I was gonna say. Imagine trying to start a social uprising under that banner! You couldn’t even get young revolutionaries to scrawl the thing on walls without providing a 26-step instruction diagram first.
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The Randroids in my High School mostly became that way by way of introduction via Rush
Canadian Power Trio Libertarianism is very persuasive in High School apparently
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I followed Joseph Campbell when I was in high school. But I think I’m younger than you, by a tad?
If your point is that there’s something superior to reading Joseph Campbell as a youngin, I have to disagree. I read a lot of Joseph Campell and Ayn Rand and a lot of other people when I was in high school and especially college, and many of them (including Ayn) have a lot of interesting ideas to contribute to a growing mind. For me the ultimate refutation to Ayn Rand was Dostoevsky, who so gloriously celebrates the quirkiness of human nature.
I know its not a popular thing to say around here but Ayn Rand is great reading for a young adult. But as @Boundegar says, there needs to be antidotes so people don’t wind up as lifelong simpletons like the Paul Ryans of the world. And agreed, this story makes an awesome Ayn Rand antidote.
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Um, no I wasn’t. Just making a statement about what I read in high school. How interesting that you would think I was trying to make some sort of a point.
The closest thing I ever got to reading Ayn Rand as a teenager was some of Steve Ditko’s “Mr. A.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ditko
And I may’ve actually tried to read Ms. Rand’s work, but probably found it either: A) too dry; or B) too depressing. To each their own, eh?
.
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Wow I didn’t know the Ayn Rand ↔ Rush connection!
Besides its musical ambition and instrumental proficiency, there is one other thing that sets Rush apart from most bands — the strong libertarian/Objectivist themes in its lyrics, which are written by Peart. The band’s 1976 album, 2112, was even dedicated to “the genus of Ayn Rand.” The album, inspired by Rand’s novel Anthem, is about a future society where the rediscovery of the guitar threatens a totalitarian society. It’s no surprise that Rush is the only band ever cited in the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.
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Now I have to dig out “2112,” which I haven’t listened to in 20 years.
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Ugh, no. She wrote like Anne Rice - never saying in one sentence what she could spin out to four dull pages.
Atlas Shrugged took a potentially interesting dystopian story and turned it into a clumsy soapbox, with a philosophy inserted so hamfistedly that de Sade’s Justine seems subtle by comparison.
(mind you, the sexual politics of the two books are remarkably similar…)
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Well, you have to admit, that hamfisted philosophy has been damned influential, which is reason enough to read her.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_influenced_by_Ayn_Rand
I know most of her ideas are just repackaged Nietzsche but that’s mostly beside the point. And personally I think she writes beautifully, which is part of her seduction. Its like Pink Floyd, beautiful music that lulls you into thinking you agree with the moronic lyrics and ideas. But of course not everyone likes Pink Floyd either.
Is that a withered, un-pollinated banana, Cory?
Raises Glass
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The wonky ridiculous politics of Objectivism doesn’t change the fact that The Fountainhead is an excellent book, especially for a high schooler. As a story of two competing architects, it’s lots of fun. Just don’t let it draw you into a cult.
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Romance novels, written from the POV of young women who are unreasonably impressed by unrealistic caricatures of wealthy older men. Shouldn’t her stuff be on the same shelf with Fifty Shades of Grey ?
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It looks like it is someones art project that got put on wikipedia years ago and was never changed. I would have used the red and black star/flag myself, although the flag is used for anarcho-syndicalism articles.
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is it still satire when the author is unaware?
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They happily hook their waggons to Christianity, despite the dubious activities of that Jesus fellow 
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Er no, when I read it in high school, it was a real slog (as was Atlas Shrunk). I did it more to prove to myself that I could read long, “intellectual” novels than because the stories were engrossing. Even then, I saw that her characters, plotting, and writing style were stiff, wooden. And the message was didactic, as if she were addressing middle schoolers.
Why?
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Jesus? Isn’t he a liberal socialist that wants to destroy the American way! He should be deported!
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Atlas Shrunk, I like that…
TBH, most of the people who worship her and her written ramblings never got past middle school.
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