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As a teenager, I loved Atlas Shrugged. (I'd thought of it as a dystopian science fiction novel--the success of the heroes hinges on breakthrough technology in several fields--and was surprised to find so many people thought of it solely as a political drama.)
As an adult, I find myself disgusted at the number of people who proclaim to follow her ideology but have never actually *worked* a day in their lives. All her heroes are willing to get dirty--to do the gather wood, haul water, move rocks parts of supporting society. I'm fascinated by the number of sales reps who imagine themselves in the same kind of role as Hank Rearden, providing the same level of value to the rest of society.
I'm also fascinated by the number of people who don't see the holes in her ideology, and think it could work for ALL OF SOCIETY if we just agreed to set things up that way. (The easy sample conundrum: Is abortion legal? Is infanticide legal? Whose responsibility is an unwanted infant?) Rand's ideology has a lot going for it, but also has some rather large gaps dealing with relationships and the responsibilities thereof, and anything involving people other than able-bodied reasonably-well-educated adults who haven't grown up in oppressive circumstances.
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