Olden Life: Who Was Ayn Rand? Michael White
‘Did you just say you’ve managed to reach your age without reading a word of Ayn Rand? She was one of the most brilliant philosophers of all times, up there with Aristotle and St Thomas Aquinas. They’re “the three As” – she said so herself. Surely you’ve read Atlas Shrugged; everyone’s read Atlas Shrugged – it’s Ayn’s most ambitious novel and sets out her Objectivist theories very clearly. Despite those spiteful liberal critics and academic snobs, it’s sold seven million copies; it’s always in print.’
‘That rings a faint bell. Is Rand the “greed is good” ethical egotist, who advocated reason, individualism, atheism and laissez-faire capitalism, the one whose books are illustrated with Tamara Lempicka covers in the Penguin Modern Classics edition? I think I may have opened “Atlas Winced” once in Waterstones. Ann certainly has pacy scriptwriter’s style, but it was too hectoring for my taste and weighed more than “War and Peace”. So I put it down and bought a John Grisham.’
‘It’s Ayn, not Ann, Shrugged, not Winced, and it’s actually 25,291 words shorter than War and Peace, but so much more important. I can send you a link to ARI; that’s the Ayn Rand Institute in California – it’s more rigorous than the Objectivist Centre and its courses are very good. Ayn was Russian, you know, frightfully clever, writing screenplays at the age of ten. Got into trouble with the Bolsheviks, of course and got away to America in, I think, 1926, when she was only 21. Went straight to Hollywood.’
‘I thought you said she was a philosopher.’
‘My dear, she was everything: screenwriter, philosopher, playwright, novelist, head of costumes at RKO for a while, until she got established. Ayn’s early novels didn’t sell well at first, though they’ve made up for it since she became famous. She backed Wendell Willkie against FDR in 1940. He didn’t win, of course, but nor did poor old Kerensky – Ayn backed him against Lenin. But she started meeting Republican activists who were rich and free market intellectuals who told them not to feel badly about it. Since so much of her writing had been about the battle between the totalitarian state and the individual, she inevitably became mixed up with Hollywood’s Communist clean-out. Would you believe she was a “friendly witness” before the House Un-american Activities Committee? Ludwig von Mises called her “the most courageous man in America” ’.
‘I’m sure he didn’t mean to be sexist, but what puts her up there in philosophy’s Premier League with Aristotle? She sounds a bit of a crackpot to me.’
‘Suit yourself, but Ayn saw more clearly than anyone ever has before, even Nietzsche, that altruism and duty are a waste of space, that rational self-interest is what will make us happy, that that’s all we’re here for. But most people are far too stupid and emotional to see that, the boobies. Ayn called them “social ballast”. To her followers, she’s a hero. Objectivism has changed the lives of millions.’
‘I’ve just Googled her while the kettle boils to make your tea. It says her Utopian idealism and libertarian certainties appeal to adolescents and her laissez-faire cheerleading appeals to rich Americans, despite the atheism. Apparently, cult members are known as “Randroids”. Someone called her “the ultimate spokesman for the left hemisphere of the brain”. Jolly funny, eh? Earl Grey or builder’s?’
‘Alan Greenspan was a close member of her New York circle until her death in 1982; he was an active champion of Objectivism. He went on to be the most brilliant chairman of the Federal Reserve ever. Mr Greenspan’s not a cult crackpot, is he? Earl Grey, please.’
‘No, but I seem to remember that Greenspan believed that sub-prime bank lending and all that funny money sloshing around was based on Triple A rational self-interest, not just greed. It led to the financial crash. All that under-regulated laissez-faire stuff looked a bit dumb then.’
‘Do you suppose President Trump has read Atlas Shrugged?’
‘It’s 1,168 pages long. I think we’re quite safe.’ Michael White