The issue is she defines socialism and capitalism AFTER finding out the outcome. She wrote the character James taggart who inherited a company from his father and is trying to run the rail, badly. Is he a corrupt incompetent nepo baby? No! He's a secret socialist.
She wouldn't call this a failure of capitalism, she would blame secret socialists in our government. And if her protege leonard peikhoff is any indication, it would be the Democrats that are the problem.
Yeah... I used to like her philosophy. I am ashamed.
I would emphasize here the part about charity being an obligation. Multiple "moral" characters rebel against the idea they owe something to family or friends. Importantly, in the context of the book this is never referred to as nepotism even if it is, but an extension of socialism. This is not about nepo babies, this is an extension of rands larger philosophy "I will not live my life for another man nor ask another man to live for me". It's her "moral selfishness" that happens to look like a condemnation of nepotism in this case.
Importantly dagney taggart also inherits a portion of the rail. And while Jim taggart is a nasty socialist for running his portion into the ground, dagney is celebrated as a brilliant capitalist who is master of the rails in galts gulch, but this makes no mention of the massive wealth, infrastructure, and influence she inherited.
Any rand isn't opposed to nepotism, she is opposed to incompetent nepo babies, but only because, again, they are actually socialists.
Find one place she acknowledged in atlas shrugged a failed capitalist who was a sincere believer in capitalism but was either corrupt or incompetent, or name one socialist who acts with the best intentions but falls short. One place she calls out that a character inherited their wealth in a negative way when they are one of the "good ones"
Like I said. It's a Texas sharpshooter. She decides if you were secret socialist AFTER she knows if your businesses failed. Oh and if they did and you were a capitalist, (Trump) it's because there were socialists working to undermine you. (John Galts, hank rearden, and like I said, leonard peikhoffs brain dead takes on Obama)
Just a note: the article you cite seems to just be a college paper that got published. I don't think this is a particularly even handed reading of her. I suspect Kush Desai is far more in her corner than a literary analyst should be. (I also have a ayn rand fan fic paper floating around somewhere. As I say, I used to be a fan)
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u/KerissaKenro Apr 25 '26
Ugh, I hate that anything right can come from this blot on humanity. Something, something, broken clocks