The documentary "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" is a really interesting 45-minute show about Science and Technology Studies. I like how it relates Ayn Rand's individualism ideology to the economic crisis in South East Asia in 1997-98. Ayn Rand was a Russian-American writer who inspired many of her American readers until today with her philosophies of individualism and objectivism. According to Ayn, the society should be free from any kind of governance, mutual relationship is irrelevant and happiness can only be achieved by fulfilling one's own desires.
How did these ideas trigger financial catastrophe in Asia? From the documentary, during her lifetime Ayn had a circle of friends who shared the same ideas as her, and among these was Alan Greenspan. Alan was loyal to Ayn-he was among the few who stayed with Ayn when her controversial work "Atlas Shrugged" drove away the literature community and when her scandal with one of the circle members, Nathaniel Branden, was revealed. Years later, Alan, who was an economist, rose up from being a consultant for Wall Street to the Chairman of the Federal Reserve in 1987. In less than two months after taking office, as the head of the country's central bank Alan faced a dramatic financial collapse as the stock market had the largest one-day drop in stock prices in U.S. history.
Alan was reappointed as Chairman for another two terms: first when President Bush took office in 1991 and next when Clinton became President. In 1996, U.S economy was still under recession. President Clinton believed that his political power could bring the country's economy back to its feet while Alan wanted deregulation of the market from political involvement, letting the free market decides for itself-the similar notion pointed out by Randian philosophy. Clinton's agenda of saving the economy using governmental policies failed, especially after his scandal with Monica Lewinsky was exposed. Clinton received criticisms from every angle and he was overwhelmed with it. He finally decided to listen to Alan's view and eventually, the American economy was in the hands of the Federal Reserve. The economy was free from political intervention and decision making was trusted to the machines, which calculated financial risks in the stock market. That time, economists, especially Alan, believed in the machines rather than men, that calculated numbers were more trustworthy and unbiased.
In 1997-98, many American companies have already invested in South East Asian countries and this propelled their economy significantly. However, after the stock market collapsed, the companies had major losses in stocks and wanted to move out of Asia. The fall of the large corporations means the fall of the entire American economy. So, the Federal Reserve bailed these companies out, leaving a huge sum of middle class workers in these countries out of job, inflation occurred and chaos erupted throughout the region. There was no such thing as a free market. When the government pulled its hands off the economy, the market didn't decide by itself. The power simply changed hands from the government to those who created the machines-the so called "1% of the population" who controls the central bank. Capitalist economy gave birth to a new form of dictatorship, not by any single entity but by a group of people who created the economic system and understand how to get around with it. It is interesting how the documentary related this back to Ayn's ideals.
As soon as I heard the name Ayn Rand, I knew I have encountered one of her works before. After the class, I typed in her name on Google search and found out that I have studied her work entitled "Anthem" few semesters ago. Anthem is a story set in the future about a man named Equality who lived in a collectivist society. The society was controlled by a central government, there was no "I" in their vocabulary as individuality was restricted, and knowledge and technology were limited to only a small group of society they called the House of Scholars. Equality knew that things were not right in the society and was tortured by the government for standing up against the system. He was pushed down to the lowest class in the society known as the House of Sweepers. One day when he was at work cleaning streets, he discovered the technology from the past. With this newly found knowledge, he liberated himself and his lover from the society to set out a new one, in which individuality will prevail.
From the documentary and also after revisiting Anthem, I learned that over time ideologies will fail. Communism does not serve well for the nations who implement them, capitalism is proven to oppress its society time after time, and even Ayn's opportunistic notion of individualism did not work nicely for her as she died alone, and sadly I assume, in her apartment in New York City. Yes people can say that ideals do not apply in reality and with the knowledge from the past, human civilization will improve over time. The questions is, for how far can we justify ourselves for the mess we are causing to the world? Are we really heading in the right direction?
Sources:
1. http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ayn_rand_aynrand_biography
2. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Alan_Greenspan.aspx
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_(novella)
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