David,
Bullcrap.
Most still are Rand aficionados. Just not fanatics.
And most are not recovering from anything. They just have a place to talk as they honestly think instead of being peer pressured into a party line.
I grant you some folks fit your description. Part of my own transformation from a Randroid-like jerk to a drug addict, then to a reasoned position might look like I am "recovering." But I am "recovered," both from the cult thinking and from the drugs. I have been for years. That's far more precise.
I fully agree that most are "invariably interesting" and "well-read." If you have any more praise of OL members, I will most certainly agree with it.
Michael
What's with the hypersensitivity on this thread?
When I say, in jest, that I am a recovering golfer, it means I used to be an avid golfer and now have put the sport in perspective, so to speak.
And, by the way, I beg to differ about people on this site not "recovering" from anything. My impression is that we are all, in one sense, are "recovering" from our experience with Ayn Rand's writings and Ayn Rand the person, whether it be some version of Orange Hair Syndrome, or your reference to Randroids, or the PARC Wars, as you call them. That is actually one of the more amazing things about Ayn Rand: you can't touch the grail without getting some form of a shock to your system.
Virtually everybody who posts on this site has some version of this story to tell, and given your fondness of the role of "story" in virtually all elements of life, it should be no mystery that this is one of the reasons people enjoy this site, i.e., they are sharing their post-Rand "story" with one another. Hear, hear.