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CHAPTER NINE
It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand
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the schisms of 1968 were a disaster for Rand but a boon for
many of her readers. Afterward she retreated into private life,
emerging only once every year to address the Ford Hall Forum, an
event that became known as the “Objectivist Easter.” But the ideological
energy amassed by Rand and her followers was too strong to disappear
overnight, as had NBI. The break even had an invigorating effect on the
spread of Objectivism, broadly considered, because the shuttering of
NBI coincided with a new wave of right-wing activity on campus. As
young conservatives began to mobilize against an increasingly radical
New Left, Rand’s ideas became an important source of inspiration and
guidance. And now, without the dictats of NBI, there was ample room
for interpretation. No longer “students of Objectivism,” those who liked
Rand were free to call themselves Objectivists or libertarians. They
could follow the logic of their antistatism all the way to the newly popular
position of anarchism or, with a nod to Rand, anarcho- capitalism. 1
Rand’s works were too potent and too popular to be confi ned or controlled,
even by their creator.
Once unleashed, Rand’s ideas helped power an ideological explosion
on the right that culminated in an independent libertarian movement.
These new libertarians distinguished themselves proudly from traditional
conservatives, who in turn greeted the movement with dismay.
At times, libertarians talking fervently about revolution seemed to have
more in common with the left than the right. For a brief moment it
even seemed that libertarianism or anarchism might become the latest
addition to the New Left’s rainbow of ideologies. 2 But since Rand had so
deeply imprinted capitalism upon the face of the libertarian subculture,
this latent potential never fully developed. Instead, libertarians
remained fi erce defenders of the free market and apologists for all the
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