Continuation of Thursday's discussion

Camille Kelleher

After Thursday’s discussion about the similarities between our government and Atlas Shrugged, I read with a certain mindset and filtered for points in the book that furthered the parallel. There are random endeavors by the officials in both mediums during times of distress, disbelief and outrage. I’m glad to share with the people who are reading my post that the Senate has just passed a resolution that the upcoming week is now “National Chess Week” and that Obama wasted an interview with the AP weighing in on a heated debate about whether or not the NFL football team Washington Redskins should change their name. As usual, his opinion was vague and noncommittal. In Atlas Shrugged, the Washington elitists engage in random and frivolous endeavors when the laborers are suffering to even continue their work, as described on page. 858. In both mediums, the government’s trivial decisions are frustrating and incredulous.

Another parallel between both mediums is the loss of intrinsic motivation caused by handouts and subsidizations. On page 845, Rearden distinguishes between the type of people who have destroyed the world and the people who suffer to survive in a destructive world, “We’re helping producers- and what tenacious producers!- not lousy, mooching ‘consumers.’ We’re giving loans, not alms, We’re supporting ability, not need.” I think that the initial purpose of government handouts and subsidizations was that they were temporary safety nets during unavoidable difficult times because humans are imperfect and they will mess up. However, handouts and subsidizations have become an income for too many people that cause them to an aimless and reckless life. In Atlas Shrugged, the government encourages people to not take responsibility over their actions and to not develop opinions and goals for themselves. Altruism has been shoved down people’s throats and it’s the only mean they know how to live by. The people who succumb to societal trends and blame government regulations for their own inefficiency have become so common that it surprised Dagny.

Dagny notices the decay of her workers when she issues directions to fix the standstill caused by the broken light control system. Like with other business negotiations, Dagny has to assume total responsibility when she breaks government directives and rules but now she even has to break societal conventions that stemmed from unambitious people. On page 871, Dagny gets responses of shock when she tells her workers that they will use lanterns and manual labor to direct trains, “Oh, you thought that your tools would determine your ideas? But it happens to be the other way around- and now you’re going to see the kind of tools your ideas have determined!” She is instilling the idea of intelligence back into her workers. Dagny is rewinding the time back to when human labor was effectively simpler and without distractions. The US government needs to stop using the “shutdown” as an excuse, blaming the other party, and start making decisions that relieve citizens of destructive philanthropy and encourage people to use their intelligence to gain their own wealth.