--- In nathaniel_branden@yahoogroups.com, "Chris Matthew Sciabarra"
<chris.sciabarra@n...> wrote:
> I appreciate and agree with the points made by Dr. B. and Diana. I
> was once intrigued by the fact that Ayn Rand had told writer Joan
> Kennedy Taylor that her politics was "libertarian." And, at one
> time, Rand had little or no problem describing it as such or
drawing
> parallels with it---whatever her discomfort with the word (as so
well
> expressed in Nathaniel's essay). Just yesterday, in fact, I heard
a
> very interesting interview with Rand.
>
> In contrast to conservatism, which she rejected as "futile and
> disastrous," Rand states in that interview: "People like the
> libertarians, [Ludwig] von Mises or [Henry] Hazlitt [both of whom
> Rand knew and highly recommended to her readers], do not advocate a
> mixed economy. The so-called libertarians are much better in that
> respect."

You said that this was circa 1963-64, before the LP had been
established. In her essay of a much later date (the 70s), "What Can
One Do", in the Ayn Rand Letter, she clearly advised people not to
join the Libertarians. If you would like to see the exact quote, I
can get that for you.

> Note: She wasn't condemning the group as a whole---the way Peter
> Schwartz did---as a bunch of whim-worshipping tribalists.

She did condemn them harshly in her essay, "What Can One Do", written
in the 1970s, after the formation of the LP. In 1963-4, she was
speaking in a much different context. After she saw the results
of "Libertarianism" in action, she obviously changed her views. This
is understandable, given her very inductive thought process. From an
academic point of view, I would also tend to want to take written
material over what was spoken in an interview, when there is a
conflict, especially since that written material was of a later
date. Now you might want to argue that she meant the "party" in that
issue, but she didn't specify this, so I would have no reason to
assume that.

Chris, I'll ask you the same question I asked NB. Do you know what
the actual origin and definition of the term, "libertarian" is and
who originally coined it? It would certainly give us a much sounder
basis for the usage of the term if we knew this.

Monica Pignotti