Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

My Rating: 9/10

You know, there are those times in your life, when you need to just pull back and think.. Re-evaluate your life and all that it entails.Well, 'Atlas Shrugged' came into my hands at just such a time.

“If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - What would you tell him?"

I…don't know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?"

To shrug.”

Doesn't that describe the whole theme beautifully?

The world is run by those who are the most capable, and yet they are the ones who face all the criticism of those they help through their achievements. Contrary to popular concepts of good and bad, Ayn Rand preached individualism. She asked everyone to achieve everything for themselves, to be selfish. Because only when you satisfy yourself can you be happy! Only when you put in your best efforts can you create opportunities for others. Do your best, and the world should be yours, right? But Rand pointed out, in this world, if you work for yourself, you are blamed. You are called selfish. You do not have the right to work for yourself, to make yourself happy. Instead you are taught to do everything for others. And that way, neither are you satisfied, nor are they for whom you act. You are taught to give to those who need it the most. But who decides whose need is the most urgent? Some very valid questions put forward by the author indeed!!

I do not completely agree with her views. Because, you see, the world is not just black and white. There are so very many shades of grey in between. You cannot classify everything as good or bad. It is a mixture of both. Always. So, if you do everything for yourself, it is not necessary that you are doing a great job! It is possible that an altruist may be doing the world more good than a businessman is!

So then, why am I rating this book so high? Well, because it made me think. It made me re-evaluate my ideas, my life, my views. When I was smaller, I used to think that I have this view of life, or that. And I am so right, this is never going to change. As I grew, I realized that change is the only constant of life. We change, our ideas change, our views expand, and that is how we grow. So I grew with Rand. She definitely made me realize that selfishness may really not be so bad. In fact, at times it is necessary. I might go so far as to say that it helped even in my personal relationships. You see, the fun of a book is not always in agreeing to it completely, but also in being able to dissent with it and come up with our own ideas.

Rand's philosophy, so well testified in this work, is definitely not mine. But it is mind-opening, like all philosophy. The book will always remain right on my shelf, to be perused again and again, whenever the mood is contemplative and the weather is moody.