Researchers have charted cultures as falling along a continuum with several variables, including individualism versus collectivism, which includes the degree of support for and emphasis on individual goals versus common or collective goals. Most of these same researchers place the U.S. and many other Western nations on the “individual” side of the continuum.

“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life,” wrote Ayn Rand in the Appendix to Atlas Shrugged, “with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”

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Rand promotes the philosophy of “objectivism” (or rational individualism), which asserts there are objective standards of truth. She has become the intellectual center for the economic/political/social philosophy of libertarianism, which guides her to construct a bifurcated world of one-dimensional characters in her novels.

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On one side, she presents the noble, rational, intelligent, creative, inventive, self-reliant heroes of industry, music, the arts, science, commerce, and banking (the “makers”) who wage a noble battle for dignity, integrity, personal and economic freedom and for the full profits of their labors within an unregulated “free market” capitalist system.

On the other side, she portrays the “looters” or the “takers” represented by the followers, the led, the irrational, unintelligent, misguided, misinformed, the corrupt government bureaucrats who regulate and manipulate the economy to justify nationalizing the means of economic production, who confiscate personal property, who dole out welfare to the unentitled, the lazy, and in so doing, destroy personal incentive and motivation, resulting in dependency.

Rand terms welfare as “unearned rewards,” while she argues for a system of laissez-faire capitalism separating economics and state.

Rand bristles against the notion of collectivism, of shared sacrifice and shared rewards. Rather, she argues that individuals are not and should not be their brothers’ and sisters’ keepers; that one must only do unto oneself; that one must walk only in one’s own shoes and not attempt to know the other; that personal happiness is paramount; and that one’s greatest good is what is good for oneself rather than for the greatest number of people.

In other words, Rand paints a world in which the evil and misguided takers wage war against the noble and heroic makers.

The doublespeak of “liberty” & “freedom”

Many authoritarians appeal to the concept of “populism” in the service of a xenophobic nationalism. Populism encompasses a range of political stances emphasizing the idea of siding with “the people” against the so-called “elite” and can exist on the political left, right, or center. But right-wing populism co-opts the term and juxtaposes nationalist and nativist aims. We have clearly witnessed this bait-and-switch form of populism during this Trumpian epoch.

The so-called libertarian battle cry of “liberty” and “freedom” through “personal responsibility” sounds wonderful on the surface, but we have to ask ourselves as individuals and as a nation: What do they really mean, and what are the costs?

We must first cut through the coded xenophobic, racialized, heterosexist, cissexist, ableist, and classist language.

Often when politicians use the words “woke,” “Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI),” “Critical Race Theory,” “LGBTQ+,” “transgender,” “poor,” “welfare,” “inner city,” “food stamps,” “entitlements,” “bad neighborhoods,” “foreign,” “illegal aliens,” “culture of poverty,” or “cripples,” they tap into the anxieties of many white, heterosexual, Christian, able-bodied males.

Though white people comprise the largest percentage of current food stamp (SNAP) recipients, 37%, the common stereotype depicts Black people and Latinx people abusing the system. In addition, “personal responsibility” has become the catchphrase to justify cutting benefits from people with disabilities, older people, and those who have fallen on hard times and need assistance.

Rand and those subscribing to her philosophy would rather blame poverty within our communities and low achievement in our schools on the “cultures” of those suffering from these social inequities. This “cultural deficit model” detracts us from interrogating and addressing the enormous structural inequities pervasive throughout our society, which these libertarians would have us multiply if we were to follow their lead.

So-called “social issues” become wedge issues to attract people to a particular candidate. But when middle- and working-class people vote for these candidates, they essentially vote against their own economic self-interests.

Donald Trump and his puppet master, Elon Musk, use these contrived social issues to relentlessly dismantle government agencies and institutions while purging literally hundreds of thousands of civil servants.

They do this for their own political power and economic enrichment and to open the way for their continuance of massive tax breaks for the ultra-rich (“makers”) of industry and finance. Their conceptualization of the “takers” covers many of the very people who bought into their fraudulent “populism” and are now literally paying the price.

Most government workers are not the one-dimensional, self-serving hypocrites Rand, Trump, and Elon Musk would have us believe.

In addition, so-called “laissez-faire” (free, uninhibited, unencumbered, and unregulated) capitalism is not the bromide for a prosperous economy or for freedom and liberty for the individual, as Rand argues.

Ragnar Danneskjöld, Rand’s so-called moral crusading pirate and symbol for “justice” in Atlas Shrugged, quite tellingly expresses Rand’s true purpose: “I’ve chosen a special mission of my own. I’m after a man whom I want to destroy. He died many centuries ago, but until the last trace of him is wiped out of men’s minds, we will not have a decent world to live in.”

Hank Rearden, one of Rand’s “righteous” industrialists asks: “What man?”

Danneskjöld replies: “Robin Hood… He was the man who robbed the rich and gave to the poor. Well, I’m the man who robs the poor and gives to the rich – or, to be exact, the man who robs the thieving poor and gives back to the productive rich.”

The social contract

The theory of a social contract developed as far back as ancient Greece. Though iterated, reiterated, and reformed by numerous philosophers and public figures, the foundations of this social contract stand on the premise that people live together in community with the agreement that establishes moral, ethical, and overarching political rules of behavior between individuals, groups, and their government in the formation of a civil society.

A violation by any of the signatories – individuals, groups, governments – jeopardizes the very stability of that progress toward a fully civil society.

We witness politically conservative figures either refusing to sign this contract, or for those who may have previously etched their names, reneging on the terms and stipulations. They abide by the motto: “That government is best that governs least.”

Under the second Trump regime, however, they have reframed this motto to: “That government is best that governs not at all.”

MAGA politicians and the White House don’t care about or trust progressive politicians who are taking decisive countermeasures to inhibit this administration’s relentless march toward autocracy.

MAGA politicians don’t care about the social, economic, and physical health of the nation. They are attempting to guarantee the health of the owning class, and in Randian terms, the “noble makers” against the interests of the “looters,” the latter of which comprises the majority of the people.  

Like Rand, the current crop of MAGA politicians believe in the notion of ruthless individualism and selfishness – society be damned.

They are attempting to kill the Robin Hoods in our government, from the Department of Education to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The days of wild West rugged individualism, however, are over. We must change our way of life to more greatly consider the common good. Otherwise, we will certainly risk the life of this nation.

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