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INDIVIDUALISTS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! 65
indulge our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human
nature.” In her mature work Rand would attack any distinction between
economic and social virtues, insisting that the same code of morality
must apply to both. But in her fi rst extended discussion of philosophy
she was content to talk about capitalism’s effi ciencies and the benefi ts of
freedom without integrating both into a new moral system. 70
Rand closed her discussion of capitalism with a twist of her own
devising. She asserted that for all the glories of capitalism she had sung,
“we have never had a pure capitalist system.” Collectivist elements,
such as Monopoly Capitalists and the State, had conspired against
capitalism from the beginning. These problems were not the fault of
capitalism, but rather the result of encouraging collectivism. We must
stop blaming capitalism, she wrote: “[I]t is time to say that ours is the
noblest, cleanest and most idealistic system of all. We, its defenders,
are the true Liberals and Humanitarians.” Her readers faced a choice,
and they must draw together in common action. They would fi nd and
recognize each other by “a single, simple badge of distinction,” their
devotion to freedom and liberty. She blared, “INDIVIDUALISTS OF
THE WORLD, UNITE!” 71 Rand dispatched the fi nal product to Pollock
with an enthusiastic note. She was open to changes and amendments
but hoped the “Manifesto” would be eventually published or made
public, along with the signatures of the committee they would gather.
“Let us be the signers of the new Declaration of Independence,” she
wrote hopefully. 72
Rand’s individualist “Manifesto” was the culmination of a series of
shifts that had transformed her thinking since the publication of We the
Living in 1935. Most obvious was her overt and enthusiastic embrace of
politics. In this she was returning to an early interest, reprising the fascination
with revolution and her father’s political ideas that had marked
her years in Russia. But American politics both challenged and reinforced
her strongly held beliefs about the world. Working on the Willkie
campaign helped shake Rand out of her refl exive elitism. She saw now
that democracy might be more hospitable to capitalism than she had
ever assumed. And she had come to believe that individualism was a
fundamentally American value, one that had merely been disguised by
collectivist propaganda. It was simply a question of getting the right
ideas out to a broad audience.
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