Walt Whitman and Ayn Rand

     The poet Walt Whitman first published his volume Leaves of Grass in 1855.  The book contained only twelve poems in its first printing, one of which was "Song of Myself".  I am really glad we covered this in class because it is one of my favorite poems by Whitman.  It is a celebration not only of oneself, but of the world around us and the ones who people that world.  This poem does not draw distinctions between good or evil, but seems to say that all good and all evil can be encompassed within the individual.

     Although Walth Whitman was a promoter of democracy and equality among men, his poetry celebrates the freedoms and talents of the individual above all.  Many of the verses I have read have reminded me strongly of the philosophy of Ayn Rand, who is one of my favorite authors.

Ayn Rand is a novelist and a philosopher who coined and promoted the idea of "objectivism" in her books.  A few of her well known writings are The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.  In both of these, she teaches that love must be earned, wealth deserved, and that reason is the highest calling and aim of mankind.  The novelette Anthem is short but moving, and there are many similarities to Whitman's "Song of Myself".  Though these two authors were from different countries and time periods, and though they believed in different politics, their writings in many ways parallel each other.

Whitman states in verse 20 of "Song"....

"I know I am solid and sound,
To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow,
All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means."

 

Conversly, in Chapter 11 of Anthem, Ayn Rand writes...

"Whatever road I take, the guiding star is within me; the guiding star and the lodestone which point the way.  They point in but one direction.  They point to me."

In the same chapter, Rand states that "my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it.  My happiness is not the means to any end.  It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose."

Again, there is a parallel to Whitman's "Song of Myself", in verse 20.

"I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or to be understood...
I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content."

From verse 24 of Whitman's "Song"...

"Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touch'd from...
If I worship one thing more than another it shall be the spread of my own body, or any part of it."

Along those same lines, Rand states that "Many words have been granted me,...but only three are holy: 'I will it!'....This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before!" 

I could continue the parallels all day, but hopefully I have proved my point.  It makes me wonder if Ayn Rand ever read Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself".  To end, if you are interested in the philosophy of Ayn Rand, I am including a clip of an interview from 1959 that at least summarizes objectivism and will give you some idea of how Americans felt about Rand and her philosophies then.  If you wish to watch the entire interview, you can find it on you tube.

    

Uncle Tom's Cabin and Racism

 

 

     The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, follows the lives of two slaves in pre-Civil War Kentucky.  Though originally written to further the abolitionist cause, the book caused a sensation when published because of its high emotional values and racists policies, as it continues to do today. Although slavery was abolished here in America, it is still a touchy subject.

     In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe details such things as children being taken from their mothers and slaves that are covered with scars.  Never should any human being be subjected to such treatment, and the awareness that the book raised helped move the issue of slavery into the wide eye of the public.  Though it was written more than 100 years ago, there are still issues that are relevant today.  For instance, in the first chapter the slave trader Hayley comments "These critters an't like white folks, you know; they gets over things..." This was response to the topic of selling a boy away from his mother.
   

 This racist remark can be well applied even today.  Over the years, people have tried to believe that black people had no souls.  They were marked as an inferior race for centuries.  Here in America, the Civil Rights Movement changed the public view drastically, but only after much persecution and sacrifice. 

Racism is something we probably will always have to deal with, unfortunately.  One of my friends was caught off her guard by a very racist remark by a complete stranger just the other day, simply because she has a black boyfriend.  There are bigots all around us, and even some religious groups that still preach the sinfulness of intermarriage between the black and white races.  The Mormans in particular have taught since the founding of the Mormon church that the African race is inferior and that their black skin is the result of a curse from God.

Brigham Young

 Second President and Prophet of the Mormon Church:

You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind. . . . Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which was the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another cursed is pronounced upon the same race--that they should be the "servants of servants;" and they will be until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree (Journal of Discourses, 7:290; emphasis added)

 

Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be (ibid., 10:110; emphasis added)

 

http://christiandefense.org/mor_black.htm      Granted, the Mormons consider themselves a Christian group, and in more recent times have accepted black parishoners. Yet to this day, they do not allow black people to enter into the priesthood or the temples of their churches, and intermarriage is forbidden.  Those that do mix bloodlines are excommunicated as Mormons.  This is just a small case in point to show that although we have come a long way towards equality among the races since Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin, we still have a hard road ahead of us to actually achieve that equality.  To erase racism from the earth, we must start with teaching our children to think differently than our ancestors did, because racism is learned, not inherited.