Learn Something from Everything
Eighty years ago, on May 8th in 1943, Ayn Rand published her great work, The Fountainhead, a novel presenting her own philosophy of ‘Objectivism.’ Rand explores individualism vs collectivism – and the struggle between free-thinkers and those who rely on others to think for them. In 1957, she went on to publish her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged – exploring the consequences of great thinkers becoming shackled by government oppression.
She rejected any notion that self-sacrifice and helping others is the ideal of morality. She taught that accumulation and ownership of wealth as the personal reward for one’s endeavors is the sole purpose for one’s existence – the very opposite of Adam, our main character who discovers selfless-service as his true purpose.
Rand’s philosophy is not what we profess in our books. Yet we recognize Ayn Rand as a master of her craft, a true artist whose way with words must be appreciated. When it comes to governance, we can learn from her strong and well-presented opinions. Her successful integration of philosophy, politics, and economics with the cause-and-effect events of her stories influences how we write the political and governance parts of our books.
Ayn Rand’s urging of capitalism over communism was directly influenced by the theft of her family’s businesses and private property by communist Soviets. We fully agree with her that governments should play a very limited role in our lives. But, we are in violent disagreement with Ayn Rand as to the source of our gifts and her denial of our responsibilities to share with others. We differ 100% with Rand's rejection of self-sacrifice and helping others as the ideal of morality.
We write that our ultimate purpose is selfless service to fellow human beings. In Adam in Taoland, our hero strives to convince political colleagues to choose individualism over collectivism. Both Adam and Ayn Rand experienced human degradation under totalitarian rule (in his youth by AI, in Rand’s case by the Russian oligarchs). In the second novel of our trilogy, Homeland Rescued, Adam and Tariana lead a bloodless revolution guiding Novanians to reject dependence on AI and seize individual liberties instead.
We believe that learning is a collective endeavor and that we should seek out and learn from those with differing opinions. In the end, we decide for ourselves – and then do our best to promote our values for the good of humanity.
