Men of the mind need to rescue humanity by phases. A philosophy that provides a morality and a society based on reason cannot be individually adopted by a large enough mass to make a difference. The nth degree of intellectual inspection of the philosophy will never be embraced except by the very few. All of the “isms” have a narrative that can be grasped by those with little time or desire for complete understanding. Elementary Objectivism needs to be spoon fed to the common man. Intermediate Objectivism needs to be made available for professionals and producers in other fields that are immersed it other things. Advanced Objectivism needs to be the realm of the philosophers and those that have retired from endeavors that require a large portion of their time. It is important not to practice intellectual snobbery with concepts that can have so much benefit to mankind.

I’m not advocating Bible stories or the sloganeering of Marxists and Fascists but I don’t think the musings of Peikoff, Kelly, Brook, et. al. will ever gain the attention that even a Trump or Sanders get on the popular stage. I don’t think the world has ever been so out of control morally. Christianity has waned. Islam has been hijacked by terrorists. Jews, Hindus and Buddhists don’t have much influence on the world stage. So, without a morality based on religious principles, we have no compass and drift along on whims and fads. All social philosophies have their scholars but those that have impact, make a case with the least common denominator. True, they use fear, shunning, violence and other means of coercion to create and control their converts but education, mass communication and understanding of how people think and behave has improved over the last 2-3 thousand years.

It is hard to know if Ayn Rand’s books changed the thinking of people or mostly provided elegant supporting illustration of the truths they were coming to on their own. In any case, it is not good enough to grow Objectivism by the incremental discoverers of Atlas Shrugged. It is not enough to have a forum for intellectual discussion that attracts a select group of would be philosophers. America, in particular, needs a simple approach to an Objectivist moral code, a Ten Commandments and rural, common preachers of rationality.

This election campaign makes it pretty clear that people just want to be led with as little thought on their part as possible. When interviewing Sanders’ supporters, few have any concept of the definition of Socialism. Trump has no ideology and his people don’t care. Cruz is pandering to the ignorant while showing as little of his intelligence as possible. Rubio is a pretty face that is good at memorizing talking points (except when his needle hits a scratch on the record and keeps repeating). If this clown show is what people will accept, it should be easy for a truly smart group to create a front man to disguise an agenda based on Objectivist principles. It seems to me that this has been done on behalf of contrasting principles with some success.