The Success and Failure of Ayn Rand: Shikha Dalmia Considers Where She Went Wrong

Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum was born to a Russian-Jewish family living in Saint Petersburg in the early 20th century. Growing up, she witnessed the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the confiscation of her father's business by the victorious Soviet government. The Rosenbaums fled Russia and eventually wound up in America, where Alisa finished her schooling and changed her name to Ayn Rand. She became the celebrated author of novels such as Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and Anthem, in which Rand illustrated entire (fictional) societies in which the basic principles of market economics were developed within tales of human drama and transformed from a dry description of a socio-economic system into an entire world-view and philosophy of living. Objectivism - the name Rand gave to her system of thought - primarily valued self-concern over self-sacrifice, depicting altruism as a false humanism that actually implied greater harm to humanity than benefit. Yet, Shikha Dalmia, senior analyst at the Reason Foundation, hits the proverbial nail on its head in her insightful explanation of the ultimate failure of Rand's ideology to gain the popular appeal she sought - and how her ideas can succeed if they can evolve past her own personal biases:

The fact is that Rand gets harder to take as one grows older and concerns about those around us become more important than our own personal project of self development. The relentless, single-minded dedication to one's passions that Rand seems to favor requires a coldness of the soul, a narrowing of one's humanity--the natural interest in the fortune of others that Smith alludes to--that most people find is not exactly conducive to their happiness.

This has profound and unfortunate political consequences. On the practical level, it makes it difficult to build a strong and growing anti-government movement based solely on Rand's philosophy, because the older cohort of her followers is falling off on a regular basis. On the theoretical level, Rand's ideas offer no real possibility of developing robust civil society responses to address the needs of those down on their luck. It is difficult to imagine a Randian qua Randian, say, volunteering in a soup kitchen to feed the hungry, or even founding the Fraternal Order of Fellow Randians to provide free health coverage and housing to jobless and homeless Randians. Since misfortune and distress are a normal part of the human condition, a philosophy that offers no positive, private solutions to deal with them will just have a harder time making the case against government intervention stick.

Rand's resurgence is certainly a welcome antidote to the Big Government onslaught that the country is experiencing right now. In the age of bailouts, the world certainly needs to hear--loud and clear--her message of personal freedom as well as its corollary, personal responsibility. But if Rand is going to play a starring role in the long-term battle to defeat statist ideologies, rather than making episodic, cameo appearances, her work will require a radical overhaul. Ultimately, the best way to honor her is by making her cause succeed--even if that means jettisoning some of her intellectual baggage.

You can read the full article here.

We at Derusha recognize the interdependence of all human beings across the planet and feel that social activism is not only a pressing responsibility to be shouldered by individuals and corporations alike, but a natural course of action that is reasonable within the context of pursuing that which is truly beneficial for one's self and for humanity together. As the Jewish sage and elder, Hillel, asked so eloquently:

If I am not for myself, who is for me?

If I am only for myself, [then] what am I?

If not now - when?