October 10 marked the 50th anniversary of
the publication of Ayn Rand’s best-selling
novel, Atlas Shrugged. It is an epic story that
has changed the lives of millions around the
globe, including mine. Today, Atlas still sells about
150,000 copies a year in the United States. Rand
once wrote a book entitled The Virtue of Selfishness,
which critics on both the left and the right cite to
demonstrate how hopelessly rigid and inappropriate
was her philosophy.
But they misunderstand what she was talking
about. “Selfishness” in Rand’s lexicon simply meant
being true to your own values. The challenge, in her
view, was to adopt rational values—ones that I
believe include a concern for those who need
help through circumstances that are no fault of
their own. The main virtue of selfishness, however,
comes from a clear-eyed pursuit of your own
purpose in life, your own productive drive for
achievement. That is why Rand so loved America.
The concept of our inalienable rights to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness was the political
expression of her philosophy.
As I have written many times before, the essence
of America is a respect for the dignity of the
individual. Ayn Rand knew that, and Atlas Shrugged
powerfully demonstrated that. Unfortunately, the
genius of this great nation is under attack, from liberals
and so-called neoconservatives. Cato distinguished
fellow and Nobel laureate James Buchanan
presciently wrote nearly six years ago, in criticizing
the emphasis by limited-government conservatives
on economic growth rather than liberty, “If the liberal
ideal is not there, there will be a vacuum and
other ideas will supplant it.”
And, indeed, they have. The leading Democratic
candidate for president, Hillary Clinton, in a recent
interview on MSNBC, said, “You know, when I ask
people, ‘What do you think the goals of America are
today?’ people don’t have any idea. We don’t know
what we’re trying to achieve. And I think that in a
life or in a country you’ve got to have some goals.”
It is, of course, fine for individuals to have goals
in life, but the world is much worse off because
of nations presuming to have goals. The American
Founders would have considered the idea of a
national “goal” absurd, which it is.
Neoconservatives are determined not to be outdone
by the left in setting grand national goals.
David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times,
wrote some years ago in the neoconservative Weekly
Standard that we need to pursue “national greatness,”
which he describes this way: “Individual
ambition and willpower are channeled into the
cause of national greatness. And by making the
nation great, individuals are able to join their
narrow concerns to a larger national project.” More
recently, in October, he wrote in the New York
Times, the neoconservatives do not “see a nation
composed of individuals who should be given
maximum liberty to make choices. Instead, the
individual is part of a social organism and thrives
only within the attachments to family, community
and nation that precede choice.” He calls for “a
political age built around authority rather than freedom.”
Scary stuff.
The philosophy espoused by Clinton and
Brooks has been tried and found wanting in the
20th century. It is interesting that while capitalism
has clearly won the war against socialism, the battle
between liberty and power remains. George H. W.
Bush spoke contemptuously of the “vision thing.”
But the vision of the right to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness is what America is all about.
Our friend David Kelley, founder of the Atlas
Society, quotes Atlas hero Hank Rearden, defending
himself in court: “I work for nothing but my own
profit—which I make by selling a product they need
to men who are willing and able to buy it. I do not
produce it for their benefit at the expense of mine,
and they do not buy it for my benefit at the expense
of theirs; I do not sacrifice my interests to them nor
do they sacrifice theirs to me; we deal as equals by
mutual consent to mutual advantage.”
President George W. Bush has complained
about the idea of “a politics of nothing more than
leave me alone.” He should be heartened by the fact
that Hillary and the neocons have no intention of
doing so. But “leave me alone” is what motivated
tens of millions of people to come to America. We
should reject the politics of “national greatness”
and “national goals” and embrace the American
recognition of the greatness of individual liberty.
Ayn Rand was right.
O
President’s Message
BY EDWARD H. CRANE “ |
