Many in our profession admire the writings of the objectivist Ayn (rhymes with “mine”) Rand. Part of that infatuation comes from leaders in the profession who have appropriated and touted her philosophy. I, at one time, used her writings as a means of demonstrating the chiropractic philosophical concept of individualism and the freedom to express yourself, to not allow yourself to be conformed to the masses. There is a good deal about her philosophy that is applaudable and beneficial to us, but I do not believe that Ayn Rand would support or embrace our chiropractic philosophy if she were alive today. In fact, the more she developed her philosophy, the more she seemed to live in contradiction to our philosophy.
Ayn Rand was an avowed atheist. As such she did not accept the existence of a higher intelligence than her own educated brain. She probably would not accept the concept of a universal intelligence, and hence, an innate intelligence except in the sense that the mechanist accepts an inherent law in living matter. She definitely had an outside-in approach, as much as she rejected the idea that there is something greater to which she should subject her educated brain, something with greater wisdom than her brain that ran her body. I wonder whether a true atheist can ever accept the chiropractic philosophy. She wrote that “the concept of God is degrading to men” because if “God is perfect” then man can never hope to attain that status. She wrote in her diary that the idea that “man is low and imperfect and that there is something above him” was “wrong.” Ironically, while she claimed to adhere to rationalism, she demanded empirical proof saying, “no proof of the existence of God exists.” This arrogance is nothing more than the outside-in philosophy that believes man can and will one day have the knowledge of an innate intelligence, the knowledge to run the human body. Humility is one of the most important aspects of our chiropractic philosophy and Rand rejected that idea.
One has to admire Rand’s rationality and logic although her personal life did not necessarily exemplify that philosophy. She adopted the philosophy of the rational from Aristotle, but she often set reason aside when dealing with her followers and relied upon “because I said so.” That subjectivism was obvious in her dealings with people. Other points of view were never tolerated.
Rand believed that man’s knowledge and ability was the result of empirical learning over the course of human history. It was not based upon metaphysical concepts. Our chiropractic philosophy, on the other hand, is founded on a metaphysical assumption, the existence of a universal intelligence and that everything follows from that Major Premise.
However, the primary issue of disagreement with her philosophical concept as I see it, is Ayn Rand’s idea that selfishness is a virtue. Her statement as expressed by the hero of Atlas Shrugged is “I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” Rejecting God in turn caused a rejection of morality and selflessness. The chiropractor recognizes that the individual cells in the body do not live for themselves but live for the good of the whole under the direction of the authority of the organism, the innate intelligence. We, as a profession, are in the business of serving people. You cannot serve if you are selfish, if you are only living for self. When you have a Principle that you serve or a Person that you serve, focusing on self is like cells in the body that are living only for self. We call that a cancer. That does not fit into our philosophy.
V26n1