Strange and Stupid Conservative Trends—Part I

People are taking Ayn Rand seriously—as a guide to who we are and what we’re supposed to do—again. But she has to be the worst self-help guide ever. As this pithy but deep analysis shows, she’s all about self-deceptive and self-destructive liberation from who we are by nature, from genuinely personal or “relational” love for a “master class” meritocracy based on pure productivity.

Entrepreneurs ain’t gods or even the best of men or women, which is not to say I have anything against them or lack gratitude for what they do for us. Randianism is some strange mixture of Marxian (about the uninhibited life at the end of history) and Nietzschean fantasies that can’t help but have some appeal to the vanity of the youthful and inexperienced. But it’s hard to believe real grown ups—who are allegedly devoted to the laws of nature and Nature’s God—are buying this stuff these days.