Ayn Rand and her adultery

[Mickie]

On 6/12/2008 at 8:51 PM, DragonMaci said:

I have to wonder why Frank and Barbara would agree to it the way they did. I cannot see why anyone would do that and I wonder about anyone that would agree.

Old thread but interesting topic. My own thoughts on it are that their spouses loved Ayn and Nathaniel, and like many spouses who stay when their spouses cheat, dealt with it. I also believe that Ayn mentally abused her husband, and  Nathaniel was thinking with his little head instead of the big one on his shoulders.

[Easy Truth]

I always wonder what in objectivism missed the potential dangerous consequences. There was financial and emotional consequences. People never saw both Rand and Branden the same way after it all came out.

Regarding the virtue of honesty, even being honest with oneself has caveats, as in going into shock (repression as a way of lying to oneself). Most people don't know how they really feel or what they really want. Some can't admit they want something because fear of disappointment or maybe shame. Honest as an all encompassing directive does not solve the problem.

[Supressive]

Like the "movements" Scientology and Mormonism, in Randism - Objectivism the founding leader had affairs with many younger members of the devotees. The older founder leader seduced younger members and took them from their partners. There was a huge power imbalance. And Nate would have been kicked out of the movement that also employed him, if he rejected her. He was sleeping with his boss. Now that's known as sexual harassment and ME TOO.

No one knows if Rand had multiple unnamed affairs. She would have reacted exactly the same way if Branden had broke up with her prior to seeing another woman. If he had honestly said lets be friends. She wanted to ruin him and fire him for leaving her. Even if he had reconciled with his wife should would have excommunicated him and ruined him. Turns out he had a very successful happy life, and she died of lung cancer, alone. 

Their affair should have been a one night stand. The victim in all of this was O'Connor and Nates poor wife.

[mike o]

On 6/12/2008 at 8:23 PM, AMirvish said:

None of this episode reflects well on any of the parties involved, regardless of which account one thinks true. If romantic love, in the Objectivist sense means an intellectual, emotional and physical response to one's highest value and there should be no basis for any sort of conflict around love and sex, nor any reason to fake or maintain a secondary relationship. Consequently, when dealing with an established marriage, there should be either fidelity or divorce. Anything else is, at some level, an attempt to fake reality and that will (and did) have predictable results. If Rand believed Branden to be her highest value (and vice versa), they should have ended their respective marriages and married one another. There was no basis or need for asking the consent of their spouses to the affair because there was no value to be gained by anyone by remaining in unsatisfying marriages or by concealing the facts of the relationship. The contrast between the way all of this played out and the way Rand handled the Dagny-Galt-D'Anconia -Rearden relationship(s) in her fiction is striking. If the latter had elements of implausibiilty, it had least had the virtues of honesty and intellectual consistency.

 

To my mind, much of the subsequent debate - all of it passionate - engendered by this episode stems from the unnecessary need to see Rand herself as flawless in order to defend Objectivism. The merits of her ideas are perfectly adequate to stand on their own and any areas where there are shortcomings or errors, either in theory or practice, can and should be confronted honestly.

Excellent post!