It took almost two full weeks over the summer, but I finally managed to get through the mammoth tome of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (known to many as the libertarian bible). While this post isn’t meant to be a review of the book, I would highly recommend it to anyone who would like to see the end result of codifying pure libertarian, Objectivist, and individualistic ideas in a story that explores an accelerated future where the “movers” of the world give up carrying the load of the “moochers” and go on strike.
After wrapping up Atlas Shrugged, I went back to reread her second most prominent work, The Fountainhead, with a renewed perspective. The book’s main character, Howard Roark, is written as Rand’s version of the modern-day superman. He is as close to perfect in Rand’s Objectivist framework as one can be. What qualities make him perfect?
- Roark is competent: he is one of the best architects in the world of the novel. His skills in engineering, welding, and design are on par with the best in those fields.
- Roark is a creator: Rand specifically chose architecture as the vocation for her protagonist because she felt it was the perfect blend of artistic creativity and engineering. Roark thought of each building as an individual, and would tailor the building to suit its environment. He would make each building in a completely unique style.
- Roark has integrity: he refuses to compromise his moral view of architectural beauty for money. He builds buildings because he wishes to create something beautiful. He is not motivated by money, friends, material objects or fame. He lives purely for his work.
There are many tests in the book where Roark is on the brink of destitution. Early in the novel he has to close his office and mine granite in a quarry. Later on, he sees some of his buildings perverted by inept architects. When Roark gets put on trial for destroying those buildings he designed, he launches into a speech that contains the thesis of the book. He talks about the trial as a reincarnation of the battle between the creator and the second-hander. The term second-hander is applied to those who benefit from the work of creators but add nothing in return. Ayn Rand portrays second-handers as empty shells of human beings who contribute nothing but act as mouthpieces for others who do their thinking for them. Second-handers have no thoughts or opinions of their own; they have no integrity. They are incapable of judging an idea or creation as good or bad without hearing someone else’s opinion first. They depend on the views of critics, professors, peers, and friends in order to pass judgement on anything. They are >99% of people.
And then I realized that I have been a second-hander almost my entire life. I am one of those people that needs others' opinions of my work in order to judge it myself. I find myself enjoying or (more often) disliking some art or piece of literature and then changing my mind when a professor or critic pushes their opinion. I end up writing essays praising Jackson Polock and Sophie Treadwell when they are mediocre creators at best. I spew bromides that I hear from political commentators as they pass unfiltered by thought from my ear to my mouth.
It gets worse than that. Second-handedness has infiltrated my academic career. My goal has always been to publish an important research paper in a journal, and my standard for it being an important work is the number of references it receives from others. I shouldn’t need others to validate my work, yet it seems so difficult for me to look at the research I have done so far in a vacuum and evaluate its quality.
I still think it is still necessary to have others evaluate and provide opinions on my work, whether it be my research or the ideas in my blog posts. I just need to have a filter in my brain where I untangle their ideas to see if they make sense to me. I am not Ayn Rand’s superman (even if I aspire to be), and thus there are still others who are more competent than me in all fields: experts I can learn from. Even Roark still had to go to college to learn structural engineering principles before becoming the best architect.
If you don’t have time to invest in the works of Ayn Rand, I would still recommend the exercise of trying to untangle your unique ideas from bromides that have reverberated through society. There might be less substance remaining than you would expect.