Atlas Shrugged: Part 4 - Cultural Impact

Hello!

To hopefully conclude my posts on 'Atlas Shrugged' I thought I would look at the cultural influence Rand's text and ideology has had on the world and the pop culture emerging after.

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/im-ellsworth-toohey/?_r=0 

Rand's work has been seen as a calling card for a generation of libertarians, unfortunately with many taking them literally. The call of 'Who is John Galt?' a key calling in the book has been adopted by many in the Tea party as a call to bigger industry and small/non-existant government.

Cultural behemoth 'The Simpsons' has had numerous references to Rand and 'Atlas Shrugged' in numerous ways;

'“Conservatives only get more conservative because each year they get a little further through Atlas Shrugged.”

The importance of Rand's influence can't be denied, if you agree with her work it's enlightening and a penny-drop moment. If you don't agree with it, it's infuriating and a terrifying moment where you believe others will believe this. To me, one the of the greatest deconstructions of the text is the 2007 game 'Bioshock'.

BioShock, a critically acclaimed 2007 video game, is widely considered to be a deconstruction of Atlas Shrugged. The story depicts a collapsed Objectivist society, with the player learning of how it fell apart after the fact. Significant characters in the game, such as Atlas and Andrew Ryan (a play on the name Ayn Rand), owe their naming to Rand's work. When asked about the influences for BioShock, the creator of the game, Ken Levine, replied, "I have my useless liberal arts degree, so I've read stuff from Ayn Rand and George Orwell, and all the sort of utopian and dystopian writings of the 20th century, which I've found really fascinating."

https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Atlas_Shrugged#cite_note-75

Whilst not only being an incredibly immersive and entertaining game, it's a very clever and critical story, heavily engaging players in topics beyond simple gun-play. The beauty and grandeur of an actual Altantis city beneath the seas, and the hell for the people inside. Rapture, the game's location is a perfect mix of the critique, beauty and chaos an objectivist society could create.

What do I think of 'Atlas Shrugged'? It's interesting, whilst not the most engaging story, it does have passionate ideas and interesting approaches to the potential of the individual and their agency. However, I can't read it wholly without critiquing it heavily on its problems, including the lack of any empathy, compassion and human rights.

Thanks for reading!

AT