A New Textbook of Americanism: The Politics of Ayn Rand PDF
Preview A New Textbook of Americanism: The Politics of Ayn Rand
A NEW TEXTBOOK OF AMERICANISM THE POLITICS OF AYN RAND writing & commentary by AYN RAND with additional writings by LEONARD PEIKOFF & ANDREW BERNSTEIN HARRY BINSWANGER YARON BROOK ONKAR GHATE STUART K. HAYASHI JONATHAN HOENIG ELAN JOURNO AMY PEIKOFF GREGORY SALMIERI RICHARD SALSMAN C. BRADLEY THOMPSON DON WATKINS Edited by Jonathan Hoenig © 2018, Jonathan Hoenig All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior written permission of the publisher. Excerpts from ‘Objectivist Workshop on Ethics and Politics’ appear courtesy of the Peikoff Family Trust. Excerpts from Leonard Peikoff’s works appear courtesy of Leonard Peikoff. Capitalistpig Publications POB 1658, Chicago, IL 60690-1658 capitalistpig.com First printing, 2018 The publisher wishes to acknowledge: The Ayn Rand Archives Jocelyn Baker, Proofreader Jeff Britting, Editorial Consultant Stuart K. Hayashi, Assistant Publisher Shoshana Milgram Back cover image: © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo courtesy of the Ayn Rand Archives Made in the U.S.A. isbn-10: 0-692-93044-2 / isbn-13: 978-0-692-93044-1 Contents vii Introduction PART I—AYN RAND’S TEXTBOOK OF AMERICANISM 2 First Installment, May 1946 1. What Is the Basic Issue in the World Today? 2. What Is a Social System? 3. What Is the Basic Principle of America? 4 Second Installment, June 1946 4. What Is a Right? 5. What Are the Inalienable Rights of Man? 6. How Do We Recognize One Another’s Rights? 7. How Do We Determine That a Right Has Been Violated? 8. What Is the Proper Function of Government? 8 Third Installment, July 1946 9. Can There Be a “Mixed” Social System? 10. Can a Society Exist Without a Moral Principle? 11 Fourth Installment, October 1946 11. Is “The Greatest Good For the Greatest Number” a Moral Principle? 12. Does the Motive Change the Nature of a Dictatorship? iii PART II—EXPANDING TEXTBOOK OF AMERICANISM Ayn Rand’s Original Textbook of Americanism Questions With Additional Answers Based on Ayn Rand’s Philosophy 21 On American Political Philosophy Onkar Ghate What Is Capitalism? Isn’t It the Government’s Job to Enforce Both Individual Rights and the Public Interest? What Is the Difference Between Economic Power and Political Power? Can We Do Good By Force? What Is the Profit Motive? Is Economic Competition Beneficial? What Is the Meaning of the Law of Supply and Demand? 35 On Property Rights Jonathan Hoenig Would It Pay Us to Divide Great Fortunes? What Is the Difference Between Cooperation and Compulsion? 41 On Freedom vs. Dictatorship Andrew Bernstein Is There Any Difference Between Communism and Fascism? Does Capitalism Create Poverty? Is Capitalism Efficient? Are Dictatorships Efficient? 52 On Economics Richard Salsman How Are Fortunes Made in a Capitalist System? What Is the Meaning of “Production for Use and Not for Profit”? Are Monopolies Created By Capitalism? Can We Have “Planning” And Freedom at the Same Time? iv 59 On Civil Rights Amy Peikoff Why Is Racial Prejudice Un-American? Is There a Division Between “Human Rights” and “Property Rights”? Can Civil Rights Exist Without Property Rights? 69 On Welfare Don Watkins Can Charity Be a “Right”? 77 On the Role of Voting in the American System of Government Gregory Salmieri 87 On the Alt-Right Stuart K. Hayashi How to Recognize A Nazi? 93 On the Necessity and Efficacy of Principles Leonard Peikoff Do We Have to Be Consistent About Principles? What Is the Relation Between Theory and Practice? What Has Been the History of Human Progress? PART III 105 Further Commentary By Ayn Rand: Excerpts From “Objectivist Workshop on Ethics and Politics” Ayn Rand Is “The Consent Of The Governed” the Basis of Government Authority? What Power Do We Delegate to a Proper Government? What Particular Class of Action? When We Enter Into an Organized Society, Do We Lose the Right Objectively to Defend Ourselves? Is There a Right to Secede? v Would Difference in Language Be a Valid Reason to Secede? Should There Be a National Language? Should Americans Reject the Conception of a World Government? International Law and the “Laws” of War Are Laws Which Anticipate Violence Proper? Enforced Vaccination and Quarantine PART IV—AMERICANISM: AN ENDURING POLITICS 125 Textbook of Americanism Today Yaron Brook 139 Americanism and the Spirit of Liberty C. Bradley Thompson 151 “Buy American” Is Un-American Harry Binswanger 169 What Should a Distinctively American Foreign Policy Do? Elan Journo 177 Capitalism as Secular Leonard Peikoff 183 Notes 203 Index 209 Contributors vi Introduction Most people, even most Americans, have no idea what the United States represents. Some will proclaim that the country’s defining and most virtuous trait is that it is a democracy, and that America’s essence, therefore, derives primarily from the power to vote. The more sophisticated person might ref- erence the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. A significant number of Americans will insist that those two documents are the consistent implementation of Christianity; others will dismiss those very same documents by ascribing their authorship to white, landowning, patriarchal slaveholders. Some people recognize that America was founded on the principle of freedom, but they will insist that less-free (even completely unfree) collectiv- ist models of government, ranging from the regulatory-entitlement states of Scandinavia to the dictatorships of Russia and Cuba, count as morally legiti- mate alternatives. After all, they say, the Cuban government provides “free” healthcare and Russians “voted” their leaders into office. Most Americans and denizens of the West have never analyzed the prin- ciples on which America was founded, so they fail to see the republic in principled terms. Properly understood, individualism—and its principle of individual rights—is the foundation of America’s unique politics. One denizen of the West—a thinker who was an American by choice—did grasp America’s political essence down to its roots. In her 1974 address before the graduating class of the United States Military Academy at West Point, novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand spoke the following words: I can say—not as a patriotic bromide, but with a full knowledge of the necessary metaphysi- cal, epistemological, ethical, political and esthetic roots—that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.1 A New Textbook of Americanism explores her reasoning. In the year 1926, at the age of twenty-one, Ayn Rand emigrated from her native Russia to the United States. Despite her lack of fluency in the language of her new country, within a few decades she established herself as both the vii author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and the originator of a new, systematic philosophy she called Objectivism. Educated in Czarist and Soviet Russia, Ayn Rand came to America to be free to write. Yet, upon her arrival, she discovered that the collectivist poli- tics of Russia, and Europe in general, were taking hold in America. An early effort to fight this trend was Ayn Rand’s Textbook of Americanism, which was published in a small political magazine, The Vigil, in 1946. Although eclipsed by Ayn Rand’s mature writings, which are voluminous, Textbook of Americanism is still relevant. The issue it addresses—individualism versus collectivism—confronts us today. Seventy years later, A New Textbook of Americanism expands Ayn Rand’s earlier work. This current book will recalibrate people back to the basic individualistic principles they may have shunned, or, more likely, never learned in the first place. Indeed, writers, commentators, intellectuals, businesspeople, educators, and elected officials each have their own arbitrary and often contradictory idea of what constitutes America’s basic political principles—and few of them mention individualism or individual rights. “The United States was founded on Judeo-Christian philosophy,” delared former Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly.2 Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders bemoaned, “The American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Ven- ezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger. Who’s the banana republic now?”3 Television personality Bill Maher demanded that Americans “get over” the concept of American exceptionalism.4 In the New York Times, a prominent Constitutional law professor denounced Americans’ “insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions”5 alongside an op-ed from Russian ruler Vladimir Putin, who scoffs at American exceptionalism—and, with it, Americanism—altogether.6 Simultaneously, a national basketball star proudly visited North Korea’s dictatorship and flaunted his close relationship with its totalitarian despot. When reminded of the atrocities the North Korean regime commits, the athlete replied flippantly, “We do the same things here.”7 That sentiment—that the USA commits atrocities comparable to such dic- viii A NEW TEXTBOOK OF AMERICANISM tatorships—has been voiced by U.S. President Donald Trump. “Our country does plenty of killing, too,”8 he proclaimed during his run for office. “You think our country’s so innocent?”9 “I don’t think it’s a nice term,” Trump said of American exceptionalism. “I don’t want to say we’re more exceptional, because it’s to say ‘We’re more outstanding than you.’”10 Amidst such confusion and outright distortion, it is not surprising that Americanism is no longer celebrated but, rather, routinely maligned across the political spectrum. Moreover, what previously seemed to be opposing political viewpoints—those of the so-called “conservatives” and “liberals” respectively—have converged into seemingly disparate factions embracing the same collectivist poison, neither of which exemplify true American values. Ayn Rand discovered that she had to define her own philosophical system in order to validate America’s revolutionary politics. Anticipating the need for a fresh start, she referred to her future advocates as the New Intellectuals, their work is featured herein.11 A few words about the organization of this book are in order. Part I reproduces Ayn Rand’s Textbook of Americanism as a standalone work, including its original set of twelve questions and answers which were published in The Vigil. Part II examines additional questions intended to be explored in the unfin- ished series. The answers are supplied by writers, historians, and philosophers versed in Ayn Rand’s ideas and their application to politics, economics, law, and political culture. Part III is a further discussion of American political philosophy and pres- ents, for the first time in print, excerpts from Ayn Rand’s 1971 “Objectivist Workshop on Ethics and Politics.” Part IV concludes with an examination of Americanism, including its historical origin, its contemporary relevance, and its future application. A New Textbook of Americanism does not complete Ayn Rand’s unfinished work. That work stands alone, but revisiting her earlier work, and its questions, sets the stage for new and much needed discussion. None of the contributors speak for Ayn Rand herself. No one knows exactly how Rand would have answered the questions she outlined. In our judgement, this work builds on Rand’s insight to illuminate Americanism and its present-day application. INTRODUCTION ix
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