I was bemused to learn of Senator Goedde’s bill to require students in Idaho to read and pass a test on the book “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. I read “Atlas Shrugged” while I was stationed in Texas assigned to Casual Barracks awaiting orders. It was the late 1950s and the book hadn’t been out too long. The book was large and daunting, but because I had nothing else to do for a week or so, I persevered. I doubt if I will ever read anything else by Ayn Rand. She managed to say in any 10 pages what she should have said in one.

I would classify Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, as materialist-atheist-existential philosophy. A serious flaw in Objectivism is that it tries to derive absolute truth using only deductive reasoning and that from questionable axioms. The logic geeks out there understand that no new information is produced in the deductive process. I guess the question I should ask is “who is John Goedde?”

PHILIP A. CLEMENTS

Hayden