S02E06 Building an empire that mirrors the Communist Party

“...At the same time, because of the existence of such institutions, it is hard to avoid becoming an empire because the system itself had its own power...  This institution, which can scare the Communist Party, should probably mirror the Communist Party. It also needs bureaucratic institutions and armies as large as the Communist Party, otherwise, you can’t oppose the latter... For McCarthy, this was very painful because he had a close flesh-and-blood connection with the American community, it was a great pain for him to leave politics. But for Ayn Rand, it did not matter. She was what I call a rootless wanderer from the very beginning. She had no flesh-and-blood relationship with American society. She was an intellectual and relied on selling her theory... ”