Ayn Rand on the Playground
What happens to a child when Atlas Shrugged becomes a bedtime story? New satire at McSweeney’s: ‘Our daughter isn’t a selfish brat; your son just hasn’t read Atlas Shrugged’.
“The thing is, in this family we take the philosophies of Ayn Rand seriously. We conspicuously reward ourselves for our own hard work, we never give to charity, and we only pay our taxes very, very begrudgingly. Since the day Johanna was born, we’ve worked to indoctrinate her into the truth of Objectivism. Every night we read to her from the illustrated, unabridged edition of Atlas Shrugged—glossing over all the hardcore sex parts, mind you, but dwelling pretty thoroughly on the stuff about being proud of what you’ve earned and not letting James Taggart-types bring you down.”
