I've recently gone back to Ayn Rand, whose work and philosophy has been instrumental in my upbringing; my mother's parents, after all, were die-hard Objectivists who attended many of Ayn Rand's lectures during the 1970s. Even before I read any of Rand's work in high school, I was raised with the basic tenants of her philosophy: believe in the individual spirit, and work toward making yourself a better person: this was the main thing I remember. That still rings true today, and I believe it is one of the most important and truthful aspect of the philosophy. As for the rest however.... well, we'll see about that.
I read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead in my senior year of high school. At the time they were life-changing, inspirational, and amazing. I did disagree with several points of Rand's philosophy, but they were minor. I am now three years older, and three years wiser. I am, therefore, going to do what many may consider unthinkable: I am going to reread Atlas Shrugged, and note which ideas I now disagree with, seeing as how I have evolved over the course of three years from a slightly to the right moderate to a liberal.
First though, I want to address an essay written by the heir to Ayn Rand's estate, and her handpicked heir to the head of the Objectivist movement, Leonard Peikoff. The title essay of the book Why Businessmen Need Philosophy, first published in 1999, is as indicative today as it was over twelve years ago of the state of denial businessmen are in.
