The Order-Chaos Continuum. A book lover's perspective

Books of Ayn Rand are something of a hand-me-down in my family. When I told my uncle that I had just finished reading the Fountainhead, he gave me a knowing smile and asked me how I felt about it. After listening to my enthusiastic response, his smile widened and he said that I was now ready to take on her next book, Atlas Shrugged. He not only said this, but also gave me his much dog-eared copy of Atlas Shrugged, the same copy that has been read by many of my cousins, over and over again. It was a matter of great pride for me to receive it. It was a sort of coming of age ritual. I was now no more just a kid, but an adult, who had an independent reasoning mind, one that could assimilate the profound thoughts of Ayn Rand.

Its been over three years since I read Atlas Shrugged. I used to be a voracious reader, but have become a shadow of my old self, of late. Maybe because of the rigors of my course. Maybe not. Its been a long time since I read a book, fiction or otherwise. My last reading was Stephen King's horror-thriller Rose Madder. Late 2005 and early 2006 was a period that was really memorable for me. I was working for a college as a lab programmer. The job was fun and my heart was light. I went on a book buying spree in which I bought amongst other things, 'The Green Mile' (TGM) by Stephen King, a travelogue of sorts of Agatha Christie called 'Tell me how you live'(TMHYL), 'Notes to myself' by Hugh Prather and 'The Virtue of Selfishness' (TVS) by Ayn Rand. While I got through TGM and TMHYL early last year itself, I still haven't gotten around to finishing either TVS or Notes'. The ever present Damocles' sword of deadlines hanging over the head and the gruelling schedule has put paid to all that. The stress levels have gotten phenomenally high and there is no sign of any kind of respite on the horizon. New year came and went. Those who partied are now feeling that it was a time that was ill-utilized, that the party was a luxury that they couldn't really afford in the first place while those who did not are feeling pretty blue too, thinking that they could have at least had a bit of fun while it lasted!!!

While its true that there is no sign of any respite along the horizon, I have no intention of turning into a nervous wreck just because the work load is high. I have the ability to work with focus for extremely prolonged hours, often at a single stretch and this is the very trait of mine that I'm putting my money on to get me through this course, and also perhaps through many a situation in the outside world. After rummaging through my belongings in the chaos that is called my room, I managed to find my copy of TVS, and just about began reading it. The clarity of the thoughts of the author (Ayn Rand) is just amazing. I really like her thoughts and identify with her ideas about Objectivism. Reading a book, and that too a Rand book, after a really long time brought back fond memories. Its a nice feeling to read a book and though at present, I really can't afford the luxury of reading books cover to cover, its nice to even read a few pages now, a couple later and so on.

The couple of pages of TVS that I read today charged me up somewhat and I googled Objectivism. While the first couple of hits led to Ayn Rand Institute (as expected), that was not what I really was interested in. I was looking for other people's thoughts about Objectivism, and came across plenty of that after the first page of search results. To say that the results were disappointing would be an understatement.

The search result brought up a piece called 'Whats really wrong with Objectivism' (http://www.jeffcomp.com/faq/) by a person called Chris Wolf. This was just one of the hundreds, maybe thousands more like it. The article, whether biased or unbiased (though Mr Wolf makes his intentions pretty clear and even uses words that are pretty uncivil, I'm giving the article the benefit of doubt) makes it pretty clear that not all is well with the Objectivists of the world.

Another piece, authored by a person claiming to be an Objectivist claims that Atheism is the key to be an Objectivist, while Rand herself, to my knowledge has made no such statements.

The results just proved that no organisation, thought, or philosophy could really survive with its integrity intact, over a period of time. The period of time varies from case to case, but in the end, everything gets corrupted, beyond the point of redemption. There will always be purists who will try to hold on to the shards of truth and keep it from getting corrupted, but there is only so much that a small set of people can do. Its comparable to the sound of a buzzing bumblebee in a busy railway station. The bumble bee never goes silent, but is it audible over the din?

George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' is a book that comes to the mind when the topic is of dilution/distortion/disintegration taking place in any organisation.

Spoiler warning: The storyline of 'Animal Farm' is discussed in brief below.

'Animal Farm', is a story in which a group of farm animals, lead by a pig, fed up with the way their owners mistreat them, organise a rebellion and become independent and set up their own farm called the 'Animal Farm'. A set of rules to protect the interests of the members of 'Animal Farm' is laid down and is painted on a wall. The book describes the manner in which the leadership of the farm changes hands and how the disintegration of values takes place. The rules that were laid down are diluted to suit the purposes of the leaders. For example, one of the original rules that said "No animal on the farm shall drink alcohol" is changed overnight to read "No animal on the farm shall drink alcohol to excess" just to accommodate those in power who wanted to drink alcohol. The very spirit of the farm is killed in a gradual manner. The first and most important slogan of the Animal farm, 'Four legs good, two legs bad' is also given an unceremonious burial with the power block (the pigs on the farm) coining a new slogan 'Four legs good, two legs better' and even proceeding to begin walking on two legs to prove the point.

End of Spoiler.

I studied a bit of Kannada literature in my high school and had a non detailed piece called 'Naagareeka' (Citizen or civilian) in the syllabus, that further reinforces this thought. It was a story about a citizen of a certain fictitious city who is very frustrated in life as he feels that there is no hope to anything or anybody. His pet peeve? The crumbling of the legendary Vijayanagara empire, painstakingly put together by Sage Vidhyaranya. The citizen feels that when an empire as glorious as the Vijayanagara empire can come down like a pack of cards and slip into oblivion, there can be no hope for anybody else. The piece ends with the citizen getting a vision in which the dead Sage Vidhyaranya comes back, alive and well, a vision in which the great sage tells the citizen that everything in life, including Dharma itself, has an expiry date attached to it, after which the clean up starts. Everything has to go through all the stages. The four Yugas or eras in the Hindu belief too are designed for this very purpose. Order falls to chaos and garbage collection follows before order is restored.