1. Ayn Rand's prose is turgid. Her plots are childish. Her moral/political philosophy is embarrassingly simplistic--sociopathic narcissism justified. So how did she find her way into the American canon? Why is there a US Senator who was named after her (Rand Paul)?
2. The answer involves one of my favorite historical ironies. Her books didn't conquer the open marketplace of ideas. Her books became part of the canon in part because her acolytes gave MILLIONS of free books to resource-deprived public schools. good.is/articles/the-p…
3. Let's unpack the many layers of irony here. The fans of Ayn Rand, who HATE handouts more than anything else, gave (and continue to give) millions of free books to American schools. aynrand.org/educators/free…
4. The supporters of Ayn Rand, who hate centralized indoctrination, have worked diligently to get her books into *public* (and private) schools across the country.
5. And why are teachers so strapped for resources? Because small-government types (like Rand) have succeeded in building a politics that hates the idea of raising taxes to pay for public education and public goods like libraries.
6. In sum, Rand got her second-rate ideas out there through handouts given to large-scale, centralized, public institutions that then *required* students to read them in the name of freedom.
7. This is the best historical work on Rand and her place in American right-wing culture. amazon.com/Goddess-Market…
8. The other important way in which Rand's ideas found their way into the ether was through the lyrics written by Neil Peart, the drummer of Rush. Peart has since pulled back a bit on his Rand fandom. rollingstone.com/music/music-ne…
9. I would be remiss if I didn't also add that racism has also played a significant role in furthering the appeal of Rand's ideas. It's no coincidence that libertarianism has historically been an overwhelmingly white phenomenon. nymag.com/daily/intellig…
10. That previous article was from 2012, so long before Trumpism became the flavor du jour for the @gop. This article is more recent and connects the dots between libertarianism and the white identitarians on the Trumpist right. thedailybeast.com/the-insidious-…
11. For a recent historical work that connects the dots between post WWII anti-integrationists and libertarian economics, see this book by Duke historian @NancyMacLean5. history.duke.edu/book/democracy…
12. A small correction. Although Rand Paul is a big fan of Ayn Rand's (read all of her novels and is a great admirer of one of her leading acolytes, Murray Rothbard), Rand was NOT named after her.
13. I had no idea this thread would take off like this. Let me offer a few qualifications/clarifications.
14. First, as far as I know the systematic research on the scale of the Ayn Rand free book program has yet to be done. My claims here are based on the Institute's self-reporting & anecdotes. This seems like a dissertation waiting to be written.
15. Second, I am not implying that the Rand folks are engaged in some secret conspiracy against America. They are people who are true believers in her ideas and they do what they can to disseminate them. It's how movements work, it's not some evil plot.
16. I come to this as someone interested in the history of ideas. How do a certain bundle of ideas come to be regarded as "common sense" (like radical free market economics) and others seen as "foolish" or "dangerous" (like New Deal progressive economics).
17. One of the big stories of post WWII America is how the American populace got sold on a Goldwaterite/Reaganite vision of the economy, one which regarded federal action as almost always harmful, a slippery slope to the gulag.
18. Rand's works (and the avid promotion of them by people with lots of money who stood to benefit from voters believing those ideas) are just one small part of that story about how Reaganite economics came to be regarded by many as "self-evidently true."
19. Another piece of that story that I'm fascinated by are the series of pro-free market propaganda films produced by a Disney-affiliated animator in the 1950s and 60s, funded by various Christian colleges, the military, and the NYSE.
20. Would love to respond to replies to this thread, but I'm too busy writing my new pitch for The Federalist: "Donald Trump is a modern-day Howard Roark--a brilliant builder who grabs what he wants and is relentlessly attacked for it by the losers & takers who envy his success."
