I read both "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" because my brother said they were good to read. I read several other books by Ayn Rand. It was after reading "Atlas Shrugged", I think, that I rejected some of her basic ideas. If I remember right, she thought that belief in God was a hindrance and if people could just get rid of this b…
I read both "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" because my brother said they were good to read. I read several other books by Ayn Rand. It was after reading "Atlas Shrugged", I think, that I rejected some of her basic ideas. If I remember right, she thought that belief in God was a hindrance and if people could just get rid of this belief, things would improve. She also thought that people who did good were really receiving some sort of mental/emotional "reward" and that that was their true motivation for helping others. I told my sister that I no longer wanted to read Ayn Rand's book because she disliked people so much. And I felt she was wrong about God. My brother thought differently. You can tell by the way our lives turned out. Whenever a person writes a book, they should always consider the effect that book might have on the people that read it. I believe her book caused damage to my brother's life because his acceptance of her ideas caused him to not seek out better paths. And, in my mind, he was/is a very valuable and worthwhile person and his life could have been happier. I am glad you wrote this article.
I'm sorry to hear your brother ended up on a dark path. I think Rand wrote many good things but some of her thoughts lead to an unhappy and miserable life -- which, frankly, is what she lived.
I read both "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" because my brother said they were good to read. I read several other books by Ayn Rand. It was after reading "Atlas Shrugged", I think, that I rejected some of her basic ideas. If I remember right, she thought that belief in God was a hindrance and if people could just get rid of this belief, things would improve. She also thought that people who did good were really receiving some sort of mental/emotional "reward" and that that was their true motivation for helping others. I told my sister that I no longer wanted to read Ayn Rand's book because she disliked people so much. And I felt she was wrong about God. My brother thought differently. You can tell by the way our lives turned out. Whenever a person writes a book, they should always consider the effect that book might have on the people that read it. I believe her book caused damage to my brother's life because his acceptance of her ideas caused him to not seek out better paths. And, in my mind, he was/is a very valuable and worthwhile person and his life could have been happier. I am glad you wrote this article.
I'm sorry to hear your brother ended up on a dark path. I think Rand wrote many good things but some of her thoughts lead to an unhappy and miserable life -- which, frankly, is what she lived.