Ayn Rand has fans in some unlikely countries

[Barun Mitra, New Delhi]

Ayn Rand: Who’s shrugging now?
The individualist philosopher has fans in some unlikely countries

The Economist, Oct 20th 2012
http://www.economist.com/news/international/21564832-individualist-philosopher-has-fans-some-unlikely-countries

THE producer of “Atlas Shrugged Part II”, a film based on Ayn Rand’s
book praising profit-makers and decrying altruism, expects to lose
money on it. Harmon Kaslow hopes the movie, launched in 900 American
cinemas on October 12th, will gross $10m, though he and six like-
minded Randians raised $20m to pay for it. Plans for the trilogy date
from 1992. “Part I”, released in 2011, cost $8m and brought in less
than $5m; critics panned it as “incoherent”, “half-baked” and “stiff”.

Detractors abound, but Rand’s books boast a growing following.
Devotees are mostly American (the Republican vice-presidential
nominee, Paul Ryan, said her books were required reading in his
office). Her appeal stretches elsewhere too. Edward Hudgins of the
Atlas Society says monthly non-American visits to his website have
risen from 7,000 to 11,000 in two years. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand
Institute says foreign fans are mainly in Britain, Canada, India and
Scandinavia.

Sweden might seem an odd place to foster a Randian movement. In 1976
she decried its welfare state as “the most evil national psychology
ever described” (the country has taken a sharp turn towards liberal
economics since then, and is run by a centre-right coalition
government). But if English-speakers are excluded, Swedes lead the
world in Google searches for “Ayn Rand”. Timbro, a free-market think-
tank in Stockholm, has sold 30,000 copies of her books since 2005. In
Britain, six times as populous, only 90,000 have been bought.

Not all the interest is favourable. Annie Loof, the enterprise
minister, came under fire for calling Rand “one of the greatest
thinkers of the 20th century”. Photographers caught her at the book
launch of the Swedish version of “The Fountainhead” (another Randian
classic). Ms Loof has back-pedalled since then. She has removed
references to Rand from her website, declines to talk about the
subject and says on her website that she reads “newspapers and
paperbacks”.

India ranks after only America and Canada in online English-language
searches for Randian topics. Book sales are strong, but understate the
craze, says Barun Mitra of the Liberty Institute, an Indian think-
tank. They miss the thriving trade in pirated editions, which he used
to see only at railway stations but are now on sale in many urban
markets too.

Businessmen and Bollywood stars (including the late Shammi Kapoor)
name Rand as an influence (though few politicians do the same).
Baichung Bhutia, a football star, says his fictional hero is the
Randian character Howard Roark. Krishnarao Jaisim, ex-chair of the
Indian Institute of Architects, named his firm “Jaisim Fountainhead”.
And—perhaps most gratifying of all for those who loathe collectivism
and prize the verdict of the market—Rand’s books outsell Karl Marx’s
16-fold.