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WHO IS JOHN GALT? 1957–1968
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separately with Peikoff for “what turned out to be an excellent, exciting,
open-ended, philosophical discussion.” “The topic I most clearly
remember,” he said, “was phenomenalism—objects are really just categories
of sense data.” The group was then told that for their next meeting
they would meet with Rand and Nathan. Seeing this as a promotion
based on their enthusiasm and expertise, the students were shocked
when at the meeting, Nathan “began a long harangue about how grotesque
it was for people to claim to have read Rand’s works and still raise
the sorts of philosophical [questions] Peikoff had reported to them.
This went on for quite a while and we were all thoroughly abused.” 52 It
was a sudden reversal of fortune for the class, which did not understand
Nathan’s characterization of their questions as villainy.
The conformity engendered by NBI stretched beyond the classroom.
Objectivism was a comprehensive philosophy, and Objectivists strove
to apply the principles they learned at NBI to daily life. Rand’s cast of
mind saw all of reality as integrated by a few fundamental principles.
Therefore adoption of these principles would radiate out infi nitely into
every aspect of a person’s life. Following her reasoning, it became possible
to gauge the validity of an Objectivist’s commitment by the smallest
details of his or her personal life and preferences. One NBI student
remembered, “There was more than just a right kind of politics and a
right kind of moral code. There was also a right kind of music, a right
kind of art, a right kind of interior design, a right kind of dancing.
There were wrong books which we could not buy, and right ones which
we should. . . . And on everything, absolutely everything, one was constantly
being judged, just as one was expected to be judging everything
around him. . . . It was a perfect breeding ground for insecurity, fear, and
paranoia.” 53
Striving to become good Objectivists, Rand’s followers tried to conform
to her every dictate, even those that were little more than personal
preferences. Rand harbored a dislike of facial hair, and accordingly her
followers were all clean shaven. Libertine in her celebration of sex outside
marriage, she described homosexuality as a disgusting aberration.
The playwright Sky Gilbert, once an enthusiastic Objectivist, remembered,
“As a young, self-hating gay man, I welcomed Rand’s Puritanism.
I imagined I could argue myself out of homosexuality. I labored over
endless journal passages, arguing the advantages and disadvantages
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