| | Good article! I have to just chime in here, and tell you that what you're saying in the article is very parallel to what I experienced myself.
I'd always had a little too perceptive of a mind for the teachers' taste, at school. At age ten, I was already being screwed around by the "public" (IE, GOVERNMENT-ENFORCED) 'education' system, and had seen what it REALLY does, firsthand. My two favorite books were "Anthem" and 1984 (By Orwell.) I spent most of my school years asking the "wrong" questions (like "how can we reconcile the notion of Individual Freedom, with the idea of enforced ideological controls such as 'hate-crime legislation?") I had big problems with the entire Leftist 'spectrum" of ideologies, but coudln't bring myself to become a "rightist" because the Republicans (who I thought were pretty much the only way to go, other than the Democrats) had huge contradictions of their own, and insisted on a religious-belief system which I couldn't believe in, no matter how I tried.
(I guess I read the bible a little too well for the Fundies' tastes.)
Anyway, long story short, I blundered around for years, refining my own thought-processes (brief 'militia-movement' sympathizer period, which has not totally faded, despite some very stupid actions on the part of the Militias.)
However, upon finding Objectivism (through ARI, naturally), I rapidly tired of their inconsistencies, rabid, dogmatic "closed system" rhetoric, and altogether too-close resemblance to the fundamentalist Christian insanity I'd been exposed to in my early youth.
Well, all I can say is....welcome! It's good to see more people come "on board". Objectivism has much to offer as a philosophy. (To be sure, it's helped me out considerably.)
Anyway, just wanted to let you know that (cliche as this sounds), your experiences aren't as unique as you might believe. It DID seem to me as if I was the only one, too.
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