The Atlas Society: It’s all about creativity in every capacity
John Stossel is a regular at the yearly Atlas Society events, which is a large group advocating the Objectivist views of Ayn Rand’s work in philosophy. You can see Stossel’s speech from the 2013 conference below. One thing that jumps out at such events is the large number of people who are involved from all levels of society. If this event were directly compared to a recent Ohio Education Association meetings of a same general type, anybody would conclude that the Atlas Society members were much better prepared for life, had vastly more intellectual capacity, and were generally better people in virtually every category. However, the OEA is much more widely known and accepted in political circles where the Atlas Society is still considered a “fringe” group, but this is changing rapidly.
I am not a group oriented person. I avoid them like a plague—even those where I generally agree with the participants, I quickly become disenfranchised when too many people are in association. The reason is not that I dislike the people; it is that I value my individualism to a greater extent. Group associations are corrosive to personal authenticity so I avoid them. Objectivists are closer to my personal epistemologies in virtually every category except for their position on drugs, personal relationships, and religion. Objectivists are more likely to be sexual swingers which is not something I find attractive. So there are issues where my values do not completely align with Objectivists, but in many more ways than not, they are best positioned to represent my general philosophy.
Ayn Rand essentially was advocating for the freedom of the human mind to be creative without the restriction of group oriented psychological anchors. In business, to her, the activity of an entrepreneur was a creative enterprise that had great value and most groups–socialists, governments, hoards of second-handers imposed themselves into that important attribute destroying production. Being productive is what Objectivists are all about, productive in the way they cook their food, make their money, even how they maintain relationships—everything is centered on productivity. Productivity in this case is the creation of something new whether it is art, a material item, or even an ideal.
Contrary to this is most every faction of human existence where the goal is to avoid productivity. Group oriented activity is all about sharing burdens so that one does not have to go it alone—and in that process individual productivity is lost. This is why such group associations are essentially evil—because they hamper individual creative input. In my life I create something in virtually every hour of every day. I typically get up at 5:30 every morning and I go to bed often very late. In those waking hours I am creating, whether it is for business, art, philosophy, or personal growth—I am always looking for ways to create. One of the most despicable moments for me is when someone comes to my door wanting to sell something—not because I don’t want to buy Girl Scout cookies from the little girl down the road or hear a sales pitch from a representative of a local church—it is because of the lost time robbed from me to be personally productive. While I’m standing on my porch listening to someone else’s needs, I am not being productive, personally—and it bothers me. Without shared values to unite people in such a conversation, I will always come away emptier than I began while the other party will leave filled and I will have also lost my productive time.
I have spent hours upon hours alone and closed to my thoughts being productive and been quite happy because the enterprise was not so much to get a pay check, or have someone else recognize my value—but in conducting my life as an individual contributor to my own authenticity which is fulfilling in itself. Only people at the Atlas Society understand these traits. The local teachers union has no comprehension of these things. They are simply parasites off the tax payers. The local firemen have no idea about such things because their entire existence is built of personal sacrifice. The local church has no idea because they are built off sacrificing this life for the next. The local business has no idea because to them everything must be sacrificed for the greater good of the company. The unifying theme of all these groups is the term, “sacrifice.” It’s the old notation left over from our Neanderthal past that something must be given up so that something can be created and this just isn’t the case.
Creation occurs from a free mind. It is not something that can be concocted by force as government believes. There are no kings, queens, college professors or figures of authority who can use force to “create” anything—whether it be a work of art, a magnificent novel, a painting, or a business. The more rules that government creates only serves to destroy creativity in the human spirit. It does not “create” fairness, it only limits creativity.
This is why the only organization that is really doing the right things for the right reasons that I can see is the Atlas Society and those similar attempts to take the work of Ayn Rand and take the next step. The people in that room with John Stossel, and the people who are involved with the new Atlas Shrugged films, and the site Galt’s Gulch are truly pioneers in a time where all the elements of oppression are aligned against them. They are literally on a new frontier of human thought which can be a scary place, but it is good to see that they are up to the challenge and facing the tribulations against creativity with a boldness that will become the headlines of future folklore.
Rich Hoffman
