Ayn Rand's Influence in Latin Amerca, Part III

(6) Ayn Rand’s Ascendancy in Latin America
Notable personalities in Latin America have discovered the power of Ayn Rand. Two prominent writers in the Spanish-speaking world, Carlos Alberto Montaner and Alvaro Vargas Llosa have written introductions to The Fountainhead that appears on the cover of the Spanish edition.

Both men are former leftists who now are active in liberal organizations. Montaner is an internationally syndicated columnist and author, and Vargas Llosa is a writer and the son of Mario Vargas Llosa, the best-selling author whose many books are translated into English. The two men have authored a book called The Perfect Latin American Idiot, detailing the disastrous state-managed policies of Latin American governments and some of the disastrous thinking that support these policies.

Vargas Llosa, in his introduction to The Fountainhead, states that Ayn Rand, "an immigrant with a heavy accent, revolutionized the idea Americans have of themselves and reminds them that their country was founded on the moral base of individualism. She exhorts them to return to these roots under penalty of self-abnegation."

Montaner writes that The Fountainhead, "is one of the rare examples of a good novel based on liberal ideas, and that Howard Roark, a brilliant architect is ready to risk all to defend individual liberty." He goes on to say that Ayn Rand dedicated her intense and profound life to combating collectivism in any form and that novels with an ethical content are rare, and that The Fountainhead is the best example that he knows.

Another outstanding example, in addition to Vargas Llosa and Montaner, is the Peruvian author and television personality, Jaime Bayly, who in his book, Amigos que Perdí, mentions the “healthy egoism of Ayn Rand.” (1)

Interestingly, in La Nacion one of the major newspapers of Argentina, we find an article about Carlos Saúl Menen the ex-president of Argenitina, discovering Atlas Shrugged while he was in exile in Chile. According to the author of the article, Menen is a great admirer of the book and was recommending it to anyone who would listen. On his website, Menen mentions, in a piece to his fellow Peronists, that problems should be resolved, using the “serene and objective explanation of the facts, always to the light of the clear thinking of Alice Ayn Rand.”(2)

Unlike most journalistic articles about Ayn Rand that I have read, the author seems to know the subject about which she writes. She gives us a short background of Ayn Rand's life and then describes her as the founder of Objectivism. This is how she explains Objectivism in her very favorable article. "Objectivism expounds the existence of an objective reality that one can know by means of reason, proposes the ethic of self-interest and recommends the system of laissez-faire capitalism."

Another article that appeared in La Nacion in 2004, illustrates the growing popularity of Ayn Rand by the fact that there is no profound discussion of who she is. In the article called “The Myth of the Cowboy in the White House” the author, Mario Diament, talks about the Hollywood image of the cowboy: of the white American, alone and individualistic facing the forces of evil and that the morality of these pictures is usually that the cowboy must take responsibility no matter the circumstances. The author then states this is the same thing that Ayn Rand seeks, “the high priestess of capitalism, whose novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged contributed to define American morality in the decade of the fifties.”(3)

During its book fair, The University of Cema in Buenos Aires featured Ayn Rand’s main novels and had a scheduled reading open to the public.

From México, we learn that Atlas Shrugged sells at Liberías Gandhi for $30, and The Fountainhead for the same price. An article on the internet news site Terra.com relates that finally the rock group Rush is coming to Mexico, and that one of their most popular songs was based on Ayn Rand’s book, Anthem.

In an article in one of the principle newspapers, El Universal, about Alan Greenspan, the author states that few people know that he was a great friend of Objectivism and its author Ayn Rand. According to the article Ayn Rand considered him a disciple and an intellectual heir.(4)

In a major article from a magazine about economics, after the death of an ex-Mexican president involved in a bank nationalization, Roberto Salinas León, director of politics and economics at TV Azteca, quotes extensively from Atlas Shrugged about the meaning of money and its importance to a rational society. (5)

From El Diario de Yucatán, Ayn Rand is quoted as saying that “the person that would sell their soul for a few pennies is usually the one that proclaims in a loud voice that he hates money.” (6)

From one of the main newspapers out of Santiago, Chile, La Tercera, the actress, María José Prieto, when asked what book she should never lack in her personal library, answered, “The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama.” (7)

Being the mother country and one of the focal points of Latin culture, the media in Spain have been up to date in recognizing the increasing popularity of Ayn Rand in the Spanish-speaking world.

In a September 2002 article in the Spanish magazine, Libertad Digital, the Spanish author, Alicia Delibes, writes a convincing and interesting article about the “Individualism of Ayn Rand.” (8)

In an article from La Voz de Galicia, a daily published in Galicia, Spain, Ayn Rand is mentioned in context with Alan Greenspan and the appointment of his successor. Talking about Greenspan, the article states that now, “He would have more time to involve himself in the philosophy of Objectivism, which is about the benefits of individualism and rational egoism, whose creator, Ayn Rand, was his friend and mentor.” (9)

Notice here, like in many other articles I have read from Latin America, the journalist aims for clarity by using the modifier “rational” in front of egoist or egoism so as to distinguish Ayn Rand’s view from other views of egoism.

Also from Spain, the Diario Vasco, mentions Ayn Rand in regards to a meeting with the author Tobias Wolfe. Here again, no information is given and the article assumes the fame and notoriety of Ayn Rand.

A major article from El Mundo in Spain about Frank Lloyd Wright mentions Ayn Rand and states that Wright’s life inspired the The Fountainhead—a major success in book sales that was made into a movie. According to the article Howard Roark “was a genius who went against the current, a self-destructive architect disposed to dynamite his own buildings rather than surrender his convictions.” (10)

From Costa Rica, one learns that Otto Guevara, the imposing Libertarian candidate for president, when quizzed by the newspaper, La Republica about his favorite author and novel, named Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged. (11)

In an article from a Venezuelan newspaper called, “Who Works Doesn’t Eat Straw” Ayn Rand is quoted at the end of the article stating the wealth of the United States was not created by sacrifices to the common good, but by productive men seeking their own self-interest. The author compares this with the collectivist intention of promising food by making one a prisoner of socialist ideology. All of this is in context of the “socialist” revolution taking place in Venezuela, and the attempt by Hugo Chávez to do this under the banner of social justice. (12)

In Guatemala, a conference sponsored by Ricardo Rojas looks for the connection between Ayn Rand and Kart Popper, and if any is to be found. (13)

Luis Figueroa, a writer from Guatemala who writes a column on Saturdays in the paper, La Prensa, did a piece called “Ayn Rand and Individualism” that was published in March de 1987. In the article he describes Ayn Rand as one of the most notable defenders of individualism and then describes the basics of Objectivism.

On the shabby side of journalism in the Spanish-speaking world, we learn that Gary Cooper fell in love with Ayn Rand and convinced her to go to Hollywood, that Dominique Francon was a believer in patience and tolerance, that Howard Roark is definitely based on the life of Frank Lloyd Wright, and that Nathaniel Branden was married to Barbara Feldon.

A web magazine out of Argentina called Mercado seems to have Ayn Rand confused with L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, alluding to both of them together as if they were the same entity, and mentioning her in connection with Robert Atkins, the best-selling diet doctor.

The increasing influence of Ayn Rand in Latin America becomes apparent in several articles published in Pagina 12, a left-wing daily out of Buenos Aires that is sympathetic to the socialism of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. Although political in nature in covering the news and socialist in its slant, the paper also reports extensively on cultural affairs: movies, books and famous people in the news. It is a prominent daily and strives to maintain an aura of objective reporting.

Remarkably, the paper published a movie review of The Passion of Ayn Rand, the movie directed by Christopher Menaul and enthusiastically praised by Barbara Branden. The reviewer seems to accept the movie as fact and repeats Menaul’s version of Ayn Rand's life as if it was factually based. One positive note in the article was that the reviewer openly states that Ayn Rand, "embraced capitalism, and defended the right of the individual to be egoistic." Amazingly, at the end of the article it even offers a statement by Leonard Peikoff that the Branden’s view, one which the movie is based on, is extremely partial. (14)

In March of 2002, the paper published a major article about Ayn Rand accompanied by six photos of Rand taken by Andy Warhol. The article offered no footnotes in regard to where the author obtained his knowledge of Ayn Rand, but I could see that he was influenced by accounts by Barbara Branden and Murray Rothbard, repeating the typewriter story, and Rothbard's charges of a Stalinist-like cult of dogma and authoritarianism. (15)
While far from complimentary in his story, the author Pablo Capanna, like many people on the left in Latin America, is not reluctant to spell out the issues, and openly mentions Ayn Rand’s support of egoism and individualism, and her opposition to altruism. Along with this, he refers to her radical egoism and quotes her as saying "the root of all bad things stems from altruism because it subverts values and puts personal benefit below the general interest or welfare."

Relative to what I have seen in the United States over the years, especially from William F. Buckley’s National Review, this review from a left-wing daily, at least, stated openly the fundamentals of Objectivism.

In a lighter moment, the author compares Galt's speech at the end of Atlas Shrugged with the long-winded discourses of "Fidel." Apparently, he is aware of the power of Ayn Rand, and her challenge to the prevailing icons of altruism and collectivism embodied in Castro and Che Guevara.

(7) Rational Future
The major force behind the appearance of Ayn Rand in Latin America is classical liberalism, or as it is referred to commonly—liberalism or neo-liberalism. Unlike in the United States, liberalism in Latin America still refers to the classical liberal tradition of Adam Smith, Bastiat, Hayek and Von Mises: a constitutional republic; rule of law; and laissez-faire economics. What is understood as liberalism in America would interpret as socialism in Latin America. Conservatism, on the other hand, has a darker tradition and has often been allied with military dictatorships, the Catholic Church, and with business interests that often owe their success to governmental intervention and contacts.

While often overshadowed by socialist and conservative parties, liberalism still has a large following in such countries as Argentina, Chile and Peru. In the election of 1990 in Perú, the renowned writer and liberal, Mario Vargas Llosa was narrowly defeated in the presidential race by Alberto Fujimori. (Vargas Llosa was one of the few people to attack both Fidel Castro and Augusto Pinochet as enemies of freedom.) In Chile, the liberal Sebastián Piñera, defeated the conservative candidate in a three-way race and then ran a close second in the 2006 presidential race to the socialist, Michelle Bachelet. Piñera is the brother of Jose Piñera, the economist and one of the architects of the “Chilean miracle.” In Argentina, Ricardo Lopez-Murphy heads a liberal party that faces stiff opposition from the socialists and the Peronist Party. Recently, Otto Guevara the libertarian candidate in the presidential election in Costa Rica ran third, and gained enough seats in the legislature to become the third political force in a country with multiple parties that number more than ten.

The websites of liberal organizations and political parties contain glowing praise for Ayn Rand’s ideas and novels, although they tend to shy away from the all-important moral foundation for capitalism, and tend to concentrate on politics and economics. In the all-important battle of ideas, liberal organizations are attacked by all spectrums of the political spectrum from the Marxists, nationalists, Social Democrats and by the Catholic Church.

No doubt, the battle in Latin America will differ from the history of the United States. I remember reading a major article about Ayn Rand by Claudia Dreifus in New Yorker magazine that appeared in the late nineties, in which, she failed to mention even once, Ayn Rand’s battle against the morality of altruism. The article centered on everything but the fundamentals of Objectivist philosophy. More than an aberration, the article pretty much followed the tone of the times, which was to refer to her as a conservative, mention her support for capitalism and leave out the philosophical base of what she was saying, especially her view on morality and altruism, which she referred to as “the poison of death in the blood of Western Civilization.” (1)

Unlike the disgraceful tendency of critics to somehow miss the fundamentals of what Ayn Rand was saying, in Latin America individualism, altruism, egoism and collectivism are openly brought to the surface even in articles that are negative in slant. Then, too, in many countries of Latin America, ideas are still considered important and intellectual life is much more robust than what one sees in the United States. No doubt, the intellectuals are heavily slanted toward Marxism, socialism and a benevolent welfare state, yet nonetheless, they are idea oriented and comfortable in the intellectual realm.

As an example of this, I would point to the recently elected vice-president of Bolivia, Alvaro García Linera, who in an interview stated he began reading Kant and Engels at the age of thirteen, and talked about a future for Bolivia in ideological terms. Compare that with the non-intellectual and often hostile attitude toward ideas and the intellect in the United States, led by the clownish Michael Moore and followed by the real-time politicians, George Bush, John Kerry, Teddy Kennedy and Dick Cheney. (2)

Perhaps, the fertile intellectual life still available in Latin America will make Ayn Rand’s Spanish journey much easier than what she experienced in the United States. This is a question for the future. What is apparent now is that she has arrived and her ideas are having a powerful effect on the cultural life south of the border from Mexico to the far reaches of Argentina and Chile. Once again, like a character in one of her novels, the great genius stamps her mark on a culture, this time in the very fertile ground of Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastian d'Anconia.


References

The Publishers
(1) See Interview with Rosa Peltz http://www.liberalismo.org/articulo/296/62

(2) See Fredy Kofman introduction in La Rebelión de Atlas

Bestseller History
(1) El Universal, March 25, 2004;
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=222649&tabla=notas

(2) El Imparcial. Com, Diario Independiente de Sonora, Printed Edition, September 16, 2005
http://www.elimparcial.com/edicionenlinea/notas/Entretenimiento/20050916/117178.asp
See also http://www.elimparcial.com/edicionenlinea/nota.asp?NumNota=117555

(3) See Mauro Books website: http://www.maurolibros.com/

(4) See Cuspide Books website: http://www.cuspide.com/detalle_libro.php/9872095132

(5) See Boardsnet Books website: http://www.boardsnet.com/libros.htm

Ayn Rand’s Ascendency in Latin America
(1) Jaime Bayly, Amigos que perdí,” Chapter 2, Entrega 12; (Novel of Jaime Bayly available on www.terra.com)
http://www.terra.com/jaimebayly/IInovela0605.htm

(2) Laura Capriata, "En Chile, Menen prepara su defensa," La Nacion, February 2, 2004.
See website of Carlos Menen; http://www.carlosmenem.com/carta51.asp

(3) Mario Diament, "El Mito del Cowboy en La Casa Blanca," La Nacion, June 12, 2004.

(4) El Universal, October 25, 2005 http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/version_imprimir?id_nota=48084&tabla=finanzas

(5) Roberto Salinas León “Terrorism Verbal,” Todito.com, October, 2004.
http://www.todito.com/paginas/contenido/fc10042001/nt9660.html

(6) El Diario de Yucatán “Lo que tienes es lo que vales” September 15, 2005

(7) Interview in La Tercera with the actress María José Prieto; www.tercera.cl/diario/2002/02/03/03.23.3a.REP.PROUST.html

(8) Alicia Delibes, “El individualismo y Ayn Rand,” liberalismo.org; http://www.liberalismo.org/articulo/96/62

(9) Óscar Santamaría, “Los protagonistas del relevo en la Fed, ”La Voz De Galicia, October 26, 2005; http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/se_economia/noticia.jsp?CAT=108&TEXTO=4191932

(10) Hugh Pearman , “El Arquitecto de los derrumbes, ”El Mundo, July 31, 2005;
http://www.elmundo.es/suplementos/magazine/2005/305/1122638288.html

(11) Guevara ran for president in the 2006 elections in Costa Rica. Out of twelve candidates, he came in third with about eight percent of the vote. For a country mired in socialism, he ran a strong, pro-market campaign although non-philosophical. In a poll given to university students during the campaign, Guevara ran close to the top, almost defeating the presidential winner, Oscar Arias, the noted humantarian and Nobel Prize winner.
(12) Rafael Marrón González, “Who Works Doesn’t Eat Straw” Correo de Caroní, November 28, 2005; (http://www.correodelcaroni.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12625&Itemid=126)

(13) A conference sponsored by Ricardo Rojas called ”Ayn Rand y Karl Popper sobre el conocimiento: ¿Es posible encontrar un punto de conexión?” July 7, 2005, Guatemala City, Guatemala; http://www.newmedia.ufm.edu.gt/pagina.asp?nom=randpopperconocimiento

(14) Cecilia Bembibre, “Ayn Rand, from the USSR to Hollywood,” Pagina 12
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/2000/00-02/00-02-02/pag22.htm

(15) Pablo Capanna, “Adorando,” Pagina 12, March 2, 2003
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/futuro/13-50-2002-03-02.html

Rational Future
(1) “Un intelectual sediento de lectura es el Vicepresidente,” La Razon de Bolivia
January 22, 2006

This article is copyright © 2006, by Alan Tucker.

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The following is a translation of an article about Ayn Rand that appeared in a Buenos Aires newspaper, Pagina 12, on March 2, 2002. To my knowledge it was the first major newspaper article about her in Argentina, and although a critical article it does maintain some attempt at objectivity. I include it here because ironically it has the opposite effect of what the author intends. He is intent on distorting Ayn Rand's legacy and her philosophy, yet what he accomplishes is a bold revelation of her ideas and philosophy in a world where she was little known.

The author of the article, Pablo Capanna, is a science fiction writer of note in the Spanish-language world, and especially in Argentina. Even though, he is intent on distorting Rand's legacy, his frank discussion of what Ayn Rand is about could make many a young mind curious about this great American writer and philosopher. Remember his article appeared in a left-wing paper that is also a cultural barometer, a newspaper that appeals to many young people interested in movies, the theatre and books. It stands to reason that some of these young people are curious, individualistic and perhaps looking for other views of the world. It is not much of a stretch of the imagination to envision young readers being pulled toward the bold, daring plots Capanna describes in his article, and the heroic characters who inhabit it. It would turn out to be rather ironic if his article served to advance Objectivism and rather than bury it.

The article appeared in Spanish and was translated by me. Any errors of fact in the original were translated exactly as written. At times the English translation is a little rough but I have refrained from polishing it to my style or in adding punctuation where the author has omitted it.

Here is the link to the original article in Spanish:

www.pagina12.com/diario/suplementos/futuros/index-2002-03-02.html

Note: The concept of individualism in Argentina differs from that of the United States, and lacks the historic philosophical roots inherent to the American Revolution, the Constitution and the culture. For the most part, in Argentina, individualism is seen in a negative light, a kind of narcissistic pursuit of self where the person does what they want without regard for others, or for that matter, the long-range self-interest of the individual. It usually implies a pursuit of one's material interest in disregard for the group, a wanton pursuit of pleasure in the mode of "getting mine" without concern for the consequences. In this sense, the Howard Roark pursuit of higher values usually doesn't enter into the picture, or if it does, probably is classified under a different concept.

The article:

Idolizing
by Pablo Capanna

One usually takes for granted that fundamentalism is a pathology of religion. Many of the things that have been written hurriedly in volumes about Islamic fundamentalism comes from this premise, that permits them to trivialize to the maximum many things in order to blame everything on Mohammed. Seemingly, we have forgotten the political fundamentalisms of the Twentieth Century, that when they weren’t atheistic only used religion pragmatically, but still were intolerant and sectarian to a grade never seen before. Also the Jacobins worshipped the god of reason, but ended up using the guillotine and the positivists worshipped science to only wind up revering the lover of Comte.

For this reason, when one speaks of the new "religious" fundamentalisms, one will have to think, much more than in theological questions, but in a undesired consequence of thinking, that erodes the cultural identity and pushes to defend fanatically the difference. Fanaticism, sectarianism and fundamentalism are recurring phenomenon of history. Equal to neurosis, they can justify themselves with any ideological guide. Also they can do it on a base of a rational program, abandoning critical thought in order to proclaim unquestionable dogmas, with an obstinacy of the worst inquisitions.

This paradox has occupied the time of the "skeptic" Michael Shermer, one of the few who mentions the Objectivism of Ayn Rand as a curious sect of rationalism that makes capitalism a dogma and ended up becoming a cult of the founder, justifiying ideologically her whims and creating a authoritarian discipline amongst her followers. The paradoxical history of Objectivism isn't well known, although no one will deny that it has influenced our lives. In its dogmas we can discover one of the sources of the unique thought that today inspires the Talibanes of the marketplace.

The Infallible Ayn Rand
Alissa Rosenbaum (1905-1982) was born in Saint Petersburg and died in New York. According to the official legend, she learned to read at six years old and at eight already wanted to be a writer. During the Russian Revolution, the pharmacy of her parents was expropriated and she had to immigrate to the Crimea. Later on, she studied philosophy and history in the city also known as Petrograd. Along with this, she fell in love with the movies of Hollywood and learned to write screenplays.
In 1926 she traveled to the United States, invited by some relatives that she had in Chicago, taking advantage of this connection to remain there. The following year she left for Hollywood and attracted the atttention of Cecil B. DeMille, who gave her a part as an extra in King of Kings. Her devotees usually look for her face in the crowd of people who are following Christ on the road to Gólgota. Together with her in the picture was Frank O'Connor, who later become her husband. O'Connor, who only reached a certain fame at her side, wasn't a star: his filmography only includes various "B" movies as a policemen, parishioner, sheriff or employee of the telegraph company between 1922 and 1934.

Rosenbaum, who now called herself Ayn Rand (a name inspired by her Remington Rand typewriter) managed to sell a screenplay in 1932, with which she stopped working as an extra and had time in order to write. Her first novels, We the Living (1936) and Anthem (1938), cultivated an anti-communism that opened the doors of the publishing market for her. Two best sellers, The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) assured her place as a successful author, permiting her to amass a fortune and to found a ideological movement. Her fame made her an cultural reference point of the American right wing. In spite of having written only novels and articles, she was acclaimed as a thinker and compared with Aristole and Kant. In the seventies, Andy Warhol photographed her and enthroned her amongst the idols of America. At that time, an institute destined to spread her philosophy already existed that won followers day after day, when a sexual scandal suddenly occurred that divided her loyal followers. She died, very forgotten, in her apartment in New York and was buried in a coffin that had engraved the "$." It was her personal emblem, that she shared with that millionaire uncle of Donald Duck that inspired Paul Getty.

The Bible of Rand
One says that the books of Rand have sold more than four million copies, which permits her to compete with the Bible and Harry Potter. During the seventies, when the students of the American campuses also looked for inspiration, from Marcuse, Thoreau and Tolkien, she reached the height of her popularity. Later, she was read by bankers, consultants for business and by Republican politicians.

It is difficult to find a critic capable of finding literary merit in her novels, and professional philosophers never took her ideas seriously. Her followers point out that the critics never read Atlas Shrugged, which is explainable, given that it is a large, bulky book with small print. Her third novel, The Fountainhead, that was interpreted for the movies in 1948 with Gary Coooper and Patricia Neal, is about the battle of a brilliant architect against mediocrity, and owes a debt to Ibsen. Quite different are Anthem and Atlas Shrugged, that according to the encyclopedia Clute and MacNicholls, could fit inside the science fiction genre because they take place in the not too distant future.

The Anthem in question is about the admiration of the individual for himself, the triumph of the I to the style of Whitman. The focus of the book is a grotesque socialist dystopia. It takes place in a world where collectivism has triumphed, causing the extinction of individual initiative, science and art. Everything belongs to the State, but misery reigns, the people light there way with candles and dress with burlap sacks. The heroic protagonist rebels against the system and escapes torture because the prison is inefficient and bureaucratic. He meets his girlfriend, flees with her to the country and finishes his work the day that he reinvents the electric lamp. He has discovered the power of the individual and sings a hymn to himself. In this world, the State obliges everybody to speak in plural so as to combat individualism. For example, when the hero falls in love he feels obligated to say, "we appreciate that they have beautiful curves." With this language, a few pages into the book, it becomes not only absurd but frankly unreadable. Luckily, it is not a large story, to the point that the editors saw themselves obligated to complete it with the version facsimilar of the manuscript.

The voluminous Atlas, on the other hand, dramatizes a strike by capitalists, something similar to a massive lock out of the captains of industry and Finance, that Rand considers a persecuted minority, victim of the regulated State. The novel takes place in an imprecise future where socialism has become dominant in the world. In the United States, efficiency is discouraged and it is even believed that people have a right to things like a livable salary or education, when the only thing that counts is the freedom of business. What is notable is the myopia with what Rand, who in some ways resembles Stalin, is imagining a future dominated by trains and cables of copper. To write this in 1957, when asomaban the highways, planes and fiber optic, was very naïve. The United States is in frank and irreversible decadence; the unions defend the vagrants, the strikers abandon a train with all the passengers in the middle of the desert and the State prohibits technical innovations in order to protect the sources of work. The book opens with the "repulsive" image of a homeless man who begs money and doesn’t skip descriptions almost racist about the common people, the worthless failures that live in this world that the great men build.

Ayn Rand portrays herself in the heroine, Dagny Taggart, who is tenacious, fearless and promiscuous. Dagny fights so that her private railroad can count on rails made from a miraculous alloy created by Rearden another innovative magnate, that will permit her trains to reach great speeds. The crisis is terminal and it will finish with a great blackout in New York. Persecuted, The Captains of Industry, become fed up with the welfare state and abandon the society of the mediocre, the "looters" of the wealth that only The Captains are capable of creating.

They take refuge in a secret base in Colorado, where they wait the collapse of the system. Amongst them there is a misunderstood composer and a philosopher who became a pirate so he could rob the State, the opposite of Robin Hood, who for Rand was the epitome of evil. There is even a millionaire Argentinean with an Italian last name, but she says that he comes from noble, Spanish blood and owns great deposits of copper, which could make him Chilean. But all that is… in Brasil.

When the government is set to nationalize his company, the owner sets fire to his oil fields and the Argentine man blows up his copper mines in order to accelerate the collapse of the system. It is about impoverishing the people not so that they rebel but that they resign themselves.

The movement has a leader in hiding: a brilliant engineer called John Galt, who invented an electric motor that converts static movement, but he destroys the prototype in order to become part of the resistance. The ideological nucleus of the novel takes place in a long speech by Galt who seizes a chain of radio stations and dispatches a speech to the country as long as those of Fidel.

Pressured by henchman of the State, Galt is tortured with electric charges (Ayn had a certain amount of sadomasochistic desires) but the machine breaks down for lack of parts. Galt escapes and reunites in the mountains with the other business people. There they will wait for society to pray to them to return in order to give them absolute power. In the meantime, they smoke exquisite cigarettes stamped with the dollar sign. In the main plaza, the put up an enormous "$" sign from stainless steel. "In it we trust…"

Bargain Basement Philosophy
A laborious, critical analysis of her two novels and the writings of Rand against the left, the unions, the students and the welfare state, in defense of the market economy and egoism as a social principle, has shown how her disciples can compile something that not only they call a philosophical system but the greatest of all times.

The system is summed up in a catechism of few words: objectivism, rationality, self-interest and capitalism. Her ideology is usually defined as libertarian, something that in the Unites States is the opposite of what we know as anarchism. Obviously, it is not enough to affirm that one is a "realist" (that means objectivism) or that her epistemology consists of counting on only "reason." People like Aristotle, Kant or Hegel have needed gallons of ink in order to explain things like that and still we can continue discussing them. For Rand it is enough to proclaim them. In front of the radical egoism of Rand, Bentham and Mill—the English utilitarians of the nineteenth century—seem to be philanthropists. For Rand, the root of all evil is altruism, now that this works against putting the supreme good ( personal benefit) above the general interest. Her strength wasn’t ethics nor logic.

Society divides itself between "looters" and "creators." The first only ask that society support them and respect their rights. The second create wealth for everybody, but only when they do it for themselves. Later, they will say that creation of wealth will take place under a free market. Nothing is said of how many mediocre people they need so that a hero gains his accumulation of capital, since it appears that the genuises create things from nothing.

Human, too Human
In the sixties, when the individualist tendencies that would feed the New Age movement, flourished in the universities, Nathaniel Branden arose as the official word of Objectivism and founded an institute dedicated to spreading Objectivism. Under the watch of Rand and Branden arose a sect of their own members called the "Collective." Before breaking with his leader, Branden had been proclaimed the spiritual heir but later on was expelled. Murray Rothbard, a dissident, was the first to denounce the "totalitarian" practices of the movement for which he was cursed as a traitor. Meanwhile, Branden and his wife had fallen in desgrace. Recently, many years after the death of Rand, in the eighties, they both dared to publish books where they denounced the practices of the Objectivist Collective. According to the repentive Branden, the followers believed that Rand was the greatest personality produced by the human genus and that in Atlas Shrugged she completed the history of her thought.

In her movement individualistic dissent wasn't tolerated, and her desires were the esthetic paradigm. Ayn had thrown out some associates because they didn't like the music of Rachmaninoff, which was a clear indication of their inferiority. In this, and in the "cult of the personality" she resembled Stalin. The scandal began when Branden and Ayn became lovers. As both were Superior Human Beings, they received the agreement of their spouses Frank O'Connor and Barbara Branden to the right of one night a week of passion. But some time after Ayn discovered that Branden, defender of the free market, had a second lover. At that time, this news created a major break.

She had written that the biblical prescription, "judge not, less you be judged" was a cowardly expression. It was revealed to Nat (Nathaniel), to whom she wished impotency for the rest of his days and promised to destroy him. In the end, she issued a excommunication for Nat and his wife, for "having betrayed the principles of Objectivism" with their "irrational" conduct and expelled them ignominiously from the organization. In those days, there were loyal followers who proposed to thrash them and even to do worst things.

The scandal profoundly divided the movement, whose decline became inevitable. En 1982, Rand died surrounded by a small group of loyal followers, and was buried together with her husband, the complaisant Frank O'Connor. But years later the executor of her will Leonard Peikoff founded the Rand Institute that continued spreading her philosophy from California. All this would be anecdotal if we fail to remember that Rand was the first to speak of deregulation, privatization, global capitalism and other ideas that were put forth from Reagan. The Institute continued actively, and even has an Argentine branch, and in March of 2001 it organized a seminar in Punta del Este for continental free trade.

A brief trip through the internet shows us that Rand continues to generate philosophical interest, which includes people who write books in order to refute her epistemology and her ethics. The Catholic philosopher Michael Novak tried to demonstrate that Objectivism is compatible with Christianity, but, a few websites beyond this, something that titles itself as the Front of the Liberation of Lucifer exalts him as a moral hero diametrically opposed to Judeo-Christian cowardice. Only the market can achieve these coincidences.

The gross doctrines of Ayn Rand and the tragicomic history of liberal Stalinism would seem like things that we have surmounted, but we continue living with them. We read in Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal, a recapitulation of the writings of Rand and her associates from 1967. We find there the work of the heretic Branden, rehabilitated for the purpose of publishing the book as if nothing had happened. The big surprise, however, is that we bump into with nothing less than three articles an old friend of ours. It is nothing less than Alan Greenspan, the president of the Federal Reserve that at that time criticized the populism of the democrats. In things like this they believe that they rule the world, although because of their shame they usually don't admit it.