LETTER TO DEAR READER FROM AYN RAND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100010090-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 22, 2004
• Sequence Number: 90
• Content Type: LETTER

STAT
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a % 201 East 34th Street, New York,'N.Y. 10016
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If you are confused by the shambles of today's culture -
If you sense that something is terribly wrong with the world,
but are unable to understand it ... if you are struggling against
despair, but are in danger of giving up .. . if you do not want to
surrender the world to chanting drug addicts, but see no way to
fight them -
You are the kind of reader to whom my new publication, The
AXn Rand Letter, will be addressed. It will offer you the intellec-
tual ammunition you need.
Since I am an advocate of reason, I do not want you to take
me on faith. I would like you to receive my Letter free of charge
for a month. I cannot guarantee that you will agree with my
philosophy. I can guarantee that you will find my philosophy
radically opposed to the dominant intellectual voices of today.
Whether it is the voice of tomorrow is for you to discover.
"Radical" means fundamental. To understand and oppose the
present state of the world, it is its fundamental ideas that one
must challenge. The fundamental ideas of the past two hundred
years or longer have been: mysticism (the cult of irrationality);
altruism (the creed of self-sacrifice); collectivism (the tribal
view of man). These ideas are shared by all of today's political-
cultural movements, of the left or the right, whose differences are
only matters of degree.
You hear it cried on all sides that disunity is our
greatest problem. But take a closer look.
What you see is not disunity, but disintegration. It is the
practical consequence of the philosophical theories that advocate
man's "liberation" from reason and from "the tyranny of reality. "
Observe that the Pope, the Marxists, the Wall Street tycoons,
the college professors and the illiterate hippies present a united
front on the doctrine that reason has had its day and has failed,
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that man must be guided by some other, "higher" faculty (faith,
"instinct, " feeling, intuition, etc.).
Observe that the communist party, the neo-fascists, the "mod-
erates, " the Chambers of Commerce, the social workers, the philosophers
and the street-corner evangelists present a united front on the
doctrine that man should live for the sake of serving others, and
that self-sacrifice is his highest moral goal.
Observe that the Labor Lobby, the Business Lobby, the Educational
Lobby, the Intellectual Lobby ("The Establishment"), and the local
yippie pack present a united front on the doctrine that an individual
has no rights, that men belong to their groups and must gang up on
one another.
Never has the world been so united philosophically - and never
has it been swamped by such gray hopelessness, by such a murky tide of
cynicism, lethargy, anxiety, despair, hatred and bloody terror.
Observe the symptoms:
- We hear it proclaimed that this is the "Age of Love."
But we see the rise of brute force throughout the world (with
the apologists for the activists urging us to accept rule by
intimidation, as a prelude to rule by terror).
- We hear it proclaimed that this is the "Space Age"
or the "Atomic Age."
But we see men reverting to astrology, numerology and black
magic.
- We hear it proclaimed that we must fight a war to protect
the primitive people of Southeast Asia from the spread of
communist power.
But we see our diplomats abetting the gradual surrender of
the civilized people of Europe, of the Mediterranean, of
Israel, to the spread of communist power.
- We hear it proclaimed that racism is evil (which is true).
But we see the rise of a virulent racism, of racial quotas,
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of theories about racial "guilt," of divisions drawn among
men in the name of "ethnic" issues.
- We see a "War on Poverty."
But we also see the spread of "ecology, " the War on Abundance.
- We hear "Peace movements" opposing war against an
armed adversary.
But we see them engaging in bombings of disarmed, innocent
people in public places.
- We hear filthy young bums professing universal love.
But we see them projecting hostility, panic and a violent
hatred of all of mankind.
Do you struggle to understand this spectacle?
if you ask questions, today's intellectual leaders tell you that
understanding is impossible to man, because reason is impotent.
If you feel indignation, they tell you that human sacrifices
are needed for the good of mankind.
If you do not know what to do or how to protect your own future,
they tell you to join some pressure group, because an individual has
no chance - and no rights.
They are not hypocrites. They are practicing their
fundamental ideas to the letter, to the last bloody
comma of it -- in the only way these ideas can be
practiced.
Our age is the result, the climax and the dead end of
the mysticism-altruism-collectivism axis.
My philosophy, Objectivism, rests on a different base: it upholds
reason-egoism-individualism. It offers a consistent, comprehensive
view of life -- for those who know that man cannot survive without
thinking and cannot think without a philosophic base.
The purpose of The A~Tn Rand Letter will be to help you understand
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today's world, by analyzing and evaluating its cultural trends and
symptoms, such as those listed above. The Letter will serve as a kind
of ideological detective that identifies the meaning, the roots,
the goals and the consequences of modern events. As my credentials
for this task, I will point to the record of accurate predictions
to be found in my novel Atlas Shrugged.
In contrast to the deliberately induced intellectual chaos of
today, the Letter will stand for law and order - epistemological law
and mental order.
If you care to judge for yourself whether this can
be done, please fill out and return the enclosed
postage-paid order card, which will entitle you to
try The Ayn Rand Letter, and then to become a Charter
Subscriber if you choose.
You will receive the first two issues free of charge. If, at
the end of that month, you decide to cancel your subscription, you
may do so without any further obligation on your part. If you decide
to continue, you will receive the Letter every two weeks for a year
(26 issues) at the Special Charter Subscription rate of $36. (My
consultants are considering the setting of the regular subscription
rate at $50 a year, but this will not apply to Charter Subscribers.)
I hope to hear from you, and I look forward to the day when
you'll look forward to hearing from me.
Sincerely,
KILIA
AR/aa yn Rand
P. S. You have probably heard my name -- coupled with misrepresentations
of my ideas. Here is your chance to acquaint yourself with my ideas
at first hand and without risk. Just return the enclosed order
card today.
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