Reviews

I enjoyed this one quite a bit more than I expected. I am a fan of her novels but in my personal life I have to parse out more where my agreements and disagreement lie exactly.

I liked what she had to say about reclaiming the word selfishness, the things that according to her separate us from animals also seem largely true from a conceptual view. Many ideas sprinkled in there, like stagnation being akin to death from the perspective of a living being, that I agree with.

While I have a better understanding of her political views now, I am hesitant to come to a verdict on how viable her ideas in practice are. I need to learn much more to make an informed opinion but if I was forced to give my 2c I would err on the side or her political ideas not being sustainable and creating unstable societies. While thinkers like Marx seem to ignore human nature (admittedly I have yet to delve into his work) - I appreciate that Rand attempts to incorporate everything she believes to be true about human nature into her politics. I just think she might be underestimating the subconscious experience. The idea that man can freely choose his values based on rationale comes to mind. I'm not so sure that's the case.

This ended up being way longer than I wanted. My pizza is getting cold.

I enjoyed it! Her thinking is unique. Quite interesting read from todays perspective too.