This is an essay I wrote for the Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest recently. Although I didn't win I definitely enjoyed reading Atlas Shrugged, it is a very eye-opening book and expresses a lot of new ideas one may not have considered. The story is prophetic of what we are seeing today in the US. In saying this I must also make clear that I am neither liberal nor conservative in my views. There is much more to life than just two opposing political views so I opt out — until my vote actually counts and we can actually get some independent, thinking lawmakers in Washington that aren't bending over for whoever offers them the most money!!
Question: According to John Galt, selfishness is both moral and practical. Explain what he means by this and how events in the story illustrate and dramatize his point. (Atlas Shrugged, 50th anniversary, paperback edition, page numbers from excerpts are in parenthesis)
I asked my father what his definition of selfish was. He said it means to 'prefer one's own best interest above everybody else.' When asked if selfishness is good or bad, he described it as 'the root of all evil.' I asked my mother what it meant to be selfish. She said it was to put one's self 'above all other people and above God, to satisfy one's own desires at the expense of others.' I asked her if selfishness was bad. She said it was 'the source of all sin.' I was raised to believe in these same ideas and had I been asked a year ago if I believed that selfishness was immoral I probably would have answered yes. I no longer hold this opinion due to personal experience with the failure of these ideas.
In Atlas Shrugged, John Galt poses his philosophy that selfishness is not only moral and practical, but is the only way to hold true moral values. He explains that '... to live requires a sense of self-value ... that the first precondition to self-esteem is that radiant selfishness of soul that desires the best in all things, in values and matter and spirit, a soul that seeks above all else to achieve its own moral perfection ...' (934) According to Galt, 'man's life is the standard of morality' and 'one's own life is its purpose' (928) — not the servitude of others who are undeserving. In the simplest of terms, if one wishes to live on earth one must act in one's own self-interest to survive — that is, they must use their own ability to think and reason so they can feed and cloth themselves. If one fails, they alone must suffer the consequences — not blame someone else.
My parents hold that in no case is it okay to be selfish. There are many people who hold this opinion today, but why? The fact remains: I have had to act selfishly in order to preserve my own moral values, self-esteem and well-being on many occasions — as many people do. But there is often a sense of guilt that goes along with it — a cloudiness that doesn't let one feel good about acting selfishly but instead leaves a sense of fear — fear of punishment. This fear is the tool with which the looters and hooligans in Atlas Shrugged brought down the whole of existence. Instead of asking why all the factories where closing and violence was breaking out, they were asking, who. 'Who is going take the blame? Who can we enslave to our benefit? Who can we devour next?' This is a tactic that many individuals use on a more intimate level — in relationships. They try to force the mind of their victims by using verbal abuse and violence. In these dangerous situations the only way one can get out and break the destructive cycle is to say, 'No!' — an act of the most pure and righteous selfishness. Those in abusive relationships must choose their own best interests over those of whom wish to abuse and destroy them — by removing themselves — just as John Galt removed the men of the mind from the world. There is no 'unselfish' way to do this. One should not give their oppressors the tools (and the permission) with which to send them to slaughter. By doing this, one is forfeiting all the good that they could have contributed to the world.
In his radio address, Galt states: 'We are on strike against the dogma that the pursuit of one's happiness is evil. We are on strike against the doctrine that life is guilt.' (925) He is careful, however to state that, '... neither life nor happiness can be achieved by the pursuit of irrational whims.' (928) The key to true happiness, is the use of one's own moral reason. Atlas Shrugged illustrates the dire consequences of rejecting reason to the irrational whims of those in power and the dangers of going along with the majority even if that majority is propagating ideas which are causing destruction and chaos.
James Taggart presents us with a good example. He is the president of Taggart Transcontinental Railroad, yet he never acts in his own interest to make his company successful, or even to keep his trains running safely. He wines and dines with his powerful friends in Washington and helps them to devise new rules and regulations to confine businesses — including his own. Taggart Transcontinental eventually becomes the last operating railroad in the country because all the others are forced to close down due to a government-ordered railroad consolidation plan giving Taggart the biggest portion of the profits because he owns the most tracks — even though most of them are non-operational. Because the railroads are not efficient, the remaining industries suffer and go bankrupt when they can't ship their goods or receive adequate supplies. It becomes obvious that Taggart Transcontinental will eventually go bankrupt as well for lack of industrial customers and factories left to make the steel and motors which the railroad so desperately needs to rebuild aging tracks and engines. Taggart and the men in Washington blame the business owners for every problem and eventually they are left with no working factories, no men to run them and no one to blame as the motor of their world eventually stops just as John Galt said it would. The true nature of James Taggart and his Washington pals is finally revealed when they attempt to force the mind of Galt himself, by manipulation, intimidation and finally electro-shock torture. We see that it was not greed or selfishness that was driving them, but hatred — a hatred more vile than any imaginable, a hatred for life and all those who try to live it. They were at war against moral reason using the false pretense of brotherly love as their guise.
Francisco d'Anconia, while speaking to Hank Rearden, states that 'the worst guilt is to accept an undeserved guilt ... You have been paying blackmail not for your vices but for your virtues,' he says. (421) This undeserved guilt is the weapon which looters and abusers use against whomever is willing to accept it and take on the burdens, grievances and horrors of others — at the expense of their very life! And what is worse, this is what they want to present — as love. A world where no form of selfishness is accepted is a world where the undeserving, abusive and violent prosecute and punish the hard-working, talented and generous — not because of anything they have done wrong but because of all they do that is right! It was because of this undeserved guilt, that Rearden was made to feel badly for pursuing that which he knew to be right and just. Rearden Metal, was stronger, lighter and more efficient than regular steel, yet the government, media and even his own family made him feel as if he was guilty of some great treason for having achieved so much when others had achieved so little.
When the powerful men in Washington tried to seize Rearden's metal operation, along with all the other factories in the country, they were trying to capitalize on the inventions and labor of these men while simultaneously destroying everything they had worked to create for themselves. But without the thinking, reasoning minds of these men to run the factories, they were made useless, and the world's motor continued to break down. Most people lost motivation after the government seized everything. Nobody wanted a 'thinking' job, no matter what the pay — it just wasn't worth the burden and the loss of free-will. Money itself was loosing its worth because there were no goods or services to back it up. Trains began to break down and there was no one to fix them. Factories stopped without warning, workers disappeared. Instead of a world of brotherly love, as had been promised by the all the leading men in Washington — it was quite the opposite. Deception was rewarded instead of honest work. Those who had abilities tried to hide them for fear they would be forced to work overtime for someone else's benefit. Most simply lost the will to live, for living freely was not allowed.
When we reject our own moral reason — selfish ambition — we throw ourselves on the irrational whims of whomever chooses to tell us what is right and wrong. We give them permission to hold power over us. We see in Atlas Shrugged that a world where men are not permitted to act in their own self-interest, to preserve their life, the way they see rightfully fit, is a world full of fear and loathing of one's neighbor — a world where everyone blames everyone else and no one is responsible, a world easily taken over by those with the most weapons and brute force, a world of terror.
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