Ayn Rand: bad for students

During my time at IU, I have met many students who, to one degree or another, have been seduced by the philosophy of novelist Ayn Rand. \nThrough the efforts of the Ayn Rand Institute, her novels -- "Anthem," "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" -- are read every year by hopeful high school and college students competing in a lucrative essay contest. I have actually read all three books myself and found that they all have outlandish plots, awkward prose, a polemical style and entirely too much date rape. That being said, many can and do find something valuable in them. The problem, however, is when people are exposed to her work before they have the necessary background to understand it. In this case, a superficial reading can be dangerous.\nDescribing her objectivist doctrine, Rand famously said, "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." Her ideal man follows his own self-interest, casting off those who, with their demands for aid, hold him back. This directly contradicts prevailing views on morality based on helping others.\nObjectivism therefore mandates a very inward world view. Rand's ideal man looks only to himself for guidance. This is problematic because the heroes of her novels begin their quests with advantages in terms of income, education and location. These advantages, externally acquired, cannot be explained through self-interest alone. Rand is unable to explain away the role of charity in society, be it via family, friends or government.\nProperly understood, however, objectivism still raises interesting questions about the nature of the self. The problem is that some of Rand's younger readers take her a little too literally. After all, it takes a special kind of college student to spend his or her free time entering essay contests. You know the stereotypes: the nerd who does everyone else's homework or the political science buff who has no social life. For various compensatory reasons, some readers identify themselves with the most troubling aspects of Rand's ideal man. Spurred by the dictates of inflated egos, they look to objectivism as an excuse for an onanistic withdrawal into their own smug world.\nThis isn't good because college is the time to engage in something outside of the self. Whether by taking a foreign language or simply talking to the guy who lives down the hall, this is the best opportunity to explore ideas different from our own. Part of this involves helping other people -- even if they don't have something clear to offer in return. Of course, this exploration also includes studying philosophies such as Rand's, but I would argue that it is not worth studying one view if it shuts you off to the possibility of many others.