>Well, that describes the membership accurately enough, but there the rand
>cult as a sociological phenomeon -- characterized by rand's hold on her
>followers and their dog-like obedience to her every whim (including sharing
>her eccentric literary and musical tastes). The right-wing libertarian
>Murray Rothbard made a good stab at describing the group dynamics of the
>randians. See:
>http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard23.html
Damn, I didn't realize they were *that* weird.
We learn there:
>And the Randian movement was strictly hierarchical. At the top of
>the pyramid, of course, was Rand herself, the Ultimate Decider of
>all questions. Branden, her designated "intellectual heir," and the
>St. Paul of the movement, was Number 2. Third in rank was the top
>circle, the original disciples, those who had been converted before
>the publication of Atlas. Since they were converted by reading her
>previous novel, The Fountainhead, which had been published 1943, the
>top circle was designated in the movement as "the class of '43." But
>there was an unofficial designation that was far more revealing:
>"the senior collective." On the surface, this phrase was supposed to
>"underscore" the high individuality of each of the Randian members;
>in reality, however, there was an irony within the irony, since the
>Randian movement was indeed a "collective" in any genuine meaning of
>the term. Strengthening the ties within the senior collective was
>the fact that each and every one of them was related to each other,
>all being part of one Canadian Jewish family, relatives of either
>Nathan or Barbara Branden. There was, for example, Nathan's sister
>Elaine Kalberman; his brother-in-law, Harry Kalberman; his first
>cousin, Dr. Allan Blumenthal, who assumed the mantle of leading
>Objectivist Psychotherapist after Branden's expulsion; Barbara's
>first cousin, Leonard Piekoff; and Joan Mitchell, wife of Allan
>Blumenthal. Alan Greenspan's familial relation was more tenuous,
>being the former husband of Joan Mitchell.
Greenspan never repudiated Rand, and went to her funeral. And his current wife is Andrea *Mitchell*. A mere coincidence?
Doug