The following article appeared in the Fall 2003 issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies (Volume 5, Number 1): 229-41. This is a rejoinder to the respondents in a JARS symposium entitled "Ayn Rand and Progressive Rock," which was inspired by Sciabarra's Fall 2002 JARS essay, "Rand, Rush, and Rock." The symposium features contributions from Durrell Bowman, Steven Horwitz, Ed Macan, Bill Martin, Robert M. Price, Peter Saint-Andre, and Thomas Welsh.
RAND, ROCK, AND RADICALISM
By Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Abstract: Chris Matthew Sciabarra replies to the seven respondents to his Fall 2002 essay on Rand, Rush, and progressive rock music. He defends the view that Rand's dialectical orientation underlies a fundamentally radical perspective. Rand shared with the counterculture---especially its libertarian progressive rock representatives---a repudiation of authoritarianism, while embracing the "unknown ideal" of capitalism. Her ability to trace the interrelationships among personal, cultural, and structural factors in social analysis and her repudiation of false alternatives is at the heart of that ideal vision, which transcends left and right.
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