A “Must Read” Book For Today’s Chaotic Times

Ayn Rand’s “We the Living” is not just a novel but also a warning, a meditation on power, and a cry for the sovereignty of the individual spirit.

But what if we viewed its themes not through the rigid lens of Western individualism but through the fluid wisdom of the Tao? What if the struggle between state and self, leader and follower, conformity and defiance, were not framed as a battle to be won but as an imbalance to be understood?

Lao Tzu tells us: “The more prohibitions there are, the poorer the people become. The more sharp weapons, the greater the chaos. The more clever schemes, the more strange things happen.” (Tao Te Ching, Chapter 57)

This is the fundamental nature of authoritarianism—it arises not from power itself but from imbalance. It feeds on fear, on scarcity, on the illusion that order can be imposed from above rather than arising naturally.

Rand’s “We the Living” captures the suffocating grip of such imbalance in post-revolutionary Soviet Russia, where the collective devours the individual, where the state dictates what one may think, say, and do.

Reading it now, amid the shifting tides of American political life, we see echoes of this—though not in the form of communism but in the authoritarian impulse that can manifest across ideologies.

But the Tao reminds us:

“Do you want to rule the world and control it? I don’t think it can be done.” (Tao Te Ching, Chapter 29)

What Rand’s rigid philosophy fails to recognize, but what Taoism teaches, is that control is an illusion. Power, like water, flows where it is allowed. Those who grasp too tightly, whether they be Soviet bureaucrats or populist demagogues, are ultimately undone by their own rigidity.

The Rise and Fall of Power

The Art of War tells us: “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

But what if the enemy is not a nation, nor an ideology, nor even a political leader, but our own willingness to surrender to power?

Trump’s America is not Soviet Russia, but his rhetoric reveals the seeds of the same authoritarian impulse — the exaltation of loyalty over wisdom, the demand for obedience over independent thought, the scapegoating of critics as enemies.

In casting himself as the lone architect of national salvation, Lao Tzu would remind him: “The best leader leads without imposing his will.”

And yet, paradoxically, those who claim to champion Ayn Rand’s philosophy—who claim to value individualism and liberty—bend their knee to a leader who demands submission. The I Ching, the ancient Chinese text of divination, warns against this in Hexagram 47, Oppression:

“One who is oppressed by unjust forces must not surrender to them but must endure with dignity. Strength lies in persistence, not in compliance.”

This is the contradiction of modern authoritarian movements: they do not demand that you believe, only that you obey. And once obedience becomes a habit, belief is irrelevant.

Ayn Rand and Kira Argounova Meet the Tao

Imagine, if you will, Ayn Rand and Kira Argounova sitting across from Donald Trump in the opulence of Mar-a-Lago. Rand, with her sharp rationalist mind, would likely rebuke him for his inconsistencies, his contradictions, his lack of philosophical rigor.

But the Tao would ask: why engage in argument at all?

Kira, the existentialist, the quiet rebel, would understand better. She would not try to persuade Trump, nor fight him. She would simply be. She would do as Zhuangzi’s true person does—step aside and let the river flow where it will.

She might say, in words befitting the Tao:

“You crave control, but power is fleeting. You seek loyalty, but devotion born of fear is no devotion at all. I do not need you, nor your world. I walk my own path.”

Trump, who thrives on reaction, would find no hold over such a person. And this is the lesson of We the Living that Taoism reinforces — the greatest rebellion is not confrontation but detachment. The strongest act of defiance is to live as though authority has no hold on you.

The Path Forward: A Cause for Hope

The I Ching reminds us that all things are cyclical. Even in moments of darkness, change is always underway. The oppressive regimes of the past have fallen. The strongmen of history have faded. Their grasping hands have always been pried open by time itself.

Hexagram 40, Deliverance, states:

“Oppression cannot last forever. When balance is restored, the wise let go of past struggles and move forward with light hearts.”

This is where Rand’s philosophy stops short—she sees oppression as a battle, a war of self versus state. The Tao sees it as an ebb and flow. Tyrants rise, and they fall. The wise do not rage against the storm. They bend, they endure, and when the storm is spent, they are still standing.

The hope, then, is this:

We are not doomed to repeat the past, but only if we remember that submission is a choice. That freedom is not given by any leader, nor taken away by any government—it is something we cultivate within ourselves.

That no matter how loud the calls for conformity, for obedience, for submission, we can always choose to walk another path.

So the question is not whether we are reliving We the Living. The question is whether we are willing to embody its lesson—not by fighting for the world we wish existed, but by living as though it already does.

For in the end, true power lies not in ruling others but in mastering oneself.

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