The Monster of We (2021)

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are most modern problems caused by selfishness or a lack of it? Ayn Rand, a Russian American philosopher and writer, would say it's the latter — that selfishness is not a vice but a virtue — and that capitalism is the ideal system. Everyone from Donald Trump, to Alan Greenspan, to Brad Pitt have sung Ayn Rand's praises. The Library of Congress named her novel Atlas Shrugged the second most influential book in the U.S. after the Bible. Ayn Rand wasn't politically correct, she was belligerent and liked going against the grain. And although she lived by the doctrine of her own greatness, she was driven by the fear that she would never be good enough.

In this episode, historian Jennifer Burns will guide us through Rand's evolution and how she eventually reshaped American politics, becoming what Burns calls "a gateway drug to life on the right."

Transcript

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0:00.0	A lot of people really despise her.
0:07.7	She was a piss poor writer.
0:09.2	A lot of people really love her.
0:10.4	I think you'll find her most unusual and most controversial.
0:13.4	She may be our most debated philosopher.
0:15.8	Oh God, what a horrible person.
0:18.5	I am pleased to present.
0:20.2	I'm Rand, Miss Rand.
0:28.0	Whether you're a fan of Ein Rand, you rolled your eyes when you saw her name in your feed,
0:32.2	or you don't really know much about her, we got you.
0:35.3	Let's see, how would I describe Ein Rand to a middle schooler?
0:40.6	She is a very powerful and unique lady who had a dream to be a writer and share her ideas
0:46.9	with the world.
0:48.6	And she grew up in a society where she felt stifled and held down.
0:54.2	She felt like she couldn't be herself.
0:57.1	She adopted a new name and she began writing stories, sharing her imaginative in her world
1:04.3	with anyone who wanted to go to a different place and hear different ideas.
1:11.0	Ein Rand was born in Russia in 1905 and immigrated to the US in her early 20s, where she built
1:17.2	up a name for herself over the next few decades.
1:20.4	She was in many ways a walking contradiction.
1:23.8	She loved capitalism and hated God.
1:26.5	She was a powerful woman who said she'd never vote for a female president and she was
	...

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