(Feb 02, 1905-March6, 1982)
(ok guys, this post is going to be a little different from our usual Birthday posts and the reason…it’ll become obvious when you read it! Let me know what you think )
Ayn Rand can best be described as a hurricane who forced a lot of people to not just move out of the comfort of established norms and think, but to read as well. I, too, was not spared. The moment I picked up “The Fountainhead”, the force of her creativity and ideas were unleashed on me; the book shook me and yet it marked the arrival of a new dawn; her philosophy lit my soul. Her projection of Howard Roark, the main protagonist of the novel, is not just ideal but beautiful. Beautiful because it leads every reader to believe that he has a Roark hidden deep within him or her. A Roark who time and obligations have smothered. A Roark that is somewhere struggling to come out. Rand’s question is simple: how can you be sure of something if all you have done is to blindly follow the hordes ahead of you?
Ayn Rand developed her widely acclaimed theory of Objectivism and propagated it through her books, essays, and lectures. She was a reclusive rebel right from her childhood, far superior to her mates in intelligence. While leaving her native country Russia in 1926 for America, she cried out loud to her family “By the time I return, I’ll be famous!” This was the intent of a twenty one year old who abhorred the concepts of communism, Fascism, Socialism and Welfare state and desperately hoped to breathe in a liberal atmosphere. Through her works she has shown support for Laissez –Faire Capitalism and Individual Rights. A firm critic of the hypocrisy of the communist regime, she never returned to Russia. Moreover in America she got a level platform to promote her philosophical views uncurtailed by any dominating force or threats.
The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are the most notable novels written by Ayn Rand. Often supporters of the two novels can be seen arguing, each maintaining that one or the other is indeed her best work. In such discussions, I have normally found that whoever reads whichever one first, things it to be the best. The underlying philosophy of both the novels is, after all, the same. We The Living, Anthem and The Virtue of Selfishness are her other acclaimed works.
“Civilization is the progress towards a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men” Ayn Rand
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