Atlas's shoulders sagging

The teenage mind is newly capable of exploring ideas on a broader philosophical plane. So like many youth I explored several "isms" and concepts asserting (and removing) meanings of life, including an Ayn Rand phase. It faded by college. Needs must with a minor in philosophy; there are so many other avenues of thinking to explore before one can forge his own.

So what is all this local and legislative hoopla about "Atlas Shrugged?" The lengthy book was one of the Russian-born author's two bestselling novels (the other was "The Fountainhead"). Of the two, the epic Atlas Shrugged was certainly the more controversial from its publication in 1957 through today. That alone is reason enough to read it.

The setting of the novel is "the day after tomorrow." Within its pages America is in crisis, especially politically. Government is corrupt and business is the puppet master. The citizenry are at their wits' end.

Remember Atlas from Greek mythology? He carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. The novel's Atlases are the intellectuals, impliedly as is the author, who saw herself suffering as a developed thinker in an inanely underdeveloped world.

Rand's fictional intellectuals disappeared. In life she withdrew from the collectivist and mystical post-revolutionary Russia, where her family had been persecuted, and fled to America where she believed one could think individually and freely, be different. Through the controversies her work engendered here she found that while individualism was nominally celebrated, being an atheist and existentialist/objectivist (mere existence is primary; values aren't derived from thought) was not.

The pressure to conform plagues all human society.

"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." - Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"

While today a political faction carries Atlas Shrugged as a banner - in Idaho via legislation to mandate its study in schools - this is just the sort of fame the basis of which Rand preached against. Criticism of one's government, absolutely.

Government forcing any single philosophy, even her own, never.

If legislators now wish to set reading lists (usually determined by school boards), perhaps they'd consider a list of novels of varying and opposing philosophies - how enlightening for young minds that could be. To be encouraged to study many ideas, religions, and philosophies, to be encouraged to think broadly, critically, to question exhaustively until one can form one's own beliefs?

Priceless.

Sholeh Patrick has degrees in law and international studies with a minor in philosophy. Contact her at sholehjo@hotmail.com.