Ayn Rand and America鈥檚 new culture war
From Rush Limbaugh to President Obama, Ayn Rand and her book 'Atlas Shrugged' are recalibrating America.
Charlottesville, Va.
From Fox News to the passenger sitting next to you reading 鈥�Atlas Shrugged鈥� on your commute to work, Ayn Rand seems to be everywhere.
Since the economic collapse of 2008, the controversial novelist and philosopher has emerged as a leading intellectual on the right 鈥� and she鈥檚 been dead for nearly 30 years.
Rush Limbaugh touts Rand as a prophet of sorts. 鈥淎yn Rand, she wrote 鈥楢tlas Shrugged,鈥� 鈥� he told his listeners. 鈥淭he sequel, 鈥楢tlas Puked,鈥� we鈥檙e in the middle of it.鈥� At the tea parties that swept the nation last spring, protesters waved signs claiming 鈥淎yn Rand was right鈥� and warning 鈥淩ead 鈥楢tlas Shrugged鈥� before it happens.鈥�
The fresh appeal of 'Atlas Shrugged'
Consider this: 鈥淎tlas Shrugged,鈥� Rand鈥檚 most famous novel, is set in a dystopian future America, where a socialist government has brought the country to the brink of ruin. Fleeing punitive regulations and crushing taxation, the country鈥檚 top industrialists and executives have gone on strike, virtually shutting down the economy.
For American conservatives, the significance of Rand鈥檚 message is clear. 鈥淎tlas Shrugged鈥� is prophetic, they say, and it warns us all of the coming collapse.
It wasn鈥檛 always so. In her day, leading conservatives denounced Rand for her atheism and immorality, and her economic ideas were scarcely mentioned.
Conservative author Whittaker Chambers attacked Rand as a godless authoritarian in his famously brutal review of 鈥淎tlas Shrugged,鈥� printed in an early issue of William F. Buckley鈥檚 seminal conservative magazine, National Review. The book鈥檚 message, according to Chambers, was 鈥渢o a gas chamber 鈥� go!鈥� Anti-ERA crusader Phyllis Schlafly stopped reading Rand鈥檚 other novel, 鈥淭he Fountainhead,鈥� as soon as she reached the infamous rape scene, horrified at the immorality and violence of what Rand once described as 鈥渞ape by engraved invitation鈥� and condoned.
But Rand did not have much patience for conservatives, calling herself instead a 鈥渞adical for capitalism.鈥� She intended her individualistic philosophy, objectivism, to be a guide to the future, not the past.
Rand identified four basic components to her philosophy: objective reality, the supremacy of reason, the virtue of selfishness, and the importance of laissez faire capitalism. She celebrated the virtue of selfishness and attacked religion for being irrational.
These aspects of Rand made her alien to an earlier generation of religious conservatives who gleefully launched a 鈥渃ulture war鈥� against secular America. In the 1980s and 鈥�90s, the culture war was waged over issues of gender and sexuality, and religious values were central.
Those religious conservatives cited biblical authority to attack controversial artists like Andres Serrano and Robert Mapplethorpe who challenged traditional gender roles. Such a conservative movement had no room for Rand, with her condemnation of all forms of 鈥渕ysticism,鈥� including religious belief, and her open support of abortion rights.
Today, these passions over culture have cooled and been replaced by an equally intense struggle over economic policies like the bailout of the financial sector, the rescue of the auto industry, and reform of healthcare.
In this current political world, even the hot-button issue of gay marriage has been sidelined for the new bogeyman of socialism.
Though she鈥檚 not religious, Rand brings a strong sense of good and evil to the debates over economic policy. Rand鈥檚 books bring the battles over government spending away from wonkdom and back to the familiar, easy terrain of culture, where there is a virtuous 鈥渦s鈥� and a conniving, evil 鈥渢hem.鈥�
Two types of people
In her world, there are two types of people: producers and looters, or those who work for themselves and those who take government handouts.
Richard Nixon made a similar division when he talked about the 鈥渟ilent majority,鈥� as does Sarah Palin when she praises 鈥渞eal Americans.鈥� It鈥檚 a distinction that makes sense to many conservatives, particularly those who feel they are being punished for their success.
That many of Rand鈥檚 fictional heroes were far from paragons of 海角大神 virtue is beside the point in the current struggle. What matters is the ammunition she provides and the outrage she stokes against the dreaded looters.
Does Rand鈥檚 popularity mean religion is no longer paramount to the conservative worldview? Of course not. But her ubiquity should tell us that tectonic plates are shifting under the surface of American politics. Even President Obama seems to understand Rand鈥檚 newfound influence, criticizing the 鈥渧irtue of selfishness鈥� in a recent speech. Rand鈥檚 prominence is a change from the Bush years when paleocons and libertarians like Ron Paul who stressed the evils of government spending were ignored.
Today is their moment in the sun, and it is the religious right that is being swept to the side by the rush of events. The balance of power between religious fundamentalism and market fundamentalism is being recalibrated, a development that could have far-reaching consequences for how we understand the very categories of the political left, right, and center.
Jennifer Burns, a professor of history at the University of Virginia is the author of 鈥淕oddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right.鈥� She offers history podcasts and blogs at .