“Contradictions do not Exist.” (Zane Mandell)

It is done. The world has seen its ending and it is time to rebuild. John Galt and Dagny seem to lead the charge to bring humanity to the place they believe it should be. But looking back on this novel, what have I learned? What have these thousand plus pages shown me that have enlightened me? I have found I have been duped in such a way that I felt I have wasted so much time. Ayn Rand is herself a contradiction. Yet as she has said through the mouth of Francisco that contractions cannot exist, a premise must be wrong and therefore it is not possible. So let us look at the primary premise, Ayn Rand believes that government is the root of evil, the root of our problems, everything about it is wrong. I can agree that government is inefficient and it has its faults, but it is necessary for the way that humanity has chosen to live. In a post-industrial world we need government, all of us do, at one point or another there will be a time that you need a service of some kind that cannot be provided to you through just the money you have. Whether it is a nice space in a public park or medical care for your deteriorating health, the government will have your back, because you have already paid into the system.

To the point, Ayn Rand believes we should bury the idea of government six feet under and forget where we dug the hole. Ayn Rand, under her married name Ann O’Connor, husband of Frank O’Connor, accepted money from government welfare programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Well if that is not a contraction, then I need to relearn the English language. Therefore one of my premises must be wrong. Were both the things that I have previously stated fact? They were, and if you don’t believe me, then please look it up, the internet is at our finger tips. The internet is a product of our government. The internet is something we all use and take for granted. If the government did not get money through taxes to fund themselves (in this case the internet is a product of the military), how would I have been able to post something on this thing we call the internet for you to read right now? If you believe the words and not the actions of Miss Rand then you would assume that the goings of business would lead to this service that we now all take for granted. But think about it, the internet itself makes no money. While it is certainly a tool by which money can most certainly be made the initial idea does not take this into account. The original purpose and function of the internet was communication, something that could previously be done by phones, television, or telegrams. Why would business create a product that would only solve something that had already been solved? Business would not, business does what is best for it and most economical. Sure they may experiment and try new technologies; no business would even have the man power and capabilities of the United States Military. Yet there is a business that could be such way, a business unfettered by a government, one that grows so big, it is bigger than the government we have today. Except this business acts only for the betterment of itself, not those using whatever it may be that it produces. Imagine a business that had the power of our military, is it not scary enough that a government that we can trust with this military has that power. This would be a power larger than our government that answered only to money, not people and justice, just money.

So go ahead and make the path of a dollar sign in the air, be my guest, but think about that other world. Our world may not be the best world but the alternative is much, much worse. It would be anarchy with struggle between big businesses, crushing any hope for the little guy. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were little guys once, IBM was the giant. If there was no government to protect these two men’s rights IBM would have squashed them like flies. Competition may be more productive in business but once one side gets the upper hand it wants to eliminate the competitions, this is how it works. But if you don’t believe me on this alternative stuff then I have a quote I want to recognize. Winston Churchill famously said in a House of Commons speech on Nov. 11, 1947: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Unfettered business has been tried; look at the slave trade and the collapse of the economy in the early 1930s. What brought us out of those things? The Government. Business had run amuck and government was able to create laws protecting human rights, government also put us into a war that revitalized the economy and brought to a post WWII society stronger than ever.

"Contractions do not exist." This has grown on me throughout this lengthy novel. Ayn Rand hit this nail right on the head. And it applies to everyone, even herself. An absolute is an absolute. If you believe that Ayn Rand would have stood by her philosophy that was shoved down your throat throughout this novel, you may want to think again.