My Relationship with Ayn Rand

Part 1 in 5 Part Series about Making Peace with Myself

Few novels are more elucidating of the purposes and motivations of mankind than the timeless Atlas Shrugged. (That's Ayn Rand, and for those of you who don't know that is, I strongly suggest you look into it.  You might start here: http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ari ).  The theme of Atlas Shrugged in Rand's own words was 'the demonstration of a new moral philosophy: the morality of rational self-interest.'  I won't waste time explaining what has already been explained by far more accomplished writers and philosophers than myself.  Instead, I will give a personal account of the impact Rand had on me.  Consider the next few entries a testimonial, to thieve a phrase from an ideological adversary.

I was a lost soul when I first encountered Rand.  Aimless, amoral, and adrift, I wandered between one group of friends and the next, accepting the dominant philosophy of the clique without critique, desperately hoping to find something to satisfy my nagging conscious, which never shut up, ceaselessly demanding an intellectually rigorous and ethically defensible set of principles.  The next few entries are a few of my experiences with some of the more orthodox ethical frameworks.  Consider them a series of posts culminating in my assessment of Rand's philosophy.