In any actually rational group of individuals, after all, it would not be incumbent upon anyone but these the one ones familiar with the facts of the case to take any place at all. One suspects that the actual reason, as in so many other elements of Randian concept, from Rachmaninoff to Victor Hugo to faucet dancing, was that Rand merely preferred smoking and had the necessity to forged about for a philosophical system that would make her private whims not only moral but additionally a moral obligation incumbent upon everybody who desires to be rational. If the Rand line was totalitarian, encompassing all of ones life, then, even when all the final premises were agreed upon and Randians checked with headquarters to see who was In or Out, there was nonetheless need to have some “judicial” mechanism to resolve concrete points and to make sure that each member toed the line on that query.
Given the necessity to impose a uniform line on everyone, the dispute was resolved in the one means doable: by means of rank within the hierarchy. If wanting and speaking and even being named like the highest Randians was essentially the most “rational” solution to act, and seeing them as much as possible was the most rational type of exercise, then certainly residing as close as doable to the leaders was the rational place to reside. If any criticism of Rand or her disciples had been made, or any arguments were pressed that they couldn’t answer, the Randians would adopt a tone of high offense: “How dare you say such a thing about her?,” activate their heels and stomp off. The only exception that proves the rule was the authorized exercise in uncritical adulation, Who is Ayn Rand? Lots of the young men managed to appear like carbon copies of Branden, while the young women tried to seem like Barbara Branden, replete with the cigarette-holder held aloft, derived from Ayn Rand herself, that was supposed to symbolize the high moral standards and the mocking contempt wielded by Randian heroines. And so the young convert they usually have been virtually all young began to buckle when he learned more about his own chosen subject.
How have been all the opposite members to decide who was right, and therefore rational, and who was improper, irrational, and subsequently topic to expulsion? The all-encompassing nature of the Randian line may be illustrated by an incident that occurred to a buddy of mine who once requested a leading Randian if he disagreed with the movements place on any conceivable subject. In my very own expertise, a high Randian as soon as requested me moderately sharply, “How is it that you simply dont smoke?” Once i replied that I had discovered early that I used to be allergic to smoke, the Randian was mollified: “Oh, thats Ok, then.” The official justification for making smoking a moral obligation was a sentence in Atlas where the heroine refers to a lit cigarette as symbolizing a fire within the thoughts, the fireplace of inventive concepts. When asked deadpan, by a humorous observer whether or not she was changing her identify to “Grand,” she replied, in all seriousness, that no she was altering it to “Grant” presumably, as the observer later remarked, the “t” was her one gesture of independence. Branden himself modified his identify from Blumenthal; it is maybe not a coincidence, as Nora Ephron has identified, that if the letters of the new name are rearranged, they spell, B-E-N-R-A-N-D, Hebrew for “son of Rand.” A Randian girl, with a Polish title starting with “G-r,” introduced sooner or later that she was changing her name the following week.
The title “riot grrrl” got here from the title of a ‘zine created by Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuma, who had been additionally in the Olympia-based mostly band Bratmobile. The idea of universal elementary education, regardless of intercourse, had been created. It’s protected sex, a good substitute for harmful addictions, and an important get together trick! The remainder of the world, even those that had been seemingly intelligent, blissful, and successful, were really dwelling in limbo, reduce off from reason and from understanding the character of actuality. They couldn’t be glad as a result of cult theory decreed that happiness can solely be achieved by being a committed Randian; they couldnt even be intelligent, since how might seemingly intelligent individuals not be Randians, particularly if they commit the gravest sin failing to turn out to be Randians as soon as they were uncovered to this new gospel. Sooner or later a dispute over concretes occurred between two certified and high-rating Randians, each of whom had been dubbed as rational by their Objectivist Psychotherapist. Now right here was a dispute, a battle of curiosity, between two certified Randians.