Ayn Rand Thrives and Dogma Dies

Libertarian Party Stops Being “Libertine”

The Libertarian Party was always a bankrupt project but it provides a crucial place for discourse and discussion and for people to understand how a political party operates and how ideas are fostered and committed to. Ayn Rand actually took issue with the party in spite of the fact many associate her with the party (http://aynrandlexicon.com/ayn-rand-ideas/ayn-rand-q-on-a-on-libertarianism.html).

As for Nebraska, more specifically Omaha, there has always been some grand support for Ayn Rand but it is overwhelmed by the Catholicism fostered by German and Irish immigrants who came to Nebraska after the Civil War (See General John O’Neill https://mynehistory.com/items/show/279). This Nebraska brand of Catholicism tends to have a European default favoring authority, mystical ritualism, and collectivism. (There are plenty of Catholics who do broadly understand freedom such as Lord Acton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton and https://www.acton.org/) But there is John Galt Boulevard, named after a character in Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

At times, I have worn a shirt quoting Ayn Rand and eventually, someone feels duty-bound to tell me how “horrible” she is. They just do not get it. They won’t read Atlas Shrugged, the Fountainhead or Anthem, or the hundreds of nonfiction articles Rand wrote. They rather listen to all the defamatory information about Rand instead of understanding her advocacy. Rand was always trying to draw the importance and power of the individual to promote values in society if not dragged down by competitive powerful collectivists and government interests claiming a false morality. Unfortunately, close-minded people want a perfected form of messiah with matching dogma and won’t listen to anything slightly off  ("Oh, she is an atheist so I don't have to read her stuff."). With Rand, many still do not understand how illustrious she was in clarifying the importance of the individual and the dangers of an overly moralistic collectivist mob. So how important is the individual?

A simple example. If you are on an airplane and listen closely to the safety presentation, you will be explicitly instructed as to what to do if the cabin loses air pressure and oxygen masks deploy. If you are a parent with child, you are instructed to put the mask on yourself first and only put the mask on your child afterwards. If you try to do the opposite, both you and your child are put at risk of passing out (https://cockpitvoice.wordpress.com/2015/07/02/oxygen-mask-adult-first-and-then-children-why/). Yes, people will battle these instructions when an event happens. “Save the baby! Put the mask on the baby!”; only to find they die with the baby. There you have it in a nutshell. Your brain, your soul, your life are of value and if you don’t defend what you are, you can’t defend or assert what you value, or defend those you love such as family and friends. You have to put your freedom first for the world to be prosperous.

Ayn Rand started such a powerful movement for individualism, it ultimately led to a conflict. Her appointed heirs created the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI at https://aynrand.org/) which holds Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism as a dogma and a closed system. However, others state Objectivism is an open system willing to add to other ideas and formed their own organization, the Atlas Society (https://www.atlassociety.org/).   The ARI group has held abortion as a sacred right and is not willing to budge.

Now with Roe V. Wade thrown out, the Blackmun dogma is shattering. State legislatures will now have to legislate and the experience will lead to improvements in the laws. This is a Constitutional process. Yet Onkar Ghate of ARI is shrill with the dogma on abortion as a right. (https://newideal.aynrand.org/onkar-ghate-dismantles-the-decision-dismantling-roe/ and

Ghate wrongfully sees the loss of Roe as the beginning of the end of individual freedom. This is what you get when you take a Canadian philosopher and give him the title of Chief Philosophy officer. Ghate is not a Constitutional scholar. He is, dare I say, a philosopher king?

But the dogma on abortion is dead or at least dying. The Libertarian Party has changed recently as the Mises Caucus has taken over (https://lpmisescaucus.com). Abortion has been removed, and the idea of open borders has been rejected. Change is in the air. Some call the change brought on by Ron Paul.

For conservatives and Republicans, this change is good. If you are interested in Ayn Rand, check out The Atlas Society at https://www.atlassociety.org/ Also, if you want to understand Austrian economics, please see The Mises Institute at https://mises.org/ In viewing these sites, don’t go looking for dogma to embrace, but ideas to inspire you to promote freedom.