I am not offering this as a criticism of Objectivism, because--outside of rhetoric and the occasional dogmatist--no thinking Objectivist takes that assertion literally. Not even Rand did. So WHY IN HELL did she keep saying it? For its polemic, not its logical, force. 15/18

But in a philosophy ostensibly grounded in reason and advocating reason in all things, such polemic is deadly; it undercuts the whole of the philosophy. 16/18