Beyond Ayn Rand

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was quite aware of how my own family benefited from the social welfare state as I was growing up in the 1960s. The notion of a society set up to allow those with initiative to flourish while giving a helping hand to those who needed it seemed so obviously sane that I took it for granted that this would be the way Canada would always operate. I was wrong.

As a high school student in the early 1970s, I came into contact with the writings of Ayn Rand. I even read a short novel called Anthem, and have to admit that I did not like the cold style of the writing, nor did I like Rand's message: "I expect help from nobody, and nobody should expect help from me."  I cringed at the thought of a society based on Rand’s main thesis, one that seemed to be based on selfishness as much as anything else. Rand may have had difficulty living in the former Soviet Union, and I have no doubt that I would have come to hate that system, as well. But that is no reason to discard the entire notion of the government or other well-off people helping out from time to time. I consider the Canada of my youth to have been all about that. Am I my brother or sister's keeper? Should I be? One thing I know is that I really do not mind the idea.

As the years have gone on, I have come into contact with Ayn Rand followers, most of them American, and none of them impressing me with their compassion, or lack thereof, nor their intelligence. Ayn Rand followers, who call themselves libertarians, often want the government to tax them as little as possible. They might even equate this to freedom, or some other nonsense.

Witness the recent brouhaha over the posturing of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan. (This is the same guy who wants to turn the US Medicare system into a voucher system, which would leave American seniors to fend for themselves in their old age.) Back in 2005, Ryan spoke at an Ayn Rand Tribute event in Washington DC, stating that Rand was the major reason he got involved in politics, and that he often gives Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged as a Christmas present. At the same event, Ryan called Social Security a “collectivist system” that impedes American workers from becoming capitalists because they had fewer dollars to play the stock market. Yeah, right.

A few months ago, some Catholic leaders in Wisconsin explained to Ryan, who is a Catholic, that Rand was an avowed atheist. Now he is trying his hand at revisionist history, saying that he rejects Rand’s philosophy. Yet this guy’s recent state budget smacks of the same mean spiritedness that was at the basis of Rand’s writing: tax cuts, attacks on public sector workers and government social programs.

Okay, that is enough of this Paul Ryan guy from Wisconsin. (Americans can worry about him and his policies if he does actually become the Vice President of the United States.) Let’s focus on what has been happening on the Canadian prairies. To me, the dominant political discourses are beyond Ayn Rand. I will explain why through two examples.

Up until 1969, Alberta was a have-not province, receiving transfer payments from better-off provinces. Once Peter Lougheed got the oil patch developed, Alberta no longer needed help from elsewhere. A few years later, the dominant refrain from Alberta was that it resented having to help out the have-not provinces through the equalization program. This, of course, led to the now famous rallying cry from Alberta: “Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark!” Apparently, they considered the oil resource to be theirs alone, and other Canadians should just forget about looking for any energy help from them. Much of the recent debate over the petro-dollar between the Conservative Premiers from Alberta and Saskatchewan and federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair has emanated out of this same attitude from 1970s Alberta.

Speaking of Saskatchewan, the provincial election last November returned the conservative Saskatchewan Party to government with an even bigger majority. Rural voters in particular supported the tax cut policies of Premier Brad Wall. Apparently, most farmers in Saskatchewan resent having to pay taxes on their income. Yet, for the past few years every time there has been some serious flooding that makes it difficult for the crops to grow, we hear the farmers’ chorus demanding the provincial government send some of our tax dollars to them as fast as possible.

I wonder what Ayn Rand would think of these prairie “libertarians.”

When Alberta needed help, they had their hands open and received equalization payments. When they got on their own two feet, they almost immediately resented sending money to other provinces. To me, this is beyond Ayn Rand.

The Saskatchewan farmers, for the most part, resent having to pay taxes on their income. But whenever they get into some trouble, they are very quick to demand that the government send them public funds to help them out. To me, this is also beyond Ayn Rand.

I consider the actions I have described here, one by the province of Alberta, and one by the majority of farmers in Saskatchewan, to be even beyond the selfishness of Ayn Rand. This philosophy can be summed up as follows: "No one should expect help from me, but if I need help, you can better believe that I expect you to come through and help me!"

I thought that Ayn Rand was a very weak writer of novels. Her hypocrisy has always disgusted me. (What is not very well known is that despite her philosophy, Rand also collected welfare checks from the American government when needed.) Her politics continue to enrage me, especially as expressed by that extremely selfish and myopic Tea Party movement. But as a resident of the Canadian prairies, I am astonished and saddened by these selfish attitudes that even go beyond Ayn Rand.