Misconceptions of Ayn Rand

It is not a surprise that all the talks about socialism and distribution of wealth since the elections and then on has led to referencing Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". Ayn Rands' work might well have been a little more appropriate for her time compared to dismally narrow view in today's context. In fact, the Republican party is sharing, or at least making a very conspicuous attempt to pretend, although unwary, all the misconceptions and narrow-mindedness of Ayn Rand.

When I first read the book when I was an undergrad, I was very impressed. But it has been a downhill since then and I absolutely do not recommend any young person who hasn't yet seen much of the world to read that book. From my own experience and its influence on some of my closest friends, I can tell with a certain degree of confidence that it can make a person (especially young) extremely cynical about the world, fill him/her with high levels of pride and ego and at the same time discouraging the altruistic nature which is intrinsic in all of us. I do have a lot to say about Ayn Rand's flawed philosophy but to keep it short, let me keep this article very specific to some of the misconceptions she has:

1.
She has a very narrow definitions of both selfishness and altruism and from her narrow prism, selfishness is one of the greatest virtue a person can have and altruism is the evil plaguing this world. I completely agree with her that there are no selfless deeds but not all selfish deeds are good. She ignores the part of the definition of selfishness with deals with the latter part. Again, she defines altruism in her own twisted cyclic way: " a good deed is doing others good" and thrashes at the concept in childish, immature and egocentric maniacal manner.

2.
She is of the opinion that any means adapted to maximize profit in an enterprise is not only moral but should be ardently pursued. This can be viewed in many ways to be psychopathic.



3.
She has a very cynical view of what constitutes a government and wants to make its role as limited as possible. Even the republican party seems to share this idea. I have grown up with the Indian government and I know how crappy government officials can be. Neither is there a need to justify the generalization to all governments and I think it is a common knowledge now. I am also very sure that many of the watchdog enterprises, the newspapers, cable tv news, pundits and many government officials themselves know the reasons why the government is so susceptible to such heinous corruption. But to confuse that with the true purpose of a government is absurd. Especially in a democracy, we have to realize that government represents and should represent us, the People. We should try our best and put our collective effort to make it better rathar than trying to eliminate it.