1. The Ayn Rand Letter (1971-1976) is now out in a moderately priced paperback edition.
2. The Ayn Rand Fan Club has a review of the Objectivist response to Donald Trump’s election. Co-host William Swig notes that in 2020, Yaron Brook said the country is done with if Trump got elected. As Swig notes, there is a tendency in Objectivism to say “the end is near” going back to Rand’s essay, “The Fascist New Frontier.”
3. The Ayn Rand Fan Club has an interesting discussion of “the tribalism charge in Objectivism.” ARI Objectivists, for whatever reason, seems to use this charge to attack people and ideas that don’t like in a similar way the left attacks its opponents as “fascists.” ARI philosopher Greg Salmieri was asked if Objectivism is tribalistic and he said, in effect, that all groups are. I’d mention that maybe half of the early Objectivist leadership was related to each other either biologically or by marriage. The ARI strikes me as somewhat “tribalistic.” While their breaks with other people or groups seem reasonable from their perspective, the implication of these breaks – that they alone are competent to opine on Objectivism and even whom Rand would vote for – strikes me as tribal.
4. Up-and-coming Objectivist psychologist Gena Gorlin has an interesting overview of psychology. Gorlin says she agrees with Rand’s 1971 statement that psychology, as a science, is “barely making its first steps.” Rand probably said this as a jibe against Nathaniel Branden. In any event, I find Gorlin’s view surprising for someone with a doctorate in psychology. Psychology has been studied on a scientific basis for well over a century. (Many authors associate it with Wilhelm Wundt’s 1879 laboratory.) Certainly, the study of intelligence is anything but its infancy phase. The validity of IQ tests, the correlation between IQ and life outcomes, and the high heritability of intelligence (50% to 80%) are well-established.
