The Only Path To

Tomorrow
Ayn Rand
Readers Digest, January 1944, pp. 88-90

The greatest threat to mankind and civilization is the spread of the totalitarian
philosophy. Its best ally is not the devotion of its followers but the confusion of its
enemies. To fight it, we must understand it.

Totalitarianism is collectivism. Collectivism means the subjugation of the

individual to a group — whether to a race, class or state does not matter.
Collectivism holds that man must be chained to collective action and collective
thought for the sake of what is called ``the common good.´´

Throughout history, no tyrant ever rose to power except on the claim of

representing ``the common good.´´ Napoleon ``served the common good´´ of
France. Hitler is ``serving the common good´´ of Germany. Horrors which no man
would dare consider for his own selfish sake are perpetrated with a clear
conscience by ``altruists´´ who justify themselves by-the common good.

No tyrant has ever lasted long by force of arms alone. Men have been enslaved
primarily by spiritual weapons. And the greatest of these is the collectivist doctrine
that the supremacy of the state over the individual constitutes the common good.
No dictator could rise if men held as a sacred faith the conviction that they have
inalienable rights of which they cannot be deprived for any cause whatsoever, by
any man whatsoever, neither by evildoer nor supposed benefactor.

This is the basic tenet of individualism, as opposed to collectivism. Individualism

holds that man is an independent entity with an inalienable right to the pursuit of
his own happiness in a society where men deal with one another as equals.

The American system is founded on individualism. If it is to survive, we must

understand the principles of individualism and hold them as our standard in any
public question, in every issue we face. We must have a positive credo, a clear
consistent faith.

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We must learn to reject as total evil the conception that the common good is served
by the abolition of individual rights. General happiness cannot be created out of
general suffering and self-immolation. The only happy society is one of happy
individuals. One cannot have a healthy forest made up of rotten trees.

The power of society must always be limited by the basic, inalienable rights of the
individual.

The right of liberty means man's right to individual action, individual choice,
individual initiative and individual property. Without the right to private property
no independent action is possible.

The right to the pursuit of happiness means man's right to live for himself, to
choose what constitutes his own, private, personal happiness and to work for its
achievement. Each individual is the sole and final judge in this choice. A man's
happiness cannot be prescribed to him by another man or by any number of other
men.

These rights are the unconditional, personal, private, individual possession of

every man, granted to him by the fact of his birth and requiring no other sanction.
Such was the conception of the founders of our country, who placed individual
rights above any and all collective claims. Society can only be a traffic policeman
in the intercourse of men with one another.

From the beginning of history, two antagonists have stood face to face, two
opposite types of men: the Active and the Passive. The Active Man is the
producer, the creator, the originator, the individualist. His basic need is
independence — in order to think and work. He neither needs nor seeks power
over other men — nor can he be made to work under any form of compulsion.
Every type of good work — from laying bricks to writing a symphony — is done
by the Active Man. Degrees of human ability vary, but the basic principle remains
the same: the degree of a man's independence and initiative determines his talent
as a worker and his worth as a man.

The Passive Man is found on every level of society, in mansions and in slums, and
his identification mark is his dread of independence. He is a parasite who expects
to be taken care of by others, who wishes to be given directives, to obey, to submit,
to be regulated, to be told. He welcomes collectivism, which eliminates any chance
that he might have to think or act on his own initiative.

When a society is based on the needs of the Passive Man it destroys the Active; but
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when the Active is destroyed, the Passive can no longer be cared for. When a
society is based on the needs of the Active Man, he carries the Passive ones along
on his energy and raises them as he rises, as the whole society rises. This has been
the pattern of all human progress.

Some humanitarians demand a collective state because of their pity for the
incompetent or Passive Man. For his sake they wish to harness the Active. But the
Active Man cannot function in harness. And once he is destroyed, the destruction
of the Passive Man follows automatically. So if pity is the humanitarians' first
consideration, then in the name of pity, if nothing else, they should leave the
Active Man free to function, in order to help the Passive. There is no other way to
help him in the long run.

The history of mankind is the history of the struggle between the Active Man and
the Passive, between the individual and the collective. The countries which have
produced the happiest men, the highest standards of living and the greatest cultural
advances have been the countries where the power of the collective — of the
government, of the state — was limited and the individual was given freedom of
independent action. As examples: The rise of Rome, with its conception of law
based on a citizen's rights, over the collectivist barbarism of its time. The rise of
England, with a system of government based on the Magna Carta, over collectivist,
totalitarian Spain. The rise of the United States to a degree of achievement
unequaled in history — by grace of the individual freedom and independence
which our Constitution gave each citizen against the collective.

While men are still pondering upon the causes of the rise and fall of civilizations,
every page of history cries to us that there is but one source of progress: Individual
Man in independent action. Collectivism is the ancient principle of savagery. A
savage's whole existence is ruled by the leaders of his tribe. Civilization is the
process of setting man free from men.

We are now facing a choice: to go forward or to go back.

Collectivism is not the ``New Order of Tomorrow.´´ It is the order of a very dark
yesterday. But there is a New Order of Tomorrow. It belongs to Individual Man —
the only creator of any tomorrows humanity has ever been granted.