In a review of two new biographies about Ayn Rand, Charles Murray explains what made her books – particularly Atlas Shrugged – so powerful and persuasive:
In 1991, the book-of-the-month club conducted a survey asking people what book had most influenced their lives. The Bible ranked number one and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged was number two. In 1998, the Modern Library released two lists of the top 100 books of the 20th century. One was compiled from the votes of the Modern Library’s Board, consisting of luminaries such as Joyce Carol Oates, Maya Angelou, Edmund Morris, and Salman Rushdie. The two top-ranked books on the Board’s list were Ulysses and The Great Gatsby. The other list was based on more than 200,000 votes cast online by anyone who wanted to vote. The top two on that list were Atlas Shrugged (1957) and The Fountainhead (1943). The two novels have had six-figure annual sales for decades, running at a combined 300,000 copies annually during the past ten years. In 2009, Atlas Shrugged alone sold a record 500,000 copies and Rand’s four novels combined (the lesser two are We the Living [1936] and Anthem [1938]) sold more than 1,000,000 copies. And yet for 27 years after her death in 1982, we haven’t had a single scholarly biography of Ayn Rand. Who was this woman? How did she come to write such phenomenally influential novels? What are we to make of her legacy? These are the questions that finally have been asked and answered splendidly, with somewhat different emphases, in two new biographies published within weeks of each other: Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns, an assistant professor of history at the University of Virginia, and Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller, a former executive editor at Condé Nast Publications. …Why then has reading these biographies of a deeply flawed woman—putting it gently—made me want to go back and reread her novels yet again? The answer is that Rand was a hedgehog who got a few huge truths right, and expressed those truths in her fiction so powerfully that they continue to inspire each new generation. They have only a loose relationship with Objectivism as a philosophy (which was formally developed only after the novels were written). Are selfishness and greed cardinal virtues in Objectivism? Who cares? Does Objectivist aesthetics denigrate Bach and Mozart? Who cares? Objectivism has nothing to do with what mesmerizes people about The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged. What does mesmerize us? Fans of Ayn Rand will answer differently. Part of the popularity of the books derives from the many ways their themes can be refracted. Here is what I saw in Rand’s fictional world that shaped my views as an adolescent and still shapes them 50 years later.
[…] other next item, Marx is peeved that he is a clown compared to Ayn Rand and the famous duo of Austrian economics, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich […]
[…] When people ask me why I’m a libertarian, I rarely mention high taxes and wasteful spending. Nor do I make philosophical arguments about the non-aggression principle. And it’s also unlikely that I’ll cite Ayn Rand. […]
[…] There is a debate about Rand’s contribution to the cause of liberty. I’m not an Objectivist or a Randian, but I think everyone should read Atlas Shrugged. […]
[…] I have eventually shared copies of Atlas Shrugged in hopes of turning them into future Margaret […]
[…] I have eventually shared copies of Atlas Shrugged in hopes of turning them into future Margaret […]
[…] I then pointed out that the sordid process of Obamacare waivers was eerily similar to a passage in Atlas Shrugged. […]
[…] While I’m a fan of Atlas Shrugged and think Rand was a net plus for the cause of liberty, I’m not a Randian […]
[…] a fan of Atlas Shrugged, so I’ll echo that […]
[…] I can say with great confidence that Randians are only a minor strain of the libertarian movement. Many of us (including me) enjoyed one or more of her books, and some of us even became libertarians as a […]
[…] I’m generally sympathetic to Ayn Rand’s writings, I don’t see anything wrong with people striving to make themselves better off. Moreover, […]
[…] John Stossel and Charles Murray have interesting things to say about Atlas […]
[…] But what’s really killing the country, above and beyond the government being out of money, is pervasive statism. There are so many forms of regulation and intervention that the private sector, for all intents and purposes, has gone on strike. Venezuela is like a real-world example of Ayn Rand’s famous novel, Atlas Shrugged. […]
[…] But what’s really killing the country, above and beyond the government being out of money, is pervasive statism. There are so many forms of regulation and intervention that the private sector, for all intents and purposes, has gone on strike. Venezuela is like a real-world example of Ayn Rand’s famous novel, Atlas Shrugged. […]
[…] I’m probably not doing justice to Ayn Rand’s famous novel because Atlas Shrugged is not just about an economy that collapses under the weight of too much […]
[…] isn’t the first time that the real-world unfolding of Obamacare has resembled a scene from Atlas Shrugged. Back in 2011, I wrote about how the waiver process for escaping the law was almost identical to […]
[…] isn’t the first time that the real-world unfolding of Obamacare has resembled a scene from Atlas Shrugged. Back in 2011, I wrote about how the waiver process for escaping the law was almost identical to […]
[…] an exaggeration to say “they are all leaving,” but France is turning Atlas Shrugged from fiction to […]
[…] globalement de la sympathie pour les écrits d’Ayn Rand, c’est pourquoi je ne vois rien de mal à ce que les gens cherchent à tirer le meilleur parti […]
[…] I’m generally sympathetic to Ayn Rand’s writings, I don’t see anything wrong with people striving to make themselves better off. Moreover, Adam […]
[…] I’m generally sympathetic to Ayn Rand’s writings, I don’t see anything wrong with people striving to make themselves better off. Moreover, […]
[…] me, though, this conference and this encounter forced me to give some thought to how you can be a big fan of Ayn Rand while also feeling good about holding open doors for little old […]
[…] of like thieves who want moral sanction from their victims. Hmmm…seems that somebody wrote a book with that theme – and it didn’t end well for the looter class. Which is exactly why I’m predicting that France will soon face a Greek-style fiscal […]
[…] of like thieves who want moral sanction from their victims. Hmmm…seems that somebody wrote a book with that theme – and it didn’t end well for the looter class. Which is exactly why I’m predicting that France will soon face a Greek-style fiscal […]
[…] view could be considered Randian libertarianism, conventional conservatism, or both. That’s because there’s a common moral belief in both […]
[…] of like thieves who want moral sanction from their victims. Hmmm…seems that somebody wrote a book with that theme – and it didn’t end well for the looter class. Which is exactly why I’m predicting that France will soon face a Greek-style fiscal crisis. […]
[…] genuinely believes in small government, low tax rates, and free markets. Heck, he’s even read Ayn Rand, and is willing to admit that he likes her […]
[…] genuinely believes in small government, low tax rates, and free markets. Heck, he’s even read Ayn Rand, and is willing to admit that he likes her […]
[…] genuinely believes in small government, low tax rates, and free markets. Heck, he’s even read Ayn Rand, and is willing to admit that he likes her […]
[…] genuinely believes in small government, low tax rates, and free markets. Heck, he’s even read Ayn Rand, and is willing to admit that he likes her […]
[…] view could be considered Randian libertarianism, conventional conservatism, or both. That’s because there’s a common moral belief in both […]
[…] view could be considered Randian libertarianism, conventional conservatism, or both. That’s because there’s a common moral belief in both […]
[…] view could be considered Randian libertarianism, conventional conservatism, or both. That’s because there’s a common moral belief in […]
[…] me, though, this conference and this encounter forced me to give some thought to how you can be a big fan of Ayn Rand while also feeling good about holding open doors for little old ladies. Like this:LikeBe the first […]
Altruism is not about being nice to people (holding doors open for little old ladies). Altruism is the concept that you have a moral duty to help others (Altruism literally means “Otherism”). Since a moral code of values must be chosen or at least accepted, a moral duty is a contradiction in terms. Where you have no choice (duty) there can be no moral value. Ayn Rand was NOT opposed to voluntarily helping others, but rather stated that there must be a code of values to guide your choice of whether or not to help in the first place and if you then choose to help – who and/or what to help. Certainly friends and family are of great value to you and any rationally self-interested person would want to help them. The essence here is that your motivation should be your own self interest.
Is the person you are considering helping of value to you? – then that means they are worthy of your help. Is that person or persons you are considering helping demonstating a lack of moral effort on their part to rationally make their life better (bum begging on the street)? – then it is not in your self interest to help. In fact helping the bum has the opposite effect – he has LESS motivation to help himself. Is the person or persons you are considering helping really your enemy (Islamic Fundamentalists)? – then you are acting not in your own self interest but rather you are furthering your own destruction.
Most people, such as Dan Mitchell, blindly accept the moral code that there is a duty to help others. And, just who are those others? The only definition ever offered is “anyone and everyone but You”. Ayn Rand demonstrated in her novels that this concept was at the root of all evil and would inevitably lead to totalitarnism where Altrusim was and is enforced at the point of a gun. It’s the ONLY way it can work. But it can only work for a while – until we run out of victims. We are living in such a society now and you can readily see that it is getting uglier and uglier. As Ayn Rand said in Atlas Shrugged “your days are numbered”!
In a civilized and objective society all force would be banned and people would have to deal with each other as traders, both physically and morally. So too must Altruism be completely and unambigouously rejected. Ayn Rand clearly showed that altrusim has to be replaced by a life-promoting code – a code of rational self interest. Do you have the intellectual courage to re-examine your premises?
[…] me, though, this conference and this encounter forced me to give some thought to how you can be a big fan of Ayn Rand while also feeling good about holding open doors for little old ladies. Rate this: Share […]
Thanks for that ! I’ve been reading Rand since my junior year of high school .. and have her three novels .. which don’t need dusting. Yes, inspired me and continues to.
Ed