I read _Atlas Shrugged_ without any preconceptions (I didn't know who Ayn Rand was, and Libertarianism wasn't nearly as trendy back then). I was taken in by the

I read _Atlas Shrugged_ without any preconceptions (I didn't know who Ayn Rand was, and Libertarianism wasn't nearly as trendy back then). I was taken in by the story of how everything fell apart, but was completely turned off by her solution—creating a "utopia" is quite easy when you only allow in a select few and have unlimited free energy. It struck me as the Libertarian equivalent of _The Jungle_: tell a compelling narrative of how society is (or can be) broken, and then destroy the credibility you've built by presenting your ideological vision while completely ignoring potential pitfalls.