People always want to besmirch and dismiss Rand because of her simple message and how it appeals to the middle class, the fat part of the 'smart people with an iota of ambition' bell curve.

As people- I'll go ahead and assume everyone I run with, with the exception of those who have probably tapped out their god-given and/or environmentally-given potential (an honorable thing)- As people who are beyond that, as learned men of commerce and trade and men of ability and experience, we can sometimes get defensive. Like a food snob who is offended by the ignorance of the uninitiated, with their shitty palates and ill breeding, we sometimes need to be reminded that we were 19 once, too.

I've been meaning to post in advocacy of Rand and her works, so here is as good a time as any.

On Atlas Shrugged Haters:

Having read the book, I get the hate. I really do. Rand romanticizes certain values (as is her prerogative with AS being a work of literary fiction, mind you) and oversimplifies the benefits of particular behaviors. It has the predatory feel, at times, of being solely written to manipulate the youth of which it targets and purportedly empowers- those with just enough knowledge and understanding of life for it to be dangerously sterile. How so, you ask? With respect that if one was to end life’s investigation with a short sighted and stunted philosophy like Objectivism, one would be castrating their selves of their analytical-right and critical-thinking-left testicle.

However, what the self appointed protectors of economic, literary, and social integrity, like our vociferous business-hipster friends who write belittling and scalding critiques (or pithy, dismissive quips, as Shaggy is want to do), fail to realize is that they are discrediting their position by engaging in tu quoque. Instead of stepping over the shit on the ground they scoop it up, wheeling around with it in their bare hand telling anyone who will listen to beware the shit.

Much like Tim Tebow, the very fact that Rand inspires so much passion and distaste from people who can't help but dolefully bemoan her merit, my position in favor of AS’s right to exist solidifies.

Besides, in the Fall of 2002 I fondly remember thinking I was a pretty tough cookie reading that bad boy between classes in the West Mall and I don't want to revise that!