There have been great prophets and futurists throughout history. When I was a kid I was a massive fan of  Sir Arthur Charles Clarke. The first book that really got me was  3001: The Final Odyssey which I read wjile in 4th or 5th Grade. I slowly got into reading the first 3 books and finished them all at about 6th Grade. I'm still a big fan. My favorites are space Odyssey series,  The Songs of Distant Earth and  Richter 10 which is actually pretty fast paced and very underrated in my opinion. 

But even after all that, Arthur C. Clarke cannot hold a candle to the prophetic works of Ayn Rand. Instead of me rambling around I'll let you take a look at the first few minutes of the must watch documentary Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged (2011)

Just to give you an idea about how relevant her writings to the modern world, I'd like to ask you to watch this somewhat longer video. Please be warned that it is a minefield of spoliers for Atlas Shrugged which in my opinion; The 2nd greatest work of modern literature.

If you skipped the video to avoid spoilers, that's totally fine. If you don't know much about her I'd like to offer you few quotes from her to get a taste of what kind of a person she was.

 "I was [never] in love with the mere beauty of writing; I judge it by its purpose." 

  "There is no such entity as 'the tribe' or 'the public'; the tribe (or the public or society) is only a number of individual men." 

 "[I am for the] separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church." 

  "[As a child] I felt that I was imprisoned among dull people." 

The best and Most Important of her Quotes:

 "I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." 

I'm not a mindless fanboy of her. We have many differences; especially regarding spirituality. I'm a Buddhist(Theravada/Zen) and not an objectivity. But on social and economic matters she nailed it. Totally nailed it. All of this is such mainly because her philosophy of objectivity was a reactionary one. She could identify the root of the worst case scenario for humanity and built her philosophy to counter and oppose the roots of collectivism+the root of everything that is wrong with the modern world. 

This is what made Ayn Rand a far better prophet than Arthur C. Clarke. 

Arthur C. Clarke saw what could happen. Ayn Rand looked at the source of what was happening and stretched it to the farthest end. It's like what Technical Analysts like @haejin call Forward Discernment.

Earlier I mentioned that the Atlas Shrugged is the 2nd greatest work of modern literature according to me. So what's #1?

Fountainhead!

Atlas Shrugged was written over the course of 14 years while dedicating entire 2 years for about 60 page radio speech. Yes She spent 2 years for ~60 pages because she wanted to get it write. That's dedication people. So show some respect.

Anyway the point is Atlas Shrugged  happened because people didn't understood the core message of Fountainhead. Basically think David Lynch made a 5 hour movie to help people understand what the hell  Mulholland Dr. was. Now that's Atlas Shrugged for you. So for anybody who never had to really "learn" individualism (Imagine multiple cast members of BBC Sherlock or the author of this post) then Atlas Shrugged would naturally come across as an extended companion piece. Therefor it's a lesser book and it even lack the grit and sheer intensity of Fountainhead.

That wasn't hardcore enough for my taste. The voice isn't menacing enough. But hear this:

Now that's more brutal, accurate, effective and utterly destructive. I'm a very clear headed person I'm pretty unfazed no matter what happens. I've had nerves of steel when I was 10 years old. But while reading Fountainhead there were times I was literally shaking. I sometimes read books even while eating and I've had times that I had trouble eating my food because I was shaking. It had never happened to me before or since. Fountainhead is the only book that has had a physical effect on me. If that doesn't sell you on the book, I don't know what will.

Then again I had this friend who I got into reading Fountainhead. She said she loved the dialogue, she thought the characters were great and loved the woman who wrote the book. But she said she couldn't keep reading because she felt like she was getting beaten on the head with some obvious stuff. So that could happen. Also a person could be really really extravagantly stupid.

Yeah, that one could happen a lot. We are living the Atlas Shrugged.

Following are a bunch of things other people had to say about Ayn Rand:

Anne Hathaway: "Whether or not you agree with Ayn Rand - and I have certain issues with some of her beliefs - the woman can tell a story. I mean, the novel as an art form is just in full florid bloom in 'Atlas Shrugged.'" 

 Barbara Branden: "[Her work] is both angry and exaltedly idealistic, a tortured hymn to integrity. In it one sees the union of attitudes so marked in Ayn: the union of passionate idealism with a profound scorn for those who are only idealists, who renounce the responsibility of translating their ideals into action and reality." 

 Barbara Branden: "[Before the success of 'The Fountainhead'] Ayn could not know what was to happen - but beneath her pain and despair still existed the bright core of conviction she had carried with her throughout her thirty-eight years: that human beings will ultimately respond to values. It might happen more slowly than she had expected, it might take longer; but 'The Fountainhead' was an important book, and one day it would find its audience. Frances Hazlitt was never to forget Ayn telling her, even before the novel was accepted by Bobbs-Merrill, that her novel would become a bestseller, would have great impact, would change people's lives - that a movie would be made of it, and that she would demand a say in picking the actors; she would choose Gary Cooper as the male star. Henry Hazlitt was later to say, 'To our enormous surprise - but not to Ayn's - it all came true.'"  

Now that's some real conviction and personal confidence. Un(fortunaltely) this is steemit and we don't really have snowflakes taking notes of these.

 Barbara: "From the [publication of 'The Fountainhead'] Ayn was deluged by mail from her readers. Publishers later said that they know of no other writer who inspired an equivalent response. The letters began to come - and would continue to come until Ayn's death - from professors and unskilled workers, from students and soldiers, from housewives and scientists and businessmen and artists. They wrote that they had found in Roark's moral intransigence a personal ideal - that the image of Roark had given them a greater courage to stand by their own convictions and to fight for their own achievements - that 'The Fountainhead' had liberated them from the guilt they had experienced for their failure to live by the altruist ethics - that it had taught them to feel proud of their work - that after reading it, they gave up meaningless jobs which they had accepted as second best, and returned to the careers for which they had longed - that it had given them the sense of what is possible in life, what is possible to man, what is possible to them." 

Take notes my dear steemians. These things are essential to live a life that actually matters. So let these things sink into your brains.

You don't have to be always on page with Ayn Rand. For an example, The great and must read economist Murray Rothbard had his differences with Rand. I also have my differences with Objectivity. But Murray Rothbard also wrote in a fan letter to Rand:  "not merely the greatest novel ever written, [but] one of the very greatest books ever written, fiction or nonfiction."  "you introduced me to the whole field of natural rights and natural law philosophy," 

You don't have to agree to the full extent with anybody to love and admire them as long as you see eye to eye on fundamentals and basics. For an example I consider Milton Friedman to be a soft sellout and I don't think highly of him as much as Murray Rothbard or the Great Ludwig von Mises. But take a look at these:

I mean you've got to love the guy. You've totally got to love him. So don't hang too much on the negatives. Ask what you can gain and learn from a person and procede accordingly. Basically, be selfish. It's good for you. What's good for the individual is good for a community of such individuals.

Don't forget to read Murray Rothbard at https://www.mises.org/profile/murray-n-rothbard

I wrote this article after a reply I did for  @katyclark 

I realized that despite having so many free market lovers on steemit, there isn't much talk about the bible of capitalism or any other works of Ayn Rand. So instead of complaining I wrote this long article. As a fun fact I'll leave you with the fact that 4 novels Ayn Rand wrote were featured in a List 100 Best Novels was published by Modern Library in 1999 where 200,000 people voted. How were the ranks you ask?

#1 Atlas Shrugged

#2 The Fountainhead

#7 Anthem

#8 We the Living

Ayn Rand wrote 4 novels in her life time and a set of her unpublished work were released 2 years after her death:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Early_Ayn_Rand