Death of the Ayn Rand Scholar by Gray Cavender (classic literature list txt) 📕

ideas about selfishness and…what was it…she glanced back at her notes…rational egotism…she didn’t think she could agree with these ideas. OK, in part, her perspective was informed by having been a Justice Studies major…notions of the collective and the common good…she’d learned that these were a part of a ‘just society.’ She wondered what would Iris Marian Young have thought about Ayn Rand’s ideas? Jillian figured that she’d have been very critical…that Rand’s self-centered, individualistic approach would not be a part of the sort of the ‘just social arrangements’ that Young envisioned.

But, as Jillian thought about this, she realized that it was more than the perspective in her college major…it was also her upbringing…Mom was a teacher and Dad helped people trying to retire…they’d always taught her to help others. She thought of how different her upbringing had been from what Dr. Siemens had said about how he and his wife had raised Professor Siemens. She shook her head and exhaled.

Jillian glanced back at her open notebook. As she scanned through some of what she’d just read, she thought that it was all well and good to write about a fictional new society that extolled the virtues of the individual over the collective, and of a free market capitalism, but in the real world of here and now, Jillian asked herself, isn’t that pretty much what we already have? “And, how’s that working out?” she actually asked aloud.

She turned several pages in her notebook, but there wasn’t much more in her notes about Milton Friedman. Mr. Brown had said that Friedman had received a Nobel Prize in Economics (so she’d been right about that), and that he and Rand were, and she’d underlined this, the darlings of the free market economists. But that was about it for Friedman in her English notes.

Jillian was a good student, and often would work on her own to flesh-out concepts that she’d heard in classes. But, she wasn’t a Business major so she’d never taken any Econ courses, and there were no comments in the margins of her notes suggesting that she’d done any more reading on this. But, she did remember that in his class on Regulation, Professor Naremore had covered some of Milton Friedman’s ideas about the free market.

She went back to her file cabinet and dug-out a spiral notebook for Professor Naremore’s class. She was still using notebooks then…this was before she switched to notes on a laptop. Jillian thumbed through the notes until she found the place that she was looking for. This class was a lot more recent than freshman English, plus, it was in her major, so she actually recalled it.

Professor Naremore had lectured about the belief, widespread among conservative economists and many politicians, that the free market would provide all the regulation that was necessary, so the government should repeal most regulations. According to this belief, the regs (that’s what she’d written) weren’t necessary and inhibited the economy.

Jillian could see how Atlas Shrugged AND Ayn Rand’s philosophy were consistent with this line of thinking. But, Professor Naremore had trashed this belief, had called it a ‘convenient ideology,’ and said that in the absence of regulation, many corporations would engage in problematic behavior…there was nothing to stop them. He’d reference someone named Sutherland—apparently a major criminologist back in the 20th century—who had written a book about corporate crime. Sutherland’s argument was that, because corporations had the power to lobby lawmakers, they were able to keep many of their wrongful behaviors from being crimes. Had they been individual people, those same behaviors would have been criminal. According to her notes, Sutherland had concluded that many major corporations weren’t just criminals, they were recidivists…repeat offenders.

Professor Naremore had used Sutherland’s work as a backdrop in a discussion of his own book about Enron, and those other corporate scandals in 2002. Here, her notes referenced what he had called “‘Enronization, the process wherein employees were socialized—using rewards (bonuses) and punishments (getting fired)—to come to accept criminal and unethical behavior as a normal part of doing business.” This sentence was in quotes. So was her next statement from Professor Naremore: “Enron was the poster child for deregulation.” This reminded her of the quote she’d just read from Michael Brown about Friedman and Rand being “the darlings of free market economists.”

Professor Naremore’s course topic was deregulation. He presented a lot of arguments that were offered by those in favor of deregulation, but then always dismissed them. She did note a section wherein he’d discussed more of Milton Friedman’s ideas…but here with some positive comments. He’d said that even though Friedman was a libertarian, he’d supported some anti-poverty programs…in parenthesis, Jillian had written a negative income tax. Even though she was a good student, Jillian admitted that, at the time she’d taken Professor Naremore’s class, she hadn’t much understood what this economic discussion meant. And now, it was important…a way to understand the life of a murder victim. She was glad she’d save her class notes.

She glanced at them again, and picked-up where she’d left off. The days changed and in the next lecture, Professor Naremore had essentially tricked the class. He’d read from a book in which the author had collected and analyzed quotes from corporate leaders about the recession of 2008, as reported in major newspapers. These leaders blamed the recession on over-regulation. Professor Naremore had read several of the quotes to the class, and then asked for discussion. Some students, especially Business majors and, as she recalled, a few students from the downtown CJ program, were careful—they knew Professor Naremore’s views on regulation—but they did see some ‘truth’ to the concerns of the corporate leaders. A few students disagreed, either because they really disagreed or because they were just trying to please the professor. Jillian recalled the class fairly vividly because, at one point in the discussion, Professor Naremore had looked directly at her…non-verbally willing her to say something…at least it seemed like that to her.

So, she did say something. She brought-up