'Atlas Shrugged': Ayn Rand laughs; the rest of us weep

"I will stop the motor of the world."

With those words, a charismatic hero was born. John Galt, the mysterious character at the heart of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged," decided that he could not stand idly by as the nation put on chains and fetters as if they were party favors.

Today, more than 50 years after the novel was written, Galt is offering hope to many Americans who see the country on a slow but steady slide toward socialism. As we talk about the government takeover of General Motors, it is educational to remember that the fictional Galt rose up out of the ashes of another car company, the Twentieth Century Motor Company, which like GM, ended up in bankruptcy.

The allegoric lesson of Twentieth Century Motors is much more instructive for the country as a whole, however, than for another automaker, because it is about how "hope" and "change" can motivate people to make choices that lead inevitably to "despair" and 'stagnation."

A former worker at the plant, now a lonely tramp, tells the story years later of how the workers let themselves be inspired by the company's new owners to work for the common good. "They told us that this plan would achieve a noble ideal."

Yes, a noble ideal, a way to help each other, something no one could possibly oppose. But there were few details on the table when the company's workers were asked to vote on their future, just these vague promises and a few catchphrases on which to pin their hopes.

"None of us knew just how the plan would work, but every one of us thought that the next fellow knew it. And if anybody had doubts, he … kept his mouth shut - because they made it sound like anyone who'd oppose the plan was a child-killer at heart and less than a human being."

And so the workers voted overwhelmingly to follow the new plan, which would mean that no worker would fall through the cracks - everyone would take care of everyone else. "We thought it was good," the tramp says wearily. "No, that's not true, either. We thought that we were supposed to think it was good."

And so begins this experiment in "modified" capitalism. As the worker explains it, "The plan was that everybody in the factory would work according to his ability, but would be paid according to his need." Of course, in the long run, "modified capitalism" turns out to be socialism or worse, and as Rand points out with brutal logic, it leads inevitably to a system that encourages laziness and lying and punishes success.

The tale of Twentieth Century Motors is one small sliver of "Atlas Shrugged," but on virtually every page of the gargantuan novel, there is some bit of wit or wisdom that presages the mess of the current era.

The 'shrug" of the title tells it all. It is a symbol of indifference, but also a symbol of frustration, and a telling representation of the tremendous power wielded by the talented individual such as John Galt. Atlas, the great being on whose shoulders rests the world, finally gets tired of being taken for granted, and up-ends literally everything with the slightest of gestures.

Likewise, "Atlas Shrugged" tells the tale of a handful of innovators who struggle to survive in an era of big government and corporate greed, and seem doomed to fail, until one man - Galt - dares to change everything. Rand said the idea came to her during a phone conversation when she asked a friend, "What if all the creative minds of the world went on strike?"

Few prophetic novels get everything right, and "Atlas Shrugged" gets plenty wrong, but Rand's image of recession-weary America as a nation sputtering toward collectivism and running out of intellectual steam is so familiar to observers of the current scene that her excesses and errors are easily forgiven.

In particular, her ability to lampoon government intervention in business is deadly accurate. Time after time, Congress passes laws in the novel that are trumpeted as necessary for the common good, but which ultimately weaken society in unexpected ways and enrich only a few (those whom Rand characterizes as "looters"). It is almost scary how much of the villainous agenda of Rand's novel would fit perfectly well into the world as envisioned by readers of the Huffington Post.

The "Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog Rule" passed by the railroad industry gives the National Alliance of Railroads the authority to protect established railroads from new competition. The theory seems to be that the established company has only limited resources and shouldn't have to stretch itself thin by defending itself against fresh and innovative competition. This is great if you care about protecting established companies, but not if you care about providing the consumer with the best service and prices.

It has to remind you a little bit of the government's takeover of GM. Pity poor Ford Motor Co. which was the only one of the Big Three automakers in the United States that was healthy enough to pass up government bailout money last November. Now, instead of owing money to the government, they actually have to compete AGAINST the government (the new owner of GM) selling cars.

Supporters of government intervention, of course, say they are doing what is necessary to clean up after the horrid capitalists who mismanaged their companies into bankruptcy, but that fails to acknowledge the fact that the American economy is far from capitalism. It is instead what Rand called with unfeigned disgust a "mixed economy" - namely, a mix between freedom and regulation - and it is the government's own policies which lead inevitably to economic failure.

The latest real-life government intrusion being plotted by the "looters' in Congress is to force the health insurance industry to jettison the basic principles under which it operates in order to once again serve the "common good," or as Rand put it, "a noble ideal." This suggests a basic misunderstanding of the principles of liberty and equality. "Equality of opportunity" is the God-given right that our Constitution is supposed to protect, but instead our government has decided to ensure "equality of results' and is willing to bankrupt us all to do so. In its wrong-headedness, at least, it is reminiscent of the "Equalization of Opportunity Bill" from "Atlas Shrugged," which forbids any one person or corporation from owning more than one type of business concern.

One disastrous result of that bill in the novel is that companies which had planned on expanding must instead shut down their older, still viable, operations in order to be able to expand into much more prosperous new ventures. Thus, when companies, following the logic of the Equalization of Opportunity Bill, start closing their factories on the East Coast in order to move to the West (Colorado is the symbol of American resilience and energy), Congress is suddenly enlisted to try to correct yet another unintended consequence. This time, there is demand for a Public Stability Law that would forbid companies from abandoning their current territory for a new one. The argument is that people have a right to expect jobs that existed yesterday to continue to exist tomorrow. But no explanation how Colorado is going to get the equipment, factories and jobs it needs while the government is propping up foundering industrial dinosaurs elsewhere.

Rand's vision of the economic madness of government "do-good-ism" culminates in Directive 10-289, which mandates that everything must stop where it is. The order doesn't just freeze wages and prices; it also forbids workers from changing jobs without permission from a federal board. It halts new product development (too confusing) and makes the U.S. government the keeper of all intellectual property as a means of ensuring that no one takes advantage of anyone else. Needless to say, with the government in charge of everything, chaos ensues.

These are just a few of the touchstones of "Atlas Shrugged" which resonate as pure prophecy to an audience that has lived through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Perhaps that's why the book is more popular than ever, and why "Going Galt" has become a symbol for our time of resistance to over-regulation.

Critics were merciless in mocking Rand's magnus opus when it appeared in 1957, but 50 years later, as her worst fears are realized, it appears to be a bet certain that Ayn Rand will get the last laugh.

n Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake and writes a weekly column. E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com