It’s not terrible, or, Why we need to judge with our own eyes.

Have you ever read awful reviews about a movie that you wanted to see? What about terrible Yelp ratings for a restaurant you wanted to try? Did you end up seeing that movie, or ordering-in from that place?

For better or worse, when we base our perceptions of objects or events off of the feelings of others, we often make different decisions.

Have you ever asked yourself just how deep this tendency runs in you? What important decisions have you made that were very much influenced by the input of others?

Did you choose a school without visiting? What about judging someone before talking to them?

For me, this extended to one of my favourite interests: philosophy. Now before you decide to stop reading, just remember that philosophy, translated from Greek, means “love of wisdom”. If that doesn’t keep you hanging around, then go see that movie you decided against and read the rest of this later.

You still here? Cool.

In the political branch of philosophy, there is a book by a woman named Ayn Rand called Atlas Shrugged. It’s a fiction book that weaves in her philosophy, which is called objectivism. In a nutshell, the book discusses individualism, economics, and the virtues of selfishness.

Atlas Shrugged has made a tremendous impact on modern politics, especially in the United States, where many of those against a larger government or higher taxes often refer to Rand’s work. These people tend to be on the more extreme side of the political spectrum, and since extreme policies tend to be over-simplified and incorrect, I don’t often care to listen to them.

Here’s how this ties back to that movie you never saw: based on the policies created in her name and the kinds of people putting them forward, I never actually read Rand’s work. I just assumed her books would border on propaganda, since they are pretty much treated that way. I thought I knew what I’d find, and I thought that I wouldn’t care for it.

Besides, Atlas Shrugged is 1079 pages long and written in the smallest font you’ve ever seen.

Then a scholarship which gave out substantial prizes for reading and writing an essay about Rand’s work came to my attention. Since my tuition recently quadrupled, I decided to tear open that sucker and see how far I could make. I expected the worst.

My review of Atlas Shrugged? One of the best fiction books I have ever read. It was engrossing, it was incredibly well-written, and it conveyed her ideas eloquently and in a context where you could imagine them being correct, valid, and even just. That’s right: I read over a thousand pages of a philosophy I didn’t particularly like just because it was a great story. Considering I have never read even close to that much of philosophies I do support, I take-away a valuable lesson about storytelling, in addition to another perspective on morality and government.

But I wouldn’t have learned anything if I hadn’t turned to page one.

Editor’s note: If you have a topic idea, I’d love to hear from you! Suggestions can be made in the comments section or on Twitter @JeremyDeMello.