Outside of the business world, Rand is much less revered. Few universities include Rand in their curriculum, but that doesn't hinder her popularity. "Students just love her, but we can excuse 18-year-olds. They get smarter here at Berkeley and outgrow her," says Steve Tollefson, a lecturer in UC Berkeley's College Writing Program. "I'm horrified, but not surprised, that it holds an attraction for Internet executives. It's a convenient philosophy for them." Tollefson doesn't believe today's Net titans are misreading Rand, although he'd prefer that they would: "They should be out there changing the world, but not in the way they think they should be."
Not surprisingly, Rand disciples see the Microsoft (MSFT) trial as antiobjectivist. To them, Bill Gates' recent philanthropy proves society will mooch off great leaders, and the trial shows that governments want to control the heroic man. The Center for the Moral Defense of Capitalism, whose mission is to present "a moral defense of business, profit-making and economic freedom, based on a morality of rational self-interest and guided by the philosophy of Ayn Rand," is one of the more prominent Web-based Microsoft defenders. It homepage links visitors to sites where they can sign petitions opposing the Department of Justice's "assault on success" against Microsoft.
"The Microsoft mishegoss is of serious concern," says Jonathan Hoenig, author of Greed Is Good. "The government is doing a grave disservice not just to shareholders, but to the American way of life." Hoenig rose to Microsoft's defense, armed with copies of Atlas Shrugged, which he sent to Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, Richard Blumenthal, Tom Miller and a few high-ranking officials in the Justice Department. He plans to send copies to all involved in the trial as he believes objectivism is applicable to every component of life.
"We all do business like Microsoft," says Cypress' Rodgers. In 1998 he wrote a New York Times op-ed piece stating that the government shouldn't take action against Microsoft. The paper wanted to cut a reference to Rand. He refused to let the Times print it unless the reference remained. It did.
Still, Rand's philosophy seems to serve as all things to all Net execs. Professed Rand fan and vocal Microsoft-monopoly critic Larry Ellison, for example, seemed to have forgotten Rand's antitrust sentiments when the Oracle (ORCL) chairman and CEO testified against Microsoft to the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 1998.
"Not all fans are out there being evangelists because they are too busy running their businesses," says McCaskey. "Maybe we should develop a secret handshake."
