Open Culture has links to a series of procrastination inducing archival footage from The Mike Wallace Interview. The archive at the University of Texas has interviews with noteworthy people from the 1950’s.
This interview with Ayn Rand (every twenty year old’s favorite philosopher) is riveting. As a regular attendee at my campus Objectivist Club as a freshman, it is fascinating to both see and hear Rand’s austere philosophy. For those who arent’ familiar with objectivism, it’s an elevation (some would say fetishization) of rational self-interest and individualism to the level of virtue. The philosophy suggests that other-directedness and altruism are forms of enslavement.
Looking back, I can see why this philosophy is so attractive to young people. It has an empowering muscularity that serves as an intellectual scaffolding for a more emotion based will to power. It provides an excuse for those who prefer not to engage in the messy business of other people’s emotions and desires.
I particularly love (sarcasm) the part where she discusses how people without “virtue” are not entitled to love. Sounds like someone had some unresolved daddy issues…
The archive also has an interview with Salvador Dali.
Comments 7
andrew m. lindner — March 31, 2009
One of the worst experiences of my life was being roommates with a guy whose favorite book was "Atlas Shrugged." Sometime later, I heard a radio show in which the host offered as her top dating advice that one should never date someone who likes Ayn Rand.
Kenneth M. Kambara — April 1, 2009
I found a discarded and unloved copy of Atlas Shrugged on Divisadero St. in San Francisco. I know a few folks who are in contention to receive it.
jose — April 1, 2009
Keep in mind it was rated the most influential book of the 21st century in a Library Journal on-line poll. The editors picked Ulysses.
Don Waisanen — April 4, 2009
Jose and others--I'm actually working through an Ayn Rand question in my dissertation right now (good times). After World War II, conservatism--which had been relatively inchoate movement prior to the war--started to come together. It was at a fork in the road, though, between William F. Buckley religious anti-communism and Ayn Rand every-person-for-themselves libertarianism. As we well know (particularly from the last 8 years), the religious strain of conservatism won out. Recently, however, there has been a great deal of backlash by younger conservatives against values voting, etc. There's some evidence from Pew polls (particularly from the '08 election) that they hope to engage with political right-ism in a way that is looking less religious in a post-Falwell world.
Do you think that conservatives are going to reconsider heading down the Rand-ian path in the future? Another way of saying this--will Rand followers ever move the movement in a more Rand-ian direction? As conservatism tries to figure out how to regain its footing as a movement, will the Religious Right lose steam, or simply find a way to evolve into something as influential as in the past? Maybe conservatism necessitates "transcendence" in a way that Objectivism simply can't get past?--Don
Also--check out "Ayn Rand on religion" on YouTube as well--hilarious.
Kenneth M. Kambara — April 7, 2009
Don,
Republicans have a positioning problem right now, but if the Obama administration stumbles with economic recovery, I think that could open the door for Libertarian politics, in the future. How I see it (I might be off base), Bill Clinton energized the religious right, allowing Bush 43 to capitalize on it. I think it got play in the 00s because of the zeitgeist of the times and gave the Republicans a dominant positioning, in a "brand" sense.
jose — April 7, 2009
Hey Don....I'm not sure about a libertarian resurgence. At it's core, it's an unpopular political ideology. The American public might be anti-government, by they are also pro government services. It's just that they disagree on which services they cherish. You have some built in constituencies that want large scale government spending very badly (defense, etc.) Libertarian impulses aren't as strong or as well entrenched in government to counter interest group liberalism.
ThickCulture » Are Business Schools to Blame? — April 7, 2009
[...] AIG, Lehman, and Merrill-Lynch? A bunch of capitalist MBAs, who may never have read a word of Ayn Rand prose, but act out all sorts of wild, objectivist fantasies, [...]