To Charles S. Smallman, a fan [Letter 589]

[On The Ayn Rand Letter letterhead.]

March 11, 1981

Mr. Charles S. Smallman
P.O. Box 1293
Greenville, South Carolina  29602

Dear Mr. Smallman:

Thank you for your letter. I am glad that you found my philosophy helpful.

To answer your questions:

The Ruff Times has nothing in common with Objectivism and, if anything, is antagonistic to it.

No, my next book will not be the complete presentation of Objectivism.

No, I am not “somewhat satisfied with the returns of last November’s election.” I did not vote for any of the Presidential candidates. I do not approve of Mr. Reagan’s mixture of capitalism and religion. Mr. Greenspan hopes to influence him in economics—and I hope he can succeed, but—?[*]

No, I have not become a “second assistant bookkeeper”—and I would write for The New York Times sooner than for The Wall Street Journal, which I despise. Incidentally, the article a copy of which you sent me, is not good. No student of mine would quote such vicious junk as “religion in America…must be regarded as the first of their political institutions.” (And no Objectivist would accept de Tocqueville as a philosophical authority.)

I can recommend two publications that present Objectivist views, The Objectivist Forum, P.O. Box 5311, FDR Station, NY, NY 10150—and The Intellectual Activist, 131 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10003.

Cordially,

Ayn Rand

AR:cp

*Alan Greenspan was at this time a member of the President’s Economic Policy Advisory Board and former contributor to AR’s periodicals.