Two episodes of Simpson are dedicated to him. According to a 1991 poll, only the Bible is more influential than his seminal novel, Strike. Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, Brad Pitt and tennis player Billie Jean King are among his fans. Even Hillary Clinton said she had “a Randian period”.
In France, we evoke the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982) by holding our noses. “Thought leader of the ultra-rich” according to Télérama, “Donald Trump’s bedside book”, warns The Obs. We just greet The rebel, wonderful adaptation by King Vidor of The Living Source. A handful of liberals (starting with the philosopher Alain Laurent), or more strangely the former pornographic actress Clara Morgane, claim this. Like baseball, Ayn Rand failed to conquer Europe.
In a small educational book, Ayn Rand. Selfishness as heroism, the liberal feminist Mathilde Berger-Perrin carries out a right of inventory of the Madonna of capitalism, not hiding the limits of her philosophical theory (objectivism), the sectarian character of her worshipers, as well as her unfortunate forgetting of the weakest. But this welcome essay also shows how a French reader would benefit from confronting Ayn Rand’s odes to freedom.
“Who is John Galt?”
To understand his ultra-individualist ethics, we must look at a childhood worthy of Doctor Zhivago. Born Alissa Rosenbaum in Saint Petersburg, into a middle-class Jewish family, the young woman went into exile in the United States in 1926, vaccinated against communism which requisitioned the pharmacy and the family apartment. Hired as an apprentice screenwriter by Cecil B. DeMille, she moved from the big screen to very cinematic novels, which feature non-conformist heroes alone against everyone. In The living Source, Howard Roark, avant-garde architect (inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright) refuses any concessions, even going so far as to become a stonemason. In Strike, wealth creators are disappearing in a world sinking into economic crisis. “Who is John Galt?”, the mysterious leitmotif of the novel, becomes the rallying cry of the Randians.
A small woman with short hair, Ayn Rand is extraordinary. Hated by the left but far too atheist and pro-abortion, she has no place within the American conservative right. A visceral anti-communist, she opposed the American intervention in Vietnam. Idol of libertarians, she in return describes them as “hippies”…
Rationality, progress and individualism
At the heart of his thinking, we find rationality far from any transcendence, the apology of technical progress and Promethean skyscrapers, and above all a fierce individualism. But, contrary to popular belief, the one who wore the dollar sign as a pendant did not make money the end of all things. If she celebrates creative minds, whether they are bosses, scientists or artists, she has only contempt for “looters” exploiting the creations of others. Entrepreneurs are the Randian heroes par excellence, where most of the literature depicts them as greedy profiteers. Another misunderstanding: unlike some of her libertarian disciples, Ayn Rand defends the rule of law against anarchy or self-defense. On the other hand, she is opposed to any intervention in the economy, which she believes is conducive to oligarchies and authoritarian excesses.
The great originality of his work is to make selfishness a virtue, provided that it is rational. “The Randian hero is egocentric because he puts his interests above those of others, but it is never to their detriment, nuance!” underlines Mathilde Berger-Perrin. For Rand, self-esteem is a prerequisite for happiness, whereas altruism would only be a sacrificial process, inherited from religious morality.
If such thinking is shocking in France, it is based on optimistic confidence in man’s potential. Faced with fanaticism, distrust of science, communitarianism, Rand’s books can provide us with some antidotes. Ironically, while they are revered by Silicon Valley moguls, they also harbor pre-time criticism from social media and influencers. For Ayn Rand, the value of men is judged by their achievements, not by their social status. “His heroes have the merit of not fearing being hated, or ‘disliked’. They remind us that geniuses are rarely born from conformism,” concludes Mathilde Berger-Perrin.
Ayn Rand. Selfishness as heroism, by Mathilde Berger-Perrin. Michalon, 125 p, €12.