I was one of the few people in my town who parted with ten bucks necessary to watch the movie “Atlas Shrugged” on the big screen. Having read the reviews I wasn’t surprised that the few others in the theater were mostly older white guys like myself. Although that is not a demographic that assures box office success I was glad they made the movie and only wished that more young people could have seen it. I never read Rand in college and knew nothing about her core libertarian, anticommunist, pro capitalist leanings. She grew up under communist rule in Russia in the 40s & 50s and learned first hand the horrors of a political system that claimed to put the interests of the community above the interests of the individual. She saw how communism destroyed motivation, ingenuity and productivity and lead to a society of scarcity and despair. A big fan of American capitalism recognizing that a free market that placed no limit on what the individual could achieve was the best economic system for the common good. She saw in America not a perfect society but a society ruled by hope not despair and bounty, not scarcity. The excess goods and services produced by countless individuals seeking their own self interest resulted in more of everything for everyone. Even the poorest in America had much more the homogenized proletariat of Russia. She attributed this to what she called “The Virtue of Selfishness”.
I was in a bookstore the other night and I ran across a copy of Ayn Rand’s book by that title. After reading a few pages it became clear that she was not defining “selfishness” exactly as we do; as being greedy or miserly or as my pastor used to put it “getting all you can, canning all you get and sitting on the can”. She saw selfishness more as a rational approach to life where we focus on becoming the best that we can be so that the success and bounty we create in our own life inevitably spills over into the lives of others. Sound familiar? There are countless self help books that preach this same philosophy as do many pastors in the pulpit. But few are willing to connect it so inextricably with Capitalism and free market economy.
Ultimately however, selfishness is the way of the world. It is not a virtue but an innate characteristic. Every animal is born with a survival instinct. Baby turtles hatch on the beach and struggle mightily to make it to the sea in hopes of surviving while sea birds swoop down from the sky and gobble them up, also in hopes of surviving to feed their young and give them the energy to migrate north for the summer. When their bellies get too full they take a brief pause floating on the ocean’s surface under which hungry sharks, also driven by a primal self interest swim up and eat them from below... and on it goes. Man in his natural state is no different. No one has to teach a child to be selfish. From birth a baby cries for it’s mother’s milk and continues crying to get it’s way. As it grows it learns more effective strategies: from begging, pleading, fighting, screaming, lying, cheating, stealing, and murdering to - more socially acceptable means such as working, earning, negotiating, trading investing etc.. The techniques vary but the ends are the same: to fill one’s belly meet one’s needs preserve one’s life and the lives of those those they care about. Selfishness is ultimately doing what sustains the self. It is incontrovertible however that although not everyone benefits from the acts of selfish individuals, many do. The entrepreneurs of the past and present formed huge companies, employed thousands or workers and produced products for millions and paid countless dollars in taxes. Despite the fact that some workers are exploited, some companies are driven into bankruptcy and graft and corruption occasionally rear their ugly heads, people generally benefit from having more food, better houses and more affordable cars, . For example, Walmart although it has put countless mom and pop operations out of business does provide lower cost food and consumer goods to those who need them the most.
I agree with Ayn rand that selfishness is not quite as bad as it has been made out to be. And we need to guard ourselves against a closed mind about it. For example if your daughter calls you a selfish old miser because you don’t give her money to go out and and party with her friends, you don’t have to automatically feel guilty and give her the money because she is only going to go out to eat, drink, smoke or otherwise spend what she has not earned on her own selfish interests. She may even feel morally superior because she has convinced someone else to become more “generous”. Which begs the question; who is the more selfish of the two?
This same dynamic holds true in the interaction between liberals and conservatives. By definition conservatives are selfish because they want to hold onto (conserve) what they have earned. This can be seen in the differing attitudes that these two groups take towards taxes. Conservatives generally want to cut taxes and hold onto more of what is theirs. Liberals on the other hand want to raise taxes. Why? Because of all the wonderful social programs that money afford. Food for the hungry, medical attention for the indigent all the way up to free medical care for anyone who makes less than $X000 a year etc.. And if you listen to the debate, liberals use the same kinds of words on conservatives that children use to pry cash out of their parents. They call them selfish, miserly, stingy, cruel, brutal, all the way up to the point where they say things like “Republicans want seniors to die” “autistic children to go without medical treatment” and the ever popular placard slogan “Republicans want grandma to eat dog food.” Well you get the point. One person is calling another person selfish in order to achieve his selfish interest. The Robinhood syndrome. Steal from one group to give to another. Stealing is elevated to a moral virtue as long as the money is taken from a Republican and not a Jew or a Black.
Are there no true altruists in the world? Well there was one about 2000 years ago but He didn’t receive the a hero’s welcome one would expect. Once they discovered He was for real, His true unselfishness exposed their phony hypocritical selfishness to such a degree that they had to get rid of him. His light exposed the darkness of their souls and they had to shut it off. It’s like when you switch on the lights in the kitchen late at night when you forgot to put the food away and the cockroaches scramble. They know they are up to no good. And if they could they’s eat you they would... But that’s just too disgusting to think about right now.
So where was I? Oh yes liberals are cockroaches and conservatives are... No no that’s not where I was going with this. I was talking about Ayn Rand’s book “The Virtue of Selfishness”. I’ll confess I haven’t read the entire book and probably will never have time to but the title alone has given me more than enough food for thought as I hope it has you. Let me conclude with this. A virtue is something someone aspires to, an achievement that requires sacrifice. Man’s natural selfishness or survival instinct cannot be defined as a virtue because it just is. It is in our nature to eat to drink to satisfy our needs as Maslow so eloquently described in his hierarchy of needs. A virtue by definition requires going against ones nature. Running into a burning house to save a baby, fighting off a criminal to protect our family and yes even working our fingers to the bone to put our kids through college.
So what makes a person do something that is against his own selfish, evolutionary survival instinct? Only one thing LOVE. No not the syrupy stuff you see in the movies usually involving the exchange of various bodily fluids, but genuine love defined as “Putting someone else’s interests above our own.” That’s it? That’s love? It’s not “Never having to say your sorry” as the movie “Love Story” proclaimed? Nope. “Putting someone else’s interests above our own.” Try it out in a real life situation. Does it work in the above examples: running into the burning house? Protecting the family from criminals? Working ones fingers to the bone? Love, Love, Love. It is the only definition that will work in all the legitimate examples you can come up with. The illegitimate ones are quickly exposed by the light.
You need a Biblical example? There’s a great Bible story that illustrated this beautifully.
“Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.” (John 13:3)
Sound like anyone you know or have voted for? You see the one thing about love is this you can’t fake it. Oh yes you can fool some people into believing you are very “spiritual” “holy” and “liberal” attending to the needs of the poor with someone else’s money, but your deeds will expose you because one day you will betray true love for thirty pieces of silver and then when you realize what you have done. Like Judas you may try and give the money back but it will be too late.
When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.” So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. (Matthew 27:3)
The sad thing is that Judas didn’t have to hang himself and die in eternal regret. But sometimes we go so far down the wrong path that we don’t believe we can turn back. We believe the lie long enough and convince others to believe it to the point that we don’t have the courage to turn back or repent. We can’t admit that we are the selfish ones, we are the liars, we are the cheaters we are what the Bible rightfully calls: sinners. “I am a sinner.” Have you ever said that? Judas never did. He was too proud. He was too self righteous. “A whitewashed grave full of dead things.” as Jesus put it. If you have never admitted that you ARE a SINNER you are unfortunately in the same category as people like Judas. He even partied out with Jesus but his heart was dark, cold and dead. He put on a good act of caring for the poor but he was a thief in his heart.
Ayn Rand didn’t believe in “Original Sin” She believed that everyone was borne as a blank slate with the capacity for sin or virtue and that the a properly educated rational person would always chose virtue. Why? Because virtue was ultimately in his best interest. Maybe if she had lived longer she would have realized what king Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived concluded: “Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.”. There are no truly virtuous persons. If selfishness is born into us like an instinct it is the same thing as original sin. I have never met a sinless person. I have met people who are a whole lot better than me but compared to Jesus who was tempted in all ways as a man yet without sin died to pay the penalty for the sins of people who hated him. Nope I’ve never met anyone like that. Never met anyone liberal, conservative or libertarian who didn’t need a savior.
Though I find a lot in Ayn Rand’s rationally deduced conclusions to applaud, there is one thing that the rational mind will always reject. That IT is part of the problem. The ego that powers it and the pride of life that it engenders are not sufficient to save us. In fact they are its biggest opponent. “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” 1 John 2:16. The ultimate reality is that this world is passing away. It is but a blip on the radar of eternity. Yes there are liberals who would steal my money and give it to the poor and feel morally superior to me by so doing. There are libertarians like Ayn Rand who would sleep peacefully at night if they could abolish 90% of the government and tell me to fend for myself in a world of equal opportunity but not equal outcome. And there are conservatives who would just be happy if they could hold on to some solid ground in a world whose values are constantly being torpedoed by pop icons like Lady Gaga. But in a moment all of them will be gone. The curtain will be drawn. The sky will be rolled away like a scroll and all mens theories and self righteous achievements will be laid bare before a creator who sees mens hearts. Our greatest accomplishments will be like dust in the wind. And only those things done out of genuine love by God’s spirit in us, for an eternal purpose, will survive into eternity.
