Myths About Ayn Rand

A Challenge to Journalists

Reliable information on Ayn Rand's ideas is so readily available that journalists who continue to misrepresent those ideas are without excuse.
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Myth: Ayn Rand Was an Elitist

Rand did not believe, as too many commentators allege, that the most talented and productive people should rule over others, nor that they were necessarily morally superior.
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Myth: Ayn Rand Was a Conservative

Ayn Rand’s economic vision may resonate on the Right, but she was hardly a conservative.
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Myth: Rand Was for Dog-Eat-Dog Selfishness

Rand's ethic was not "live-and-let-die" but "live-and-let-live."
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Myth: Ayn Rand Was Simply Pro-Wealthy and Pro-Business

Wealthy villains abound in Rand novels, and she never thought of getting rich as an end-in-itself.
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Myth: Ayn Rand Wasn't a Serious Philosopher

Rand offered distinctive arguments in ethical and political philosophy. In John Galt’s speech alone, she surveys all the fundamental areas of philosophic inquiry.
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Perp Walk

• Alyssa Bereznak “How Ayn Rand ruined my childhood.” Salon.com. (Myth: Cruel selfishness) 
• Carina Chocano “A Utopian Society Made Up of Business Moguls in Fedoras.” The New York Times. (Myth: Pro Wealth or Pro Business)
• Roger Ebert “Atlas Shrugged.”rogerebert.com. (Myth: Cruel selfishness) 
• Michael Gerson “Ayn Rand’s adult-onset adolescence.” The Washington Post. (Myth: Pro Wealth or Pro Business)
• David Bentley Hart “The Trouble with Ayn Rand.” First Things. (Myth: Not a Serious Philosopher)
• Brian Jackson “Ayn Rand, Conservative Populists, and the Creed of Self-Immolation.”Present Tense. (Myth: Conservative)
• Michael Phillips “Flatly rendered, Rand classic is taxing indeed.” Chicago Tribune. (Myth: Cruel selfishness) 

 Myth Fighters

• Douglas John Den Uyl & Douglas B. Rasmussen, “Should Atlas Be Shrugged?”
• Walter Donway, “Chicago Tribune Reviewer of Atlas Shrugged: ‘Straight to the Fascinating Tea-Stained Politics...’” and “Roger Ebert on the Atlas Shrugged Movie as an ‘Anticlimatic Non-Event.’”
• Robert Bidinotto, “How deeply has Atlas Shrugged penetrated our culture?”
• Ayn Rand Defended (various), Washington Post
• David T. Lancaster, "Reading Rand Wrong" The Salt Lake Tribune