PBS’ “Blank on Blank” web series animates and dramatizes classic interviews conducted with famous names. They contacted me this week to let me know that they’ve just released a new episode centered on Ayn Rand’s 1959 interview with Mike Wallace, about her philosophy of moral selfishness. As she always did, she claimed that it was objectively true, completely unique to her, and the most important innovation in philosophy in the history of the human race.
Wallace also quizzed her about her life and personal relationships, pointing out that the queen of being productive and working for yourself was financially supporting her husband, a past-his-prime actor and unsuccessful painter. I was especially amused by this exchange:
Mike Wallace: There are very few of us, then, in this world, by your standards, who are worthy of love.
Ayn Rand: Unfortunately, yes, very few.