Achilles Last Stand

It’s taken me 23 years but I have finally done it ... I have read Atlas Shrugged! I was told ahead of time by some that it was a decent book but long winded at some points, and by others, that it was tediously boring. I found it to be one of the better books that I have ever read, and despite being 1070 pages of some of the smallest print I’ve ever seen, I had trouble putting it down. I will admit that John Galt’s 60 page speech was a little much, as it was heavily philosophical and took me a little bit to get through. Nonetheless, I absolutely loved it all.

While reading this book, I think I came the closest I’ve ever come to crying while reading a book. When she described working, and the joys associated with creating and building and putting in a hard day’s work and being a producer, it made me feel a sense of admiration for the great men of the past who designed and labored to build the world around us (which is really amazing when you think about it). When she described the fall of New York, the decay of the world, and the senseless and lazy attitudes of many of the looters, I felt anger, frustration and disgust. I’ve always valued work but I’ve never really been able to put it in the terms that she did. I’ve idolized many of the most prominent men in history, men of science and industry, art and literature, men who used their skills to create new ideas, theories, structures, machines, etc. In them, I see the potential of man, when given the natural talent and an unending desire to work and to create. That idea of accomplishing something, and not just stopping, but continuing further, is at the heart of every explorer and inventor who has ever lived. These are the men who’s stories I’ve heard over my life and who exploits have driven my goals and dreams. But I’ve also known the other men of her story first hand. I shall jump into a story if I may (of course I may, this is my blog). During the summer of 2005 and 2006, I worked in a unionized truck factory in my home town. My father worked there as well, and I was eager to impress him and to show that I could do a good job. While I worked there, I thought of different ways that could potentially increase efficiency while limiting waste and making the factory a more enjoyable and profitable venture. I don’t know if they would have worked but I thought about it nonetheless. However, as my time there increased, I found it increasingly difficult to work, as well as an increasingly more depressing place to be. Since it was a unionized factory, and I worked on the assembly line with other workers, I was present for large amounts of union rhetoric, which in a general and simplified form equates to “do the minimum amount of work not to get fired, take every advantage to sit down, and bitch to the union rep about everything”. I liked doing my work. I enjoyed the feeling of going in and earning my money through manual labor. I liked learning how to do things, how to use tools, what tools were called, etc. I also didn’t like my breaks. I found they made the day go slower, and as I was on the assembly line, I wanted to get a bit ahead so that I wouldn’t be too rushed while the line was moving, so that I could do a better job. Instead, if I was ever caught working during my break by a unionized employee, I was told to stop working and sit down. They were telling me not to work. They also tried to tell me how the company owed them. Now I propose the question: what does any company owe its workers? It owes them something of value (money) for the work they put in. That’s it. It doesn’t owe any worker a job. It doesn’t owe any worker more money then it feels like paying. It shouldn’t owe the worker overtime hours, increased overtime pay, a ridiculous retirement pension or anything else. Yet that’s how a lot of workers felt. It sickened me and I disliked working there, not because of the work but because of the “looter” attitude that many people had.

Something that I have had to confront since having finished Atlas Shrugged is this: Am I a looter? I don’t mind doing a hard day’s work for money. I don’t usually complain while I do it and I try to do my best while I work. I try to be respectful of my employers and try to ensure that I earn the money they are paying. That being said, I am a lazy person. When it comes to my own work, I’ve been a slacker to this point. People congratulate me on graduating from university, as if it is some major accomplishment. Yet, I didn’t do too much work until then end, and operated far below my potential. I still found it easy to do and don’t see why people should be so quick to congratulate me. Since then, I have done work on my master’s thesis, but far less then I could have. I have tried to get financial grants when I felt that I didn’t deserve it. Ultimately, I aspire to be like the producers of the novel (albeit not as fantastical, as Rand paints them as supermen) but I feel more like a looter or a moocher, preferring to follow instead of lead. I wonder, therefore, whether recognition of being a looter is enough to alter it and become a man of production, and whether I have it within me to become greater than I am?

I will need to think more about this, as well as, read more Ayn Rand (and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, as Justin has told me to). I’m sure there will be more posts in the days to come.

(Song title - Achilles Last Stand, from Led Zeppelin's Presence ... so magical, and Achilles is greek and Atlas is greek ... I know it's a weak connection but I can't think of any good songs to link to Atlas Shrugged)