The villains in Atlas Shrugged avoid rationality and production, seeking survival instead by looting the producers. The villains attempt to live by brute force, not by reason. However, man is not a tiger or a shark; he can't survive the same way animals do. Animals survive by devouring each other, and nature equips them to battle for survival by exclusively physical means. Each species possesses its survival instrument. Birds have wings, lions have claws and fangs, antelopes enjoy speed, elephants utilize size, gorillas showcase their strength, and so on, but man can't survive by these means. He lacks wings, claws, great size, strength, or speed. Nature endows man with but one instrument by means of which to survive — his mind.
Dagny, Rearden, Galt, and the other thinkers live in accordance with their rational nature. Wesley Mouch, James Taggart, Floyd Ferris, and the other villains in the story seek survival by means of force, which is an animal's method, not a man's. Consequently, the villains have no more chance to succeed than a bird that refuses to use its wings. The looters can — and, at times in real life, do — destroy the creators. But having abandoned their survival instrument, they lack all chance of achieving flourishing, joyous lives. Once they ruin the producers, they are left to starve. Only the men of the mind can attain prosperity.
In order to fully understand Ayn Rand's theme in Atlas Shrugged, we must contrast it with its opposites. Objectivism's claim that the mind is the fundamental means by which man survives contrasts with the claims of the two dominant philosophical schools of modern western culture, Marxism and Christianity. The Marxists maintain that manual labor is the means by which human beings produce economic value: Muscle power, not brain power, creates wealth. Marxists believe that the physical workers create economic commodities and the capitalists exploit the workers. Ben Nealy, the contractor with whom Dagny is stuck after McNamara's retirement, expresses Marx's belief succinctly when he claims, "Muscles, Miss Taggart, that's all it takes to build anything in the world." Ayn Rand's answer to Marx is contained on every page of Atlas Shrugged. How much manual labor (muscle power) does it take to create Galt's motor, Rearden's Metal, or Wyatt's innovative process of extracting oil from shale? In real life, how much muscle power was required to invent Edison's light bulb, design Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings, discover methods for heart transplant surgery, or create Fulton's steamboat? Obviously, no amount of muscle power is sufficient to create these products on its own, because they first require breakthroughs in knowledge. The mind is fundamentally responsible for these innovations and countless others. Manual labor is part of constructing new products after they're designed, but the brain performs the original act of design, not the biceps.
