I doubt there will ever be much of an Objectivist movement per se, especially since Rand effectively claimed copyright on the term (wanting it to mean nothing more or less than “Randist”). It’s too likely to be dominated by people like your correspondent. If ideas like Rand’s gain steam, it will only be as part of a much larger, looser, more open and diverse body of libertarian thought and action.

Thoughtful and well-written post. My position on this is that the only way to make a better determination is to stay engaged and keep considering the evidence. The “sanction” argument is a lousy one because it cuts you off from critical sources of information.

The real waste of time in the movement is the lack of intellectual adventuresomeness. I think the obsession with personal biography and denunciation is but one symptom.

Whatever this young man thinks of Barbara and Nathaniel, he should try to benefit from what they have written. Nathaniel, particularly, has written brilliantly with an impressive body of work behind him. Even where I disagree with him (I particularly disagree with his characterization of anxiety in The Psychology of Self Esteem), I find what he has to say in his books on psychology to be pathbreaking.

Jim