[PapaBear3625]

Ayn Rand was fundamentally wrong. She claimed that her books were all about the strength of the individual, but if you read them, in none of them did an individual succeed on his own. Her heroes succeeded as a part of a voluntary community.

There are lots of examples in Atlas Shrugs of people striving to help their friends. Consider Ragnar Danesgeld.

What Rand's point is, is that these people VOLUNTARILY help those they love, rather than helping because they are made to feel that they "owe" their labor.

Jesus went to the Cross because He CHOSE to give himself, not because anybody browbeat Him into it, saying he had a debt to the sinners which could only be paid by sacrificing Himself. That's much of Rand's point.

[Sherman Logan]

Jesus went to the Cross because He CHOSE to give himself, not because anybody browbeat Him into it

Well there is that bit where he begged his Father not to make him do it, but in the end said, "Let thy will be done."

Doesn't sound entirely voluntary, or at least not particularly cheerful about it.

[jdege]

What Rand's point is, is that these people VOLUNTARILY help those they love, rather than helping because they are made to feel that they "owe" their labor./em>

That is what they are doing, but that's not the language Rand uses to describe what they are doing, and it is not the message that most people who read her works come away with.