Ayn Rand on Watergate

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Harry Binswanger discuss Ayn Rand's little-known analysis of the Watergate scandal, fifty years after the Congressional hearings. They draw attention to how Rand's evaluation differed from the conventional commentary of the day, and her analysis of how pragmatism and the mixed economy function as the deepest causes behind political scandals like Watergate.

Among the topics covered:
● Why Ayn Rand didn’t want to write about the scandal at first and why she later decided to do so;
● Rand’s evaluation of Nixon in the decades before the scandal;
● Rand's evaluation of the crude pragmatism of Nixon and his aides;
● Pragmatism as an anti-conceptual philosophy that still pervades our culture;
● Why the conservatives' obsession with scandals leads them to passively accept the moral premises of the left;
● How bad ideas, not money, corrupt politicians;
● Why Watergate-like chaos takes hold in a mixed economy;
● The fact that no real issues are discussed in America anymore;
● Parallels between Nixon and Donald Trump.

The podcast was recorded on August 10, 2023.

0:00:00 Introduction
0:01:31 Rand’s decision to write about Watergate
0:04:49 Evaluation of Nixon before Watergate
0:10:15 Crude pragmatism of Nixon
0:23:38 Anti-conceptuality of pragmatism
0:34:12 Conservatives accepting the left’s moral premises
0:39:04 Bad ideas as corrupting politicians
0:45:05 Watergate-like scandals and mixed economy
1:01:00 Real issues aren’t discussed in America anymore
1:05:30 Parallels between Nixon and Trump

[edbonz]

Excellent. Best institute on earth. Good premises. Thank you ARI.$

[davidwilson]

Leave it to Dr. Binswanger to elucidate the connection from pre-Socratic Heraclitus, to William James “Sentiment of Rationality”, to the pragmatism that fueled the Watergate scandal… and on to the bankruptcy of modern politics and culture. After 20 years of studying Ayn Rand and Objectivism I still appreciate a Sherlock Holmes level philosophical detective like Dr. Binswanger making these fresh kinds of connections.

[eduardorpg]

"Why do you commit self-sacrifice? No one ever gives you an answer (at least, not a god one.)" That part shocked me.

[richardwickline]

Harry Binswanger comments instructively as to negative influence of Pragmatist philosophers on practical politics (Dewey, James and others). He interestingly and in principle integrates Ayn Rand’s 1970s comments on Watergate with contemporary political scandals (Hunter Biden, the Trump presidency, and the like ). Nixon-era history made relevant to contemporary generations., Good production values.

[vicpso]

In light of what's happening today and what we know about the postwar period, these conversations still feel like " three blind men and an elephant". Great food for thought however

[phaeous]

'scandals sans scientific dissecting of the issues at their root'

[adrianainespena]

Anyone who has studied history knows that power players do not need philosophers to make their decidsions. Rather it is the philosophers that come up with insights from what they see. It is fashionable to decry Macchiavielly and his divorcing politics from ethics, but he was merely reporting what he saw around him. Players like Cesar Borgia did not need philosophers to guide their behavior, they just saw their chance and struck. That is something that "Game of Thrones" has shown. There is power and how to achieve it. As Mae West said, "goodness had nothing to do with it"

[bowen]

“Dropped that later…” going with the wind, riding any wave that would take him to the presidency. Another example of her psychosis.