One of the last essays in Ayn Rand’s Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal is one titled “Alienation” by Nathaniel Branden. In this essay he talks about the view some authors have about modern society, and how it is because we are “too rational” that we feel separated, alienated, from the world around us and other people.

Branden argues that this feeling of alienation that some (many?) people experience is because they hold a view of the world that is contradictory to reality or attempt to evade their nature as a being with intellectual independence.

Man cannot escape from his nature, and if establishes a social system which is inimical to the requirements of his nature – a system which forbids him to function as a rational, independent being – pyschological and physical disaster is the result.

A free society, of course, cannot automatically guarantee the mental well-being of all its members.  Freedom is not a sufficient condition to assure man’s proper fulfillment, but it is a necessary condition.   And capitalism – laissez-faire capitalism – is the only system that provides that condition.

(A sufficient condition is one that in and of itself brings about a given result, while a necessary condition is one that must be present for the result to occur, but will not cause it to occur.)

Given how the government today more and more infringes on man’s ability to act independently while at the same time rewarding his dependency, is it any wonder that people feel alienated, often with tragic results?