https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjHQq-bGX5w

Podcast audio:

In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast, Elan Journo and Onkar Ghate discuss Ayn Rand’s view of evil as fundamentally impotent, and what it reveals about Soviet Russia, Iran, and the failures of American foreign policy.

The standard view of evil

Evil as impotent

Paradox of Soviet danger

Illusion of Soviet technology

Overstating Iran’s power

Altruism empowering evil

Resources: 

Ayn Rand, Lexicon entry on Evil and Sanction of the Victim

Ayn Rand, “Galt’s Speech” in For the New Intellectual

Ayn Rand, “Altruism as Appeasement” in The Voice of Reason

Ayn Rand, “The Anatomy of Compromise” in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo’s, Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: What Went Wrong After 9/11

Elan Journo, Winning the Unwinnable War: America’s Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism

This episode was recorded on 04/10/2026.