"Do you know how it worked, that plan, and what it did to people?" Try pouring water into a tank where there's a pipe at the bottom draining it out faster than you pour it, and each bucket you bring breaks that pipe an inch wider, and the harder you work the more is demanded of you, and you stand slinging buckets forty hours a week, then forty-eight, then fifty-six -- for your neighbor's supper -- for his wife's operation -- for his child's measles -- for his mother's wheel chair -- for his uncle's shirt -- for his nephew's schooling -- for the baby next door -- for the baby to be born -- for anyone anywhere around you -- it's theirs to receive, from diapers to dentures -- and yours to work, from sunup to sundown, month after month, year after year, with nothing to show for it but your sweat, with nothing in sight for you but their pleasure, for the whole of your life, without rest, without hope, without end." From each according to his ability, to each according to his need "." (See the entire narrative at http://thesnarkwhohuntsback.wordpress.com/favorite-passages-from-atlas-shrugged/the-story-of-the-twentieth-century-motor-company-atlas-shrugged-part-ii/.)
The CliffsNotes summary highlights the moral hazards of Marxist theory as Rand represents them in the employee's account. The summary largely recapitulates the employee's own words. But it adds this synopsis of a central idea in Rand's thought that is worth keeping in mind: "Man's life on earth is made possible by virtue of his productivity, not his suffering. Justice and the ability to live successfully require that productive ability be the standard of determining a man's income, not his needs or pain."
Ayn Rand's Views: a Progressive Critique.
The dramatic function of John Galt's radio speech in Atlas Shrugged is to call for a strike by the world's "producers," in order to demonstrate their indispensability to the "parasites" who live off their bounty, and to persuade them that the producers will continue in their leadership role only if they are left entirely free to pursue their own personal and commercial interests.
In addition to its dramatic function, however, the speech also encapsulates a broad spectrum of Ayn Rand's thought, presented loosely in three sections. These include a discussion of the moral foundations of personal happiness and economic prosperity; analysis of a perceived moral darkness -- the presumption of unearned entitlement -- that threatens economic prosperity; and a discussion of the ideals by which economic prosperity can be achieved and sustained. In the following pages, I will summarize (in bold face) my understanding of Rand's positions in each of these areas, and offer a "progressive" critique that is, in one instance in particular, surprisingly sympathetic to at least the spirit of her views.
I have summarized the main points of the Galt/Rand speech
with the help of a highly instructive outline developed by David Kelley of The
Atlas Society. It can be found in full at
http://www.atlassociety.org/outline-john-galts-speech.
The Moral Foundations of Human Happiness and Their Connection with Productive Creativity and Economic Success.
Rand's views, as interpreted from the words of John Galt in the first segment of his speech:
The conscious "mind" is to humans what "instinct" is to animals. Human individuals can therefore only realize their life potential through the use of the mind and its powers of reason. Any constraints on the free use of the mind result effectively in moral death.
For Rand, the exercise of reason is only reliable when it operates exclusively on the mind's objective sense perceptions, which capture the true fact-based reality of the world; subjective impressions, by contrast, are always misleading. It is sense-based reason that leads the individual to the pursuit of rational self-interest, the proper end of which is fair exchange in "trade" with other people. In seeking this trade, the individual first determines from a true perception of reality what it is he (or she) can best do in the world and how his (or her) particular abilities might be realized in products or services that other people are willing to buy. Based on this knowledge, the individual creates things or provides services that give meaning to his (or her) life, produce material well-being, and result in earned self-esteem and the emotional happiness that derives from it. Coincident to these ends, the individual's enterprise also provides jobs for other people and helps advance human possibilities for a higher quality of life.
Those who live a life based on reason, purpose, achievement, and self-esteem become the natural leaders, or "producers," of the world, and the only ones deserving of "happiness," since they are motivated by the positive impulse of an authentic response to life and provide added value to the world. Such people are also easily recognized, since their efforts to live an authentic life can only be sustained by constant fidelity to the supporting virtues of rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness, and pride.
The Response of a Political Progressive:
Most political progressives, I would think, will find unobjectionable Rand's insistence that the moral integrity of the individual person, founded in his (or her) mind and expressed in the world by the pursuit of rational self-interest, provides a basis for both personal happiness and a functional and prosperous society. The formula also has inspirational weight as a peculiarly American standard, sounding very Jeffersonian and reflective of the Declaration of Independence.
There is one point, however, on which my own "progressive" instincts cause me to backtrack. It is Rand's understanding of the "mind" and the "rational self-interest" that is derived from it. I will argue that this is the essential point on which the views of most politically progressive thinkers will diverge from hers (and Paul Ryan's).For Rand, the mind is the source of human individuality and the life course proper to it, since its reasoning faculty makes possible a true comprehension of reality and the way one fits into it. This is because that faculty operates on the mental stock one accumulates from sense perceptions of the things and phenomena in the outside world. For Rand, such "objective" perceptions are the only source of reality. Subjective feelings that rise to consciousness from the inside of the individual are viewed as distortions of reality. Rational motivation always follows the mind, never the heart.
It follows, from Rand's point of view, that the life course to be pursued by an individual in accord with his (or her) "rational self-interest" will be decided entirely by calculation. For instance, a young person choosing a career path in college might reflect: "From what I know about myself, I think I'm well suited to scientific work. My best bet for a career might be something like pharmacological research. There's a big market for this, since people are always looking for the next wonder drug. That means lots of exciting challenges, and potentially big payoffs, too."
Mitt Romney went through just such Rand-like calculations of self-interest before accepting the leadership of Bain Capital, according to a report published by the Huffington Post the day after Romney's convention acceptance speech. Entitled "Bain Capital Takes Center Stage at Republican Convention," the report includes an excerpt from The Real Romney, a book written by Boston Globe reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman. The excerpt relates to the authors' interview with Bain & Co. founder Bill Bain, who asked Romney to head Bain Capital.
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