Why “crucial”? Because it is fundamental not just to the divisions within the Objectivist movement, undermining the ability of many people to cooperate with each other it is also fundamental to problems that many Objectivists have in cooperating with non-Objectivists, as well. I do not mean that this factor is either more fundamental or more important than those identified by the others who have preceded me-only that it is another crucial element that we must understand and address. I believe that in addition to the distortions, errors, and character flaws already mentioned, we must also consider another crucial contributing factor to the turmoil: a tragically mistaken application of the virtue of integrity.Īs I hope to show, this misapplication has been central to the tumultuous history of the Objectivist movement-a key factor underlying the factionalism, the denunciations, the purges, and the efforts to transform Ayn Rand’s philosophy of reason and individualism into an organized movement characterized by orthodoxy and tribalism. I would like to add something else to this conversation. Taken together, I believe they constitute an overwhelming case for the kind of open, civil, and tolerant Objectivist movement that has been a central goal of this organization from the day it was founded. These talks added powerful insights to David Kelley’s earlier discussion of the tumultuous history of the movement, published as The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand.
At the 2006 Summer Seminar of The Atlas Society, we were treated to a number of excellent presentations that addressed different aspects of a common topic: the perennial problems of cooperation within the Objectivist movement.
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