Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand (b. 2 February 1905 in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire; d. 6 March 1982 in New York City, United States), born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum, was a Jewish author who created Randian Objectivism, which is an extreme variant of classical liberalism. It has been important for the development of the (right-wing) libertarian movement more generally.
Life
Rand was born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum on February 2, 1905, into a Jewish bourgeois family living in Saint Petersburg in what was then the Russian Empire. Born and educated in Russia, Rand emigrated to the United States in 1926. She worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood and had a play produced on Broadway in 1935–1936. While working on The King of Kings, she met the aspiring actor Frank O'Connor; they married on 15 April 1929. She became a permanent American resident in July 1929 and an American citizen on 3 March 1931.[1] She tried to bring her parents and sisters to the United States, but they could not obtain permission to emigrate.
She achieved fame with her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead. In 1957, Rand published her best-known work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy (Randian Objectivism), publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays until 1982.
Support for Israel
Following the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, Rand denounced Arabs as "primitive" and "one of the least developed cultures" who "are typically nomads." Consequently, Rand contended Arab resentment for Israel was a result of the Jewish state being "the sole beachhead of modern science and civilization on their (Arabs) continent", while decreeing that "when you have civilized men fighting savages, you support the civilized men, no matter who they are."[2]
When asked about the topic during a May 1979 episode of The Phil Donahue Show, Ayn Rand repeated her support for Israel against the Arabs under the reasoning that they were "the advanced, technological, civilized country amidst a group of almost totally primitive savages [...] who resent Israel because it’s bringing industry, intelligence, and modern technology into their stagnation."[3]
External links
- Jewish Involvement in Libertarianism
- Selfish Bastards: A Review of “Atlas Shrugged, Part I”
- Criticisms of Objectivism (or Ayn Rand)
- Ayn Rand in Uganda
