Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (61 page)

46
. This distinction is made by Andrew Kirk,
Counterculture Green: The
Whole Earth Catalog
and American Environmentalism
(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007). Whether this set of ideas transcends or represents yet another iteration of what Donald Worster called the dialectic of “arcadian” and “imperialist” ecology is an important question to explore. Worster,
Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977/1994).

47
. Stewart Brand, diary entries dated July 9, 1968 and August 16, 1968, Stewart Brand Papers, Stanford University Special Collections.

48
.
The Last Whole Earth Catalog
(Menlo Park, CA: Portola Institute, 1971), 185. The catalogue included only books deemed either “useful as a tool” or “relevant to independent education,” making mention tantamount to endorsement. It also recommended the
A Is A Directory
and Milton Friedman’s
Capitalism and Freedom
(344). The
Atlas Shrugged
excerpt was from a speech by Rand villain Floyd Ferris, in which he tells Hank Rearden, “One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.” Rand may also have inspired Brand’s later insistence that his hippy partners become comfortable with money and overcome their guilt about using it to reform the world. For libertarian and counterculture connections to cyberspace, see Fred Turner,
From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006); John Markoff,
What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry
(New York: Viking Penguin, 2005). Rand’s intersection with the computer culture is noted in Christopher Hitchens, “Why So Many High-Tech Executives Have Declared Allegiance to Randian Objectivism,”
Business
2.0, August/September 2001, 129–32, and is surely worth further exploration.

49
. Ayn Rand, “A Suggestion,”
The Objectivist
, February 1969, 595–96; Ayn Rand, “Of Living Death,”
The Objectivist
, October 1968, 534. Members of Frank O’Connor’s extended family claimed that Rand herself had an abortion in the early 1930s, which they helped pay for. Heller, 128. Rand never mentioned this incident, but whatever
her personal experience, her support of abortion rights was fully consonant with her emphasis on individualism and personal liberty.

50
. Joan Didion made a nearly identical argument in “The Women’s Movement,” in
The White Album
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), 110. Many feminists did indeed have Marxist roots. See Daniel Horowitz,
Betty Friedan and the Making of the Feminine Mystique: The American Left, the Cold War, and Modern Feminism
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998).

51
. Ayn Rand, “The Age of Envy,
Part II
,”
The Objectivist
, August 1971, 1076.

52
. Susan Brownmiller,
Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975), 315.

53
. Barbara Grazzuti Harrison, “Psyching Out Ayn Rand,” Ms., September 1978, reprinted in Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Sciabbara, eds.,
Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand
(University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), 70, 75, 72, 76.

54
. Gladstein and Sciabbara,
Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand
, 49; “Sightings,”
The Navigator: An Objectivist Review of Politics and Culture
6, nos. 7–8 (August 2003), available at
www.objectivistcenter.org/navigator/articles/nav+sightings-nav-6-78.asp
[July 26, 2005]. Organizations dedicated to individualist feminism include Feminists for Free Expression, the Association of Libertarian Feminists, and the Independent Women’s Forum. The last is analyzed in Ronnee Schreiber,
Righting Feminism: Conservative Women and American Politics
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). Joan Kennedy Taylor, the author of
Reclaiming the Mainstream: Individualist Feminism Rediscovered
(Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1992) and a longtime friend of Rand, was an important figure in this movement. Wendy McElroy of www.ifeminist.com also identifies Rand as an influence.

55
. Rand’s remarks are printed in Ayn Rand,
Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q and A
, ed. Robert Mayhew (New York: New American Library, 2005), 91, 72.

56
.
SIL News
3, no. 12 (1972): 1.

57
. This discussion of the Libertarian Party draws on my article, “O Libertarian, Where Is Thy Sting?” Other works that discuss the Party’s history are Joseph Hazlett,
The Libertarian Party and Other Minor Political Parties
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1992); Kelley,
Bringing the Market Back In
. The Libertarian Party pledge is found in
There Is No Middle Ground
, LP pamphlet, in “Campaign Literature 1972–1981,” Box 1, Libertarian Party Papers (hereafter LPP), Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

58
. Interview with David Nolan by Palmer, July 1, 1984, Interviews with Libertarian Party members, 1984, Box 11, LPP. A poll of activists found 36 percent identified as Objectivists and 75 percent were former Republicans. Doherty,
Radicals for Capitalism, 391; Colorado Libertarian
, February 1977, 2, Papers of the Colorado Libertarian Party, LPP. The second position belonged to a publication by Roger MacBride, the Party’s 1975 presidential nominee. “You Are What You Read: Survey of CA Libertarian Party Members,”
Colorado Liberty
1, no 2 (1979); 1972 Libertarian Party pamphlet,
Tired of Being the Politicians’ Puppet?
, Campaign Literature 1972–1981, LPP.

59
. Don Ernsberger, “Politics and Social Change,”
SIL News
2, no. 11 (1971): 2–5.

60
. Campaign figures are from Tom Palmer, interview with Edward Crane III, June 28, 1984, Interviews with Libertarian Party Members, 1984, Box 11, LPP; vote total from “Editorial Research Report: Libertarian’s Alaskan Warm-up,”
Congressional Quarterly
, August 17, 1982.

61
. Before joining the Republican Party, Norton was active in Libertarian Party politics, particularly the 1980 presidential campaign. Laura Flanders,
Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species
(New York: Verso, 2004).

62
. Rand,
Ayn Rand Answers
, 72, 74, 73.

63
. Edward H. Crane, “How Now, Ayn Rand?,”
Option
2, no. 2 (1974): 15, reprinted from
LP News
, December 1973, Box 3, Walter Papers.

64
. Although two biographies of Greenspan credit his involvement with the campaign to Len Garment, both Greenspan and Anderson remember that Anderson was the person who introduced him to Nixon and involved him in the presidential campaign. Author interview with Martin Anderson, January 11, 2008; Alan Greenspan, personal communication to author, February 27, 2009; Justin Martin,
Greenspan: The Man behind the Money
(Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2000), 45; Jerome Tuccille,
Alan Shrugged: Alan Greenspan, the World’s Most Powerful Banker
(New York: Wiley, 2002). Anderson included an excerpt from Rand in Martin Anderson and Barbara Honegger, eds.,
The Military Draft: Selected Readings on Conscription
(Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1982). For more on the Gates Commission, see Bernard D. Rostker,
I Want You! The Evolution of the All-Volunteer Force
(Washington, DC: RAND Corporation, 2006).

65
. The Austrians remained a tiny minority within the economics profession but established durable clusters at George Mason University, Auburn University, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Karen Iversen Vaughn,
Austrian Economics in America: The Migration of a Tradition
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). The law and economics movement is described in Steven M. Teles,
The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), especially
chapter 4
. Although not libertarian per se, the work of rational choice theorists made thinkers in multiple academic disciplines more receptive to individualism. S. M. Amadae,
Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy: The Cold War Origins of Rational Choice Liberalism
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).

66
. Robert Nozick,
Anarchy, State, and Utopia
(New York: Basic Books, 1974), 115. Nozick addressed Objectivism directly in
Anarchy, State, and Utopia
(177–79) and in a separate essay, “On the Randian Argument,” In
Socratic Puzzles
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 249–64. Although he sharply criticized Rand’s arguments, Nozick called her “an interesting thinker, worthy of attention.” Nozick’s encounter with libertarianism and Rothbard is described in
Socratic Puzzles
, 1, 7–8, and in Ralph Raico, “Robert Nozick: A Historical Note,” available at
www.lewrockwell.com/raico/raico15.html
[November 27, 2008]. For a sympathetic treatment of Nozick that explains his relationship to other strains of libertarianism, see Edward Feder,
On Nozick
(Toronto: Wadsworth, 2004). Details of Nozick at the Libertarian Party convention are given in Ian Young, “Gay Rights and the Libertarians,”
Libertarian Option
, January 1976, 9–30, Box 3, Walter Papers. Nozick argued that a gay candidate might attract urban and younger voters.

67
. Paul Varnell, “Of Academic Interest,”
A Is A
2, no. 6 (1973): 3, and
A Is A
2, no. 4 (1973): 4, Box 15, Walter Papers; “In Brief,”
SIL News
, June–July 1971, 5.

68
. “Break Free! An Interview with Nathaniel Branden.”

69
. Ayn Rand, “An Untitled Letter,
Part II
,”
Ayn Rand Letter
2, no. 10 (1973): 168. The review ran in two concurrent issues.

70
. Ayn Rand, “A Last Survey,”
Ayn Rand Letter
4, no. 2 (1975): 382, 381.

71
. Ibid., 382.

72
. Details on the Koch brothers and Cato’s founding can be found in Doherty,
Radicals for Capitalism
, 411–13. An alternative account crediting Murray Rothbard is given in Justin Raimondo’s celebratory biography of Rothbard,
An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard
(Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2000),
chapter 5
. Cato’s strategy of direct policy intervention and advocacy represented a new direction for think tanks that was increasingly popular in the 1970s. Andrew Rich describes this transformation as one from expertise to advocacy in
Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004). According to Rich’s data, Cato was considered the fifth most influential think tank in 1993 and the third most influential in 1997 (81). Alice O’Connor identifies and critiques a similar shift in
Social Science for What? Philanthropy and the Social Question in a World Turned Rightside Up
(New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007). Conservative think tanks became increasingly important institutions in the 1970s, providing an institutional apparatus to support intellectuals and a direct conduit to policymakers. Kimberly Phillips-Fein,
Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Ronald Reagan
(New York: Norton, 2009). Koch money also funded the Institute for Humane Studies, an organization that promotes libertarian ideas to students.

73
. The Hessens moved to California in 1974 and started the Palo Alto Book Service after
The Ayn Rand Letter
closed, selling off Rand’s inventory of newsletters. After their final break with Rand they continued a business relationship until her death and closed the service in 1986 after a dispute with Leonard Peikoff.

74
. Edited by Leonard Peikoff and Harry Binswanger,
The Objectivist Forum
was published bimonthly from 1980 to 1987.
The Intellectual Activist
, started by Peter Schwartz in 1979, is still in existence after several editorial changes. Rand’s stamp collecting is described in Charles and Mary Ann Sures, Facets of Ayn Rand (Irvine, CA: Ayn Rand Institute Press, 2001).

75
. Barbara Branden,
The Passion of Ayn Rand
(New York: Random House, 1986), 396–400; Nathaniel Branden, My Years with Ayn Rand (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1999), 391–402.

76
. Cynthia Peikoff interview for “Sense of Life,” December 2, 1994, documentary outtakes, ARP.

Epilogue

1
. William F. Buckley Jr., “Ayn Rand: RIP,”
National Review
, April 2, 1982, 380; George Gilder,
Wealth and Poverty
(New York: Basic Books, 1981); Charles Murray,
Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950–1980
(New York: Basic Books, 1984); William Simon,
A Time
for Truth
(New York: McGrawReader’s Digest Press, 1978); Maureen Dowd, “Where
Atlas Shrugged
Is Still Read—Forthrightly,”
New York Times
, September 13, 1987.

2
. Nicholas Dykes, letter to the editor,
Full Context
, February 1997, 10.

3
. David Kelley,
The Evidence of the Senses: A Realist Theory of Perception
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1986).

4
. Peter Schwartz, “On Sanctioning the Sanctioners,”
Intellectual Activist IV
, February 27, 1989; Leonard Peikoff, “Fact and Value,”
Intellectual Activist V
, May 18, 1989; David Kelley, “Truth and Toleration” (1990), in
The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand: Truth and Toleration in Objectivism
, 2nd ed. (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2000).