• • • Wanting a fair share doesn’t make you a commie 
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Capitalism  |Egoism  |Inaccurate  | I remember my heart breaking just a little bit when an Ayn Rand-loving friend declared the government shouldn’t be working on making healthcare affordable. “People should just buy insurance,” he said. When you earn not even RM500 on a rubber estate, can you afford health insurance? When you’re a single mother of five, earning your keep from selling food at the roadside, can you buy insurance? My friend isn’t alone with his perceptions about the poor and how they should “help themselves.” I blame Ayn Rand and libertarianism.  

• • Vague principles, contradictory policies 
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Atlas Shrugged  | Some ideas are vague for a reason. In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the majority is afraid of commitment and responsibilities. It is simply impractical to have clear opinions or positions. Consistency arising from those opinions and positions is a barrier to success. One has to be pragmatic to be successful. Vagueness allows such pragmatism. To put it bluntly, it creates contradictions.  

• Make way for local elections 
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Atlas Shrugged  | The 2008 Malaysian general election demonstrated that individual citizens do have the power to change the course of the country. It is a reminder that the kind of confidence in individuals that seemed to exist only in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged does exist in the real world. It blew away the feeling of helplessness that nothing can be done. It proves that in the face of a titan, individuals can be as fearsome as the titan can.