> From what I've read (in the biographical work Pentimento by Lillian
> Hellman, whom I like much better), Ayn joined in with the most
virulent
> of the Red-baiters - protesting the first US appearance of a Soviet
> classical musician (Horowitz?), heckling outside his hotel window,
etc.
> And worse, cooperating with the Committee, which at its peak was as
wretched as
> Stalinism. Freedom? The American Way? Everything in its extreme
becomes its
> opposite, as the Buddhists say.
I was also thinking about this in relation to Hellman. I think it was
in the introduction of 'Scoundrel Time' that Rand's testimony is
mentioned. She testified about a movie called 'Song of Russia' that
portrayed our Russian allies in a favorable & heroic light. This
positive portrayal was of course called into question during the
McCarthy madness. Rand testified that the film was obviously
Communist propaganda because it showed the Russians smiling and went
on to say that people in Soviet Russia didn't smile. 'If they do, it
is privately and accidentally. Certainly, it is not social. They
don't smile in approval of their system.'
Mark in Seattle
