[ModelBreaker]

I read an interview recently where Nathaniel Branden says there was confusion among objectivists about sexuality.

The confusion arises from the fact that rational selfishness provides no limits or guidance to personal behavior. It says do anything you want to whomever you want as long as you think you will get away with it. As Paul said, even the heathens have a conscience. That is God speaking with us and telling us what is wrong. The principle of rational selfishness tells folks that things are OK that are not. On some level they know that. So they are confused. One look at a picture of Ayn Rand and it's obvious that she was a deeply unhappy person.

[clyde asbury]

One look at a picture of Ayn Rand and it's obvious that she was a deeply unhappy person.

Yes. One of the comments in the Branden interview link:

One of the mistakes that Rand makes all over the place is that after she condemns a belief or an action, she goes on to tell you the psychology of the person who did it, as if she knows.

Branden's idea of "selfishness" is more sophisticated than Rand's and goes beyond a strictly narrow definition. He distinguishes between short-term "selfishness" (it's been called selfing) and long-term self-interest.

That's the distinction Rand seems never to have made in her life.

There are others who have trouble with this, too.