Yes, we have soaked up so much haranguing about "otherism" in the culture that "complaisance to the world" IS the inclination, while reasoned thought toward our own interests is viewed at best with suspicion. Folly indeed.

If only Ms. Rand could have seen today's corporocracy, Kelo and mortgage bailouts. One almost wonders if the statists read her novels and got ideas from her villains.

Hence Ayn Rand's essay, "The Comprachicos". And what arrogant presumption to call parents "the unlearned"! I like to think that any modern public school teacher or administrator who openly spoke as Swett did would be run out on a rail.

"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." TB, Ayn Rand was first and foremost a defender of individual rights, including the right of individuals to freely associate and trade (capitalism). Today's "corprocracy" bears resemblance only to the toadying-for-favors collectivist business environment she illustrated in "Atlas Shrugged" which precipitated the downfall of civilization. She would not have been pleased with the state of America today, even though she predicted it.