The Selfishness of Virtue: A Declaration of War on Objectivist Ideology

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Has anyone ever told you selfishness is a virtue, and the very idea struck you as somehow insidious?

Have you ever tried to read one of Ayn Rand’s books and thought what she was saying sounded incredibly intelligent, yet you had no idea if it actually made any sense?

Would you like to understand and be able to easily point out and explain the Tragic Flaw at the center of Ms. Rand’s Objectivist ideology?

If so, all you need to do is read this book.

“The Selfishness of Virtue” explains that Ayn Rand’s Objectivist ideology is based on a faulty and incoherent concept of selfishness as a virtue, which doesn’t make rational connection to her identification of altruism as the Objectivist concept of evil. This book's central premise is that Ayn Rand’s ideology is deceptive and inherently contradictory, and because Objectivist concepts are embraced and practiced by an active minority of people with great socio-economic influence, those who recognize its faults must actively agitate against this influence.

Further, this book explains how Ayn Rand’s inherently contradictory ideology is misused by a powerful few that wish to further their own selfish agendas through our American democratic process, and how Objectivist ideology is frequently employed as a political and social manipulation tool for their own benefit. This book doesn’t only accuse Ayn Rand’s Objectivist ideology of being nonsensical and contradictory; it explains why, in minute detail, while it also identifies many of the contradictions inherent in her work, a small sampling of which are:

Contradiction of Choice
We may choose our guiding moral principles, but to choose we must already be guided by selfish moral principles.

Contradiction of Individualism
Every individual is their own sovereign entity, free to make their own choices, and to make rational choices an individual must be selfish.

Contradiction of Social Individualism
A civilized society has no rights other than the rights of individual men, and individual men determine the rights for a civilized society.

Here is what Ayn Rand says about contradictions: "If a man desires and pursues contradictions—if he wants to have his cake and eat it, too—he disintegrates his consciousness; he turns his inner life into a civil war of blind forces engaged in dark, incoherent, pointless, meaningless conflicts."

If you're curious, each of these contradictions, and how Ayn Rand intentionally creates them to mislead her readers, is explained in detail in our book "The Selfishness of Virtue."

We invite Objectivists to read this book and debate us in your reviews, if you think we're wrong. Just tell us why, with rational logic. Ms. Rand would expect nothing less than for you to come to her defense, as the foundation of her ideology is now under attack.