Article: The book that had the...

The book that had the most profound effect on me, as a college student in the early 1960s, was Ayn Rand’s "Atlas Shrugged."

In her futuristic, dystopian novel, Rand posits a world where government bureaucracy is sapping the energy, talents, and initiative of the world's movers and shakers, and the world economy is grinding to a halt.

Rand, of course, was a refugee from the Russian Revolution, and "Atlas Shrugged" was an imagined extension of what she'd seen happen in her homeland.

To me, the near-future world of "Atlas Shrugged" was frightening because it seemed so plausible, given the world as it already existed.

A striking difference between "Atlas Shrugged" and most other dystopian novels of the period, such as George Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm," or Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," is that Rand's heroes and heroines are truly heroic, and her book is a call to action that says, "The world does not have to be this way - we can make it not happen." And, in fact, "Atlas Shrugged," and her other great novel, "The Fountainhead," spurred a philosophical movement called Objectivism, which, in a nutshell, is anti-emotionalism, anti-collectivism, and anti-altruism.

As a young man who was then contemplating joining the Peace Corps, Rand's philosophy seemed at first completely contrary to what I believed - or what I BELIEVED I believed - and did not sit well with my Catholic upbringing (Rand herself was a devoted atheist) or with my idealistic feelings that I should be doing something to make the world a better place.

But Rand's idea of making the world a better place is for each individual to take care of himself and not be a burden on the rest of society. This philosophy appeals to the American trait of rugged individualism - but not to American idealism.

I don't totally buy into Objectivism, but I believe it has subtly influenced how I think about society, culture, politics, and government, all of which get a good thrashing in "Atlas Shrugged."

Reprinted from PW Book Life.com (www.pwbooklife.com).