Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021         Page 922923924925926927928929930931932933934935936937938939940941942943944945946947948949950951952953954955956957958959960961962963964965966967968969970971972973 of 1029

the rest of the program and then asked her back. He said that the mail he got from this program was enormous. People react violently to her iconoclastic statements. You know, she's against religion. She thinks that a strong, utterly selfish person should prevail but that, in reality, two per cent of the population is supporting the other ninety-eight per cent. She says, “That's all wrong. The two per cent should really be the gods instead of being reviled by the people they are supporting.” There's a lot in what she says. “Charity and all of this public welfare,” she says, “is the bunk.” Atlas Shrugged is a story of capitalists finally going on strike. They leave the factories to labor and say, “All right, you run them.” The expected result, according to Ayn, is that everything goes promptly to hell.

A very sad thing broke up my honeymoon with Ayn Rand. Anybody that disagrees with Ayn is called a “Communist punk.” She's always yelling that the critics are out to get her, because they really tear her books apart. She always was wanting me to have reviewers fired or go to The Times and complain. I said, “I can't. If they give your book to another critic, you'd get the same kind of review, Ayn. Most people don't agree with your ideas whether you like it or not. It's your ideas that they are attacking.”

Anyway, she began doing a series of articles for a magazine that she and one of her stooges publish--The Objectivist its called. Ayn collected them to be done in book form, and I said how happy we were to have a new book