The Fountainhead 2

 

 On Page 120 of this novel by Ayn Rand, the devil and villain, Ellsworth Toohey, is accurately characterized, though the speaker Peter Keating that is praising him: “Well, I’ve always heard from everybody that he is a sort of saint, the one pure idealist, utterly incorruptible . . .”

 

My response: we now know that the most selfish, ruthless, cruel, and corruptible tycoon is not 1/10^th as evil as the pure, saintly, incorruptible idealist that fanatic that pushes Marxism or some other ism with all his heart and soul, and mere money is not as enticing as his aim to centralize power under the government with one hegemony ruling all.

 

I do not know that Rand ever met or knew of Eric Hoffer, but she knew the most cruel person in the world is the revolutionary idealist unrelentingly pushing his collectivist cause forward upon the world, never swerving, never resting.

 

Notice in the conversation just above this one, Dominique Francon wants Toohey to avenge her even though there is not anything to avenge her for, so she fully supports Toohey’s revenge upon the world. She, Toohey, Roark and Gail Wynand are the four fully awake and alert adults in the novel. They all know Roark’s exceptionality and creative genius, but she opposes him, I think, in part or mostly because he had reason to be avenged upon the world for its cruel treatment of him, but he blew it off, and just kept creating architectural beauty. She had the same genius but did not want to use it because it was hard work, and the world would have punished her severely, so she avenged herself upon Roark for seeking no revenge, by doing everything she could to undermine his professional progress. She is cunning and selfish, but does nothing to self-realize, the calling all of us receive from God.

 

Both she and Toohey are born or acquired wealth, position, and honor but they wanted revenge upon the world and the decent masses minding their own business. These radicals are motivated by hate, but most people fail to recognize them for what they are.

 

Page 137: A client understands that Roark builds the house that he wants with no input received from the payer/client. His creation is purely individualistic, and that is what makes it so beautiful, so original so artistically glorious. The client either agrees not to interfere with Roark or Roark drops the job. i

 

Rand’s novel is too long and some of it could be done better, but her psychological take upon what it is to be individual, original and a pure, uncontrolled liberated individual and individuators at work is quite insightful. Imagine a world where workers told their bosses and their clients that they would do their own thing without suggestion or interference, take it or leave it? There would be some difficulty, but, in the long run, excellence in quality and quantity of output would please employers and clients. Howard Roark is too uncompromising, but he is the ideal individuator when demanding that clients like his buildings as he creates and designs them, or else look elsewhere.

 

Roark seems too good to be true in his perfectly uncompromising standard of leasing himself and none other, but it is a roughly worthy ideal for an individuators to work towards.