Reason Foundation Co-Founder Manny Klausner on Ayn Rand

Manuel "Manny" Klausner was one of the founding partners in Reason Enterprises, which began publishing Reason magazine in 1971, three years after the publication's creation.

After serving in a variety of positions with the magazine, including editor, in 1978 he co-founded the Reason Foundation with Tibor Machan and Bob Poole. He remains on the board of the Reason Foundation today, is a stalwart supporter of the Federalist Society, and practices law in Los Angeles.

"Rand is, I think, a very valuable resource in the movement for people who take liberty seriously," says Klausner. "When I was editor of Reason in the early 1970s, we got an article that was submitted that proposed a method for converting the world to libertarianism, and that was by going door-to-door and distributing to every household a copy of Atlas Shrugged. We rejected the article...but it was an example of the kind of impact Rand has had and continues to have on many many people."

Approximately six minutes. Interview by David Nott, camera by Alex Manning, and editing by Hawk Jensen.

This interview is part of the Reason.tv series Radicals For Capitalism: Celebrating the Ideas of Ayn Rand.

For downloadable versions of all Reason.tv videos and related articles, go to http://reason.tv

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• manny klausner
• libertartian
• libertarianism
• ayn rand
• atlas shrugged
• reason
• reason foundation
• reason magazine

[MooseOfReason]

"Rand v. Reason."

Lol, yeah, that would be awesome.

[conductus]

Great interview! I, too, loved the "Rand vs Reason" possibility. It would be interesting if Reason would/could re-print that issue for re-sale.

[felpaluche]

Amazing story.

[JoeJC]

Fantastic story.

[UrbyKris]

@UrbyKris

your herd*

[UrbyKris]

@arbide2 Right... it's nice to scream what you hear from you herd but can you clarify that position? And she didn't folow blind ideological faith, she has stated in her books that she is against just that.

[Panpiper]

Ayn Rand and the book, Atlas Shrugged, was my own catalyst for waking up to reality. I was a typically ignorant, self professed socialist at the age of 19 and had made some sort of political remark to my much older and wiser girlfriend of 25, to which her reply was to ask if I would be willing to read a book she would suggest. I was head over heels in love with this woman and of course agreed. She pulled Atlas Shrugged of her shelf and handed it to me.

My life changed.

[Hakaanu]

@RatkoUSA

Not correct for all the founders. That's the problem when you lump 5 dozen individual politicians into one homogeneous blob. The Federalists and their ideas were very important to many of the founders, most of whom were from New England. Hamilton wanted to reduce the states to "mere administrative units" and have a large standing army that was used to further the interests of the United States. Washington largely agreed with some of the federalists ideals, but certainly not all.

[DeraJa]

Rand is insane.

[RatkoUSA]

Absolutely correct, the liberalism of the founders is the libertarianism of today. The Founders were not authoritarian statists, the very opposite.

Nonetheless, you can never get too much Atlas.

[politEgoEgonomics]

Mr.davidngo4415 is right on this one, too. ):and doesn't merit all of the thumbs down:(

If one stops to analyse this scenario correctly, it comes down to cause and effect.

*Reason magazine* had everything to gain by hijacking Miss Rand's name and image for a cause that She emphatically stated as incompatible with Her Philosophy of Objectivism. This is the unfortunate anti-intellectual trap that this faction uses to gain popularity...

...and also why the Galt's Gulch refuge is closed to them.

[truenorthstrongfree]

Reprint that November 1973 issue!!