A Framework Is Not Enough
Photo by Dakota Roos on Unsplash
One of the most unusual things about Ayn Rand was that she developed a system of philosophy, but with rare exceptions, did not write about her philosophical system. The majority of her speeches and essays set out to answer the questions:
Where are we?
How did we get here?
Where are we going?
Yes, her answers were heavily shaped by her understanding of philosophy. But they weren't exhausted by it. And that turns out to be extremely important.
Philosophy is timeless. It studies the fundamental nature of existence, of man, and man's relationship to existence. But we need philosophy to govern our lives in the here and now. And this requires knowing more than timeless principles. It requires knowing a lot about the here and now--including how philosophy has shaped the here and now.
Rand addressed the world of her day by defining both a historical narrative and a contemporary narrative.
Rand's historical narrative encompassed the history of the West going back to Greece. It is history as shaped primarily by philosophy--ultimately, a war between two philosophies: Plato's and Aristotle's. See, for example, "For the New Intellectual," "Faith and Force," and "The Duel Between Plato and Aristotle," from Leonard Peikoff's Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand.
Rand's contemporary narrative is her evolving account of America's direction. Though it's integrated with her historical narrative, it's mainly focused on the period in which she's active as a cultural commentator--from 1962 through the late 1970s. See John Lewis and Greg Salmieri's "A Philosopher of Her Times" in the Blackwell Companion, which does a superb job of synthesizing this narrative from Rand's occasional pieces.
Rand's contemporary narrative is heavily philosophical, but it involves much more than philosophy. Whereas she thinks history at the level of centuries is driven by philosophy, she thinks many other forces have causal importance on the scale of years and decades--from economic trends to presidential elections to the phenomenon she dubs a country's "sense of life."
Rand's two narratives were distinct but not separate. She traced back the currents shaping 20th century America to Aristotle and Kant (the modern Plato), and saw the future as determined ultimately by whether Americans would discover and embrace an Aristotelian ideology consistent with their sense of life--or whether their sense of life would slowly give way to the Kantian philosophy embraced by intellectuals.
But what I want to stress here is the importance of Rand's contemporary narrative--and what went in to formulating it. Most people do not self-consciously adopt ideologies. One of the main ways that they come to embrace ideologies is through explanatory narratives about their world. And so any ideology that hopes to gain influence has to have a clear and compelling narrative about today's world.
Take Marxism. Marx has a grand theory about economic classes locked in a power struggle. Do most people study Marx and embrace his theory? No. But do they, for example, accept the view that inequality has dramatically increased in America since the 1970s, as the 1% have grabbed all the gains while the rest of us have stagnated, and that this is the key to understanding calamities like the financial crisis or the rise of Trump? Damn right they do.
Objectivists are very good at elucidating Rand's philosophic framework. And we are very good as clarifying specific issues. But we have not been good at providing a compelling story of where we are in the year 2021, how we got here, and where we're going.
And that's understandable. A contemporary narrative represents an incredible feat of integration, one that requires you to identify and synthesize trends in law, technology, art, culture, foreign policy, economics, education, and more. It requires understanding the role of psychology (a culture's sense of life and self-esteem), the complicated cause and effect role of major events (e.g., 9/11, the financial crisis, Trump), and nebulous currents in the culture like tribalism, nationalism, and populism. And it requires integrating all of these puzzle pieces with fundamental philosophic forces--reason vs. mysticism, selfishness vs. altruism, individualism vs. collectivism.
Yet, as challenging as that is, that must be part of our agenda. To explain the world--explain today's world--with a story that clarifies and instructs. If you're looking for a personal mission, defining a compelling contemporary narrative is a vital one.
As a start, definitely check out this recent interview with Greg Salmieri where he expands on many of these themes.
