Ayn Rand was a writer and philosopher. She was born in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 2, 1905 as Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum and died in her home in New York on March 6, 1982. During the post World War II era her philosophy attracted many followers as well as numerous critics.
Even though Ayn was descended from a Jewish family, her parents believed in agnosticism rather than any religion. She was the eldest of three daughters; Natasha, and Nora were her younger sisters. At an early age she formed an interest in European literature and moving pictures of the period.
Ayn was twelve in 1917 when the Russian Revolution occurred. Her father lost his pharmacy because the Soviets confiscated all businesses as a way of enforcing the principles of Communism. The family moved to the Crimea in the hopes of continuing the business outside the reach of the Soviet system. Crimea became a Soviet state in 1921. Ayn burned her diary because it contained references to her hatred of collectivism as enforced by the Soviet Union.
In 1921, Ayn returned to St. Petersburg also called Petrograd and enrolled in the University of Petrograd to study philosophy, history, and law. After three years she received a Certificate of Graduation on October 13, 1924. To continue her education, late in 1924 she entered the State Institute for Cinema Arts to study screen writing.
Toward the end of 1925 Ayn was granted a visa to see her relatives in the United States. She arrived at New York in February of 1926. From there she went on to visit her relatives in Chicago. She resolved never go back to the Soviet Union again. After a short stay with her relatives, she went on to Hollywood to start her career as a screen writer.
At first Ayn struggled in Hollywood. It was there that she changed her name from Alisa Rosenbaum to Ayn Rand. She accidentally ran into the famed director Cecil B. De Mille, who gave her her first job as an extra in his classic film “King of Kings.” It was there that she first caught sight of a struggling actor named Frank O’Connor, whom she later met and married. Their marriage lasted fifty years until Frank’s death in 1979.
She worked for De Mille as a script reader. Later she worked in the wardrobe department of RKO studios. In her spare time she worked hard attempting to create a written work that she could eventually sell.
In 1931 Ayn became a naturalized citizen of the United States. She was extremely proud to be an American. In 1979 she told the graduating class of West Point: “The United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.” I often wonder, in view of current events, if she would feel the same way today?
In 1932 she sold her first screenplay, “Red Pawn,” to Universal Studios. This work was never turned into a movie or play. Her next work in 1934, “The Night of January 16th”, was a courtroom drama produced on Broadway. “We the Living” was a novel published in 1936 and “Anthem” was a novella published in 1938. “The Fountainhead” was published in 1943 and turned into a major motion picture in 1949. Her crowning achievement was “Atlas Shrugged,” a novel published in 1957 that covered her philosophic views regarding the individual and society. A movie based on “Atlas Shrugged,” starring Angelina Jolie, is planned for release sometime in 2008.
Throughout her career, besides the works of fiction mentioned above, she wrote numerous papers that covered her philosophical beliefs. Many of her articles were combined as non-fiction books available from the Ayn Rand Institute or the Objectivism Store.
Her philosophy is known as Objectivism. One can sum it up with the following quote from the appendix of “Atlas Shrugged:”
“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”
Because of her experiences in the Soviet Union, she hated the communist regime there. She believed that everyone should always think for themselves and not always rely on the will of others. The government of the Soviet Union tried to control all aspects of an individual’s life for the good of the state. Nazi Germany tried to exert a similar influence on its population. Her view was that everyone should be an individual with the self as the first priority in life and not the state and not even one’s religion.
She believed that capitalism, with little government interference was the best kind of economic system. Free press, free trade, and individual rights were her basic beliefs. Government’s main purpose was to defend individual rights. She believed that religion and mysticism were opposed to the notion individual human happiness.
I certainly favor the thought of being an individual and have self happiness as a goal. This was Ayn’s greatest idea. Because of television, newspapers, the Internet, and other influencing media it is increasingly harder to think as an individual. People with wealth and power are constantly pushing us to think the way they want by using their wealth to buy media influence. Governments, corporations, and religions tell us through the media the right way we should think and act. Because we are exposed daily to these carefully crafted media messages, we tend to treat the media as “experts” and believe what they say without questioning. To be an individual, one must carefully analyze the issues before accepting any position, popular or otherwise. In many cases in history, such as the Communist Revolution and the rise of Hitler’s Germany, collective mentality proved to be disastrously wrong.
In the seventeenth century, the religious philosopher John Donne said: “No man is an island.” This is something I take into account in my beliefs. I think that every individual must consider how to interact with the, sometimes, irrational beliefs of others. All too often Ayn’s philosophy is too intolerant when dealing with the people surrounding the individual.
In “The Fountainhead,” Ayn’s hero Howard Roarke is an architect who designs buildings the way he wants and disregards the opinions of others concerning his work. A group of industrialists liked his design and wanted to hire him provided that he would make a minor change to the design. He refused and lost the job. To me this is a misconception of individuality. When an artist, architect, or even a web designer creates a work for himself or herself only, then that work should not be altered by anyone else. However, when one is hired to do a work for someone else, I believe that his employer’s ideas should be included in the final design if requested by the employer. Everyone can’t be an architect, so it’s not unreasonable to expect the architect that you hire to incorporate your ideas into a structure that suits your taste? Being like Howard Roarke is like trying to enforce your view of architecture on others. Most people make a living doing work for others, and, as far as I’m concerned, adapting what I do to fit the needs of my employer, even if I personally don’t like it, in no way threatens my individuality.
In real life, Ayn hated when Hollywood filmmakers tried to re-write her screenplays. “The Fountainhead” was probably one of the few movies ever made, that stuck to the screenplay exactly as Ayn wrote it. This was because Ayn was famous enough to demand getting her way. I believe that one of the better traits of the individual is knowing how to work with others in a mutually beneficial way. I disagree with the stubbornness of Howard Roarke or even Ayn herself about mainly petty changes to works sold to others.
Another point in Ayn’s philosophy that I question is that concerning altruism. Altruism is one’s help and concern for others. Giving money or volunteering your time to help the less fortunate, is what Ayn regarded as altruism. She considered altruism as irrational and strictly opposed it. But, in my opinion, there are various degrees of altruism. I believe that bad altruism is where someone sacrifices because of the urging of others and not because of personal belief. I also think that there exists good altruism where one embraces a cause because he or she truly believes in it. In my view good altruism should be applauded and bad altruism condemned.
After Ayn’s death in 1982, her loyal follower of thirty years Leonard Peikoff was willed the copyrights to all Ayn’s books. In 1985, he created the Ayn Rand Institute. This institute is supposedly carrying on the Ayn’s work in developing the Objectivist philosophy. In 1989 another philosopher named David Kelley split from the orthodox Objectivist movement and founded The Atlas Society. I feel that to religiously follow anyone’s teachings, even Ayn’s, is really a violation of her basic principle of thinking for yourself. Besides, many of the current Ayn Rand organizations seem to be nothing more than radical conservative social groups not worthy of the name they bear.
Ayn was a fervent believer in capitalism. Today’s capitalism means big corporations. These days many large corporations act like “mini Soviet Unions” to their employees. They have some “Stalin” at the top reaping the benefits from his over stressed collective labor force. If Ayn ever worked as a clerk for Wal-Mart would she still believe in today’s type of capitalism? I feel that modern corporations should limit the greed at the upper level and spread more wealth to improve on the job conditions and salaries of their workforce.
Ayn thought all religion was irrational and fervently resisted it. I agree with this premise, but I also feel, that because so many of the world’s people practice some form of religion, religious tolerance is extremely important. If a religion, no matter what their version of God is, does not interfere with the beliefs of others, individuals should not oppose it. It’s alright to hold friendly debates about the merits of their spiritual beliefs, but it’s never right to discriminate because of them.
Ayn’s greatest work, “Atlas Shrugged,” is out of date when dealing with today’s society. Railroad and Steel Industrialists would have little effect on society if they all suddenly decided to go on strike. When the book was written, these industries were so important that the disappearance of their leaders could have brought about such chaos. Today, I believe, there is a different group of individuals that would bring the world to a standstill if they ever decided to drop out. Just about every industry in the world uses computers. Very few users know the basics of information technology. Heads of state and CEOs are just users
, who are deeply reliant on the proper operation of this technology. What if there was no one to protect the world’s massive computer networks from hacker attacks or natural disasters? What if all the real computer professionals throughout the world just decided to go on vacation?
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