Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand (1905-1980) was a Russian-Canadian writer and philosopher. Well-known in the Alliance of Free States for novels such as We the Living, Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, she also used her fictional work to expound and develop the philosophical school and political theory known as "Objectivism", a form of radical market liberalism that held the only moral purpose of one's life was to seek their own happiness, and rejected ideologies and moral systems deemed "collectivist", such as socialism and religious institutions, as inherently counteractive to this goal.

Born and raised in an upper-middle class family in the Russian Empire, she became an ardent anti-communist after her family's business was seized during the Russian Revolution. Emigrating to the United States in 1926, she "fell in love" with the capitalist-oriented Second Republic during the peak of the Roaring Twenties, only to move again to Canada in response to the Red May Revolution in 1933. Angry and bitter from her experiences, her already staunch anti-communism would only increase during this period.

In her new home, she would release her debut novel, an epic romance set against the backdrop of the Russian Civil War, We the Living. Its gigantic success in the capitalist world was the impetus for, among other things, an MGM produced adaptation in 1939. She would follow it up with the dystopian Anthem.

Her pre-Revolution screenplay, Red Pawn was finally produced by Warner Bros. and Columbia in 1941 (shifted to an American setting.). In 1943, she would write one of her most famous novels The Fountainhead, about an architect who deals with those attempting to subvert his vision. However, this and her other works were suppressed by the Franco-British Union during World War II to prevent disrupting the wartime alliance. Rand, miffed by this, went after the film industry post-war during the Smithers hearing, claiming that communists or communist sympathizers had thoroughly infiltrated the industry and wrote pro-American or Pro-Soviet propaganda under the guise of the "wartime alliance".

Through the 50's and 60's, she would form ties with many like-minded people, including Ludwig von Mises,Nathaniel Branden, Barbara Branden, and Leonard Peikoff, who would together form "the Collective."

Anthem would receive an adaptation in 1953, and The Fountainhead in 1955. Rand's magnum opus Atlas Shrugged, a dystopian novel dealing with a totalitarian socialist state being opposed by a small group of businessmen hiding in Scotland, lead by John Galt, was published in 1957.

Rand's following would increase as her work disseminated and her followers spread her word. She would stop writing fiction and start her career as a public intellectual, making regular rounds on EBC and RKO-TV talk shows. She would also form a political relationship with a People's Alliance MP named Enoch Powell, whose own strong free-market views would be influenced by Rand and with exile writer Barry Goldwater.

In 1965, Anthem was adapted again on EBC, this time in color, though Rand would criticize the program. A more faithful adaptation of Atlas Shrugged was made for CBC in 1967. The producer on that version was Frank McCarthy, Jr., son of Cuban movie mogul Frank McCarthy. McCarthy and Rand began discussing a possible real life "Galt's Gulch" during production. Despite overwhelming negative critical response, the show became a success, which allowed Rand to explore the possibility financially.

In 1969, a group of Objectivist students at Oxford formed the "Liberty Political Association" as a pressure group to ensure free-market capitalism remains the norm in the Franco-British Union. In 1970, the association merged with the Alliance for Liberty, a short-lived political party led by Powell and other MPs who split with the People's Alliance over their stances on immigration, protectionism and isolationism, to form political party Liberty. The newly formed party would espouse Rand's philosophy, mixed with some von Mises influenced economic policy and Powell influenced social and foreign policy. Rand criticized the newly formed party, claiming political involvement to be wrought with corruption.