re: Ayn Rand and objective reality
Way too many people dip into Ayn Rand on Wikipedia or something and then figure they've got it all worked out: Crush everyone else and do everything your way. Not true.
While Rand's philosophy holds up reasonably well, the Randian movement had many flaws. A Randian cult actually developed, which if you think about it, is really weird. "Hey, I just joined this cult of individualists!"
The basic core of the philosophy (to oversimplify) is recognizing that reality is real, and that a healthy mind is one that works with that. Most of the damage done by humanity is an attempt to pretend that the reality inside one's head is more important than the reality outside.