I do agree on that. But I differ (with Doug, and perhaps you) that Plato was any more creative or less hacky than Ayn Rand. Perhaps I feel so because I do not have a western mind :-). It’s difficult, at least for me, to argue about creativity or hackery in an objective/universalised way, so I will move on from that observation. The real problem IMHO is that unless the student is suitably informed that Plato (and Rand) is (are) caricatured version(s) of thinking, they might quite likely take him (them) very seriously, as many do, and the results are dangerous. And most readers are given no such corrective precaution before they are introduced to this stuff. With that in mind, I feel the least harm is not to wilfully expose impressionable minds to these writings but to let them arrive at them in the due course of events (and in the context of the negative theorising that they are) as they would “creationism” or “selfish gene” theories.
2 cents,
—ravi