• • Pygmies need to read more Ayn Rand 
Peter Sachs, National Post (Toronto) Altruism  |Individualism  |Personal life  | Eric Michael Johnson suggests that anthropological studies of the social and altruistic behaviour of Mbuti (Pygmies) in Central Africa prove novelist and proponent of “rugged individualism” Ayn Rand, wrong. [....] My own encounters with Pygmies whilst making a documentary film in Burundi, found these people to be marginalized and living along the fringes of the modern world in abject poverty as hunter gatherers. Has their lack of individual leadership and enterprise subjugated them to an almost prehistoric existence? Equally absurd is Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, which quite specifically excludes altruism as a central part of her social ideal. Altruism and individualism are not in conflict, as some of the greatest acts of altruism have come from “rugged” acts of individualism.   Published: 2012-10-11