Elder DZ was excitedly describing a book he had liberated from the UCSB book swap, called We.
This book swap is a regular feature amongst institutions of academic freedom. They are sometimes referred to as:
“The Great Bookening”
“Ex Libris: The Purge”
“The Tome Tomb”
“Fifty Shades of Free”
“Dumpster Scrolls: Volume I”
“Leave No Tome Behind: A Rescue Mission”
“Books Without Borders (or Shelves)”
“The Scholarly Heap”
“The Bindings that Time Forgot”
“Moby Free”
When in serious pursuit of free knowledge, Elder DZ often brings his Druid entourage, his retinue, his emotional support chickens, twine, and a solar toaster.
The Entourage and Spiritual Advisors, in pursuit of the Uttermost
As Elder DZ began to describe the book, I thought – I’ve read this book!
Dystopian future? Check.
Short? Check.
First person? Check.
Written in the early 20th century? Check.
Characters are addressed by numbers rather than names? Check.
Angry Eastern European author? Check.
A totalitarian, repressive government? Check.
A committee that debated the use of candles for decades? What? No! Nyet, Comrade, Nyet!!!
Elder DZ was, of course, talking about the novel We, the 1921 novel by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin. I was thinking about Ayn Rand’s 1937 novella, Anthem.
In My Own Defense
In Antham, the narrator (and all the other characters) use the plural pronoun “we”, to emphasize the collective nature of their existence, and the total lack of individualism.
Also, Ayn Rand’s first novel was titled We the Living.
Sadly, Ayn Rand latched onto an idea in her youth, influenced by the cruelty of Stalin and the communist dictatorship, and she never reflected on the cruelty of her own philosophy in her later years. Her philosophy was adopted by some of the most avaricious, selfish elements of the magaT party (among those who claim they know how to read).
I asked Elder G to scour the internet, to find just one example of Ayn Rand performing a single act of charity or selflessness. Here’s what s/he said:
That’s a tough one—and a fascinating question.
Ayn Rand was famously critical of the concept of altruism as a moral obligation. In her philosophy of Objectivism, she saw self-sacrifice as immoral if it meant placing others’ needs above one’s own values or rational self-interest. So in that framework, traditional acts of charity—especially those done out of guilt or duty—were seen not as virtues, but as moral failings.
But… did she ever do anything that might be called charity?
There is no widely documented, traditional act of charity—like donating to a soup kitchen or volunteering—that she is known for. Biographies (including Anne Heller’s Ayn Rand and the World She Made and Jennifer Burns’s Goddess of the Market) don’t offer examples of her giving away money or time for others in need, at least not in the way most people would define charity.
So to answer your question directly:
No, there is no clear, documented act of charity by Ayn Rand in the conventional, altruistic sense.
And that’s consistent with her beliefs.
Elder G
We have uncovered some evidence that Ayn Rand showed an interest in WLBOTTism, but never fully embraced it.
For example, you are probably familiar with this iconic shot of the author:
But you may not be familiar with other photos from the very same session, where she exhibits some proto-WLBOTT tendencies.
It is up to WLBOTT to attempt to rehabilitate her legacy.
The Objectivist Big Sister Program Rand volunteers one hour a month to read Atlas Shrugged aloud to gifted children, pausing frequently to say:
“Do you understand how brilliant this is?” Most kids fall asleep. One becomes a hedge fund manager.
A Rabbit Hole
We came across a the following quote “Zamyatin, whom Mirra Ginsburg has dubbed ‘a man of incorruptible and uncompromising courage,’ is now considered one of the first Soviet dissidents.” – Wikipedia
Who is Mirra Ginsburg?
Mirra Ginsburg (June 10, 1909 – December 26, 2000) was a 20th-century Jewish Russian-American translator of Russian literature, collector of folk tales and children’s writer. Born in Bobruysk then in the Russian Empire she moved with her family to Latvia and Canada before they settled in the United States.
Interestingly, one of her most famous translations is The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.
But the book we’re most interested in is her translation of “The Fatal Egg”:
The Master and Margarita
The Book
The Master and Margarita is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940. A censored version, with several chapters cut by editors, was published posthumously in Moscow magazine in 1966–1967 by his widow Elena Bulgakova. The manuscript was not published as a book until 1967, in Paris. A samizdat version circulated that included parts cut out by official censors, and these were incorporated in a 1969 version published in Frankfurt. The novel has since been published in several languages and editions.
The story concerns a visit by the devil and his entourage to the officially atheist Soviet Union. The devil, manifested as one Professor Woland, challenges the Soviet citizens’ beliefs towards religion and condemns their behavior throughout the book. The Master and Margarita combines supernatural elements with satirical dark comedy and Christian philosophy, defying categorization within a single genre. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires.
Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov’s cult novel The Master and Margarita has inspired many artists.
Mick Jagger drew on the novel when penning the lyrics for Sympathy for the Devil. Salman Rushdie did something similar when writing The Satanic Verses. Baz Luhrmann bought the film rights for Bulgakov’s book back in 2019. Federico Fellini and Terry Gilliam are two other noted filmmakers who have expressed an interest in adapting the novel.
If and when he does film The Master and Margarita, Luhrmann would do well to refer to Eamon Flack’s riotous new stage interpretation at Belvoir in Sydney.
The theme of that play was the bloody and savage Russian Civil War. Despite being highly critical of Lenin and his band of Communists, Bulgakov’s play was much admired by the brutal dictator Joseph Stalin, who reportedly watched it at least 15 times.
For Ayn Rand fans, you may be curious as to what hedonism would look like to a chicken. According to Elder G:
Ah, what a marvelous question—what hedonism would look like to a chicken. Let’s explore the opulent, over-the-top delights of the poultry pleasure palace:
Hedonism for a Chicken Might Include:
Endless Golden Corn Fountains
Glistening kernels cascade down marble troughs, and chickens waddle up to peck at will—no pecking order required.
Dust Bath Spas
Luxurious pits of fine volcanic ash and lavender-scented grit. Tiny Druid hands gently ruffle their feathers.
Nest Lounge Cabins
Private, velvet-lined egg-laying suites with adjustable straw density and ambient clucking sounds. Mood lighting shifts between warm amber and soft sunrise pink.
Rooster Cabaret
Feathered performers in sequined wattles belt out sultry coos and operatic cock-a-doodle-doos. The hens swoon. The old roosters blush.
Mealworm Fondue Fountains
Warm pools of melted corn butter bubble as plump mealworms tumble in. Served with dipping sticks of millet.
Twine Casino
Chickens bet sunflower seeds at the roulette nest. One daring hen wins a year’s supply of grit and an antique silver pecking bell.
Therapeutic Perch Yoga
Chickens do gentle stretching while balancing on ergonomically designed perches. The instructor is a retired Swedish owl.
Curious about Ayn Rand’s favorite brand of cigarettes? Yes, we are! Ayn Rand famously smoked Chesterfield cigarettes—and she was quite loyal to the brand. She even featured them in her novels, most notably in Atlas Shrugged, where characters like Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart smoke them as a symbol of rationality, elegance, and personal choice.
Rand believed smoking was a philosophical act of contemplation and control—though sadly, it also contributed to the health issues that led to her death from heart failure in 1982, following a diagnosis of lung cancer a few years earlier.
So yes—Chesterfields, the Objectivist’s puff of choice.
We We is a dystopian novel by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin (often anglicised as Eugene Zamiatin) that was written in 1920–1921. It was first published as an English translation by Gregory Zilboorg in 1924 by E. P. Dutton in New York, with the original Russian text first published in 1952. The novel describes a world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state that is rebelled against by the protagonist, D-503. It influenced the emergence of dystopia as a literary genre. George Orwell said that Aldous Huxley’s 1931 Brave New World must be partly derived from We, although Huxley denied this. Orwell’s own Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and Animal Farm were also inspired by We, as are many other contemporary dystopian novels.
Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin (1 February [O.S. 20 January] 1884 – 10 March 1937), sometimes anglicized as Eugene Zamyatin, was a Russian author of science fiction, philosophy, literary criticism, and political satire.
The son of a Russian Orthodox priest, Zamyatin lost his faith in Christianity at an early age and became a Bolshevik. As a member of his Party’s Pre-Revolutionary underground, Zamyatin was repeatedly arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and exiled. However, Zamyatin was just as deeply disturbed by the policies pursued by the All-Union Communist Party following the October Revolution as he had been by Tsarist policy.
Due to his subsequent use of literature to both satirize and criticize the Soviet Union’s enforced conformity and increasing totalitarianism, Zamyatin, whom Mirra Ginsburg has dubbed “a man of incorruptible and uncompromising courage,” is now considered one of the first Soviet dissidents. He is most famous for his highly influential and widely imitated 1921 dystopian science fiction novel We, which is set in a futuristic police state.
In 1921, We became the first work banned by the Soviet censorship board. Ultimately, Zamyatin arranged for We to be smuggled to the West for publication. The outrage this sparked within the Party and the Union of Soviet Writers led directly to the State-organized defamation and blacklisting of Zamyatin and his successful request for permission from Joseph Stalin to leave his homeland. In 1937 he died in poverty in Paris.
Anthem Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Russian–American writer Ayn Rand, written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in the United Kingdom. The story takes place at an unspecified future date when mankind has entered another Dark Age. Technological advancement is now carefully planned and the concept of individuality has been eliminated. A young man known as Equality 7-2521 rebels by doing secret scientific research. When his activity is discovered, he flees into the wilderness and is followed by Liberty 5-3000, a woman he loves. Together they plan to establish a new society based on rediscovered individualism.
Ayn Rand Alice O’Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;[c] February 2 [O.S. January 20], 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand, was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which she named Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful and two Broadway plays, Rand achieved fame with her 1943 novel The Fountainhead. In 1957, she published her best-selling work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays.
Rand advocated reason and rejected faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism as opposed to altruism and hedonism. In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and supported laissez-faire capitalism, which she defined as the system based on recognizing individual rights, including private property rights. Although she opposed libertarianism, which she viewed as anarchism, Rand is often associated with the modern libertarian movement in the United States. In art, she promoted romantic realism. She was sharply critical of most philosophers and philosophical traditions known to her, with a few exceptions.
