The secret of life: you must be nothing but will. Know what you want and do it. Know what you are doing and why are you are doing it, every minute of every day
- Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand is, like her or not, one of most devoured readers and contemplated thinkers of the 20th century. Last year alone, her two most famous novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, sold for 800,000 copies. There has been a lot of hate recently on Rand for her philosophy, objectivism, and her ideas of the state, capitalism, and the intermingling of the two – some fair and some unfair I feel.
Rand is intriguing. So, with the onset of the financial crisis, caused by the greedy capitalist (which I don’t necessarily agree with), and nature of Rand, two very well-done Rand biographies have recently been released – one by Anne Heller and the other by Jennifer Burns. I just completed Burns Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right and I wanted to take a post and describe briefly some of the powerful ideas I took away from her book and Rand’s life.
If you are completely new to Rand, you have to understand that she HATED the state. After reading her story, it’s easy to see why. Her own father had his highly successful business taken from him by the Bolsheviks not once, but twice – in the glory and benefit of the state and communism. This forced Rand (who at the time was still named Alisa Rosenbaum) from a life of comfort into a life of living like shit - literally. After realizing she wasn’t going to survive, both intellectually and likely physically, Rand and her parents decided to help her escape to America where she was to spend the rest of her life.
After a brief stint in Hollywood writing screenplays, and a marriage to her lifelong husband, Frank Connors, Rand ended up moving to her permanent residence in New York City. I already knew that Rand considered NYC the greatest city in the world, but Burns provided a great insight into why Rand was able to flourish in NYC. I failed to realize how pro-communist the left was in America pre-WWII, particularly on the East Coast. While Rand was horrified by this, it did allow her to polarize herself within the intellectual community and it gave her inspiration into I think her greatest work, The Fountainhead.
Next, Rand was a huge opponent of Religion. Her reasons are highly persuasive, but considering I am already a non-believer, I didn’t need to read much. However, what Burns forces you to realize is the origins of the American Christian surge over the last 60 years. What I failed to connect was that, following WWII, America and USSR became enemies. America was capitalist and the Soviet Union was communist. Thus, in the continuation of the polarization of the Soviet Union, America slowly began combining capitalism and christianity (which is completely contradictory by the way) against communism and atheism. Highly interesting I thought because it explains where the religious fervor in America came from – or at least part of it.
This book was as much Rand’s following as it was about her life. Her following was extremely strange. It was entirely a cult culminated by her long-standing affair with Nathaniel Branden, 25 years her junior. Nevertheless, Rand’s view did touch many of the great economic thinkers of the 20th century: Milton Friedman, Murray Rothbard, F.A. Hayek, and Alan Greenspan to name a few. Pretty impressive figures to have influenced considering Rand had zero educational background in economics.
Much of the book sheds light on the more negative side of Rand. In addition to her strange affair, Rand was a meth-head for much of her life (although one can see why considering it boosted her productivity and caused there to be mental clarity). Also, aside from a few people, Rand had a major falling-out with almost every one of her close colleagues. The reason being was that she just “thought to much.” “Thinking” about relationships is no way to live. Often times she would blow up on a friend or student because they challenged some of Rand’s minutiae - fairly absurd. Lastly, Rand simply got it wrong when she thought that everything can be controlled by reason and logic, including human emotion. With the rise of Evolutionary Psychology, one can simply say that that is simply not true.
But what is important about Rand is that she makes one think. She challenges ones assumptions and will undoubtedly shed new light on one’s life. I remember the first time I read Rand’s The Fountainhead. It was like a religious experience – it was so powerful and, in a sense, pure.
Whatever your views are, if you have not read any of Rand’s literature, read it. When you do, I doubt you will be the same once you are finished.
