In 1985, three years after Ayn Rand’s death, some of her former associates founded what they called the Ayn Rand Institute. It soon became apparent that the views of these “official” Objectivists on many of the important issues of the day were indistinguishable from those of the Neoconservatives. For example, in response to Iranian clerics’ 1989 attack on Salman Rushdie and his publishers – an attack that proved ineffectual in the U.S. and was primarily an immigration problem – Leonard Peikoff urged that the U.S. take military action against Iran (“Religious Terrorism vs. Free Speech” New York Times 30 March 1989).  Then in “What to Do about Terrorism” (The Intellectual Activist May 1996) – that is, what to do about terrorism overseas – Mr. Piekoff wanted President Clinton to threaten Tehran with “the most massive air and missile attack that our military can launch.” [1]

In response to 9/11 Ayn Rand Institute writers immediately urged bombing Iran, with the rallying cry “We are all Israelis now.” Quickly realizing the political inexpediency of bombing Iran they switched their target to Iraq. After getting that war they’re back to bombing Iran.

ARI writers support the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act and other rents in the American fabric, by a refined silence. They demand that the U.S. government support Israel unquestioningly. They advocate U.S. torture as a moral imperative. Name a particular political stand of theirs and chances are you’ll find it in Norman Podhoretz or Irving Kristol.

Thus going on forty years leading Objectivists, unmoored from Ayn Rand whom they claim is their source, have been following the Neocon path in foreign policy and related domestic policy. An entire generation has grown up thinking Objectivists must be little better than Neoconservatives, because these days the leading, self-proclaimed, Objectivists are little better than Neoconservatives. [2]

Jeff Riggenbach reaches the same conclusion in his podcast of 11 August 2011, one of a series called The Libertarian Tradition hosted by the Ludwig von Mises Institute – which is rather better at promoting its cognomen than ARI. [3]  Mr. Riggenbach begins his talk by recalling a recent conversation he had with a “younger libertarian” – that is a small ‘L’ to distinguish it from the Libertarian Party—

... Boo, hiss—

Please Froggy, no vulgar interruptions.  Mr. Riggenbach had told his friend that true Objectivists were “libertarians” broadly construed, and it turned out this was news to his friend. Here and in what follows we leave off our external quote marks:

Which brings us to that pesky label “libertarian.”  In the original, authentic sense of Objectivism, are Objectivists a species of libertarian, or must the word be shunned as irremediably soiled by a few nuts professing to be libertarians?

The word “libertarian” means little by itself. The root – “liberty” – properly construed is a good word, and many fine people call themselves libertarians. The trouble is that a few nuts say they are libertarians too. Since there is no single libertarian movement the word must be qualified, at least implicitly, if it is to be meaningful.

We should judge people by what they say and do, not by a label demonized by Peter Schwartz. The argument that leading Objectivist makes in his essay “Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty” (first published in 1985) completely misses its mark. Mr. Schwartz considers a few crazy people – let’s grant him that they are crazy – calling themselves libertarians, then concludes that anyone calling himself a libertarian is crazy – a gaping non sequitur. If you want to show that a movement is no good you show that its best representatives are no good. That way your reader can conclude: if the best are so bad the whole lot must be rotten.

To repeat, we are using “libertarian” with a little ‘L’ to distinguish it from the so-called Libertarian Party, which is a specific group whose platform changes from election to election. Rand held a very low opinion of the (U.S.) Libertarian Party, saying they go into battle on an intellectual shoestring. Since then and speaking for myself I would say some election years have been better than others. Harry Browne gave excellent speeches when he ran for president in 2000 and again in 2004. The mainstream media broadcast a number of them which doubtless helped educate some people away from statism even if they didn’t vote for him.

It may surprise the reader to learn that Rand herself once advanced the word “libertarian” to describe her philosophy’s political branch. This intriguing bit of history comes from the reminiscences of Joan Kennedy Taylor. Born into a prosperous family in 1926 and well educated, Joan Taylor met Rand at the latter’s invitation in 1957 after Joan Taylor sent her one of the first fan letters about Atlas Shrugged. Joan Taylor, who lived and worked in New York city at the time, became a personal friend of Rand’s and a frequent guest in her home. All this is described by Jeff Riggenbach in a talk based on Joan Taylor’s writings and also interviews with her in 2004 a year before her death. [4]

So there you have it. In 1965 Rand had no problem with the label “libertarian.”  After all it had etymology going for it. And still does. Why let a few nuts spoil an appropriate word?

Nuts engraft themselves onto every movement, just look at ARI !

A question about this argument might occur to those who know more about the history of Objectivism. When Rand was considering what to call her philosophy she thought “Existentialism” – as in “the primacy of existence” – would be appropriate. But that word had been co-opted years earlier by Sartre and others to designate a certain kind of nihilism, rather the opposite of Rand’s philosophy. So she settled on “Objectivism” – as in “objective reality” – to avoid confusion.  Shouldn’t we avoid “libertarian” for the same reason?

The situation with “Objectivist” differs from, and is similar to, the situation with “libertarian.” The difference is that “libertarian” was never co-opted by any one group; those who use it are all over the map, from French anarchists of the 1890s who used it euphemistically to hide from the police, to Ayn Rand per above, to Milton Friedman (though he preferred the term “classical liberal”) whom Rand once described at a Ford Hall Forum Q&A as “almost my exact opposite.”

The similarity (between Objectivist and libertarian) is that “objectivism” – small ‘O’ – was current long before Rand, however vague and unsatisfactory its formulation. Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, is a particular kind of objectivism. Her political philosophy, whatever you want to call it, is a particular kind of libertarianism, however vague and unsa—

... Do I have to read it again?

Unsatisfactory its formulation.  Froggy, beat it.  A libertarian, broadly speaking, is someone who values liberty, that is freedom from unjustified restraint, where the standard of justice is individual rights as briefly described in the Declaration. It all requires fleshing out of course, and that’s where various factions differ.

All of which is rather obvious.  Maybe there’s something more interesting in the footnotes.