Objectivist Sex -- and Politics.An interview with WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR. The early 1960s were a turning point for American conservatism. Would the movement be taken over by the paranoid fringe of the anti-Communist conspiracy theorists? Or would it be captivated cap·ti·vate tr.v. cap·ti·vat·ed, cap·ti·vat·ing, cap·ti·vates 1. To attract and hold by charm, beauty, or excellence. See Synonyms at charm. 2. Archaic To capture. by the inhuman yet relentless logic of Ayn Rand Noun 1. Ayn Rand - United States writer (born in Russia) noted for her polemical novels and political conservativism (1905-1982) Rand and her Objectivists? In his new novel, WFB WFB Warhammer: Fantasy Battle (game) WFB World Fellowship of Buddhists WFB Wells Fargo Bank WFB William Frank Buckley (founder and editor of National Review Magazine) WFB WorkFlow Builder takes us back to this crucial moment in the history of the American Right. Q Mr. Buckley, why did you write this book, Getting It Right? A Because I wanted to write a story about politics, sex, and legendary American figures. Q Legendary like who? A Like whom. Q Like whom. A Like Senator Barry Goldwater “Goldwater” redirects here. For other uses, see Goldwater (disambiguation). Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–87) and the Republican Party's nominee for , President Lyndon Johnson, General Edwin Walker Major General Edwin Anderson Walker (November 10, 1909 – October 31, 1993) was a member of the U.S. Army known for his right wing political views and for being a target of Lee Harvey Oswald. , Ayn Rand, and Robert Welch Robert Welch may refer to:
Q Hey, slow down a minute. We all know who Senator Goldwater was -- A -- Yes, but you don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. some things about him that I know. Q That you know from personal observation? But this is a novel. A That doesn't matter. The novel talks about things that actually happened when the conservative movement in America was shaping up, like the big struggle inside the Goldwater camp on whether to disavow TO DISAVOW. To deny the authority by which an agent pretends to have acted as when he has exceeded the bounds of his authority. 2. It is the duty of the principal to fulfill the contracts which have been entered into by his authorized agent; and when an agent the support of the John Birch Society John Birch Society, ultraconservative, anti-Communist organization in the United States. It was founded in Dec., 1958, by manufacturer Robert Welch and named after John Birch, an American intelligence officer killed by Communists in China (Aug., 1945). and Robert Welch. Q Robert Welch. The candy manufacturer? A Well yes, in the sense that one might identify Abraham Lincoln as The Railsplitter. Q Your Robert Welch, when he left the candy business, did what? A He founded one of the most powerful political organizations in the postwar world. It was called the John Birch Society. It had 100,000 members and tried to influence public affairs Those public information, command information, and community relations activities directed toward both the external and internal publics with interest in the Department of Defense. Also called PA. See also command information; community relations; public information. , beginning with a drive to impeach To accuse; to charge a liability upon; to sue. To dispute, disparage, deny, or contradict; as in to impeach a judgment or decree, or impeach a witness; or as used in the rule that a jury cannot impeach its verdict. Earl Warren Noun 1. Earl Warren - United States jurist who served as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court (1891-1974) Warren , who was then Chief Justice of the United States the presiding judge of the Supreme Court, and Highest judicial officer of the republic. See also: Chief justice . Q Well, your Mr. Welch didn't get very far, did he? Who else did he go after? A President Dwight Eisenhower. Q What did he have against Ike? A Welch thought he was a secret agent of the Communist party Communist party, in China Communist party, in China, ruling party of the world's most populous nation since 1949 and most important Communist party in the world since the disintegration of the USSR in 1991. . Q Holy God. (Joking laughter.) He didn't persuade anybody to believe that, did he? I mean, Mamie didn't believe it, did she? A You're making fun of it, and I don't blame you. But the business about Ike being a Communist wasn't the central organizing principle of the John Birch Society. It was an anti-Communist society. It had a senior council of big figures in American industry. It had 30,000 chapters. Welch published books and magazines and wrote letters and gave speeches and high-powered two-day seminars. He persuaded a lot of Americans that the Soviet Union was winning the Cold War and that the reason for this was that the whole government of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. was riddled with traitors and with men and women who were reconciled to Communist victory. Q Well, that's hard to believe, but you said Senator Goldwater was reluctant to denounce the John Birch Society? A He didn't want to single it out for denunciation DENUNCIATION, crim. law. This term is used by the civilians to signify the act by which au individual informs a public officer, whose duty it is to prosecute offenders, that a crime has been committed. It differs from a complaint. (q.v.) Vide 1 Bro. C. L. 447; 2 Id. 389; Ayl. Parer. in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden when he was nominated for president. He only went so far as to denounce "extremists." There was a ton of pressure on him to name the John Birch Society, but he said he didn't want to do that, denouncing them meant denouncing some of his best supporters. As a matter of fact, his own campaign manager was a member of the John Birch Society. So was my mother. Q How does that all figure in your novel? A The 23-year-old protagonist of the novel worked full-time for the John Birch Society. Q A kind of a dumb guy? A Oh no! Woodroe Raynor was an honors graduate from Princeton. He had been on the spot when the Soviet tanks moved in on the Hungarian freedom fighters in 1956. Woodroe had been doing missionary work Noun 1. missionary work - the organized work of a religious missionary mission work - activity directed toward making or doing something; "she checked several points needing further work" da'wah, dawah - missionary work for Islam as a Mormon, and got shot by a Communist soldier a few days after losing his virginity to a Hungarian spy. Q Maybe that was just punishment! . . . But did your hero believe that business about Ike and Warren being Communists? A No, but he was like Goldwater, attracted to the society as a fighting anti-Communist organization -- Q Fighting what? A Fighting appeasement appeasement Foreign policy of pacifying an aggrieved nation through negotiation in order to prevent war. The prime example is Britain's policy toward Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in the 1930s. in foreign policy, fighting Castro in Cuba, fighting the construction of the wall in Germany by Khrushchev, fighting Ho Chi Minh Ho Chi Minh (hô chē mĭn), 1890–1969, Vietnamese nationalist leader, president of North Vietnam (1954–69), and one of the most influential political leaders of the 20th cent. His given name was Nguyen That Thanh. in Vietnam, fighting for the loyalty/security program in the Federal Government. Q You mentioned Sex as an important feature in life -- A An important feature not "in life," in the life of Ayn Rand. Q You're not saying sex is not an important feature in, well, just life. . . . I mean, you're not saying sex was important only for Ayn Rand, which by the way, who's she? A Ayn Rand is the most widely read novelist in the history of the world. Q You mean, more than Gone With the Wind, or John Grisham? A Oh yes. Her major novel is Atlas Shrugged, and last year it sold 200,000 copies. It was published in 1957. Forty-five years ago. Q So why does a novel play an important part in your book, and what is Atlas Shrugged, a sex book? A Oh no, though it's true that Russell Kirk said people read Atlas Shrugged "for the fornicating bits." It is a great big novel with good guys and bad guys and the good guys are engaged in promoting a view of life. Ayn Rand called it Objectivism objectivism (  b·jekˑ·ti·vizˑ· .
Q What was that? A The philosophical position that the way to lead the right life is to acknowledge objective features in life, and to do everything you want, to act with pure concern for what your reason tells you to do, and to augment freedom by restraining government to the barest essentials of life, like policemen and firemen, preferably volunteer firemen. Q How does this Objectivism figure in the novel? A Well, the whole movement advanced a view that political arrangements should be anarchistic an·ar·chism n. 1. The theory or doctrine that all forms of government are oppressive and undesirable and should be abolished. 2. Active resistance and terrorism against the state, as used by some anarchists. 3. in character, i.e., in favor of repealing almost all existing laws and regulations. Q How did Ayn Rand involve herself with Goldwater? A When Goldwater wrote his book, The Conscience of a Conservative, and headed toward the Republican nomination in San Francisco, Ayn Rand wrote him a letter volunteering to shape his political platform and his thinking. Q Did this have much of an effect on Goldwater? A Well, he listened, but turned her down on the matter of religion -- he didn't go along with her atheism atheism (ā`thē-ĭz'əm), denial of the existence of God or gods and of any supernatural existence, to be distinguished from agnosticism, which holds that the existence cannot be proved. . But Ayn Rand had Objectivist institutes all over the country, where they studied her philosophy, and her point of view -- making personal self-seeking central to Objectivist political philosophy and scorning concern for others. "Altruism," Miss Rand called that -- her fear was that Goldwater would nudge the conservative movement in that direction. Q How did sex get into all that? A Well, that became a big deal -- a very big deal, as David Halberstam might put it. Ayn Rand's philosophy claimed that Objectivist reasoning, by elevating reason into total control of everything you do, say and think would make for perfect dominance of yourself, etc., etc. And then -- Q I can't stand the suspense. A And then along came Nathaniel Branden. Q From where? A He was a handsome, precocious Canadian who, age 19, read the first major Ayn Rand novel, which was called The Fountainhead foun·tain·head n. 1. A spring that is the source or head of a stream. 2. A chief and copious source; an originator: "the intellectual fountainhead of the black conservatives" . He was truly smitten. I mean, not since St. Paul was there anything like it. He thought he had discovered the Holy Grail. He traveled to Los Angeles where the great lady was then living, just on the off chance of having ten minutes with her. Well, that resulted in a conversation, at her ranch house where she lived with her nice, compliant husband, lasting from about five in the afternoon when young Nathaniel arrived, until about five the following morning, when they finally said good night. Rand took a great liking to the bright young man, 25 years her junior. A couple of years later they were all living in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , Nathaniel and his new wife, and Ayn Rand and her husband. Nathaniel had become her chief associate and had founded a national institute to further her work, and he lectured on Objectivism in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . When Atlas Shrugged was triumphantly published, he learned that the highest honor that could be paid him had happened: The great book she had been working on for 13 years was dedicated to two people, her mousy mous·y also mous·ey adj. mous·i·er, mous·i·est 1. Resembling a mouse, especially: a. Having a drab, pale brown color: mousy hair. b. little husband -- and Nathaniel Branden. Q Did that lead to you-know-what? A I'll say. She decided they had to sleep together to fulfill Objectivist destiny. So she rounded up Nathaniel, Nathaniel's wife, and her own husband, and told them all jointly that she would be sleeping with Nathaniel one day every week. Q That doesn't sound like an all-consuming romance. A But it was. Then things happened, and readers get a good look at the inside story because Woodroe, the young Princeton graduate working for the John Birch Society, has a girl friend, an ardent Jewish anti-Communist who works full-time for Nathaniel Branden and his Institute. She shares an apartment with Woodroe, and argues that Ayn Rand's Objectivism is the best way to forward the conservative movement, while he pursues the Birchite line. Q So? A Yes, back to sex. Well, some time after Atlas is published, Ayn Rand has a psychological depression. For a couple of years, she suspends the sexual union with Nathaniel. But then her passion returns. But something awful has happened: Nathaniel is on to another lady, 25 years younger than the goddess of Objectivism. He figures he just has to tell Ayn the truth -- that there is somebody else -- and a scene shapes up of the highest theatrical drama: The two couples, Mr. and Mrs. Ayn Rand, Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Branden, meet in Ayn Rand's sacred study with one close friend and associate of both parties. Speaking nervously from notes, to make certain he says it just right, Nathaniel Branden tells Ayn Rand that he has -- somebody else. Well, in the history of Women Scorned, there was nobody could touch Ayn Rand scorned. She denounces Nathaniel, she anathematizes his male organ, she screams that he is a traitor, she announces that she will withdraw his name from Atlas Shrugged's dedication page, she says that she will abolish the Nathaniel Branden Institute Nathaniel Branden Institute (originally Nathaniel Branden Lectures) was an organization founded by Nathaniel Branden in 1958 to promote Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. The institute was responsible for the many Objectivist lectures and presentations around the country. and will attempt to block a pending book on psychology by Branden. The people in that room have never seen anything like it, not even on screen, let alone in the studio of the same woman who has founded a philosophy based on reason who has time and again asserted that she never lost control of herself or said anything that was less than a reflection of her absolutely ordered reason. Q Sounds like quite a scene. But what do we get out of that, other than that it was a hell of a scene coming from that goddess of reason During the French Revolution, on November 10, 1793, a Goddess of Reason was proclaimed by the French Convention at the suggestion of Chaumette. As personification for the goddess, Thérèse Momoro, wife of a printer, was chosen. ? A Woodroe hears about what happened from his girl friend Leonora, who is close to Barbara Branden -- they work in the same office. Leonora finds herself questioning this philosophy of Atlas Shrugged that she so much admired, and edges out of the Objectivist movement, quitting her job. Meanwhile Woodroe studies the current issue of the John Birch Society magazine. It features one of those long letters by Robert Welch to the faithful. What Welch is saying this time around is that there is no point in giving aid to South Vietnam in an effort to help the anti-Communists because our leadership in Washington is so overrun by Communists, the cause would be betrayed. What you had got here is what Sam Tanenhaus, the author and historian, called "the complex ways in which Randism and Birchism formed an unintended interlocking interlocking /in·ter·lock·ing/ (-lok´ing) closely joined, as by hooks or dovetails; locking into one another. interlocking Obstetrics A rare complication of vaginal delivery of twins; the 1st collaboration which looked for a time as if it might pitch the Right into permanent oblivion; instead the crisis was met and mastered into a mature, nuanced conservative movement." Q Your book tells how the Republican party -- A -- and the conservative movement -- Q -- I was going to say, how the Republican party and, yes, the conservative movement back then repelled two philosophical and political boarding parties which might have stunted its future development -- A -- and would have left the country bereft of Ronald Reagan and other nice things. Q Okay. But you forgot to tell us who General Walker was. A To begin with, he was a war hero. But by the time he was given his command in West Germany he got caught up in the Birchite movement and gave his staff to read the stuff the Society was issuing, which suggested that a lot of people were traitors, that kind of thing. He was caught doing this and was removed from his command. That was a big Page One story: defense department fires/noted anti-communist general. What he then did was resign his commission, return to Texas, run for governor, and lose. Then he went to Ole Miss and got caught up in the turmoil over the integration of the first black student, was arrested on the explicit orders of Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. He returned to Dallas and a little while later, seated at his desk while talking to Woodroe Raynor, my protagonist, a bullet whizzed just by his ear. It was fired by the same man, the world later found out, who a few months later, again in Dallas, fired the shot that killed President John F. Kennedy "John Kennedy" and "JFK" redirect here. For other uses, see John Kennedy (disambiguation) and JFK (disambiguation). John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917–November 22, 1963), was the thirty-fifth President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in . Q Does the death of the president figure in your book? A Marginally. Just how, you'll have to read Getting It Right to find out. Q Okay, okay. A . . . at your bookstore. Or if you want a signed copy, write to me at National Review, enclosing a check for $24.95, plus $3 shipping and handling. |
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