Having said this, one further matter needs to be addressed. It is not by pure whim that I have been challenged prior to any substantive presentations. The only consolation Ayn Rand and her adherents could draw from this stream of vitriol and vituperation was the awareness that, although unintended, she was being paid the highest of compliments. Her thinking was almost never challenged on its merits. Her critics had to misrepresent before they dared attack, as they still do.
Truth remains truth.
Perhaps in reaction to this intense campaign of misrepresentation and distortion in the media and even in academic and philosophical arenas, supposedly dedicated to objective thinking, the early Ayn Rand circle developed a bunker mentality. With true justice, some of the earliest and closest disciples, those entrusted with the enforcement of full orthodoxy, were themselves read out by Ayn Rand herself. These events, and the further ossification of Objectivism into a second generation orthodoxy were truly tragic. This internal strife splits Objectivists along artificial lines, saps Objectivism's vitality, and grants its opponents an ad hominem excuse for not taking Objectivism seriously. The tragedy is that Objectivism is a robust, coherent philosophy that can more than hold its own.