Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Diary of Ayn Rand

Reported by B F Koch
ITITY Cultural Commentator





Chicago IL


Economists, scholars, and social critics are hoping a three thousand page manuscript recently found in the Milton Friedman wing of the University of Chicago library may provide some insight into the popular author’s inspirations. It is thought that the following passages in particular may help illustrate the formation of her ideas and illuminate the foundation of her philosophy.

June 30, 1910 (age five) I baked some cookies today. I took pride in the recognition of the fact that they were really good cookies. Then my little moocher friends came over and ate them all. I must learn to value myself, by which I mean I must fight for my own cookies.

April 16, 1917 (age twelve) The chaos of the classroom is made possible by nothing but the sanction the teacher gives it. In History class today Mr. Galtzky got fed up trying to maintain discipline and just walked out. Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing is going to mend that broken globe.

January 4, 1923 (age eighteen) I must insist that I reject my own intuition. My new boyfriend is just like the last one, another schnorrer who only wants to drink, smoke cigarettes, and discuss Marxism, and then expects me to pay for our date. I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never go out with another Bolshevik.

After immigrating to America in 1925, Rand stopped writing in her diary and began a series of successful dystopian romance novels some still consider significant.


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