In Atlas Shrugged, reference is made to a “Morality of Death.”?

Question

What is the nature of this morality? What role does it play in the story? Why does it gain the label that it does in the novel?

Answer 1

Err....what are you trying to do, win the Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest?

http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=education_contests_atlas

Answer 2

Sounds like you want us to help you win the money for the contest. Do your own work.

Answer 3

Well, I read the thing about 3 times and its not easy to get through but I suggest you try it. I jotted down some quotes for just such situations as this. Call me a nut.

" If you choose to help a man who suffers, do it on the ground of his virtues, of his fight to recover, of his rational record, or of the fact that he suffers unjustly; the our action is still a trade, and his virtue is the payment for your help. Be help to a man who has no virtues, to help him on the ground of his suffering as such, to accept his faults, his need, as a claim—is to accept the mortgage of zero on your values. A man who has no virtues is a hater of existence who acts on the premise of death; to help him is to sanction his evil and to support his career of destruction. Be it only a penny you will not miss or a kindly smile he has not earned, a tribute to a zero is treason to life and to all those who struggle to maintain it. It is of such pennies and smiles the desolation of your world is made.”

What they are talking about is the fact that someone has a particular need in no way grants them the power to make a claim on your possessions to satistfy that need.

. “ It is immoral to live by your own effort, but moral to live by the effort of others---it is immoral to consume you own product, but moral to consume the products of others---it is immoral to earn, but moral to mooch---it is the parasites who are the moral justification for the existence of the producers, but the existence of the parasites is an end in itself---it is evil to profit by achievement but good to profit by sacrifice----it is evil to create your own happiness. But good to enjoy it at the price of the blood of others.”

I don't see anything about a morality of death? Maybe this

"It is only a living organism that faces a constant alternative: the issue of life or death. Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action. If an organism fails in that action, its chemical elements remain, but its life goes out of existence. It is only the concept of ‘Life’ that makes the concept of ‘Value’ possible. It is only to a living entity that things can be good or evil.”

I suggest you read the whole book, now that you know what you're looking for. Gee I hope I haven't violated the morality of death by giving you this information.

Answer 4

lol busted..