Why Ayn Rand appeals only to Youth...
March 13th 2008 15:41
I have always been a big fan of Ayn Rand, her works and her philosophy. While this does not automatically mean that I am practicing what she preached, I do believe that most of what she had down as her principle was right.
I have been thinking about this over the years. Ayn Rand's Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged always get picked up by college going kids and teenagers all the time. These works fire up their minds, fuel their imagination and paint brilliantly hued pictures of the future and their parts in it. Many have been the vehement arguments that a rabid Rand fan uses to pull another believer into his/her ranks in school/college. But what happens when these young believers move out of school and face life?
It is as if many soaring air filled balloons get pricked and are reduced to mere husks on the ground. Many in their late 20's and 30's are thoroughly disenchanted with Ayn Rand and move over to other 'well grounded' systems of thought - Existentialism, anyone? I keep thinking - why is that?
Well, lately it has struck me that the explanation has been right in front of my eyes. Or so I think. When we are young we are unaffected by the realities. We are all idealists and we hate pragmatists. Give us a cause to believe in and we would automatically become evangelists par extraordinaire. Ayn Rand's works and her underlying philosophy beckons us, convinces us that we are somebody. Not just any somebody either - that we are our own men. That we have the power to dream and to make good on those dreams. That it is nothing wrong to succeed. That there is no need to fear failure. That we can keep everybody happy only if we are happy ourselves.
We go out to the meet the world armed with these heady pictures of the world along with ideas about our roles in it. 9 times out of 10 reality bites. Everything is not what Rand led us to believe it would be. Ideals do not win you battles - heck, they do not even get you noticed, leave alone earn you money. So how can Ayn Rand know anything about practical living anyway?
'Practical' is the word that resounds to us. We want to be practical, we abide by things practical and we follow only what sounds, looks and is practical. Is it any wonder then that Ayn Rand steps aside to make way for Bertrand Russel or Sartre?
How nice it would be if we carried our idealism through our life? Maybe not in an in-your-face way? Maybe in an isolated pocket of our mind - in a place where it can be summoned at will. Would Ayn Rand appeal to us then - I wonder.
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Comment by Lynn Smythe
The Pagan Path
Freelance Online Work
I Love Herbs
I reread one of them a few years ago (I'm MUCH older now) and wasn't overwhelmed. Still a good read. But back when I first read them it was a mind altering experience - but maybe I was smoking dope back then so who knows!?!
I did not turn out to be the ruler of the universe - DANG IT!!!
I thought I still had a copy of the Fountainhead lying around the house but now I can't find it.
Comment by Balachandhran S
Tricolour Prism
Lynn,
Thats precisely what I was trying to angle into. Ayn Rand seems to have a way with young minds but when 'reality' sets in we tend to think of her ideas as, well, harebrained at best.
I, for one, think that her ideas are, more than anything else, idealistic. And our perspective changes as we grow in life. When we are young, the possibilities seem to be endless. But when we grow older, negativism in the name of practicality sets in. So, no surprise as to why a second reading makes it all see so different!