The One Thing the Left Can Learn from Ayn Rand

[Geee]

The Federalist:

They could stand to learn the same five things, of course, particularly the point about “pathological altruism.” And there’s so much more. There’s the absurdity of haggling over the redistribution of wealth without asking who produces the wealth in the first place, and how they do it. There is Ayn Rand’s examination of how government controls hurt the common man (and yes, she was concerned about that) while it rewards wealthy cronies with good Washington connections. There is the way free speech disappears when the government controls the whole economy. There is the way science sells its soul when it allows itself to become a tool of government policy, which is a major subplot of Atlas Shrugged and seems all the more relevant today. And there is much, much more.

 

But in starting to tick down the list, I was overcome with a sense of futility.

 

If I make a list of Objectivist ideas I wish people on the right would study and take more seriously, I know that many of them have read Ayn Rand, have been influenced by her in some way, and are willing to think about what she has to say. A few are contemptuously dismissive and close their minds to her ideas. But for the most part, even if conservatives don’t agree with her philosophy, Ayn Rand is part of the conversation.

 

In giving such a list to the left, however, I doubt that very many of them will bother to take it seriously, because she’s Ayn Rand and therefore beyond the pale. It’s a lot harder to take even the first step of acknowledging that there might be anything of value to learn.

 

This is symptomatic of a wider problem. The open-minded left is not quite so open-minded.