Myth: Ayn Rand was a Conservative

Anne Heller, author of Ayn Rand and the World She Made, has called Ayn Rand “perhaps the most important communicator of conservative ideas to the American people."
 

A recent academic analysis agrees, arguing that “Atlas Shrugged ... provides aid and comfort to contemporary conservatives who see themselves as sacrificial victims of evil men and evil systems whose immoral incompetency is driving society to the edge of the abyss.”

 

Ayn Rand’s economic vision may resonate on the right, but the truth is, Ayn Rand was not conservative.
 

Her philosophy, Objectivism, advocates reason, individualism, and personal happiness. Conservatives are more likely to favor faith, tradition, and duty as core values. Politically, Objectivism is classically liberal or libertarian. It expresses a world view associated with the Enlightenment. Ayn Rand fundamentally rejected the conservative-liberal distinction in culture.
 

On the level of concrete policy, Rand defended a woman’s right to abortion and was a four-square supporter of freedom of speech (both “liberal” causes). She also attacked racism ( a “liberal” bugbear) as grossly collectivist. However, she rejected affirmative action policies (the favored “liberal” solution) for exactly the same reason.
 

Conservatism is a cultural and political tendency that sees the past as importantly superior to the present, that respects tradition, and that is cautious about cultural change. In the contemporary Anglophone world, conservatives stand for traditional morality (family values), religious tradition (mostly Christianity), and an emphasis on private initiative over government bureaucracy. Insofar as the conservative movement has been the home of free-market reform efforts since the 1960s at least, classical liberals, such as Objectivists, have taken part in conservative or right-wing political coalitions aimed at economic policy.
 

But intellectually, the Conservatives have been foes of Rand’s since the 1950s and earlier. William F. Buckley’s National Review greeted the publication of Atlas Shrugged in the most scathing terms. Indeed, from its title (“Big Sister Is Watching You”) to its takeaway message that Rand was little better than a Nazi, Whittaker Chambers’s review seems an exercise in willfully misinterpreting Rand’s individualist message. For her part, Ayn Rand gave as good as she got, kicking off her second career as a public intellectual with speeches like “Conservatism: An Obituary” (delivered at Princeton in 1960).
 

And there was reason for the hostility. Objectivism takes its name from its commitment to objectivity. Tradition can never come first to such a world view: the facts and what works are the bottom line. Objectivism rejects “God” as an incoherent concept and rejects any idea of the supernatural, putting it at odds with traditional religions on these issues. And Rand offered a this-worldly, self-centered morality of living by reason and trade, one that makes pride a cardinal virtue. Her ethics thus stands against ideas of religious duty and self-sacrifice that many conservatives prize.
 

In “Conservatism, An Obituary,” Rand charged that the underlying philosophical values of the conservatives vitiated their attempts to promote market capitalism.
 

There is much that is right in American tradition. America does stand for liberty and individual freedom in its basic ideas. America is the country of the self-made man. There is much that is right about conservatism, too: its ethic of personal responsibility, for instance, or its respect for the Constitution. But these values can only be defended on the basis of reason and the facts. We can accept no substitute. Ayn Rand was right about that. And that’s why she wasn’t really right-wing.

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William R Thomas has written on topics in politics, ethics, and epistemology, and has spoken internationally on the theory of individual rights and Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. His works include Radical for Capitalism, and, as editor, The Literary Art of Ayn Rand. He is the director of programs for The Atlas Society.