Is the New Economy based on greed? Analysis/Commentary I used to scorn Ayn Rand, author of The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, and an apparently embryonic philosophy defending the instinct toward self-interest. Rand seemed to make a fetish out of capitalism. Today, I'm not so sure: if self-interest means freedom to be unique and rational, her philosophy may yet apply to the new knowledge empires. Today's networks use individuality, speed, quality, and control to create wealth. The New Economy levels traditional power structures, leaving behind a web of dynamic interactivity. And in a benign way, New Economists make sense out of the catchphrase: "plan, control, and execute." In her books, Rand deplores the logic of the herd; the ties that lead individuals to conformity. Against this communal cowardice, progress depends on anti-social instinct and on the uprooting of rote behaviors. Her heroes defy rituals of counter-productive repetition, while emulating the weaves, twines, and thatches that uphold natural entities. Rand's selfishness, or self-actuation, carries society, at least conceptually, beyond the mechanical into the electronic. Her characters feel passionately about their destinies, beyond the rewards of society. Tasks get done because they are good, and her protagonists rise above the condition of ignorance or powerlessness to justify their existence. How much like the technologist-entrepreneur's desire to surpass his or her condition, to create something wonderful and hitherto unknown. Sure, Rand's heroes harbor a brand of phony sentimentality and eroticism, but they often think clearly and act decisively. Writers like Rand make much more sense long after they are dead, when the climate of their thinking comes to maturity. The Gateses, Ellisons, Clarks, and Dells form a species of megalomaniac egoists who espouse Rand-like beliefs, and yet help the passage of expert collectivities into post-capital individualism. Ayn Rand may yet have a point or two to share with to us. October 18, 2000