Ayn Rand is the author of works of fiction like ‘Fountainhead’, ‘Atlas Shrugged’, ‘We the Living’ and so on.Her philosophy, Objectivism is as I recall about applying reason to every strand of your being.

Here are some key exerpts from her work:

‘My philosophy, in essence is the concept of man as a heroic being with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity and reason as his only absolute.’

‘My philosophy, Objectivism, holds that:

1. Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man’s feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.
2. Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses) is man’s only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival.
3. Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
4. The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. It is a system where men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. It is a system where no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. The government acts only as a policeman that protects man’s rights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use, such as criminals or foreign invaders. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.’

I read Ayn Rand a lot when I was about fifteen, and until I was around nineteen . Her dull gray universe held a lot of appeal, the idea of selfhood and seriousness that she endowed life with, her noble, morally just and upright characters left a lasting impression.

Ayn Rand’s individualism, in a culture where from the start you are asked to rake out your life from the remains of and for the interest of a collective is influential, to say the least.Her books have a huge readership in urban India.

I want to make a documentary on her influence in the lives of contemporary Indians.

I hope that this post generates debate about her work.

If you have, in any way been touched by her philosophy, then do write to me at theunderscoredhood@gmail.com, or leave a comment here.

Image Source www.aynrand.org