Ayn Rand: Obsession and a Fallacy
I am a 13 year old boy, running around my parents house in Delhi, India. This is around the turn of the century, India is slowly coming of age, but still soaked deeply in asian morals of collectivism, not offending thy neighbors, respecting thy elders, be satisfied with what we get and in general holding on to safety as opposed to boldness and grandness of the explorers who had explored most of the world in the last several hundred years. I felt trapped in a society which didn’t understand my ambition or the reasons for my bluntness. Politeness was the virtue held as a moral standard, not truth. I could not fathom why!!
Just like I could not fathom why I was scoled in school when I told my middle school career counselor I have no need for her advice and I would rather go do math or play soccer. She demanded to understand as to any I found her sessions useless, my response was seen as rude not because it was inaccurate but because it was inconvenient. I had simply responded that she had never built a business, which is what I wanted to do and therefore her counsel was useless to me.
For me Ayn Rand was a savior and I consider myself incredibly fortunate that my parents had the full collection of her writings and realized quickly that with my interests and values, I needed a philosophical and moral compass to navigate my world and my immediate environment was failing me. I eventually did read her work, it was like a light illuminating through a dense forest, bringing moral clarity with it. It was magical.
She helped me understand that following my own beat is the only way. She gave me a moral code to pursue the things I wanted and that my desire and will to create are the only true reason to exist. My life is not to serve others - my life is to create. It gave me the words for my own feelings, emotions and philosphy. It was the moral fabric for the life ahead and makes you understand why you hated people who claim to be altruistic, why they felt like liars, and why they must be avoided at any cost. It made me realize, the person who creates is the center of the universe, not the society in which he/she inhibits. All moral decisions should be viewed from the lens of these individuals. Thats our only moral obligation.
The line from my first books of hers that still stands out to me is when Howard Roark is in his deans office and the dean asks "My dear fellow, who will let you?" To which he says, "That's not the question. The question is, who will stop me?"
The next few years I read everything she wrote, or at least most of her work. I believe she be a must read for any ambitious kid.
Ayn Rand’s has had a tremendous impact on the world, more so than any other author in the 20th century. Her work has guided many of the stalwarts of our generation. Steve jobs held Atlas Shrugged in high regards and derived a lot of philosphy and principles for it. Steve Wozniak, has suggested that Atlas Shrugged was one of Jobs’s “guides in life.”. Peter Thiel has attributed her influence for his liberterian views and entrepreneurial leanings. Travis had one of her covers as his twitter pic while running Uber. Elon Musk names fountainhead has a book that had an impact. and the list can go on and on.
Her mental frameworks have guided many young people to find a moral compass that aligns with their internal voice and her defense of ambition, selfishness and capitalism have given the tools to navigate a world whose moral compass is still stunted by the works of Kant, Marx or their ilk.
I believe there are two reasons that she appeals to so many young people.
The moral code to create: Ambitious people are driven by a drive to build and to create. They have a singular obsession very early on around something and they only dream of becoming that. To pursue such naked ambition requires insane sacrifices, requires you to suffer, requires you to do things that don’t make sense to 99 percent of the world. with no moral compass, without an articulated set of moral codes, humans are lost. We need to have an explanation and a reasoning for what we do. For entrpereneurs, she provides that, she helps us articulate it, she helps us dive deeper into that world.
The act of creation is often an act of luxury: Ayn Rand tends to appeal to the middle or upper middle class boys. In some ways, being upper middle class or a rich teenage boy allows you incredible privileges. Capitlism, Liberterniams or Objectvism sees positions as power or privilege as having been achieved through skill and well-deserved. And the ones which are obtained through ill-gotten means will be short-lived. So it helps give us a moral philopshy which both justifies our poistion in society (near the top) and also tells us if we put more effort and skill, we can rise all the way to the top. Being in this economic strata I think is the most amazing gift for any human being, you have the resources, confidence and social network to pursue your dreams but you are still far enough from the top that you feel like an outsider, have no complanency and are always resource poor when compared to your ambition.
While I can sign praises for her, her philopshy also has depressing attributes to it. The more you read it, the more sad or depressed one can turn out to be. This probably is reflected in her own mental state and her troubles with mental illness in later parts of her life.
It has always bothered me that I feel I learn so much from reading her text and feel such clarity in my pursuits but always feel a tinge of meloncholy.
I finally understand why as I re-read both fountainhead and atlas shrugged again - she exalts creation of the man as his noble pursuit. But we must also celebrate the creations of those amazing people before us, we must look at their creations in wonder and with just as much love as we do for ours. (Actually, a man never loves his own creation, it could always be better).
She doesn’t talk about celebrating art, music, or all the wonderful things so many human beings create. I have been a much more fulfilled and driven person when I have learnt to enjoy life as an act of creation - of not just my own, but many before me and many of thousands alongside me. I think celebrating life itself - through music, through friendships, through art, through dancing, through expression makes life worth living.
One must create, but one must live each day as a celebration.
