A Critical Look At Ayn Rand

"Her popularity far outstrips her contributions." That was the upshot of the critical assessment of her work by Donald DeMarco, professor of philosophy at Holy Apostles College and Seminary at a luncheon presentation sponsored by the Lumen Christie Institute, the center for Catholic thought at The University of Chicago.

I continue to attempt to reconcile Catholicism and capitalism. William F. Buckley evidently was able to do so easily, but I have struggled with it at times. I had hoped that Mr. DeMarco's remarks would enlighten me. They didn't. In fact, there were several times during his presentation when I found myself wishing that I sat at the other end of the table so that I could debate him.

Mr. DeMarco was completely dismissive of Rand's thinking and writing, writing it off as "incomplete" and "cartoonish." He derided her black and white thinking and judgementalism. He was harshly critical of her personal life (she was unable to sustain personal relationships and died a lonely person). At one point, he compared her to Karl Marx, stating, "there are elements of Marx's thinking that has validity (without bothering to mention that, unlike Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, Marxism has been responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people over the last century).

What I found most disappointing about Mr. DeMarco's critique was his inability to give Ms. Rand credit for any of her views whatsoever. Her popularity did not arise out of simply clever marketing; she remains popular because in a century in which totalitarians attempted to smash individual sovereignty, Ayn Rand picked up the banner and fought back. Her thinking is even more relevant today, as government once again is attempting to undercut individual liberty.

Today, we have a government that rails against the 1%, demonizes business leaders and entrepreneurs, and threatens to choke them off with a plethora of rules and regulations. Nearly half of our citizens pay no income taxes and continue to demand more and more of the producers. Ayn Rand is as relevant today as she was half a century ago.

Yes, Mr. DeMarco raises legitimate issues about her thinking. Ayn Rand could be doctrinaire, inflexible, and detached. Her personal life was, indeed a catastrophe as her black and white thinking doomed her relationships when they ran afoul of her limitations. She failed to grasp that an important part of life rests in mutually rewarding relationships and that philanthropy is an essential part of a civilized society.

But Ms. Rand celebrated the resourcefulness, energy, intelligence and contributions of the individual. In Soviet Russia, she saw first hand what tyrants could do in the name of the collective. To a certain degree, that struggle continues today.

Ironically, Mr. DeMarco dismissed Rand's work entirely, while condemning her because of her black and white thinking. Especially in our current climate, it would be wise not to simply dismiss Ayn Rand's continued popularity.