A very disappointing article, filled with empty anecdotes but little reasoning.
I was a young Objectivist, but at a certain point, I realized that selfishness was intrinsic in humans, and no form of virtue whatsoever.
I'm a little baffled by anyone over about 14 who takes Rand's work seriously. Even when I first read it, I had some serious questions. By the time I'd gone through it all a second or third time, around 15, it just seemed like madness.
(I would also add that Rand was such a painfully bad writer that even at 14 it hurt to read.)
I thought you were going to explain it, but all you do is say things like "The clarity of her reasoning was refreshing".
You're a very polite guy, so I feel bad in saying that I chuckled when I read the line about "the iron logic of Ayn Rand's reasoning", because you hadn't actually used any reasoning at all, just a lot of "I was an affluent young man" stories, which have little relevance to the majority of humanity.
The one solid comment you make is the key to why Objectivism and its offshoots is so destructive: "The purpose of the group is to enable individuals to perform to the top of their abilities."
This is a fairly reasonable summing up of Rand's theories - but this is the philosophy of sociopathy. Note how there are no normal human emotions in there at all - companionship, family, affection.
This is why capitalism and the philosophy of objectivism have brought our ecosystem to the bring of doom. It's because both of these consider human relationships as a mechanism to "perform" better, which means to extract more profit from our environment, while externalizing the costs.
A question for you:
The American Republicans are far closer to Objectivism than any other political party. Why then do the Republicans have so many delusional beliefs about science? Why is anti-vaccination sentiment and even disbelief that COVID exists so strong amongst them?
Rand Paul is literally named after Ayn Rand and yet he produces one delusional, anti-scientific belief after another.
Trump has spoken of Ayn Rand again and again, and yet he's a narcissist and a compulsive liar. Please watch this video where Trump claims to be "the best" at dozens of fields of endeavor where in reality he has absolutely no skill and knowledge at all.
Why is Trump so venerated by Objectivists when he's a delusional egomaniac with apparently no concrete skills at all?
Why do so many of them deny the very existence of the climate emergency, even though the science has been understood for over 150 years?
Why is the public face of this philosophy madness, lies and denial of reality, if the philosophy is correct?
Why do so many of them deny the centuries-old science behind vaccination without knowing anything about medicine?
No claps, I'm afraid. You seem like a nice man, but wildly unrealistic about the world. You write like a bright child, with a lot of enthusiasm and anecdotes, but a complete inability to actually form any long-form argument, or really, any sort of syllogisms at all.
These aren't moral failings, but supporting conservative capitalism, a philosophy that has already devastated our ecosystem and will take it over the bring of a precipice, is a moral failing.
The murder of our biosphere is the greatest crime ever committed by humans, and you are not just participating in it, you're telling the leaders that destroying all our future is virtuous, because they are "performing" better. What "performing" is, beyond turning the world's resources into unrecoverable waste and the world's green areas into slag, isn't actually defined.
The reason for human groups, or humanity in general, is not a race to outperform and outconsume everyone else until all is dead. By advocating for that, you advocate for the devastation of the planet, and the consequence decimation of humanity.
Please reconsider.
