Arthur Silber: What We've Learned, Lesson One — Addendum

July 9th, 2005

I offer these observations in an Addendum to the major entry about Lesson One because they concern a distinct issue—one which still causes me profound regret, and a great deal of personal pain. That issue is Objectivism, the name given to Ayn Rand’s philosophy.

I have indicated in a few posts that I no longer call myself an “Objectivist” (see here, too), although I once did. If I had still entertained any remaining doubts about the truth of certain identifications I have made recently about the causes of the ultimate failure of Rand’s ideas, they would have been banished by the response of certain self-identified “Objectivists” to the tragedy in London. So that we have the relevant comments in one place, I repeat here part of what I said about Lesson One: