvation. But, as John Galt says, the
so-called capitalist abuse of the world has ended.
The principles
at work here are not to be underestimated. Without capitalists and capitalism,
we’ll soon find a large government taxing and borrowing for every small element
of our lives. Freedom will undoubtedly diminish and will continue to do so for
as long as any government expands it’s way into the lives of free, rational,
intelligent honest individuals. The one moral way to live independently with
liberty, according to Ayn Rand, is to live with one’s own self-interest as a
primary concern without ever allowing anyone to tread on your life or to ever
allow the lives of others to tread on you. One lives independently, as a true
individual.
One may cry out
at this point: what about love? Yes we love. Yes we marry. Yes we sacrifice
ourselves to our loved ones. But we only do so because the people we love make
us happy. Selfishly we can enjoy and value the company of others because there
are certain people in our lives who satisfy our needs, both intellectually and
emotionally. To spend thousands of pounds on saving the life of a partner is
not a sacrifice. Without that partner the world will quickly become a duller
and less happy place. It is an act of self-interest to sacrifice ourselves for
the people we love.
To act as an
individual is a concept stating that one person has the capability to operate
without receiving or giving help to others, and without receiving any
instruction (whether by regulation or rule of law)on how to act. Individualism
is the philosophy that a world of individuals should be promoted as an
utilitarian good for all (utilitarianism being, of course, the belief that any
action should promote that greatest good for the greatest number of people), rather than the collectivist philosophy which states that
the good for all is defined and worked towards by a government, a government
which also defines what a good society might be. Capitalism benefits all people
of all classes. This is especially the case with those who, by some lacking in
education, ability or purpose, suffer at the hands of market forces and are
thus directed into a new line in life. An individual has the ability to
function independently by the power of their own mind. In all people the mind
has the rational and intelligent ability to decide that individual’s actions.
Some will set high goals with a realistic means of achieve their highest dreams
of what a life they could forge for themselves, dreams which could be quite
meagre to the rest of us. Others will abandon their goals and their means to
indolence and apathy. But there’s always the rational ability for an individual
to think.
Ayn Rand wrote
extensively on how the philosophy of individualism works in all of our lives.
So far we’ve only taken a brief glance at the matters which surround an
individual’s experience of the world. It is only by acting as individuals in a
rational and intelligent way, that we in a free country can truly draw real
“value for money” from our one life on this planet. The alternative is to
surrender our time, efforts, energies, minds and independence to abstract ideas
about a common good.
Capitalism does
make a minority of people rich. These are the same people who provide the world
with jobs, services, industry and wage packets. The whole world benefits by
their efforts. Anybody, in capitalism, may work hard to achieve his goals
whatever they might be. Big or small. Artistic or technical. Inspired or
modest. We’re free to pursue them. Do not misunderstand me, I was born to a
working-class family in Lancashire. My parents didn’t have much mean, but they
lived according their means and according to their abilities. They never asked
for help from the government or for help from the wealthy. Everything in their
lives was achieved by their own independent and honest efforts. There was never
any sacrifice to others or any sacrifice from others. They lived their lives.
Try it now. Try
being independent. Try being an individual. Try to live by your own efforts.
Insist on your right to your own life. Do not cannibalise the lives of others
by demanding sacrifices from them. Do not degrade your own efforts by
sacrificing yourself to others. Stand tall by your own mind and whatever it may
achieve. Try it now. If you like, you can pronounce John Galt’s 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 mine.”
By Glenn
Bullivant
The Philosophy Takeaway 'Open Topic' Issue 32
