• • • Ayn Rand: The Siren of US Conservatism (Part II) 
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Alan Greenspan  |Ayn Rand Institute  |Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal  |Capitalism  |Individualism  |Paul Ryan  |Personal life  |Image  | In its purest form, Ayn Rand’s philosophy is startlingly radical and of dubious moral value, and in any case makes apparently impossible demands on human nature. Yet Rand has enjoyed a wide following. Who looks up to Rand, and what have they absorbed from her writing? How is Rand’s influence felt in today’s political culture?      View blog reactions

• • • Ayn Rand: The Siren of US Conservatism (Part I) 
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Altruism  |Atlas Shrugged  |The Fountainhead  |Egoism  |Paul Ryan  |Personal life  |Image  | The essence of Rand’s teaching is that altruism is bad and selfishness is a virtue. She thinks that people would be better off if they liberated themselves from social demands to put others ahead of themselves. Furthermore, people should root out any internal inhibitions arising from their own socially trained superego. If they managed to do all that, the way would be paved for a libertarian utopia, such as the one Rand introduces toward the end of her novel Atlas Shrugged. These teachings represent a mixture of valuable insight, some elementary misunderstandings — and a considerable amount of naiveté.      View blog reactions