• • • Glawe: Masochism of ‘Atlas Shrugged’ 
Michael Glawe, Iowa State Daily (Iowa State U) Alan Greenspan  |Altruism  |Ayn Rand Institute  |Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Egoism  |Paul Ryan  |Rand Paul  | Prominent politicians Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Paul Ryan, and other devotees of Ayn Rand’s magnum opus “Atlas Shrugged,” will have you believe that the work is a realistic political parable, even more relevant today than ever before. Sales of the book have soared to great heights (according to the Ayn Rand Institute, more than 7 million copies have been sold), with business leaders emulating the heroines of Rand’s dystopia every day.

Detractors like myself, however, dismiss the work as a silly homage to greed. I should admit, though, that I was once an aficionado of Rand’s ode to capitalism. I snapped out of the fantasy, however, after I realized my egotism was driving my friends and family away. In retrospect, my love of objectivism was, perhaps, just a “phase.”   Published: 2013-02-14