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THE EDUCATION OF AYN RAND, 1905–1943
polemics in an earlier age of state expansion, fi t easily with vehement
distaste for the New Deal. Both sets of thinkers had similar ground to
cover. To argue convincingly against government action it was necessary
to prove that government was incompetent, unfair, or both. Lacking
extensive evidence about the ultimate success or failure of New Deal
reforms, writers in the 1940s turned eagerly to theoretical and historical
arguments articulated at an earlier time. These older thinkers lent an air
of timeless wisdom to their critique of the state.
If Rand’s associates replicated the arguments of nineteenth-century
laissez-faire in many ways, they were noticeably circumspect about
evolutionary theory, which had played such a dominant role in the
thought of Spencer and Sumner. The earlier generation of capitalist
boosters had based their arguments largely on evolutionary science
and the corresponding idea that natural laws were at work in human
societies. From this basis they argued that government interference in
the economy was doomed to failure. Some of these arguments came
close to the infamous social Darwinist position, in that they suggested
government support for the poor might retard the evolution of the
species. 16
Vestiges of this scientifi c background still remained in 1940. On his
cross-country speaking tour Channing Pollock came close to attacking
New Deal relief programs in the old terms, arguing, “We can’t afford a
social order of the unfi t, by the unfi t, for the unfi t.” 17 Ruth Alexander
referred to herself half-jokingly in a letter to Rand as a “bad jungle sister,
who believes in survival of the fi ttest.” Nock’s receptivity to pseudoscience,
such as his interest in the architect Ralph Adams Cram’s theory
that most people were not “psychically” human, also hinted at this earlier
legacy. Rand too shared Cram’s elitist affectation, a residue of her
readings in Nietzsche. In a 1932 note about We the Living she remarked,
“I do give a good deal about human beings. No, not all of them. Only
those worthy of the name.” But now Rand was beginning to drift away
from this perspective. The campaign had been a taste of how a broader
audience could actually appreciate her ideas. And in Nock and his fellows
she saw how libertarian superiority could shade off into a debilitating
pessimism.
As it turned out the only person who did not disappoint Rand was
one who didn’t even join the group: Isabel Paterson, a well-known
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