Ayn Rand Myths
Here are some myths about Ayn Rand, about her philosophy of Objectivism,
and some quotes incorrectly attributed to her
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Why do these same myths continue to re-appear?

Is it because people are lazy and never check sources?
Are these myths often begun by someone who hears an idea they do not agree with and then angrily distort it or repeat it out of context?
If a claim is outrageous enough, or if it suits a political or religious purpose, is it is hurriedly and uncritically repeated?
( See myth #1 for a typical example.)

To submit a myth to this site:

Email the exact wording for the myth, where you heard it, the truth and the reference for the truth to:
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To respond to a myth on this site:
Email your answer to any myths posted, with references, to:
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Myth
Details
1
 The Myth - She was a Fascist
The Truth:
2
 The Myth - During an episode of 'Criminal Minds' on television early in January of 2010 some murders take place at the beginning, and the narrator says: "We are all brothers under the skin--and I, for one, would be willing to skin humanity to prove it" and attributes these words to her in an attempt to link her to the evilness of the upcoming murderous plot of the story.
The Truth:
3
 The Myth - She was selfish.
The Truth:
4
 The Myth - In her novel Atlas Shrugged, one of the heroes deliberately causes a train crash resulting in many deaths.
The Truth:
5
 The Myth - Alan Greenspan, long time Chairman of the Fed, was a great admirer, in fact an acolyte, of Ayn Rand, and his attempt to implement her ideas destroyed the U.S. economy.
The Truth:
6
 The Myth - Objectivism is a cult
The Truth:
7
 The Myth - She was a Nietzschean who would trample over corpses because she believed in "The Virtue of Selfishness."
The Truth:
8
 The Myth - She said "That which you see is the first thing to disbelieve Ayn Rand" (this seen at twitter@DeepakChopra)
The Truth:
9
 The Myth - She died of lung cancer, alone and miserable in a hotel room.
The Truth:
10
 The Myth - She was a Libertarian
The Truth:
11
 The Myth - She approved of Rape.
The Truth:
12
 The Myth - Ayn Rand favored less government so big business could take advantage of the poor.
The Truth:
13
 The Myth - Ayn Rand had no sense of humor.
The Truth:
14
 The Myth - Ayn Rand was a racist.
The Truth:
15
 The Myth - Ayn Rand was not a philosopher.
The Truth:
16
 The Myth - Objectivists do not believe it is proper to have children.
The Truth:
17
 The Myth - Her ideas might work for an industrialized society but not for a third world emerging economy.
The Truth:
18
 The Myth - Ayn Rand criticized homosexuals and homosexuality.
The Truth:
19
 The Myth - Ayn Rand's ethics are anti-American.
The Truth:
20
 The Myth - Paul Ryan, republican vice-presidential candidate, is a disciple of Ayn Rand and her ideas.
The Truth:
21
 The Myth - Ayn Rand admirers would not lift a finger to help little old ladies cross the street or with their luggage at the airport.
The Truth:
22
 The Myth - Ayn Rand violated her own philosophy by collecting social security.
The Truth:
   
   
 
Myth
Details
1
 The Myth
She was a Fascist
The Truth:
She was an opponent of fascism and communism and wrote...
"The basic political principle of the Objectivist ethics is: no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. No man—or group or society or government—has the right to assume the role of a criminal and initiate the use of physical compulsion against any man. Men have the right to use physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. The ethical principle involved is simple and clear-cut: it is the difference between murder and self-defense. A holdup man seeks to gain a value, wealth, by killing his victim; the victim does not grow richer by killing a holdup man. The principle is: no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force."
“The Objectivist Ethics,” The Virtue of Selfishness, 32.

and

"It is obvious what the fraudulent issue of fascism versus communism accomplishes: it sets up, as opposites, two variants of the same political system; it eliminates the possibility of considering capitalism; it switches the choice of “Freedom or dictatorship?” into “Which kind of dictatorship?”—thus establishing dictatorship as an inevitable fact and offering only a choice of rulers. The choice—according to the proponents of that fraud—is: a dictatorship of the rich (fascism) or a dictatorship of the poor (communism).

"That fraud collapsed in the 1940’s, in the aftermath of World War II. It is too obvious, too easily demonstrable that fascism and communism are not two opposites, but two rival gangs fighting over the same territory—that both are variants of statism, based on the collectivist principle that man is the rightless slave of the state—that both are socialistic, in theory, in practice, and in the explicit statements of their leaders—that under both systems, the poor are enslaved and the rich are expropriated in favor of a ruling clique—that fascism is not the product of the political “right,” but of the “left”—that the basic issue is not “rich versus poor,” but man versus the state, or: individual rights versus totalitarian government—which means: capitalism versus socialism."
“‘Extremism,’ or The Art of Smearing,” Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, 180.

2
 The Myth
During an episode of 'Criminal Minds' on television early in January of 2010 some murders take place at the beginning, and the narrator says: "We are all brothers under the skin--and I, for one, would be willing to skin humanity to prove it" and attributes these words to her in an attempt to link her to the evilness of the upcoming murderous plot of the story.
The Truth:
The quote was uttered by one of the villains, Ellwsorth Toohey, in her novel The Fountainhead.
 
3
 The Myth
She was selfish.
The Truth:
In the popular sense of the way the word selfishness is used, no this is not true. She held that rational self interest was a virtue, which is the opposite idea. See this short explanation.
   
4
 The Myth
In her novel Atlas Shrugged, one of the heroes deliberately causes a train crash resulting in many deaths.
  The Truth:
The crash was caused by government bureaucrats
   
5
 The Myth
Alan Greenspan, long time Chairman of the Fed, was a great admirer, in fact an accolade, of Ayn Rand, and his attempt to implement her ideas destroyed the U.S. economy.
  The Truth:
He abandoned her ideas long before becoming Fed Chairman.
"There were 51,000 NEW regulations added over the last 12 years. Banking, housing, and insurance are the most regulated areas of the economy. They are strangled by regulations.
"This is the failure of the regulatory state.
"As to Greenspan, this is the penalty of betraying Ayn Rand's philosophy.
"To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen's famous riposte: Dr. Greenspan, I (Dr. Harry Binswanger) knew Ayn Rand, and you're no Objectivist."
Dr. Harry Binswanger, The Harry Binswanger List, October 27, 2008
   
6
 The Myth
Objectivism is a cult
  The Truth:
Could a cult exist built around a belief in the necessity of independent thought, individualism and self-confidence?
"Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it—that no substitute can do your thinking, as no pinch-hitter can live your life—that the vilest form of self-abasement and self-destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of an authority over your brain, the acceptance of his assertions as facts, his say-so as truth, his edicts as middle-man between your consciousness and your existence."
Galt’s Speech, For the New Intellectual, 128.
   
7
 The Myth
She was a Nietzschean who would trample over corpses because she believed in "The Virtue of Selfishness."
  The Truth:
"Philosophically, Nietzsche is a mystic and an irrationalist. His metaphysics consists of a somewhat “Byronic” and mystically “malevolent” universe; his epistemology subordinates reason to “will,” or feeling or instinct or blood or innate virtues of character."
“Introduction to The Fountainhead,” The Objectivist, March 1968, 6.
   
8
 The Myth
She said "That which you see is the first thing to disbelieve Ayn Rand" (this seen at twitter@DeepakChopra)
 

The Truth:
She taught that the senses are infallible. It is the conclusions we draw from the sense data that can be in error.
The quote was said by one of her villains—in this case Floyd Ferris. It is part of his book What Makes You Think You Think, and can be found on p. 341 of the hardcover and trade paperback editions of Atlas Shrugged.
She wrote, through the voice of one of her heroes:
" [Man’s] senses do not provide him with automatic knowledge in separate snatches independent of context, but only with the material of knowledge, which his mind must learn to integrate . . . . His senses cannot deceive him, . . . physical objects cannot act without causes, . . . his organs of perception are physical and have no volition, no power to invent or to distort . . . the evidence they give him is an absolute, but his mind must learn to understand it, his mind must discover the nature, the causes, the full context of his sensory material, his mind must identify the things that he perceives."
Galt’s Speech, For the New Intellectual, 156.
and:
"Let the witch doctor who does not choose to accept the validity of sensory perception, try to prove it without using the data he obtained by sensory perception."
Galt’s Speech, For the New Intellectual, 155.
   
9
 The Myth
She died of lung cancer, alone and miserable in a hotel room.
 

The Truth:
"Ayn Rand died on March 6, 1982, in her New York City apartment."
aynrandlexicon.com Copyright © 2010 Ayn Rand® Institute
"Ayn Rand died on March 6, 1982, of heart failure. She was buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, N.Y., next to her husband Frank O’Connor (who died in 1979)." See also: “To the Reader,” by Harry Binswanger, The Objectivist Forum, Vol. 3, No. 1.
As to her being alone and miserable, Leonard Peikoff described her final hours in a talk at Boston's Ford Hall Forum. If anyone can reference to the transcript, please email it to:
submit, at, aynrandmyths, dot com

"Ayn Rand did NOT die “alone and bitter.” I know, I was among her best friends at the end of her life. She was working on a screenplay for Atlas Shrugged, until she got very ill (heart disease) and died 6 weeks later. She planned to produce the movie herself and move to Hollywood to get it done (she lived at 120 E. 34th St. in NYC). She held the same philosophy up to the end, and had the same love of life as the fictional heroes she created." Comment by Harry Binswanger — November 7, 2011 @ 7:56 pm
 
10
 The Myth
She was a Libertarian
The Truth:
She wrote: ". . . do not join the wrong ideological groups or movements, in order to “do something.” By “ideological” (in this context), I mean groups or movements proclaiming some vaguely generalized, undefined (and, usually, contradictory) political goals. (E.g., the Conservative Party, which subordinates reason to faith, and substitutes theocracy for capitalism; or the “libertarian” hippies, who subordinate reason to whims, and substitute anarchism for capitalism.) To join such groups means to reverse the philosophical hierarchy and to sell out fundamental principles for the sake of some superficial political action which is bound to fail. It means that you help the defeat of your ideas and the victory of your enemies. (For a discussion of the reasons, see “The Anatomy of Compromise” in my book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.)"
"What Can One Do?" Philosophy Who Needs It, 248; paperback 202.
 
11
 The Myth
She approved of Rape.

The Truth:
She referred to rape as a crime:
"Apart from criminal actions (such as rape). . ."
“Thought Control,” The Ayn Rand Letter, III, 2, 2.

This myth originates from the fact that there is a scene in her novel The Fountainhead which has been called a "rape scene". Ayn Rand described this particular incident as "rape by engraved invitation"(1) because over an extended span of time the woman did everything she could to lure the man to her bedroom.
(1) I do not have the reference for where she used these words. Any help will be appreciated
   
12
 The Myth
She favored less government so big business could take advantage of the poor.
  The Truth:
Regarding the limited role of government she said:
"The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man’s self-defense, and, as such, may resort to force only against those who start the use of force. The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law."
Galt’s Speech, For the New Intellectual, 183.

And who is to benefit from the protection of individual rights?
"There are no “rights” of special groups, there are no “rights of farmers, of workers, of businessmen, of employees, of employers, of the old, of the young, of the unborn.” There are only the Rights of Man—rights possessed by every individual man and by all men as individuals."
“Man’s Rights,” The Virtue of Selfishness, 97.
   
13
 The Myth
She had no sense of humor.
 

The Truth:
She said ". . . humor is a destructive element—which is quite all right, but its value and its morality depend on what it is that you are laughing at. If what you are laughing at is the evil in the world (provided that you take it seriously, but occasionally you permit yourself to laugh at it), that’s fine. [To] laugh at that which is good, at heroes, at values, and above all at yourself [is] monstrous . . . . The worst evil that you can do, psychologically, is to laugh at yourself. That means spitting in your own face."
Ayn Rand, question period following Lecture 11 of Leonard Peikoff's series “The Philosophy of Objectivism” (1976).
and:
"Humor is not an unconditional virtue; its moral character depends on its object. To laugh at the contemptible, is a virtue; to laugh at the good, is a hideous vice. Too often, humor is used as the camouflage of moral cowardice."
“Bootleg Romanticism,” The Romantic Manifesto, 133.
   
14
 The Myth
She was a racist.
  The Truth:
She wrote "Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage—the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors.
"Racism claims that the content of a man’s mind (not his cognitive apparatus, but its content) is inherited; that a man’s convictions, values and character are determined before he is born, by physical factors beyond his control. This is the caveman’s version of the doctrine of innate ideas—or of inherited knowledge—which has been thoroughly refuted by philosophy and science. Racism is a doctrine of, by and for brutes. It is a barnyard or stock-farm version of collectivism, appropriate to a mentality that differentiates between various breeds of animals, but not between animals and men.
"Like every form of determinism, racism invalidates the specific attribute which distinguishes man from all other living species: his rational faculty. Racism negates two aspects of man’s life: reason and choice, or mind and morality, replacing them with chemical predestination.
“Racism,” The Virtue of Selfishness, 126.
and:
Like every other form of collectivism, racism is a quest for the unearned. It is a quest for automatic knowledge—for an automatic evaluation of men’s characters that bypasses the responsibility of exercising rational or moral judgment—and, above all, a quest for an automatic self-esteem (or pseudo-self-esteem)."
“Racism,” The Virtue of Selfishness, 126.
   
15
 The Myth
Ayn Rand was not a philosopher.
 

The Truth:
From the website of Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand:
Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand covers all areas of philosophical importance, including: ethics, morality, logic, language, culture, science, mathematics, physics, psychology, religion, history, politics, law, economics, business, sex, rights, government, art, literature, sculpture, metaphysics, epistemology, mind and body, measurement, free-will, truth, and many more.
For a summary of her ideas you can read the table of contents.

From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
"Ayn Rand (1905–1982) was a philosopher and a novelist who outlined a comprehensive philosophy, including an epistemology and a theory of art, in her novels and essays." link
   
16
 The Myth
Objectivists do not believe it is proper to have children.
  The Truth:
(From “Playboy’s Interview with Ayn Rand,” March 1964. )

PLAYBOY: Do you believe that women as well as men should organize their lives around work—and if so, what kind of work?
RAND: Of course. I believe that women are human beings. What is proper for a man is proper for a woman. The basic principles are the same. I would not attempt to prescribe what kind of work a man should do, and I would not attempt it in regard to women. There is no particular work which is specifically feminine. Women can choose their work according to their own purpose and premises in the same manner as men do.
PLAYBOY: In your opinion, is a woman immoral who chooses to devote herself to home and family instead of a career?
RAND: Not immoral—I would say she is impractical, because a home cannot be a full-time occupation, except when her children are young. However, if she wants a family and wants to make that her career, at least for a while, it would be proper—if she approaches it as a career, that is, if she studies the subject, if she defines the rules and principles by which she wants to bring up her children, if she approaches her task in an intellectual manner. It is a very responsible task and a very important one, but only when treated as a science, not as a mere emotional indulgence.

And

"To an animal, the rearing of its young is a matter of temporary cycles. To man, it is a lifelong responsibility—a grave responsibility that must not be undertaken causelessly, thoughtlessly or accidentally."
“Of Living Death,” The Voice of Reason, 55.
   
17
 The Myth
Her ideas might work for an industrialized society but not for a third world emerging economy.
  The Truth:
 Why is the non-initiation of force good in an industrialized society but not in the 'third world'?
Why is an un breached rationality good in an industrialized society but not in the 'third world'?
Why is the consistent protection of individual rights good in an industrialized society but not in the 'third world'?
   
18
 The Myth
Ayn Rand criticized homosexuals and homosexuality.
 

The Truth:
If Ayn Rand criticized a gang of gay bank robbers for being bank robbers, you could state the half truth that she criticized homosexuals. In this sense it is true that she criticized some in the gay rights movement and it was primarily when they acted as political activists demanding special rights. (see below). She did not limit such criticism to gays. In “The Missing Link,” Philosophy: Who Needs It, 43, she refers to both gay and non-gays ("hippies, yippies, beatniks, peaceniks, Women’s Libs, Gay Libs, Jesus Freaks, Earth Children") as people "seeking tribal 'protection.' ”
     She also said: "All laws against homosexual acts should be repealed. I do not approve of such practices or regard them as necessarily moral, but it is improper for the law to interfere with a relationship between consenting adults." (From her 1968 Ford Hall Forum lecture "On Living Death")
     Ayn Rand never wrote at length about homosexuality. When asked what philosophy specifically has to say on the subject of sex she answered: "It says that sex is good." (Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand p346)

While answering the question "Is homosexuality moral", Dr. Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand's closest associate and intellectual heir said in a podcast from May 25, 2009:
     "There is a clear parallel between straights and gays in regard to morality. Some in each category are obviously moral and some in each category are obviously immoral. There's (promiscuity and sadism and) on the other hand there are real loving straights and there are real loving moral gays and then there are immoral gays . . . the kind of gay who flaunts (his) femininity . . . as an attack on maleness. So I don't think you can say at all that homosexuality is moral or immoral. It depends on the individual, how he practices it and how he expresses it."

and a few sentences later:
      "That would be fantastic to take something chosen by two people that hurts no other person, that's compatible with a rational life, that gives them both pleasure to say one of the most crucial pleasures of life you can't have. That to me would be a monstrous position to take.
     "Now, people say 'well didn't Ayn Rand sometimes express negativity in regard to homosexuality?' Yes, she did, but in my understanding it was primarily when they acted as political activists demanding special rights.
     "I happen to know from seeing her friends over the years . . . a number to whom she was close, knowing full well that they were homosexual. She had no problem being friendly with them. And I know that she certainly regarded some of them as objectivists."
http://www.peikoff.com/tag/sex/page/4/#list
   
19
 The Myth
Ayn Rand's ethics are anti-American.
  The Truth:
See Fox News' opinion piece Does America Need Ayn Rand or Jesus?
   
20
 The Myth
Paul Ryan, republican vice-presidential candidate, is a disciple of Ayn Rand and her ideas.
 

The Truth:
Paul Ryan Is No Ayn Rand Disciple: He’s a Fiscal Moderate who admires and has been significantly influenced by Ayn Rand. From interview with Yaron Brook, President of the Ayn Rand Institute.

and,
According to an associate of Ayn Rand, Ryan, "abjured his former compliments to Ayn Rand".
Ryan said: "I reject her philosophy. . . . it is antithetical to my world view. If somebody is going to try to paste a person's view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas. . . . Don't give me Ayn Rand."
   
21
 The Myth - Ayn Rand admirers would not lift a finger to help little old ladies cross the street or with their luggage at the airport.
 

The Truth:
From “The Ethics of Emergencies,” in her book The Virtue of Selfishness, she refers to " those psychopaths who ... proclaim their rebellion against self-sacrifice by announcing that they are totally indifferent to anything living and would not lift a finger to help a man or a dog left mangled by a hit-and-run driver ... ."

And from her The Objectivist Calendar, Dec. 1976, "The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”—not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form—by giving presents to one’s friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . ."

And from “The Question of Scholarships,” in her newsletter The Objectivist, June 1966, "The fact that a man has no claim on others ... does not preclude or prohibit good will among men and does not make it immoral to offer or to accept voluntary, non-sacrificial assistance."

And from a 1964 Playboy interview: "There is nothing wrong in helping other people, if and when they are worthy of the help and you can afford to help them." (By worthy here she refers to a general benevolence among men and assumes they too are benevolent and rational and do not repeatedly cause their own misfortune.)
   
22
 The Myth - Ayn Rand violated her own philosophy by collecting social security.
 

The Truth:
This is the same as claiming that if you are against robbery, and you were one of Bernie Madoff's victims, you violate your principles by putting in a claim for partial restitution.

She addressed a similar issue in her article "The Question of Scholarships,” The Objectivist, June, 1966. From that article:

"Many students of Objectivism are troubled by a certain kind of moral dilemma confronting them in today’s society. We are frequently asked the questions: “Is it morally proper to accept scholarships, private or public?” and: “Is it morally proper for an advocate of capitalism to accept a government research grant or a government job?” (more mid way down the page)

   
  The Myth
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