Sunday, September 16, 2012

On Ayn Rand and Objectivism


Ayn Rand was one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. Her novels and her philosophy of Objectivism were the voice of reason that was most needed in the tumultuous era in which she lived. It is not just on the internet, but in the general mindset of our time that there are unjustified dismissals of her ideas and her philosophy. Those refutations and dismissals that I have read thus far have been largely founded upon ad hominem attacks or on largely distorted strawmen of her ideas. It is expected that anyone who disagrees with an idea of someone else will not explore their reasoning and philosophy in great depth, so this outright hatred of Rand can be easily explained. However, it is not warranted. The philosophy outlined by Rand in the novels Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead contain important values that every intellectual should give due consideration. It is primarily among liberal and “leftist” thinkers that she has been dismissed and spat upon. If more people would take the time to understand Rand’s philosophy instead of resorting to the popular distortions and disfigurements of her work, then the current state of intellectual debate and the world in general may be improved.

The underlining trend in Ayn Rand’s novels is the role of the individual in society. Contrary to her belief, it is according to modern political philosophy that man ought to exist for the benefit of society, or the state. Look no further than the laws enacted by many governments around the world to see how this is true. Drug prohibition, for instance is a manifestation of the notion that man is incapable of making decisions in his own self-interest and thus requires an authority figure to make them in his favour. Such laws are insulting and useless. Although things like drug use, homosexual relations, gun ownership, and pornography have been restricted by government regulation, these laws have been of no effect and are a gross allocation of otherwise productive resources. Government action is incapable of thwarting the decisions made by individual men. It is powerless in attempting to alter the private behaviour made by the people who supposedly live under its control. Laws that are enacted as a means of trying to regulate human behaviour only serve as a means to lower the standard of living for those in society and reduce the idea of man to that of a moronic automaton who is at the whim of any influence of the given moment. Laws that prohibit the individual to make decisions for him/herself only enforce the stupidity and degeneracy that are so prevalent in our modern culture.

The philosophy of Ayn Rand advocates the complete opposite of what authoritarian laws attempt to enforce. Objectivism states that man’s individual perception of the world around him is the only reliable source of sensory input on which he is to pass judgment. The moral claims of those around him must only be considered as secondary sources. Consider the following hypothetical scenario:

You are living in Nazi-occupied territory at the height of the Second World War. Those around you are all singing the praises of Der Fuhrer and proclaiming that the Jews are subhuman and must be exterminated.  However, you happen to be a person of rational and highly-developed moral faculties and you see the disgusting hatred and bigotry of their beliefs. Despite strong influence to the contrary, you refuse to join the SS and turn over some Jews you know to be in hiding to the SS, who you know will not treat them with general kindness. Rightfully, by doing so, you have made an individual rational judgment against the popular belief of those around you. Despite the revolting intolerance and racism that is pervasive in that place and era, you refuse to go against your moral principles and turn innocent people over to the hands of a violent tyranny. By doing so, you are adhering to Ayn Rand’s philosophy of individuality and objectivism.

The opponents of Rand will try to twist her philosophy into a disgraceful representation of chauvinism and a disregard for the lives of others. Ayn Rand never advocated that anyone ought to disregard the lives and liberties of other human beings. In fact, contrary to what the liberal thinkers of our time will tell you, Rand was one of the most passionate proponents of individual rights in recent memory. Objectivism in a nutshell denounces the use of coercion and force in human relationships. She viewed the tyrannies of Hitler, Stalin, Franco, and Mussolini to be unjust and evil.

The initiation of force is the cause of all evil. From thieves, to murderers, to extortionists, to frauds, to despots, the one consistent source of human anguish and global conflict is the use and the threat of violence. Only cowards and sociopaths feel they are justified to rule over other human beings through the barrel of a gun. Freedom is the only proper state for man to exist.
Objectivism states that rational self-interest is the way that man can achieve his goals. It is not through violence, or subjugation, or extortion. Socialism and Communism by their very definitions violate these fundamental principles and which is why Rand is so hated in our modern culture. It is because she believed in freedom of choice and in individualism. She loved the concept of man as a self-sufficient, rational being and not the concept of man as an imbecilic ghoul who needs the state to make decisions for him. Socialism can only justify its morality if it can establish that an individual’s choices are not his/her own. Socialism succeeds in that it propagates the notion that success and failure are not contingent upon a man’s ability, but on some indescribable external factor. Because socialist and statist ideas are so prevalent in our modern culture, this is why many people hate Ayn Rand. It is because she believed in personal responsibility and freedom.

The reaction of the enslaved man to the idea of freedom is one of panic and denial. It is very much like the reaction of the woeful denizens in the Allegory of Plato’s Cave. When exposed to the light of reason and rationality, they hide and cower like cornered rats. Those who are dependent on the government do not believe freedom to be possible. They do not trust their own ability to make decisions and proclaim judgments for themselves because they are so used to being treated like experimental animals in the grand scheme of tyrannical statism. This is why, when exposed to the philosophy of Ayn Rand and other libertarian philosophers, they have nothing but childish insults and idiocy with which to respond.  Ayn Rand has faced so much negative criticism by social commentators like Paul Krugman, William Buckley, Gore Vidal, and Cracked.com for this precise reason. They proclaim Rand to be evil and villainous but never elaborate on why they feel this way. There are no shortage of weaklings who will call Rand a stupid Russian bitch, but are incapable of grasping, let alone, refuting her philosophy.

Ayn Rand was one of the greatest thinkers of our era, and common to great thinkers, she was appreciated by some and despised by many. 


No comments:

Post a Comment