So this story of Ayn Rand having a consensual affair is very disturbing to me. Probably more than it should be. But really. Like, it bothers me a LOT. Kind of jarring really. I’m not a fan of being shaken.
Your bewilderment is entirely understandable. As one who was there (meaning, a die-hard Objectivist) at that time, I can assure you it was totally bewildering to me.
The Nathaniel Branden Institute had just moved into its shiny new offices in the basement of the Empire State Building. The office was fantastic with a large lecture hall and listening rooms for hearing recorded lectures. The Empire State Building! Can you imagine how profitable NBI was to make a move of that kind? I had just flown to New York from Tennessee. As always, the first thing I did on arriving in New York was to visit NBI. There, on the reception desk, was a note that read: “An irreconcilable break has occurred between Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden.” The note made clear that NBI was suspending further activity for the indefinite future.
I couldn’t believe it. My life was never the same again.
Prior to the break, the suggestion of any parting of the ways between Rand and Branden was unthinkable. Objectivists (or ‘students of Objectivism,’ the disclaimer we were supposed to use at the time) saw Rand and Branden as inseparable as God and Jesus. Their break tore the Objectivist movement apart. I don’t think it has ever recovered.
It may never recover, especially because certain Objectivist leaders will carry a vendetta against Branden to their grave. I have no doubt that Peikoff will pass that torch to whomever his successor may be. The guardians of her estate seem incapable of even suggesting Ayn Rand was in any way at fault. (Branden acknowledged his own culpability long ago.) I’m not sure that the deaths of the various surviving witnesses will change anything. It is a wound that may never heal.
In retrospect, however, the ‘Great Schism’ may have had one major beneficial effect: it destroyed Objectivism as a cult (which it largely was to that point) and forced Objectivists to begin thinking for themselves.
The world may never profit from the genius of Ayn Rand as it might have. Branden was not only brilliant but intensely charismatic. The success of NBI was no fluke. There is no telling how much of an impact Objectivism would have had on the culture with him at the helm.
Unfortunately, however, it was a movement of True Believers. The fate of True Believers is often quite destructive. Ironically, the by-product of the schism—i.e., that very important lesson, the virtue of intellectual independence–may well have saved many lives, including my own.
