But they do go off on 50 page rants sometimes.
Individualism has been drummed out of us, and is not longer in our culture. The only place to start is culturally to put it back in. The politics would naturally follow from there.
I am not a disciple of Rand, although I do respect her carving out a unique philosophy when everyone else in the world was rushing towards communism. But as a conservative I do share a lot of beliefs with her too.
Its unfortunate that the only current diccussion of her ideas is contained in a videogame, (Bioshock), one which does not put Objectivism in any sort of positive light. In the game, an objectivist builds an underwater city, invites fellow objectivists to live there. It deteriorates into a zombie filled hellhole.
Interestingly enough, having played both the game BioShock and its sequel, the Objectivist antagonist Andrew Ryan slipped into a totalitarian mode and left his Objectivist roots. Things turned south for him in a big way once he started throwing his power in the underwater city Rapture around...and when he nationalized the business of a rival, people rioted.
Funnily enough, the antagonist of the second game - Sofia Lamb - is a die-hard altruist; the practical polar opposite of an Objectivist.
If nothing else, the games are more “anti-extremism” than “anti-’insert ideology here’”.