Un-family-like life
A lot of people go through an “Ayn Rand” phase, when objectivism sounds like a noble philosophy of rugged indivdualism, only to wake up to the grimness of living selfishly. Self-reliance is a good thing; selfishness is not. I caught up this weekend with a fascinating essay on Salon by Alyssa Bereznak on growing up with a father who embraced Rand’s philosophy — kind of an anti-nostalgia “Life With Father” that showed the impact of Rand’s abstractions on one real-life family, anyway. (It reminded me to be extra grateful, on Mother’s Day weekend, for the parents I had.)
May 14, 2012 - 5:00 AM
Wow, that kind of rigidity is bound to leave just as many scars as the other bad parents.
http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/ephemera-2009-7.html
“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.”