Plus, the always popular us vs ____ sentiment.

Here's something funny. I'm a college sophomore right now, living in Philadelphia, but I grew up in a poor, working class area (Lancaster County, PA, if you know where that is). My dad was middle class, but most of my friends were working class, I had friends whose parents couldn't afford to feed them. This was common in my area.

Now, in high school I was involved in one of those programs for "speshul" children, y'know, one of those affairs where they gather everyone with an IQ over 140 every day in a common home room to pat them on the back, tell them how smart they are, and beg them to apply themselves because their scores on the government tests are what's going to save the school from looking completely and utterly incompetent again. My ranting aside, nearly every single kid in that program was a full-blooded Randian. It was something I could never understand. I read her ideas on Wikipedia and thought they were awful, the flaws in her theory were glaring and obvious. Yet she was easily the most popular "philosopher" among what was supposed to be the intellectual elite of my school.

Were the kids who liked her all like me, middle class, and so they didn't understand the plight of the poor and working class? No. I talked to many of these kids and most of them were working class too, very poor, several of them were the types whose parents couldn't feed them.

As said by DoubleK, there are a lot of poor and working class who follow Rand, and it's not just a bunch of brain dead rednecks either. Why? Rand and her ilk present a world that is fair, and no matter how many tough guys tell you "well, life ain't fair Bub" everyone is secretly that little 5-year old that wants the world to be fair. Rand shows you a world where success is proportional to how hard you work, and if you're not doing well, obviously that is some moral/intellectual failing on your part, and thus, you deserve every piece of shit that gets flung in your face. It's part of why Christianity is such a popular religion. It's why the good guys always win at the end of movies.

Rand doesn't present a world that is fair, rather she presents a world that is justification.
I genuinely believe Ayn Rand is as dangerous to a teenager as any hard drug. I will give my sixteen year old child The Fountainhead and if they agree with it, I will have failed as a parent.
Teenagers will always be angsty, but in a world that constantly alienates us from everyone else, this angst is so easy to be interpreted as the real condition of human existence. Every teenager that delves in philosophy will inevitably end up in one of two categories: existentialism or objectivism.

Objectivism is the easy way out. The world is alienating, you are alone, therefore pretend you owe nothing to it, bluff your way into thinking the truisms of the cynic are truths. everyone tells you you're special, and if they don't they just can't see your genius; it's impossible that everyone is as self-aware as you are, you never see in their eyes that they think the same deep thoughts you do (http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20110523.gif) To hell with them, if there's something in society that causes you angst it's not a hormonal change, nor is it that you're finally beginning to question and remake your role in the world. You're the epicenter and the world frictions against you, so to hell with the world. You will never be happy, but at least you'll be right.

It may be a combination of your post and mine, because I believe the world Rand and her cronies represents is fair, the same way Christianity is fair, and that makes it attractive to a lot of people. IE: If bad things happen to you (whether it be hell or financial ruin) it is all your fault, and you have no one to blame but yourself.

And I will agree that Ayn Rand is dangerous, but not just to teenagers.

Yeah, I'm just mentioning why it would be understandable to find a lot of Randfans in your school. It's a simple and half-assed way to find a rationalization for the feelings that no one understands them and even go directly against their own interests, while the fact that she considers herself a philosopher just feeds into the whole sentiment of superiority as they believe they're delving into deeper subjects than anyone their age, which is sort of arguable but they're really doing deeper exploration in their American Literature class.

I got this off Weasleboy's FB wall and thought it was well worth the repost -

'As cults founded by fiction writers go, I guess I should be glad the Ayn Rand folk are storming government rather than L. Ron Hubbard folk.'

;)

HA!

How is Darren doing these days?

No. Your friend is fucking stupid.

He is actually the guy who founded this website.

That's immaterial to me. I don't give a shit.