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INDIVIDUALISTS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! 59
She was also motivated by a deep sense of crisis, as evidenced by a
rousing essay she wrote to attract members to the group she hoped to
organize. “To All Fifth Columnists” was an alarmist portrait of America
honeycombed with collectivists and Soviet agents, teetering on the brink
of dictatorship. Her opening lines asserted, “Totalitarianism has already
won a complete victory in many American minds and conquered all
of our intellectual life.” Rand assumed that totalitarian dictatorship in
America was only a matter of time, and she blamed apathetic and ignorant
citizens, the so-called “fi fth column.” Hard-working Americans who
ignored politics and simply tried to provide for their families were making
a grave mistake: “The money, home or education you plan to leave
[your children] will be worthless or taken away from them. Instead, your
legacy will be a Totalitarian America, a world of slavery, of starvation, of
concentration camps and fi ring squads.” 51
The only way to forestall such a tragedy was for the true voice of
America to make itself heard. The American way of life, according to
Rand, “has always been based on the Rights of Man, upon individual
freedom and upon respect for each individual human personality.”
These ideals were being overshadowed by Communist propaganda.
Her response: to be heard, “we must be organized.” Here Rand grappled
briefl y with the paradox of organizing individualists. Her group would
be “an organization against organization . . . to defend us all from the
coming compulsory organization which will swallow all of society.” 52
There was no other alternative, she declared, for in the world today there
could be no personal neutrality.
Rand’s urgency stemmed directly from her experiences in the New
York literary world, which convinced her that Communists were also
a powerful force within American political life. In truth, the Party had
been hemorrhaging members for years, since rumors of the 1936 Stalinist
purges reached New York. The Soviet fever broke in 1939, with the revelation
of the Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact. American Communists
were caught fl at-footed by the sudden reversal of policy. They had
always loudly boasted of their antifascist credentials, a position that
was particularly popular among American leftists. Now Communist
leaders could offer no convincing reason for the new alliance. Never
large to begin with, Party membership plummeted. Friendly intellectuals
and liberal fellow travelers began distancing themselves from the
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