“Atlas Shrugged” to restore ideals of the Founding Fathers ? Really?

In the last two-blog entries, we discussed Ayn Rand's books and the statement of Senator John Goedde of Idaho, who chairs that State's Education committee in that state. It is notable when he suggests that all students in order to graduate need to read Ayn Rand's “Atlas Shrugged”. He claims it made his son a good Republican. Yaron Brook, ARI's director said that every student would benefit from reading that book; it would restore the ideals of the Founding Fathers. He claims: this book is a hymn to the ideals of individualism, capitalism and the free human mind.”

Therefore, we need to examine whether or not the philosophy and ideas in this book truly could restore the values of the Founding Fathers.

First, Ayn Rand is an atheist and started objectivism, a philosophy which leads to ultimate selfishness. (Do not take my word for it, read the books and research the Ayn Rand foundation website.) Many of the Founding fathers were religious and respecters of the Bible. Biblical teachings, then and now, try to prevent selfishness and excess of some, while others suffer from lack. At the time, the Founding Fathers existed and wrote the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution, the Bible was an important book read in most all households. They were among those who were considered privileged and therefore were taught to read. In the Declaration we read: 'We hold these Truths to be self evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.' “Equality does not come from those who govern; instead it comes from the Creator God and is revealed in the work of his design.”¹ In Rand's book, “Atlas Shrugged” man is no more than a ‘collection of chemicals with delusions of grandeur’.  Also God to her is a ghost in heaven. I personally do not see any similarity here!

When we read the Constitution in comparison to the Declaration, we see no obvious God language. However, it reveals underlying religious values. “Evidence of a biblical worldview in the Constitution is the underlying belief in the depravity of men and women.”² Out of that view, a nation emerges with a government, which has built in checks and balances to counteract the 'evil tendencies of men.’ Washington asserted, “human depravity could ultimately destroy the Constitution, even with the checks and balances.”³ He also added the words: 'So help me God' at his inauguration.

In “Atlas Shrugged,” Rand’s characters speak against sin and depravity, for that matter in Galt's monologs; we will find criticism of the Genesis account of Adam and Eve, claiming that Adam was a mere robot. She is implying sin and depravity do not exist and all of it is fraudulent. Whether or not we believe in depravity, we can see that Rand's and the Founding Father's philosophy do not coincide.

Samuel Adams had a Master of Arts degree, was a great politician, an unsuccessful brewer and a poor business person. He does not fit the profile that Rand would support. Being a good politician, he would have been suspect. Cosignee of the Declaration Charles Carroll was a Catholic, the only Catholic, again someone Rand would not support. Now amongst some theologians George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin are considered Deists. What does that mean? “A Deist does believe in the existence of a Supreme being who is regarded as the ultimate source of reality and ground of value but as not intervening in natural and historical processes.”⁴ The uninformed ideas that deism and atheism are the same is absurd. Hence the Founding Fathers have nothing in common with the atheist Rand. As we can see, the Founding Fathers were a mixed bag and no particular worldview or party can claim their philosophy is closer to that of the Founding Fathers.

It is my notion that someone's religious upbringing and biblical teachings cannot be disengaged from politics or their job. We all bring our worldview with us, even if state and church are legally separated. It can never totally be separated even if a person is attempting on purpose not to engage in religious talk. Since the biblical teachings were important at that time, then even if they do not appear in the Constitution, they would have influenced the drafting of that document. Another religious influence is seen in “Baptist pastor John Leland from Virginia, who had enough political clout to influence James Madison to pursue aggressively an amendment guaranteeing religious liberty.”⁵ Political scientist Lutz demonstrates that the Bible was the most frequently quoted source between 1760 and 1805.⁶ No surprise there, children learned reading and writing based on biblical texts. If the Founders philosophy was biblically based, how Ayn Rand’s books, in particular Atlas Shrugged, restore the Founding Father's values to us is questionable. In considering, it is contrary since she regards God and scripture as dark mysteries at best, all imbedded in the language of her characters. She promotes in her novels that work, production and making money are important. True work and work ethics are important no one will dispute that. However, she calls making money a virtue. Moreover, anyone not able to do so is a looter and scum. What about handicapped or mentally challenged persons; Do we call them looters too? Would Rand just shoot them? In the Bible the love of money is described as ‘the root of all evil’ (1 Ti 6:10 NRSV). It certainly is never regarded as a virtue in the Bible. Jesus told the parable about the farmer who builds barns to store all his grain only to be called to heaven. What use was it to him then? (Lk 12:16-21, NRSV).

The Founding Fathers were highly educated. They were entrepreneurs. In addition, they had to fight for survival and some were more successful than others were. This is a determination which I suppose has something in common with Rand.This was not an easy country to live in at that time. However, in most cases
it was their faith that got them through. When John Adams proclaimed that only educated men should be in government, it was no surprise since the illiteracy rate was quite high. However, that does not justify us now to assume that only people who have money, since we think that only people with money have brains, should run for office or even become elected. Things have changed; most people now have a descent education and not always a lot of money. However, currently only wealthy individuals are able to afford to run for office, or. they put pressure on politicians and lobby for their interests.

There were many contradictions found among the founders of this nation. For that matter, James Madison objected to the policies of the secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton who had come up with plans that would line the pockets of the wealthy northerners. He found those plans detrimental to all other people. Many of the Founding Fathers had slaves. Continuing to look back we find that Thomas Jefferson was also a controversial figure. On one hand, he believed in the natural right of all human beings but he had slaves. He was a champion to the common people but also a man living in luxury. He believed in limited government but he was a president who expanded governmental authority. He was a quiet man who hated politics and at the same time, he was a dominant political figure. George Washington, even though intellectual found that “much of the knowledge he would use the rest of his life was through his acquaintance with backwoodsmen and the plantation foreman.”⁷ Those men were certainly not by Rand's standards the most successful. Yet Washington found their acquaintance very useful. John Hancock one of the signees of the Declaration of Independence was the son of a Minister. Looking further, we find that Hancock’s father baptized John Adams. Young Hancock was a successful businessperson. He inherited his uncles business and with it the slaves. However, through the will left by his uncle all slaves were freed. So how do we restore the value of the Founding Father without considering these schizophrenic tendencies?

How a bunch of billionaires who declare himself or herself superior to everyone else in Rand’s “Atlas shrugged,” can be compared to the Founding Fathers is a stretch for me. Rand writes clearly on the premises that government is corrupt and incompetent. She also writes that the masses are stupid and that only those who can make money have a brain. She promotes “compassionless wealth, or unrestrained capitalism” ⁸ In unrestrained capitalism contracts go awry, fraud is rampant, big shark companies buy all the little ones inhibiting healthy competition and the environment is disregarded and selfishness is rampant. Does that sound familiar? I think by exposing schoolchildren to Rand’s books we are not helping our country, which is already tilting to the side of greed and selfishness and other quite scary tendencies. Although it is true that our Founding Fathers were just human beings, they were doing the best they could at their time. What was right then in some aspects is not necessarily right now. We should do our best at our time. Trying to bask in nostalgia and set the clock back to a time, which is very different from ours, and try to base our current political situation on that life style, can be detrimental. This is particularly true if we use means that never has been meant for that purpose, such as Rand's philosophy. Besides, her philosophy comes from a Russian experience. It is as if we are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole just so we can make our point or manipulate others to a certain political viewpoint. I think there are times when less government is needed, and sometimes there are times when more government is needed. We may not always be able to choose.

As we see with Goedde, politicians hope to use education again to indoctrinate the public. That is not acceptable. One of the worst examples of this are the American Indians. They were forced into boarding schools, forced to study English and the ways of the white man because of being considered inferior or weak in the way of their lifestyle and belief. Now we want to force moneymaking and unbridled Capitalism combined with an atheistic philosophy on those who are deemed weak at the present. We are trying to do it under the pretext to restore old values. Those who are currently deemed weak are those who are poor, the working middle class and those who believe in a God which seems to be sheer folly to this new and selfish mind frame.

The United States was created because a people tried to escape government oppression. Do we need to be careful and be on the watch to avoid oppression; Always! It is not government oppressing people, but the wealthy. This is done when rich promote the claim that it is people who are at fault because they are poor. The oppression will only get worse if Rand’s philosophy rages through schools. Because we teach our youth the poor and unfortunate are looters instead of in need of compassionate help, myths are being spread. These myths are that the poor are lazy, incompetent takers and are just mindless. Yet, those who spread the myths are the ones who enrich themselves on the backs of the poor and defraud people with scams. It is not just the small conman but rather the trillion-dollar conman Russel King, or the Maddoffs, who take advantage of so many, and cause great ripple effects. They may be smarter than everyone when it comes to money, but they certainly do not have the morals to judge any other man. I would hope that a Senator such as Goedde, before he suggests a reading to youth, would actually have the decency to read the book himself. However, if he did, then I am even more concerned! These books are harmful to our youth. The indoctrination these books are supposed to be supporting is not acceptable. How will we respond?

1Dr. Mike Stallard, The Biblical Basis of the United States Constitution, at http://our-hope.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Biblical-Basis-of-the-United-States-Constitution1.pdf; pg 1.

2Dr. Mike Stallard, The Biblical Basis of the United States Constitution, at http://our-hope.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Biblical-Basis-of-the-United-States-Constitution1.pdf; pg.3.

3Dr. Mike Stallard, The Biblical Basis of the United States Constitution, at http://our-hope.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Biblical-Basis-of-the-United-States-Constitution1.pdf; pg.4.

4David A. Pailin, Deism, in “The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology”, ( Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1983), 148.

5Dr. Mike Stallard, The Biblical Basis of the United States Constitution, at http://our-hope.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Biblical-Basis-of-the-United-States-Constitution1.pdf; pg.8.

6Http://candst.tripod.com/tnppage/arg9.htm

7Http://www.biography.com/people/george-washington-9524786 (accessed 3/17/13)

8Http://www.faithfacts.org/christ-and-the-culture/the-bible-and-government

(accessed 3/17/13)


© 2013 Angelika Mitchell