I Thought You Were an Egoist

When I read the last sentence of Atlas Shrugged, I felt struck with the full force of the novel. The journey Ayn Rand has led us on has been strenuous, intense, and completely unusual, but in the end it is as if we have achieved what the characters have achieved, simply by accompanying them on the journey they have taken. The level of detail and imagery of the book brings us into the world of Dagny Taggart and John Galt; they are characters I am sure most of us will never forget.

The impact of the novel is earth-shattering. It is the kind of literary work that has the potential to shift a cultural paradigm and to completely rewire a mind. It gives readers the energy and spirit that they are certainly all searching for. Its message is profound; no one should work for the happiness of anyone but himself. No one should surrender his values to the needs of anyone else.
We work for ourselves and only for ourselves.

Galt's three hour speech can be a tedious read, but the fundamental messages are ones important to the whole of humanity. They are the messages that all our lives we have been taught not to know.
Since our birth, we have, in essence, unlearned everything that makes us human.
In today's society, selfishness is heavily frowned upon. Success is condemned, and the successful hated. The men who do not share their money or feel pity are seen as inhuman, disgusting, and evil. 

Last summer, I read a book called The Psychopath Test, which made the disturbing claim that psychopaths are the most successful people on Earth. The book stated that psychopaths are those who have immeasurable charisma, and a stunning incapability to feel emotion. It is precisely for this reason that they climb the rungs of the ladder of business. They step over others for the sake of themselves and do not have a care in the world for the people who deserve pity.

The characters in Atlas Shrugged are not psychopaths; they are the highest form of a human a person can hope to be. There is, however, a parallel to be drawn between the way the public in Atlas Shrugged perceives Dagny and Hank, to the way in which our society perceives the selfish and the psychopathic. More than once, I have heard successful people branded as emotionless, sick, and twisted. It is as if not feeling pity for certain people classifies a person as not being capable of pity at all.
Hank Rearden's family criticizes him for not showing love, yet they do not feel the need to care for him in return. They want his attention and support without deserving it.

When a person refuses to help another, the public finds it disgraceful. They claim it has always been a man's moral duty to help others. Atlas Shrugged makes us question this notion; should we help a person who does not deserve to be helped? Do we need to waste time and money on the people who refuse to live at all?

The characters in Atlas Shrugged do not lack emotion; in fact, they feel far more emotion than the average human.

What sets them apart are their fervent desires to live.

When Galt sits trapped at the hands of the men in Washington, Thompson asks him, "Don't you want to live?" 

Galt replies, "Passionately".

It is this passion and ability that renders these characters the most hated people in the world. Instead of trying to be like them, the public resorts to condemning them in hatred for what they can never achieve.

In order to progress as a society, we must reject the notions of success as a sin. The origins of these values lie centuries ago, when the first commandments of religion were created to control the masses. Feeling guilt for pursuing that which gives one pleasure is self-induced torture.
Relying on laws that were set centuries ago is pure delusion.
I read a book a couple of years ago named The God Part of the Brain. It claims that every civilization that has ever existed has developed religion for the sake of self-preservation.
What separates humans from their fellow animals is their ability to be self aware. This consciousness makes them capable of acting to seek their own happiness, but it also allows them to seek self-destruction. With self awareness comes the ability to look to the future. This ability also grants humans the insight to understand their eventual fate of death.
A species that comprehends its eventual death has no reason to go on. Each member will destroy himself, or they will all destroy one another. The book I read claims that the propensity for religion is a trait selected as all traits are; through natural selection.

Religion has become a tool to reassure humans that what they achieve is not pointless and that the end is not really the end. It is, in truth, a means of self delusion to prove that A is non A.
We must think further than that. We must come to terms with our fates and make the decision to live while we are alive.

In order to find happiness, we must reject those who try to control us. It is the only way we can break free.