Rewind book: Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
The plot - essentially a cabal of leading right-wing thinkers and capitalists go on strike - climaxes with a radio monologue from Galt, who explains himself in 57 pages.
by Ayn Rand
Random House
The plot - essentially a cabal of leading right-wing thinkers and capitalists go on strike - climaxes with a radio monologue from Galt, who explains himself in 57 pages.
Although Rand divides opinion like few other writers in recent history, most commentators agree Galt's peroration reflects his creator's belief in objectivism. For her supporters - including former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and media mogul Ted Turner - this posits that the world is a distinct objective reality which can be understood only through clear, rational thought, especially if that thought comes from the formidable Rand: "Man cannot survive except by gaining knowledge, and reason is his only way to get it."
Mankind, Galt contends, is in a moral crisis. It has enslaved itself by adherence to emotional impulse and relativist thinking. Liberation, Rand believes, comes through a heroic and individualistic form of self-realisation via free-market economics: "A being who does not hold his own life as the motive and goal of his actions," Galt says, "is acting on the motive and standard of death."
However, the kind of freedom Rand espouses - morally self-interested, economically libertarian - also earns her a reputation as a near-fascist lunatic: "Do you ask what obligation I owe to my fellow men? None - except the obligation I owe to myself, to material objects and to all of existence: rationality."
The novel's final section outlines the John Galt plan, which many might recognise in the Greenspan free-market economics of the late 20th and early 21st century: "[It] will reconcile all conflicts … It will protect the property of the rich and give a greater share to the poor. It will cut down the burden of your taxes … lower prices and raise wages … It will give more freedom to the individual and strengthen the bonds of collective obligations."
A survey by the Library of Congress in the 1990s named as the most influential book in the US after the Bible; Rand's canon sells almost a million copies each year. Whether you find this a cause for alarm or celebration depends on your rational thought.
