She's Not a Brat; She Just Likes Ayn Rand

Eric Hague pokes fun at the Ayn Rand craze with a satirical apology from one parent to another over his daughter's bratty behavior. It starts when a boy politely asks her for the Elmo ball. "To be sure, I was equally proud when Johanna yelled, 'No! Looter!' right in his looter face, and then only marginally less proud when she shoved him," writes Hague for McSweeney's. You see, instead of fairy tales, her parents read Johanna passages from Atlas Shrugged every night.

"For a long time we were convinced that our efforts to free her mind were for naught ... but we've been delighted to find that she is completely antipathetic to the concept of sharing," writes Hague. "That's why, when Johanna began berating your son, accusing him of trying to coerce from her a moral sanction of his theft of the fruit of her labor, in as many words, I kind of egged her on. Even when Aiden started crying." Click the source for the full essay.
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