Atlas Shrugged Revisited; E. Younkins

THEFREEMAN IDEAS ON LIBERTY Atlas ShruggedRevisited: FortyYears of Voicingthe Philosophyof Freedom by Edward W. Younkins W ritten in 1957,Atlas Shrugged presents a comprehensive statement and de tailed illustration of Ayn Rand's original and perceptive philosophical ideas and moral vi sion. This long, complex novel has sold more than four million copies. Respondents to a joint Library of Congress-Book of the Month Club survey in 1991 hailed the book as second only to the Bible in its significant impact on their lives. For Rand, the right philosophy is necessary to create the right story. Atlas Shrugged em bodies Rand's Objectivism and introduces readers to ideas they might not otherwise encounter. Rand uses the story of Atlas Shrugged as a vehicle for incarnating her ideas, bringing abstract philosophy to life through character and plot. A Conflict of Visions: Looters vs. Creators The story takes place in a slightly modified United States. The country has a "head of state" rather than a president and a "National Legislature" instead of a Congress. The time is ostensibly the not-too-distant future in which American society is crumbling under Dr. Younkins is a prOfessor of accountancy at Wheeling Jesuit University.

the impact of the welfare state and creeping socialism (most other nations have already become Communist "People's States"). The story may be described as simultaneously anachronistic and timeless. The pattern of industrial organization appears to be that of the late 1800s, with large capital-intensive corporations being run and owned by indi vidual entrepreneurs. The mood seems to be close to that of the depression-era 1930s.Both the social customs and level of technical knowledge remind one of the 1950s.The level of government interference and political cor ruption is similar to that of the 1970s. The story is an apocalyptic vision of the last stages of a conflict between two classes of humanity-the "looters" and the "non looters." The looters are proponents of high taxation, big labor, government ownership, government spending, government planning, regulation, and redistribution. They include politicians and their supporters, intellectuals, religious leaders, government bureaucrats, scientists who sell their minds to the bureau crats, and liberal businessmen who, afraid of honest competition, sell out their initiative, creative powers, and independence for the "security" of government regulation. The non-looters-the thinkers and doers-are the competent and daring individualists who innovate and create new enterprises. These 295 296 THE FREEMAN • MAY 1997 prime movers.love their work, are dedicated to achievement through their thought and effort, and abhor the forces of collectivism and mediocrity. The battle is thus between non-earners who deal by force and profit through political power and earners who deal by trade and profit through productive ability.

Rand's Entrepreneurial Heroes The plot is built around several business and industrial executives. The beautiful Dagny Taggart, perhaps the most heroic fe male protagonist in American fiction, is the operating genius who efficientlyruns Taggart Transcontinental Railroad, which was founded by her grandfather. Her brother James, president in title only, is an indecisive, incompetent, liberal businessman who takes all the credit for his sister's achievements. Dagny optimistically and confidently per forms Herculean labors to keep the railroad running despite destructive government edicts, her brother's weaknesses, the incom petence of many of her associates, and the silent and inexplicable disappearance of so ciety's competent industrialists, upon whom Dagny depends. As both society and her railroad are disin tegrating, Dagny attempts to rebuild an old Taggart rail line. In the process, she contacts Hank Rearden, a self-made steel tycoon and inventor of an alloy stronger and lighter than steel. Rearden, Dagny's equal in intelligence, determination, and sense of responsibility, becomes her ally and eventually her lover.

They struggle to keep the economy running and ultimately discover the secret of the continuing disappearance of the men of abil ity. Who Is John Galt? John Galt, a messiah of free enterprise, is secretly persuading thinkers and doers to vanish mysteriously one after the other deserting and sometimes sabotaging their factories before they depart. Galt explains how desperately the world needs productive individuals, but how viciously it treats them. The greater a person's productive ability, the greater are the penalties he endures in the form of regulations, controls, and the expro priation and redistribution of his earned wealth. This evil, however, is only made possible by the "sanction of the victim." By accepting an undeserved guilt-not for their vices but for their virtues-the achievers have acquiesced in the political theft of their minds' products. Galt masterminds his plan to stop the motor of the world by convincing many of the giants of intellect and productivity to refuse to be exploited any longer by the looters and the moochers, to strike by with drawing their talents from the world by es caping to a secret hideout in the Colorado Rockies, thus leaving the welfare state to destroy itself. The hero-conspirators will then return to lay the groundwork for a healthy new social order based on the principles of laissez-faire capitalism.

Galt, the mysterious physicist who is also a philosopher, teacher, and leader of an intellectual movement, has invented a motor that can convert static electricity into useful but inexpensive kinetic energy. He chooses to keep his invention a secret until it is time for him and the other heroes to reclaim the world. For two-thirds of the novel, Galt exists only as a plaintive expression-"Who is John Galt?" He has been in hiding, working un derground as a laborer in the Taggart Tun nels, while recruiting the strikers. Other Heroes One of the key hero-characters is Francisco d'Anconia, aristocrat, copper baron, and former lover of Dagny, who prefers to destroy his mines systematically rather than let them fall into the hands of the looters. Another is Ragnar Danneskj6ld, a philosopher turned pirate, who avenges the work of Robin Hood by raiding only public, nonprofit, commerce ships in order to return to the productive what is rightly theirs. The Randian view is that Robin Hood robs from the strong and de serving and gives to the weak and worthless.

Robin Hood, the most immoral and con temptible of all human symbols, reflects the idea that need is the source of rights, that people only have to want-not to produce, and that men have claim to the unearned but not to the earned. Galt's Gulch The men of ability fade out of the picture and are labeled traitors and deserters by Dagny and Hank, who remain fighting at their desks. Ironically, because they haven't been told of the conspiracy, Dagny and Hank are even battling their natural allies-the ex leaders of the business world who have gone on strike. Dagny pursues one of the deserters by plane to a valley deep in the Rockies, crashes, and accidentally discovers John Gait's head quarters-the Utopian free-enterprise com munity created by the former business leaders along with several academicians, artists, and artisans. They have set up "Galt's Gulch" (also known as "Mulligan's Valley") as a refuge from the looters and moochers. Dagny is the last hero, except for Hank, to reach Galt's outpost. While there, Dagny listens to the logic of Galt and his associates and falls in love with Galt, who represents all that she holds dear. Inspired by the vision of Rearden, who continues to search for her and battle the looters, she decides to return to a world in a shambles. Dagny and Hank, who represent Everyman, refuse almost to the end to accept Galt's plan and stubbornly fight to save the economy.

Galt's Speech: The Essence of Rand's Worldview A national broadcast by Mr. Thompson, the Head of the State, is interrupted by Galt who, in a three-hour speech, spells out the tenets of his philosophy. Among his many provocative ideas is the notion that the doctrine of Orig inal Sin, which holds man's nature as his sin, is absurd-a sin that is outside the possibility of choice is outside the realm of morality. The Fall of Adam and Eve was actually a positive event since it enabled man to acquire a mind capable of judging good and evil-man be came a rational moral being. Another pro vocative idea is that both forced and voluntary ATLAS SHRUGGED REVISITED 297 altruism are evil. Placing the welfare of others above an individual's own interests is wrong. The desire to give charity, compassion, and pleasure unconditionally to the undeserving is immoral. Galt explains that reality is objective, ab solute, and comprehensible and that man is a rational being who relies upon his reason as his only means to obtain objectively valid knowledge and as his basic tool of survival.

The concept of value presupposes an entity capable of acting to attain a goal in the face of an alternative. The one basic alternative in the world is existence versus nonexistence. Life makes the concept of "value" meaning ful. An organism's life is its standard of value. Whatever furthers its life is good and that which threatens it is evil. It is therefore the nature of a living entity that determines what it ought to do. Galt identifies man's life as the proper standard of man's value and morality as the principles defining the actions necessary to maintain life as a man. If life as a man is one's purpose, he has the right to live as a rational being. To live, man must think, act, and create the values his life requires. In other words, since a man's life is sustained through thought and action, it follows that the in dividual must have the right to think and act and to keep the product of his thinking and acting (i.e., the right to life, liberty, and property).

He asserts that since men are creatures who think and act according to principle, a doc trine of rights ensures that an individual's choice to live by those principles is not violated by other human beings. All individ uals possess the same rights to freely pursue their own goals. These rights are innate and can be logically derived from man's nature and needs-the state is not involved in the creation of rights and merely exists to protect an individual's natural rights. Since force is the means by which one's rights are violated, it followsthat freedom is a fundamental social good. Therefore, it follows that the role of government is to protect man's natural (i.e., basic) rights, through the use of force, but only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use.

298 THE FREEMAN • MAY 1997 The Melodramatic Climax Galt follows Dagny back to the world and is captured by the looters. In an attempt to save the crumbling economy, they offer him the position of Economic Dictator, which he promptly refuses. They torture him, but the torture machine breaks down. Then, in a melodramatic confrontation, Galt is rescued by the Utopian entrepreneurs, and the looters are vanquished. Galt and Dagny return to the valley,rewrite the Constitution, and add a clause stating that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production and trade. At the end of the novel, just before going back to rebuild the world, Galt symbolicallytraces the sign of the dollar in the air. A Fully Integrated Novel and Moral Vision Atlas Shrugged is an abstract, conceptual, symbolic, and powerful novel of ideas that expounds a radically new system of philoso phy that challenges many traditional be liefs. Rand, a writer of dazzling virtuosity, presents her ideas with precision and illus trates them in concrete and detailed terms.

The novel combines elements of realism, mystery, adventure, romance, fantasy, and science fiction and is therefore capable of satisfying readers on many separate levels. Atlas Shrugged may be read as a philosophical treatise; a dialogue on ethics; an unabashed, original, and insightful defense of capitalism; a political parable denouncing all forms of collectivism; or simply an entertaining, easy to-read, and absorbing page-turner. The story is developed in a straightforward, chronological manner. The narrative is in terrupted, however, by a great number of speeches and monologues scattered through out the book as various characters declaim their values. (Galt's speech alone covers 60 pages of the book.) Despite (and for many, because of) this lecturing, most readers have been drawn by the story and Rand's eloquent flow of provocative ideas. Rand has written the modern-day equiva lent of a fifteenth-century morality play. Her characters represent symbolsrather than peo ple, are developed on the level of parable or fable, and are either all good or all bad. She deals entirely in black and white-there are no grays in her world to complicate reality and no ambiguous characters. The author clearly communicates whether a character is a hero or a villain by means of an introductory statement describing the individual's virtues or vices. Rand also tends to use a common allegorical technique by which characters' names are representative of their personali ties. In addition, good characters are able, beautiful, brave, and physically and mentally superior. Bad characters are generally mean spirited, cowardly, envious, and physically unattractive.

A Powerful Voice for Freedom Atlas Shrugged is encyclopedic in its philo sophical, political, economic, and psycholog ical scope. This masterwork of logic has a wonderfully constructed plot and expounds an exhaustive, fully integrated philosophical system. Rand correctly argues that human nature requires freedom. Only when men are free to choose can they be moral. The intel lectual basis of capitalism is that the individ ual is free by his nature, has responsibility to make moral choices, and has certain inviola ble rights. Atlas Shrugged is essential reading. It tells a fascinating story and presents an impressive, interesting, and thought-provoking portrait of businessmen who wo~'t allow politicians to kick them around and thus is as relevant today as when it was written. Atlas Shrugged is not simply a novel to be read for entertainment. Nor is it a treatise solely to be read for enlightenment. Ayn Rand's masterpiece makes a most powerful case for liberty and, therefore, should be read, reread, and shared with our friends. 0 THEFREEMAN IDEAS ON LIBERTY PrivatePropertyand "Social"Justice by Antony Flew I n the preface to the second volume of his trilogy Law, Legislation and Liberty, F.A.