Shrugging Atlas
his article in the NYT reminds me of a post I read at Ten Reason.
How to Read an Ayn Rand Novel
1. Buy Atlas Shrugged.
2. Pore over every word.
3. Accept it all as gospel.
4. Realize the individual's rights are of paramount importance and there is no such thing as "collective rights."
5. Act like a [jerk.]-- from the September issue of Esquire
I remember laughing pretty hard at this because this was how I acted when I read Atlas Shrugged. And I am sure I acted on whatever the redacted word was. Unfortunately I didn't have the excuse of only being 18 or in my twenties but was in my mid thirties at the time. This was indeed gospel for me and I remember trying to live it out and taking every opportunity I could to explain how the fable of Robin Hood was so terrible. My only excuse it that Ayn Rand was part of my last ditch attempt to retain my atheism. It was an anti-REM reaction since I was "Gaining My Religion." Though former atheists have an awkward time here.
Former theists can talk about losing their faith, but there is just no common verbal parlance for atheists to talk about finding their faith. Former theists can tell friends who are believers that they have lost their faith and they can easily get a "I will pray for you" response. Just how do atheists comfort those who have lost their atheist faith?
Former atheist: "I have been going going through hard times and I am think I am finding faith."
Atheist: "Bummer man, but listen to me when you die - that's it. You corporeal body just rots in the ground. There is no you, just a random organic consciousness that thinks they are more than their body and that there is such a thing as truth. You wouldn't trust a computer chip that was randomly created so why should you trust your own mind."
Known as 
I reacted that way in high school after reading The Fountainhead. I never made it through Atlas Shrugged. Reading that book almost caused me to lose the (Baptist) faith I had just found. Thankfully, God put a good Catholic girl into my life, and I've never looked back! Now I'm married to that girl and she's having my baby
Jeff, don't feel bad about falling for Rand in your thirties - I did it in my 40's! And had exactly the same reaction that you and Esquire describe.
The positive was that following Rand brought me very quickly to atheism's logical conclusion, which I could not bear, and I happily returned to the Catholic faith soon afterward, after having been fallen away for close to 30 years.
Rand would be furious with me for this, but I feel sorry for her, and your post will remind me to pray for her soul today. I think she had an excellent mind and correctly rejected Communism and its forced altruism. Unfortunately, as he so often does, Satan pointed her nose in exactly the wrong direction. I wonder if the poor lady was ever exposed to authentic Christianity.
I read Ayn Rand in my early twenties and basically Hoodlum Shrugged. Then again, a basic understanding of history shows that most libertarian ideas are bunk. :)
I think your reaction to it says something about your innate personality, than Ayn Rand or atheists in general. :)
Of course, I am not burdened, like Jeff is, to conform to an audience's ill-informed stereotypes about atheist and atheism. :)
The Esquire list leaves some things out:
4a. Start smoking cigarettes since they are life-affirming
4b. Try to figure out how you are not a second-hander
It seems, per the previous post, that Hoodlum was able to shrug off 1,2,3 and 4, and go right to (5), where he apparently remains.
I read 'Atlas Shrugged' when I was 15, and the Randian Flu lasted late into my 20's. Objectivism is every bit as inimical to Christianity as Maoism, in that it fosters attitudes that subvert our role as servants of God. Maoism sets Man as servants of the Collective/State, Objectivism sets Man as servants to the Self.
I too came down with Randian flu - at the tender age of 14. It lasted for about 8 months - at which point I rejected Rand but remained an atheist. I had read Anthem at an earlier age and she influenced me then, but after The Fountainhead was when I realized I was feverish. The sickness became very severe when I read "The virtue of Selfishness," "The Voice of Reason", and "Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal."
My atheism all ended with my studying miracles and realizing that indeed, there was a God and His desire was for me to return to the Catholic Church (I had been baptized Catholic but raised Episcopalian before my atheist period).
My older brother, who first read Rand in 4th grade and was a devoted follower of hers until recently has decided atheism was false and the Gospels are true. Pray for him that he obtain the graces needed to persevere in the Faith as he goes for his Sacraments.
As far as Rand catching fire at any age - I think we should remember that Rand was a brilliant thinker, one of the truly great minds. She accomplished something that most writers could only dream of - she invented an entire philosophy, with metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, morality, politics. We should not be ashamed that she influenced us - in fact, it was partly Ayn Rand's commitment to reason that made me interested in the Catholic Faith - a religion, that unlike most of the Protestant and Eastern Orthodox faiths, has a centuries long tradition of revering human reason while remained solidly in Faith in Divine Revelation.
If we have been influenced by Rand - if we have been Objectivists - we should realize that it is God's grace and not our intelligence that opened our eyes. We should pray those still enveloped in Objectivism, as many intelligent souls have been snared in Satan's grasp through her dangerous - but attractive to many intelligent people - ideology.
God bless,
Peter Rowe - swam back across the Tiber in 1999-2000.
Whether one is an atheist or not (I'm not), Atlas Shrugged does point out that in a modern society there are, unfortunately, (1) a lot of people who want to sponge off of the state, (2) a lot of politicians who want to use the welfare state for re-election, and (3) a relatively small number of people whose ideas make society better off for everyone. This is not to say that even those who sponge off the state don't have inherent worth (they do), but their contribution to the common good is certainly not as great as that of the class of people who use their God-given talents.
Thing that made me realize she didn't have all the answers? When I saw a documentary on her personal life...anyone who lived in that shambles of a messed-up husband/boy-friend relationship had to be deeply unhappy. So why should I look to her for answers?
You obviously hate humanity, and like Augustine, you want man to be tortured, and are pure evil. What's next - embracing Kantian philosophy?
Rand is great, Rand is good, and oh Rand, thank you for your reason! Thus saith His Holiness Leonard Peikoff I, the vicar of Rand. (Leonard Peikoff, if you do not know, took over the Rand estate.)
This is all tongue-in cheek of course. No offense intended!
Peter Rowe - excommunicated from the Ayn Rand cult, 1999, swam across the Tiber that year.
Pray for "Objectivists", because they are truly blinded by Satan and his evil spirits.