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LOVE IS EXCEPTION MAKING 231
generation of conservatives. Evans, an activist since his student days and
then an editor at the Indianapolis News, was to draw the line. 40
But the message had shifted, and Evans’s prominent cover story
revealed how many of Rand’s beliefs had become conventional conservative
wisdom even as she remained, offi cially, persona non grata. Unlike
Chambers, Evans was untroubled by her defense of capitalism and her
attack on government regulation. She had, Evans wrote, “an excellent
grasp of the way capitalism is supposed to work, the effi ciencies of free
enterprise, the central role of private property and the profi t motive,
the social and political costs of welfare schemes which seek to compel
a false benevolence.” 41 He also admired her polemical fi re and consistency,
and defended her against Chambers’s accusation that she was an
unconscious Nazi. Evans went on to argue that despite these features,
Rand remained a dangerous fi gure for conservatives because she mixed
her good qualities with the bad, namely, atheism. Her work raised several
“central dilemmas of the era”: “Can faith in God be reconciled with
liberty for man? Is Christian belief compatible with libertarian attachment?
Is Capitalism anti-Christian?” Evans seemed confi dent that a
general consensus on each had already been reached. The only problem
was that Rand answered all of these questions incorrectly. Christianity
was an essential part of the conservative and capitalist agenda. Rand, an
atheist, would never quite fi t in. Evans urged that conservatives make
judicious use of Rand, all the while being careful not to swallow her
arguments whole. 42
While Rand’s inner circle continued to fray, Objectivism in New York
was reaching fever pitch. With much fanfare, in May 1967 NBI signed a
fi fteen-year lease on offi ces in the Empire State Building, then the world’s
tallest building. Even though their offi ces were in the basement, it was
still an ideal address. The lease also contained an auditorium, perfect
for large lectures and the movie showings, performances, and dances
that were becoming a regular part of the Institute’s offerings. New York
NBI now coordinated Objectivist baseball games, art shows, concerts, a
movie series titled “The Romantic Screen,” an annual NBI Ball, even an
Objectivist European tour. For California Objectivists there was an NBI
Ball West. The Objectivist announced that the new auditorium would
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