One Role of Art: Ayn Rand's Broken Clock Moment

“Art is the essential medium for the communication of a moral ideal.” The hapless Ayn Rand got virtually nothing right in her life as a philosopher. But she was canny and she got that much right. We live in an age where many people pursue art that is devoid of an ethical message or impulse and where many who do have a moral message to share do not engage in the creation of art as their mode of expression. Art does not *have* to be anything: It is free imaginative expression which utilizes craft. However, for those of us who recognize that the belief system underpinning our current reality is in the process of delivering us to the gates of Hell, we must recognize that story-song-image-verse-movement-drama are beautiful and resonant ways to offer up alternative visions.

The imaginative tales that we spin end up forming the webs of our cultures. Though her empathy was broken, Ayn Rand recognized this reality and she very shrewdly wrote fiction as a way to communicate her ideas. In no way do I recommend that we approach art as Ayn Rand did -- as a way to extol the virtues of extreme hierarchy and selfishness and as thinly veiled libertarian propaganda. However, the multi-generational project of social and existential transformation with which we are burdened or gifted requires that we be open to all forms of expression moving forward. A society's myths/stories define it. These old American myths have run their course. New... or very *old* stories are waiting to be heard...