Ayn Rand States Her Case

On Page xi of her book, The Virtue Of Selfishness, Rand states her case for Objectivist ethics: "Since selfishness is 'concern with one's own interests.' the Objectivist ethics uses that concept in its exact and purest sense. It is not a concept that one can surrender to man's enemies, nor to the unthinking misconceptions, distortions, prejudices and fears of the ignorant and irrational. The attack on 'selfishness' is an attack on man's self-esteem; to surrender one is to surrender the other." My response: Of course I am an egoist ethicist too but I refer to self-interest rather than selfishness. It has been my observation that it is collectivists that are selfish, far more than individualists. We cannot rear up a generation of individuators that are deprived of self-esteem, rationality, self-realization and clear thinking, all supported and made clear by the application of Objectivist ethics.