jbgotmar

214
More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.com
CHAPTER EIGHT
Love Is Exception Making
$
by the middle of the 1960s Rand’s popularity among young conservatives,
her open support of Goldwater, and the continued appeal
of her books had pushed her to a new level of mainstream visibility. As a
backlash unfolded against Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and the war
in Vietnam, Rand’s ideas seemed ever more relevant and compelling.
In 1967 she was a guest on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show three times
in fi ve months. Each time she explained to Carson the fundamentals of
her philosophy, the audience response was so great she earned another
invitation. 1 Ted Turner, then a little-known media executive, personally
paid for 248 billboards scattered throughout the South that read simply
“Who is John Galt?” 2 Ten years after the publication of Atlas Shrugged
she was at the apex of her fame.
With success came new challenges. Most troubling of all was her relationship
with Nathan. Rand had designated him her intellectual heir,
openly and repeatedly. She had dedicated Atlas Shrugged to him (and
Frank), allowed his name to be publicly linked with Objectivism, entered
business arrangements with him. The Nathaniel Branden Institute
had blossomed into a national institution, with around thirty-fi ve
hundred students enrolled each year in more than fi fty cities. 3 The
institute had heavy concentrations of followers in southern California,
New York, and Boston. In New York City Objectivism became its own
subculture, complete with sports teams, movie nights, concerts, and
annual dress balls. An NBI student could socialize, recreate, and study
exclusively with other Objectivists, and many did. At the top of this
society stood Nathan and Ayn, living embodiments of her philosophy.
They were bound by a thousand ties, personal and professional, private
and public, past and present. But more than a decade after they fi rst
became lovers, the two were further apart than they had ever been.
Fore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com