Just this past week a bill was introduced to the Idaho state senate by Sen. John Goedde requiring high school students to read “Atlas Shrugged” and take an exam on it to graduate. He wasn’t being serious, though, as he has stated he has no intention of pushing the bill through the legislature. It was brought up merely to “make a point” about some of the arbitrary decisions being made by Idaho’s Board of Education.

Whether Goedde was subtly and frivolously lauding his favorite book, or just “making a point,” his actions highlight Rand’s influence on politicians nowadays.

Prominent politicians Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Paul Ryan, and other devotees of Ayn Rand’s magnum opus “Atlas Shrugged,” will have you believe that the work is a realistic political parable, even more relevant today than ever before. Sales of the book have soared to great heights (according to the Ayn Rand Institute, more than 7 million copies have been sold), with business leaders emulating the heroines of Rand’s dystopia every day.

Detractors like myself, however, dismiss the work as a silly homage to greed. I should admit, though, that I was once an aficionado of Rand’s ode to capitalism. I snapped out of the fantasy, however, after I realized my egotism was driving my friends and family away. In retrospect, my love of objectivism was, perhaps, just a “phase.”

For those who are unfamiliar with the book, the plot centers on a future United States where much of the developed world has converted to “big government” under quasi-Marxist policies. In short, the U.S. government is spiraling into an infinite regression of over-taxation and overregulation.

This angers the business leaders, inventors, artists and all the other “brilliant minds” who have to put up with the “moochers” and “looters” of the world who just want what they have. So the nation’s brightest innovators decide to go on strike by hiding in the mountains. This essentially stops the “motor of the world” leaving the U.S. government in frantic disarray.

You can see why “Atlas Shrugged” appeals to most, if not all, businessmen, nowadays.

The novel itself was used as a channel through which Rand could push objectivism, a philosophy based around the pursuit of one’s own happiness as the moral purpose of life, absent of any sort of altruism.

Can we possibly imagine a society that has adopted these principles? I suppose we’d be reinforcing what humans are already good at doing — being self-interested. Rand contends that this is necessary to man’s survival, but haven’t we moved beyond these primitive means? The human solidarity renders objectivism a supererogation. Caring for others is a part of that solidarity. It is our nature to not only be selfish but also selfless.

Many libertarians and conservatives who’ve adopted Rand’s work seek to defend businesses from the “tyranny of big government.” The list of politicians pushing Rand’s ideology is extensive. The major figures include Ryan, Paul, Ronald Reagan and Gary Johnson, all of whom were serious contenders for the presidency. The major political endorsements of “Atlas Shrugged” has, in turn, dramatically altered the political landscape. Because people believe Rand “prophesized” the future of capitalism, a pseudo-revolution against the government has erupted.

Objectivism, it appears, has extended beyond the business environment.

A Gallup survey from December 2011 showed that 64 percent of Americans fear “big government”, up from 32 percent in 2009. This increased fear of the government, I believe, comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of such functions as taxation and regulation. For starters, our economy is not a completely free market economy like the one idealized in “Atlas Shrugged;” it is a mixed economy. Furthermore, the U.S. government exists to protect the freedoms and rights of its citizens. The rise of “big business” has forced us to reexamine how and when we can protect those freedoms.

The trick, of course, is to keep capitalism and government oversight balanced.

Lovers of laissez-faire economics have neglected this balance. Isn’t it ironic, though, that the public should commit themselves to defending the very “innovators” who ran us into the ground four years ago?

The global crisis of 2008 occurred because of the under regulation of capitalism. Alan Greenspan, a close friend of Rand and former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, blatantly ignored the dangers of out-of-control subprime lending and fundamentally blocked the regulation of the derivatives market.

Our allegiance to capitalism has rendered us masochists, of which the infliction of pain is given by the corporate sadists who deliberately crash their company in exchange for bonuses. To praise a pure capitalist society, where the powerful “innovators” willfully harm our economy, is the definition of sadomasochism.

I believe the government has the power and the responsibility to prevent the infliction of pain on the participators of our economy. In Greek mythology, Atlas beared the celestial sphere on his shoulders. Oftentimes, the citizens, the true Atlases of our country, must bear the same burdens. Though, the true Atlases will never shrug.

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Michael Glawe is a junior in mathematics and economics from New Ulm, Minn.