It must be almost 50 years since I last read Ayn Rand’s classic, libertarian, “objectivist” novel, Atlas Shrugged, the central theme of which is reflected in the title. Published in 1957, it was her final and longest fictional work, what she considered her masterpiece.
Atlas in Greek mythology was condemned by Zeus to bear the weight of the heavens, or universe, on his shoulders for his insolence to the gods. (A very brief, lighthearted, account of Atlas’ infraction and punishment can be found on my website.)
While I have never fully subscribed to libertarianism and less so to Rand’s philosophy of “Objectivism,” I’ve always admired her thesis in Atlas that the world is dependent on the intelligent, capable do-ers, the makers and shakers who built and sustain the world in contradistinction to the takers and moochers of the world, oblivious to the truth that should the makers disappear the takers’ world would collapse.
That is precisely what happens in the novel. In effect, Atlas shrugs, says he’s had enough of the crippling effects of punishing the do-ers and takes off, leaving the moochers to take care of things. With the world devoid of the makers and shakers, they don’t do very well.
Ayn Rand outlined her beliefs in the 35th anniversary edition of Atlas Shrugged: “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”
Her novel is more relevant than ever today for America and the rest of the Western World as creeping socialism is becoming galloping socialism. The only question is not the repetitive catchphrase of the novel, “Who is [the protagonist] John Galt?” but rather, “Can and will Atlas shrug once again and dump the takers from his back?”
It’s wishful thinking but we can all wish, right? So, I wish that mythological Titan, the deity of crushing burdens, gives just a little shrug and then let’s see how well society’s leeches and hangers-on subsist.
My guess is that, as in Atlas Shrugged, they wouldn’t do very well.
