Atlas Shrugged, I Chuckled...

I am posting this in Graduate Education because it so directly tied in to my other class this semester.

As is the case most mornings, I found myself yesterday listening to NPR on my daily commute to the office. As the following story began I started chuckling and my partner gave me that odd look she gives me when I react to a story on the radio. I suppose this could be a telling comment about me, given that I often have reactions (and sometimes conversations/arguments with) to the radio. I was able to quickly remember that she was in the car and keep my comments to myself, for the most part.

For those of us in 761 this semester who engaged in numerous discussions concerning theoretical frameworks, perspectives and paradigms, it was truly interesting to have Ayn Rand’s ‘Objectivism’ explained in terms of the current (and past) political climate in the United States of America. Perhaps it is the time and space that has passed since our class, or perhaps it was just how the story was presented, but I was able to view ‘objectivism’ and the other theoretical frameworks a little differently, and with a lot more clarity. (In many ways the segment was a brilliant and expanded example of the policy exercise we participated in surrounding guns on campus from the perspective of the various frameworks)

The story consisted of segment’s from Rand’s 1959 interview with Mike Wallace. Rand's comments were played and then overlaid with statements from today’s political leaders that echoed or mimicked her ideas. Her comments fit directly into the current debate concerning regulations, freedoms, and incentives for job-creators. Her interview could have passed as a sit-in host for Rush Limbaugh blasting the Occupy Wall Street movement and the current state of the economy.

In Atlas Shrugged, which Rand considered her masterpiece, the wealthy corporate producers are the engines of the American economy, but they are constantly stymied by invasive legislation and terrible government regulations.

This idea that Boehner put forth in a recent speech before the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., could have come straight from Atlas Shrugged.

Businesses, Boehner said, need to be set free. Instead, "they've been antagonized by a government that favors bureaucrats over market-based solutions. They've been demoralized by a government that causes despair, when what we really need is to provide reassurance and inspire hope in our economy."

Boehner uses the language of slavery when he says, "We need to liberate our economy from the shackles of Washington."

The story presented a new way to consider the debate about America today and the perceived crises and their causes. It clarified the competing perspectives that the collapse was caused by increased taxes and regulation or was caused by the deregulation of a variety of industries. While the story did not answer the big questions, or in any way end the debate about the current situation with economy it did present and remind me of another way to view politics and theoretical perspectives and frameworks. It was a reminder that we rarely name things clearly and academically in politics or in life. I encourage you to listen to the story and let me know what you think.