Ayn Rand is one of the most famous intellectuals of the twentieth century. She is also wrong. The writings and philosophy of Rand are, in the old-fashioned way of referring to things, heretical. She denies the existence of God. She takes upon herself the Devilish task of raising up man into a god of his own to replace the throne she tries to empty.
Ayn Rand was born in Russia and emigrated to America during the early 20th century. She was well-educated, acquainted with the study of philosophy. Through the course of her education, Rand developed a philosophy of her own called Objectivism that she expressed through her writing, most of which was fiction. Atlas Shrugged, the source for the above quote, is one of the most popular novels of its century. In her novels, Ayn Rand examines the relationship between the individual and the state, and man's actualization of his own existence. She concludes that the "right" way to live is wholly for oneself, that there is no greater value than the individual and the mind.
Like most lies, Rand's philosophy contains some shreds of the Truth. Lies are only perversions of Truth, they can never be wholly original. To a certain extent, Rand's emphasis of the value of the individual is a good thing. The aggregation of mankind into statistics and Volksgeist is just as bad as his arbitrary godhood. We must never lose sight of the importance of each and every soul in the eyes of God, what Rohr calls "immortal diamonds." Concern for the "working class" but not for the worker himself is the great hypocrisy of socialism and liberalism. Rand reminds us of the inherent importance of the individual self through her unequivocal rejection of collectivism.
But Rand goes too far. She makes the world the altar of man. She exalts an imperfect creature as God's replacement. Her mistake is that of the Ancient Greeks who modelled their gods after exceptionally flawed human beings. Rand is wrong because she denies the existence of God. She places sinful man on a pedestal that is far too high. She rejects the concept of altruism, of compassion for our fellow men, of living "for the sake of another man."
There is certainly an appeal to Rand's work. The quote from the beginning resonates with a lot of people. Especially in the corporate monotony, people want to hear that they are special, that they are something more than their income or social security number. Rand's words are those of the snake in the garden or the tempter in the desert. We become inflated with pompous imaginings of self-reliance and transcendence that turn out to be nothing but an illusion.
"No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main."
Above is an excerpt from "No Man is an Island" by John Donne. It is very fitting to counter the illusions conquered by Rand. Life is not the way Rand paints it. We cannot only be concerned for our own affairs. Rand says that "His own happiness is man's only moral purpose." She is wrong.
When it comes to our age of lies, they often come in pairs. Rand revealed a world of self-aggrandizement and fantasy where the only good is the happiness of the individual. At the same time, the Communists revealed a world where the individual is absorbed into the state and simply becomes a number, where "fraternity" really means anonymity.
Neither is the world that Jesus revealed to us. "A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you," (John 13:34.) And Jesus did not love us with vague, disinterested humanitarian feelings. He did not love us as a charity. He loved US. He loved each and every "immortal diamond." He loves us in spite of the fact that we are not perfect. We are made perfect through him. Jesus Christ taught us to live our lives for the sake of another man. It is far too easy to see statistics and not people. It can be far too easy to satisfy our consciences with a check or a protest or a meme instead of with a heart and a prayer.
"As I have loved you." Jesus love us so much that he died for us! He died on the Cross for us! There is no greater love!
For too long, the teachings of Christ have been put down to merely social instruction. Jesus was not asking us to create a world of forced equality where that equality becomes as meaningless as the individual. He was not asking us to try to reduce the poverty in the world simply to get rid of a number, a statistic.
Jesus did not ask us to exalt ourselves. He told us quite the opposite, actually. "And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted." We are great through our humility and love, not through our pride.
This is the Truth that Rand misses. She does not see the light of love of Jesus Christ. She only sees the light that souls reflect from God. She mistakes that brightness for being that of the individual. She tries to say that the Moon is its own light while all the while blind to the brilliance of the Sun.
Deus Volt!
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