Rand's Theory of Rational Egoism as a Specimen of Myth-Making

The Russian-born American writer Ayn Rand (1905-1982) became famous as the founder of the objectivism philosophy. The quintessence of her philosophy is the ethical ideas of rational egoism. Rand justifies the kind of egoism which is not aimed at defying other people's rights and therefore does not result in conflict of interests. The article tackles the conception of rational egoism underlying Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged in terms of myths of mass consciousness. In the context of popular literature, the notion “myth” is defined as “representations of truth”, “supposed truth”. The article is based on the proposition that popular literature depicts reality in accordance with myths circulating in mass consciousness and creates myths itself. The first thing that qualifies Rand's idea of rational egoism as a myth is its being presented as something undoubtedly “good” – thus the popular mythological opposition of “good versus evil” is shaped in Rand's novel. Another thing that contributes to the perception of the idea of rational egoism as a myth in the novel is its extremely positive and extremely negative characters, whose interaction creates the two-dimensional flat world of the novel. The analysis of these, as well as some other characteristics, allows to identify Ayn Rand's novels as a specimen of mass literature.