ElizabethAtlas Shrugged, written by renowned author and philosopher Ayn Rand, is an incredible story about the dangers of a society that has lost the values of reason and rationality. In its 1,168 pages, Rand shows what happens to a civilization when achievement, intelligence, and creativity are squandered.
Here is an extremely brief summary of what the novel is about:
Atlas Shrugged is set in a time where everyone is expected to labor to the best of their ability yet only be paid according to their level of need. An unfair “social responsibility” is placed on all workers, causing those who labor diligently to remove themselves from this narrative. In addition to chasing out the hard working spirit, the government of this America also does not want its citizens to think rationally. They put a stop to creativity by banning new inventions, new pieces of literature, new pieces of art. They make legislation that keeps businesses from prospering and seek to keep everyone from reaching their full potential as people. As a result, the most talented and intelligent of society, those who produce the necessary materials needed for the country to function, begin to disappear leaving chaos in their wake. Ayn Rand describes a world where the Atlases that support it have been forced to shrug.
While I always knew that rationality was important, I never thought of it as a pillar of free society. However, Rand shows in her novel that without “men of the mind” to uphold the population, suffering will come. After all, it is the rational mind that thinks, creates, and produces the materials that this world holds dear. Without the rational mind, the world would not have inventors, industrialists, writers, speakers, or really any other profession. I like how Richard Salsman summarizes this concept in his article Economics in Atlas Shrugged, “Ayn Rand…holds that the mind—human thinking and the resulting intelligence—is the primary source of wealth. The mind, she says, directs not only physical labor but also the organization of production.”
Atlas Shrugged not only shows the importance of preserving rationality but also motivates its readers to pursue it. We all should hope to become those “men of the mind” that uphold society.
“Any refusal to recognize reality, for any reason whatever, has disastrous consequences. There are no evil thoughts except one: the refusal to think.”
– Francisco d’Anconia in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, Part II, Chapter II
Atlas Shrugged is important because it shines a light on the importance of not only free thought but also constant thought. It shows how important it is to be constantly learning, dreaming, and acting towards those dreams. It also shows how it is vital to do these things in spite of a government that discourages them. In the present reality of America, the hard-working spirit that every worker used to possess is fleeting. People rarely want to work anymore, causing a crisis of worker shortages. The few who do possess enough fortitude to get a job often end up being incompetent workers who believe that they are entitled to a paycheck even when they possess a negligent and unprofessional character. This crisis has caused the remaining diligent workers to fall by the wayside as they are expected to pick up the slack left behind by their lazy coworkers. To make matters worse, not much is being done to better this situation as most employers would rather handle an incompetent worker than have no worker at all. Instead of being fired for not meeting the necessary standards at their job, the lazy workers of today are given no reason to better themselves. This spiral will continue to move downward until the America of today is no different than the America of Atlas Shrugged. One where the talented are no longer there to support the world, leaving the lazy to their own demise.
We must heed the warnings listed in Atlas Shrugged before it is too late. We must become the generation that returns rationality and free thought to the United States.
“…the rebirth … of the world … has to start here, in the United States. This country was the only country in history born, not of chance and blind tribal warfare, but as a rational product of man’s mind. This country was built on the supremacy of reason — and, for one magnificent century, it redeemed the world. It will have to do so again.”
– Francisco d’Anconia in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged Part III, Chapter II
Be sure to check out my other post The Loss of Rationality to see an essay I wrote on the loss of certain material goods in Atlas Shrugged: https://elizabeth.gillanders.us/2022/10/05/the-loss-of-rationality/
