Ayn Rand Gifts

Ayn Rand remains a lasting force, perhaps more so now than ever, in the West. Her philosophy, Objectivism, has been growing in popularity, and elements of the philosophy are spreading throughout the culture as a contrasting answer to ideas of the left and the right. Ayn Rand doesn't have gaps in her Objectivism, it is an end-to-end structure (metaphysics - epistemology - ethics - politics - aesthetics). I think she had several unique attributes that help explain her staying power:

* She lived in the worst country (Russia) and the best country (USA). The contrasting extremes would have been a substrate for exploration why people can be so miserable or so happy.

* Her novels bored deep into her characters, their assumptions and actions; nothing happened without cause and purpose. In Atlas Shrugged, the best characters are practically superheros, but without mystical powers. The worst characters - we come to realize - aren't loaded with some positive force, but instead are just a negative.

* She worked in many media-dimensions of her field: books (fiction, nonfiction, compilations that included other contributors), periodicals, plays, film (screenwriter), live lectures, blog-like videos and audios. With such a rich repertoire, in a recent enough period to be recorded, all of it carries forward into the new media.

How many writers can we think of that had their work (We the Living) made into a movie, without any knowledge of it until decades later? Or, have one of their books (Atlas Shrugged) make it back up on the best-seller list 5+ decades after its original publishing? Or, have one of the books ranked as second to the bible in influencing your life?

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