‘Atlas Shrugged’, a visionary work describing current global struggle

There are, I am told, two important rules about writing book reviews.

The first is that any book reviewed must be a newly released book. I am going to break that one. The second is that the reviewer must be able to summarize the essence of the book in ten words or less. I am going to ace that one.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand was first published in 1957, more than 50 years ago, but its themes are chillingly relevant today. Ayn Rand was a Russian Jewish writer born in 1905 in St. Petersburg. She was a witness to the turbulence in Russia before and during the communist revolution.

Based on Rand's experiences, she latched on to America as the model of freedom. In 1925, she left Russia for a “short visit” to relatives in Chicago, and never returned, ending up in Hollywood as a screenwriter, writing both films and Broadway shows.

Atlas Shrugged was Rand’s fourth, and most successful, novel. It has been praised, trashed, adored and banned. This long, and often ponderous, novel is the story of an America in decline, where industrialists and business are reviled and punished by a dark government claiming to be benevolent, but revealed as hopelessly dogmatic and greedy for power.

The main protagonist, Dagney Taggert, is a successful, no holds barred railroad executive, the Chief Operating Officer of Taggert Transportation. Her love interests form a major part of the flow of the novel, against a backdrop of a government out of control.

The governments of the rest of the world have been taken over by communists and are called “People’s Republics.” As a result, the world economy is tanking. In the U.S., a secession of ever more repressive laws are passed in an effort to prevent the U.S. from sinking into the economic quagmire.  The first such law, the Equality of Opportunity Act, seeks to lessen the negative “dog eat dog” characteristic of capitalism. As things progress, a Unification Board is established to enforce an equality of result on all businesses.

Against this backdrop, one prominent industrialist, Hank Reardon, invents a new steel alloy that is five times stronger than steel and less expensive. Critics are certain that the new metal will not last and are aghast when Taggert decides to use the new metal for its rails and even builds a large railroad bridge out of Reardon Metal. In a dramatic move, Reardon and Taggert ride the first train to cross the bridge. After the bridge survives, the demand for the new metal is strong, so the government begins dictating who can buy the new metal. Reardon refuses to comply, and is tried for his “crime.” He is found not guilty after he makes a dramatic statement to the court.

Throughout the first part of the book, the phrase Who is John Galt? is used as a new idiom to mean What the heck? or Who knows?, but we do not actually see Galt until two thirds of the way through the tome.

As the government continues to tighten its grip over the economy and business, things worsen. To stop the rapidly degenerating economic situation, the government passes a law intended to freeze things as they are. No one can hire or fire anyone without Unification Board approval, or raise or lower prices. Inventors like Reardon are forced to give up the rights to their patents, because of the “national emergency.” Industrialists begin to mysteriously disappear, never to be seen again.

Dagney accidently discovers a hidden valley, protected by a high tech ray that conceals it from the outside world. In the valley, she discovers this is where the missing industrialists are hiding, denying their skills and knowledge to the “looters” in the outside world which is rapidly crumbling. In this utopia, she also meets and falls in love with John Galt. After she returns to the outside world, unable yet to give up on it, she defies the government.

The turning point of the novel occurs when, during a staged media event, Galt interrupts the broadcast and delivers a rambling three hour speech on his philosophy, which captivates America. From this point, the book begins to resemble a Brad Thor novel, replete with commando raids, torture, armed uprisings and other mechanisms found in military novels.

Needless to say, communists and liberals have been highly critical of Atlas Shrugged because of Rand’s advocacy of rugged individualism and celebration of free enterprise. Liberals call her philosophy “selfishness,” but followers praise it as objectivism, an acknowledgement of the power of the rational mind over the gross materiality of politics. Rand asserts that there are a relatively few individuals who are the inventors, the innovators and create the prosperity for the nation. Everybody else, the majority of people, lead the life of parasites, living off the innovators. Without the business leaders to create prosperity and competently manage industry, society comes apart at the seams.

Reading the book is chilling because of how closely it describes the current global struggle. A world economy in decline, socialist European nations crumbling under impossible debt, a decidedly anti-business government, and dishonest politicians pandering to the lowest urges of the masses, ignorant of the implication of their misguided policy.

At the outset of this review, I promised to summarize what Atlas Shrugged is about in ten words or less, so here goes. It is what a second Obama term might look like.

I highly recommend this book, but be forewarned, it can be transformational.

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 (Book Review by Gene Retske/Sept. 15, 2011)