Stranger than "Atlas Shrugged"

Ever see that movie “Stranger than Fiction”? The main character (played by Will Ferrell) is going along living his life when all the sudden he hears a women’s voice narrating everything he does. He later finds out that he’s actually a character in the book she’s writing. Well, I may not be hearing voices or anything, but it sure feels like I’m in a book sometimes, especially as a conservative. The country, the world, the economy, etc. are all starting to look like the world of Ayn Rand’s "Atlas Shrugged." And it’s not just because the economy is going under and jobs are disappearing, but it’s because liberal elitists in this country are pushing more than ever the idea that self-interest and selfishness are the same thing. And sadly, many of my friends are accepting this.

Sitting around with some of my co-workers (who also happen to be young college students) a few months ago, we were talking about this very subject. They were railing on capitalism and saying that greed and selfishness had caused it, as if it were a plague. They were saying how evil capitalism was, and I interrupted one of my friends to point out that in virtually everything she had already done that day she had interacted with and benefitted from capitalism—from the clothes and shoes she was wearing and the books she was studying to the building she was sitting in. I couldn’t believe what she said next: “Well that’s the crappy (she actually said something else, but I won’t repeat it here) part about it; you can’t get away from it.” I was stunned. Most of my liberal friends get pretty mad when I insinuate that they are anti-capitalism. Usually, they’ll say something like, “I just think humanity and compassion needs to be a bigger part of the conversation when it comes to social policy.” They’ll usually back down and refrain from admitting they are against capitalism, whether they are or not. I guess I at least have to respect my friend’s honesty here. It’s just sad to watch so many people accept this.

Contrary to what they may think, Self-Interest is actually a good and righteous thing. It is a good and righteous idea that people are and should be responsible for their own physical survival and improvement. Individual people know what is best for them in all aspects of life. Sure, freedom and responsibility come with challenges, some of them very difficult. But, the principle of doing what is best for yourself and consequently of knowing that you have a significant amount of control over your life is empowering, in the long run. It’s not something you should have to apologize for.

I should never have to apologize for paying for and enjoying a sandwich from subway or loving the feel of newly purchased shoes or enjoying riding around in a new car. All by themselves, these are good things that far from being condemned (simply because some people don’t accept the responsibility that comes with freedom and choose to either pay for things they can’t afford or make materialism too high of a priority) should actually be celebrated on their own merits. We should celebrate the fact that as Americans we do have control over our lives and destinies.

Again, self-interest is not selfishness. In fact, people generally categorized as selfish in our culture, who in this context are absorbed in immediate material gratification and who sometimes ditch their faith or families for worldly pursuits, are not doing what’s in their own self-interest.

I have no moral qualms over condemning material excess or suggesting that people have a duty to help the poor monetarily. My faith and even my, contrary to popular belief, political ideology support this. So, why won’t more of my friends stand up for the principle of self-interest? It’s a principle that they utilize on daily basis and, more than they probably want to admit, actually enjoy the freedom to do so. The fact that anybody should even have to explain such basic economics, such basic principles that our country was built on and that have made America and the rest of the world great since then is pretty sad. It does indeed make our current world stranger than the fictional world of Atlas Shrugged. It’s stranger because we’re actually seeing these ideas played out in our own non-fictional world today.