Atlas Shrugged

In Greek mythology, Atlas was a titan who fought with Cronos against Zeus. When Zeus won, he forced Atlas to hold the heavens on his shoulders for the rest of eternity--a pretty daunting task if you ask me.* The title of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged, when taken into consideration with the whole, is absolutely perfect. It captures the essence of Rand's philosophy and puts into perspective the possible outcome of collectivism in the modern world.

Atlas Shrugged tells the story of struggling industrialists in a predominantly anti-industrial world. America, the last free-market economy on Earth, is finally hit by the storm that is collectivism, and the leaders of American industry--the presidents of its large companies--receive the brunt of it all. Innovators like Hank Rearden, who fashions the worlds strongest metal alloy, and pushers like Dagney Taggart, who unites the country with her transcontinental railroad, are criticized as being greedy capitalists who have no regard for the monetarily less fortunate community. They are blacklisted as enemies of society and go on strike in response, while their hard-fought-for businesses are practically taken over by the unintelligentsia, who, in their effort to share the wealth and put the community before the individual, end up creating a chaos, the likes of which one wouldn't wish on any country.

One of Rand's main precepts is that the mind and its creativity are the forces behind the mechanisms of the world. When the populace drives out the industrialists, they drive out the innovators and pushers, creating a sort of stand still. In other words, Rand believes that, without the minds to guide it, labor will become chaotic and unproductive and will eventually feed off itself until nothing is left. In still other words, without the mind, labor will cease to exist. Rand also stresses the importance of the individual and how the individual will do the most good for the community if he is left to do what is best for him. Once again, the industrialists are the protagonists. They are the persons who fight for individual freedom and the right to do what's best for one's self; they fight for the idea that it is in man's nature to work for incentives (symbolized by the American dollar that is backed by gold) and that, if all men simply think for themselves and work to get those incentives for themselves, they will end up doing what's best for the community. They are attacked by the people who advocate complete selflessness and the whole "brother's keeper" ideal, ideas which buddy up with the anti-thinking campaign in bringing the world to shambles.

In Rand's analogy, the industrialists are Atlas, and the world is the heavens.** She likens Atlas' shrug to the strike that the industrialists go on. If one actually imagines the world as being held up on some giant man's shoulders, one will realize the destruction that would be caused if that giant man shrugged. In her two-word summary, Rand brilliantly captures the power of the mind and industrial spirit (they hold up the world) and the messy outcome of collectivism (a shattering of man's nature and thus an end to his will to survive, which, to Rand, is to produce).

*Many people mistakenly believe that Atlas was made to hold the world, but it was the heavens that he was sentenced to carry forever.

**Rand may have also mistaken the object of Atlas' permanent torture, or she may have purposely likened the world to the heavens. According to Rand, life on Earth can be pretty heavenly for one as long as one is thinking and working for himself.