Atlas Shrugged: An important early event in the novel is the destruction of the Phoenix-Durango. What factors make its destruction possible? How does this issue relate to the meaning and theme of Atlas Shrugged?
To Transcend Reason and Enter the Heaven of Bliss
The biggest authors, thinkers, and philosophers often commit the worst mistakes. Vast sections of the people who follow these experts often suffer, because of mistakes in the theories, or philosophies. . Ayn Rand is a gifted novelist, but she is a half-baked philosopher. From an imperfect philosophy, perfect characters cannot emerge. Most of her characters opt for unconditional surrender with arms and ammunition, at the same time as they choose to fight and engage in action. The hurdle they refuse to cross is the use of reason. Is it a myth or reality to transcend reason?
Ayn Rand says, “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”(Atlas Shrugged) Her assertion in the concluding part of the statement is not only fallacious, but it is dangerous. Nevertheless, the characters that participate in destroying the Phoenix-Durango ably support her philosophy.
Before we come to the Phoenix –Durango destruction part in the novel, we need to review the construction part of the psyche of Ayn Rand. During her high school years, she observed from close range both the Kerensky revolution (she supported this) and in 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution, which she denounced. To be escaping the revolution her family moved to the Crimea, where she finished high school. When the Communists won, her father’s property was confiscated, and they nearly starved. They immigrated to the United States and Ayn Rand became greatly interested in American History in her senior year in high school.
The experience of starvation must have created a deep impact on her impressionable mind, which reflected in the shaping of her philosophy. Conciliation was not part of her approach and as such, she neither loved, nor expected to be loved by society. She reveled more in destruction than in construction. Her experiences left scars on the inner layers of her personality that made her selfish. This can be seen when, one of her important characters in ‘Atlas Shrugged, Dagny Taggart, makes a curt statement, “I’m not interested in helping anybody. I want to make money.”(Rand, pp29).
Apart from the Church that has been doing what it has always been doing all over the world, for the inner reconstruction of an individual, no major philosopher has had a powerful impact on American society. Ayn Rand’s philosophy of objectivism has made a few dents here and there however, any philosophy that stops at the mind and reason level will face insurmountable roadblocks ahead. Her thoughts may appeal to the combustible younger generation for some time however, such pessimistic ideas cannot endure.
Rand states “Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it,” (Atlas Shrugged,). Undoubtedly so, But which truth she is referring to? Truth as perceived by her until the time of her death? Well, it is her individual truth, because she stops believing further to the mind level. Mind is the final frontier for her on this Planet Earth. The act of experiencing (entirely different from believing) the eternal truth is not a continuous process. Such an experience is instant, and one can experience that state, only when one crosses the mind-barrier.
The first reference to Phoenix-Durango railroad comes in Chapter 3, Section 1 when a dramatic scene is created. Four white-collar dacoits (those who are out to commit economic crimes) are seated in a lowly cellar, actually a bar room, on the top of a skyscraper, to discuss and evolve a top-level plot to topple their business rival. The not –so gentlemen are James Taggart, Orren Boyle, Paul Larkin, and Wesley Mouch. They are about to hatch a conspiracy to block Hank Rearden, who is riding the success tide as for his Reardon Metal. Boyle wants Taggart to pull strings at Washington to regulate the distribution of iron ore, to starve Reardon for the raw material required for the products of Reardon Metal. The barter deal is that Boyle agrees to get the National Alliance of Railroads to drive the Phoenix-Durango railroad out of Colorado.
The working of the minds of the persons involved can be judged, from what transpired amongst them– “It all depends,” James Taggart, answered slowly, “on the people who make it possible…That’s what has to be known – who makes it possible.”…..”When everybody agrees, when people are unanimous, how does one man dare to dissent (Rand, 49). For the sake of selfish interests, people will drag the targeted individual as the sacrificial lamb. Buttering men in authority and responsibility to gain quick monetary gains has become one of the important items of the ‘balance sheet’ for most of the business tycoons and brokers of political power.
Reardon is a confused individual. The attack on his business interests has come from the most unexpected corner. “What did they seek from him?” Thought Reardon “what were they after?” He had never asked anything of them; it was they who wished to hold him, they who pressed a claim on him – and the claim seemed to have the form of affection, but it was a form, which he found harder to endure than any sort of hatred. He despised causeless affection, just as he despised unearned wealth” (Rand, 42). The inevitable happens. The National Alliance of Railroads passes the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule, which arms them with the powers to dictate the operations of the railroads. The railroad with seniority gets precedence in a competitive area to eradicate dog-eat-dog competition. The rule is drafted by Orren Boyle, the objective being to drive out Phoenix –Durango out of Colorado. So, no more competitors for Taggart Transcontinental! This is the concept of the Sanction of the Victim, as elucidated by Ayn Rand.
What will be the fate of James Taggart, after his death? How will the law of divine retribution work as for him? (Ayn Rand, however, does not believe in such interventions).He has his expectations about the eventual divine entry, and he has kept the wads of dollars ready with him for any eventuality, even in the celestial world! “When I die, I hope to go to heaven – whatever the hell that is – and I want to be able to afford the price of admission” “Virtue is the price of admission.” “That’s what I mean, James. So I want to be prepared to claim the greatest virtue of them all – that I was a man who made money”(Rand, 94).
Rand’s explanation of the four factors of Objectivism include, Metaphysics: Objective Reality, Epistemology: Reason, Ethics: Self-interest, Politics: Capitalism. Because reason is the terminal point of her philosophy as for the above four factors, Ayn Rand fails in spite of her great strides in the world of literature. For the caravan marching behind her, it will be sand, sand, and sand dunes again, with no hope of oases. Her philosophy is often shallow and lacks definition of several of they key terms, this creates difficulty when one is trying to develop an understanding of Objectivism, and therefore an understanding of the themes of Atlas Shrugged can only be applied to daily life in a limited and rather useless manner.
