“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”
Generally, the work of Ms. Rand is hugely enjoyed by people with the literary sensitivities of 11-year-olds who imagine they have fierce political sophistication.
The irony of any randroid argument that collectivism is morally reprehensible is lost on them, because the cognitive dissonance required to believe it renders them incapable of seeing the contradiction.
If I, as a libertarian, see a path to attaining my own selfish goals, defending my gains once I have attained them and seeking to attain even more thereafter… by, for instance, acting in unison with others in a labour union … then that is, by definition, from Rand’s perspective, a moral act upon my part.
Moreover, if altruism serves my own selfish goals then it too is morally sound.
Her whole ‘philosophy’ is inherently contradictory.
