Ayn Rand in Her Own Words

On February 2, 1905, the author of The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, and the philosophy of Objectivism was born. Her name was Ayn Rand. In March of 2005, I wrote a post titled The Virtue of Selfishness to describe my understanding of perhaps the central theme of Objectivism: selfishness. While selfishness is an integral part of Objectivism, selfishness is by no means its only virtue. Productiveness, integrity, honesty, and justice are also crucial in achieving happiness (happiness is the true meaning of life and an end in itself).

Critics of Objectivism, including those who have responded to my posts, try to view selfishness apart from these other important aspects. One critic responded writing:

Selfishness, on the other hand, has no underlying foundation or justification other than satisfying one’s appetites--for pleasure, for gratification, for adulation or whatever the self wants at the moment. A selfish person would shoot another person just to take his shoes.

I responded writing:

If the selfish person holds these other virtues [productiveness, integrity, honesty, and justice] as well, he or she will likely not "kill a person just to take his shoes."

Other critics have made similar arguments but I have seen very few critics who will deal with Objectivism in its entirety. Rather than trying to continue to explain Objectivism myself, I thought it would be a great idea to allow my readers to hear from Ayn Rand herself to explain Objectivism in her own words.

This first clip is from a 1959 interview with Mike Wallace. Wallace asks some questions some of her contemporary critics had about her and her philosophy and she answered them expertly.



The interview continues in part 2 and part 3, both on the YouTube website.

This second clip is the first of a five part series which was taped toward the end of her life. This time, Ayn Rand is a guest on Phil Donahue’s TV show. Watch how she tears his statists arguments to pieces!




The remaining four parts are also on the YouTube website. Much of what she said in these clips ring true especially today. Rand was distressed with America’s slide into socialism back then; I could only imagine what she would think about where we are at today. Her philosophy of Objectivism would add so much to our national debate on so many important issues.