Conservative columnist Ruth Alexander is remembered today, if at all, for her prediction that Ayn Rand would come to recognized as the greatest writer and most profound philosopher of the Twentieth Century. She was a leading voice of Right Wing libertarianism at this time. While Left Wing libertarianism imagines that the withering away of the state would lead to an egalitarian society, the right wing libertarian believe that a natural hierarchy would emerge. It is the philosophy of the self-important and too often the subtext of their argument is " "I've got mine, to hell with you."
Alexander wrote in her April 14 column that true patriotism was found not in victory in the battlefield but in the glorious fight against Social Security and old age pensions and other such notions that impinge on her liberty (and bank account). She asserted that we have "practically wrecked the country" on behalf of the "ill-fed, ill-housed and ill-clothed" at whom she sneers. Like most of the right wing of the libertarian movement she opposed slavery to the state and championed slavery to the powerful. Society only need offer people an opportunity prosper and if they do not, for whatever reason, well, that was just too bad for them. She certainly was not her brother's keeper. Society had room for only two types: the successful and the useful.
While the Stalinists of this time willfully ignored the brutality and dictatorship of the Soviet regime at least their delusions had at their core an altruistic vision of the ideal society, however wrong their means of achieving it was. They fought against racial prejudices and other barriers sometimes erected to keep other people in their place. They sought to create opportunities for people for education and a decent standard of living.
The Ayn Rand school of thought, like Marxism, has some valid observations and suggestions but the most fervent devotees of both ideologies wear blinders when it comes to the real life consequences when some of their theories are put into practice. The dictatorship of the proletariat leads to totalitarianism while rampant selfishness leads to a predatory society.