Objectivist Round-up, August 2026

1. The Ayn Rand Institute Press just published a new booklet, I Chose to be An American: Ayn Rand’s Immigration Story. A few points:

a. The book references Barbara Branden’s interviews with Rand in 1960 and 1961 and makes the curious statement, “Factual details drawn from these interviews depend upon the accuracy of Rand’s later recollection. While many such details are likely reliable (especially basic family and biographical facts), memory is fallible.” Rand was 55 to 56 years old when she gave these interviews and in good health. I wonder why the authors think her recollections on the facts of her life are only “likely reliable”? And are Rand’s recollections on things other than “basic family and biographical facts” (whatever those are) unreliable? Shoshana Milgram Knapp (Rand’s future biographer) once wrote that Rand might have been wrong in saying that one of her philosophy professors was Nicholas Lossky, so this is likely what the authors are referencing. Chris Sciabarra has a response to Knapp in the second edition of Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical.

b. The authors report that Rand adopted her name “Ayn Rand” in America after she arrived in 1925. “Rand’s sister Natasha refers to her as ‘Lil Rand’ in a letter dated February 26, 1926. Over a month later, Rand’s sister Nora addresses her as ‘Ayn Rand’ in a letter dated April 11, 1926. This is the first time the name appears in their documented correspondence.” Unfortunately, no information is provided as to why she adopted this name. Rand once said that her name was a shortened version of her Russian name (Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum), but during the PARC Wars, a couple native speakers said that’s not possible.

Objectivist Round-up, mid July 2026 Update

1. Harry Binswanger recently said that he realized by 1969 that Alan Greenspan was departing from Objectivism. As Greg Nyquist noted, Rand didn’t seem to think so because she attended his swearing in ceremony in 1975 as President Ford’s Chairman of Board of Economic Advisors. Based on what Binswanger wrote, it appears that Binswanger’s big issue with Greenspan is that he wrote a supportive blurb for Barbara Branden’s 1986 biography of Rand, The Passion of Ayn Rand. As long-time readers of the blog know, Branden’s biography was labeled one long “arbitrary assertion” by Leonard Peikoff and Peter Schwartz. According to David Kelley, Peikoff said Branden’s claim that Rand and Nathaniel Branden had an affair was an arbitrary assertion. In any event, 1986 is forty years ago. Rand’s affair with Branden and certain unfortunate sides to her personality (her temper and grandiosity) would have come out eventually. I think at the end of the day, Branden did Objectivism a favor. Would forty years of continued dissimulation by the Ayn Rand Institute about Rand’s life done the movement any good? (ARI writers will still occasionally “trash” the Branden biography and subsequent ones, but mostly by challenging their interpretation of Rand’s ideas and not their description of Rand’s life and personality.)

Objectivist Round-up, mid-July 2026

1. As readers know, Carl Barney and Craig Biddle have been in litigation for a while now. Barney has gone on an internet offensive recently asserting that Biddle stole $9 million from him.

Craig originally drafted an Advisement Agreement that he, Sarah [Biddle], Lenny Esmond (our joint accountant at the time), and I signed. The Agreement required OSI to maintain these funds in a segregated investment account. Use of the funds required my approval; without my approval the “funds may not be used”.

On January 26, 2024, Craig confirmed: “The funds are held in trust by OSI, not grants to OSI”—emphasis added.

In the same exchange, Craig wrote: “They are held in trust and may be used only with Carl’s and Lenny’s permission.”

In January 2026, having become concerned with the Biddles’ behavior, I directed OSI to transfer the trust funds and demanded an accounting. Craig refused. On January 12, 2026, using money from the trust, Craig filed suit to seize the $9 million.

In any event, the episode has caused Barney to rethink his view of human nature.

For much of my life, I believed that people were fundamentally good. I was inclined to trust. I wanted to see the best in others. In many cases, that openness served me well, but that belief carried a cost.

Two long-term and personal relationships ended in profound betrayal. People I trusted personally and financially proved themselves dishonest. Those experiences forced me to reexamine my longstanding assumption. 

I assume Barney is referring to Biddle and Yaron Brook.

Objectivist Round-up, July 2026

1. The Ayn Rand Institute has a preview of OCON 2026, which is being held this month.

2. With a deal between the United States and Iran seemingly imminent (which best I can tell pretty much maintains the status quo ante), the ARI is outraged. Yaron Brook is calling for Trump to be impeached for failing to obtain congressional approval. He’s calling for the CIA and the Mossad to infiltrate the Iranian military to start a coup. Netanyahu has to go as well. Not too long ago he said Netanyahu was doing a good job.

3. Speaking of Brook, he now says he fears an alliance between the Left and Islamism. He’s calling for Europeans to vote for Center and Center Right parties because of this. A year or two ago he said that Islamism in Europe had been defeated with the defeat of ISIS.

Objectivist Round-up, June 2026

1.    Ayn Rand Institute archivist Brian Lisi has an interesting discussion of Rand’s speaking career.  
2.    OCON 2026 will be held later this month in New Orleans.   As I’ve mentioned before, psychologist Steven Pinker will be taking part in an hour-and-one-half panel discussion.  Pinker’s best-known book is probably The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.  I don’t know much about Pinker, but he has said that intelligence is largely genetic and some gaps in IQ among ethnic groups might have a genetic component.  I thought this was anathema in Objectivism.  
3.    At OCON, Shoshana Knapp will be giving a talk on Ayn Rand’s writing on Marilyn Monroe.  (Monroe would have been 100 this month.)  I’ve always thought that Rand’s brief piece on the death of Monroe was one of the more unusual things she wrote.

—Neil Parille 

Reading List for Objectivism by Neil Parille

    

In 2011, I wrote a post entitled A Reading List for Open Minded Objectivists. A lot has happened in the last fifteen years, including many of the links having gone dead. On the other hand, a lot has remained the same in the world of Objectivism, for example the continued use by Objectivists of bad sources in the history of ideas and the continued attacks on the existing biographies of Rand. However, some things have gotten better and I’ll acknowledge them. Finally, as a life-long bookworm, I’ll give some suggestions for books that I think might be helpful for those who are new to the study of Rand and Objectivism.

Objectivist Round-up, Mid-May 2026

1.    In a recent interview with Ayn Rand biographer Jennifer Burns and Lex Fridman, some biographical stuff turned up that I hadn’t heard of, such as the correspondence between Frank Knight and Milton Friedman on Rand.  Both Knight and Friedman (free market advocates) take issue with Rand’s belief (as they see it) that the outcome of free market relationships will inevitably be better from a strictly moral perspective.  Put differently, Rand seems to think that if you succeed in the free market, you probably deserve it.

2.    Looks like there is a new schism brewing between Craig Biddle and the Ayn Rand Institute.  Biddle says or implies that the ARI is “trashing” him for debating non-Objectivists.  Turnabout is fair play according to Biddle.

• Yaron Brook and Greg Salmieri had a friendly public discussion with Kantian-mystic Jordan Peterson at OCON 2018.
• Brook teaches at Peterson Academy.
• Brook publicly debated or had friendly discussions with: academic Marxist Richard Wolff, socialist YouTuber Vaush, and anarchist Michael Malice.