Dynamite by Taio Cruz: a tribute to Ayn Rand?

 Ever wonder if life is worth living? Sitting in the car watching lights go by, perhaps looking up at the stars, or maybe realizing it listening to a song? No song has ever made me want not consider sleep like Dynamite by Taio Cruz. The first time I heard it, I was in a night time ride and there was one visible star. Light pollution made a collection impossible but there was one that shined so arrogantly and proudly that it blasted through all the others. I looked at the star, and the star stared right back. Summer school had just ended, a new chapter was beginning, and this song with its heavy beats and purest form of ecstasy was going to guide me.

I know what you're thinking. Dynamite is just a pop song. Like any other song that hits the charts it'll eventually pass and we will just remember how he liked to party. I urge you to listen to the lyrics and pick out one phrase, and no one can miss it because it's right in the chorus.

"I want to celebrate and live my life."

This is what caught my attention in the car. Simple. Selfish. It's a line most of us want to hear, and seldom reach. Ayn Rand firmly believed in this statement. I'm not talking politics; I'm talking life in its fullest extent. The concept of "I" alone in this sentence is so powerful a phrase it carries over into all forms of happiness: productive work, art, leisure, and relationships. Productive work is useless when the cake is morally wrong when tasted in your stomach but perfectly acceptable and required in someone else's. Art is an astounding opinion. I can listen to Regina Spektor all day, but someone can claim she sounds terrible. Why? Because the concept of opinion requires the identity of "I". Leisure is the same way. I don't care about sports, but I'll watch a movie any time because "I" enjoy it. And relationships, the expression of one's values in another person. The highest order of the life of love is the most selfish and incredible experience of this earth. Ayn Rand put it beautifully:

"In order to say 'I love you', one must first be able to say the word, 'I'".

The next word, "want" is an attempt to earn what is pleasurable in one's system of values. Without values, a man succombs to the whim of anyone else. Any rational man who wants something understands that it does not come without effort. It is the fool or second hander who believes that they may wait for fate or someone else to provide them with what they want. Man was built for an innate need to want and work for those goals great or small.

"Celebrate." A party. A wondrous realization of your achievements and desires. The celebration Taio Cruz is mentioning may not be exactly what I think. To celebrate must imply there is something that requires celebrating. "Being alive", or "it's the weekend" doesn't cut it for me.

"Live". What does it mean to live? People seem to wonder, write, sing, and speak about living more than any other subject. But the next word narrows the possibilities down considerably.
"My". Not someone else's. My life tells the world I'm going to pursue my goals, my wants, my desires, my work, and my personal happiness. And the opposite of this is Altruism: the belief that people must help others at the expense of the self. The self is the dominant idea of this beautifully crafted song. What a liberating feeling and opportunity!
            Not only is Dynamite a parallel to Ayn Rand's philosophy, it is also a parallel of Atlas Shrugged in plot. The ideal man, the guiltless man named John Galt, is taking the minds of the world to be liberated from a government run institution to a newly made utopia in Colorado. Slowly and surely, the American country's economy begins to collapse. As a result, the government attempts to intervene even more in an effort to grasp the rope slipping out of their hands.
            So now we have Taio Cruz. He is a man of pure happiness, at least in this song. He comes with a simple plan: to "dance" and "put his hands in the air". It's inspiring for Cruz to be aware of a life without ceilings. Ha may not be aware of the meanings of his own words, but I do. He attempts to sing about a world that doesn't exist, but should and could exist. However, "it goes on and on and on."
            No matter how you slice it, there will be someone that whispers in your ear that your life is not what it should be. They will smoothly try to tell you, in short, that your life is at the mercy of someone else's whims and intentions. Suddenly your self-esteem is based not on your standard of values, but on someone else's viewpoint of existence. This has happened for years. Between indentured servitude, collective societies, or feudalistic rule, men and women have been no more than subjects in an attempt to control. Cruz is to the point of "letting go", similar to John Galt at the 20th Century Motor Company. "There I saw what was wrong with the world", Galt said. Cruz decides to let go, to "shrug". The party is about to begin, he's inviting his guests to a utopian party that's starting. Are you going to let go?
            In life there is nothing more sad than the destroyed human being; "a man without a purpose." Are we going to sit and wait for our lives to be taken by the public good? Who is the public? Can you even point him/her out? The only answer is anyone but yourself. Are you going to wait for the sharp cut of a guillotine? Are you going to live a sliver of life and get a grasp of happiness before someone finds out and cuts you down? Are you going to be everything you wanted to be, and ensure that nothing is stripped away from the purest form of glorious existence? Are you going to live your life, like it's Dynamite?