Read this book once in college many many years ago and finished it again yesterday. Now all these years later I got much more out of Rand's book than I did as a History major trying to get though the pits and falls of being a college student athlete. Funny how one learns almost more about something when one chooses to do something as read a book like this instead of having to based on a college courses outlines.
'From the beginining of history, the two antagonists have stood face to face: the creator and the second-hander. When the first creator invented the wheel, the first second-hander respomded. He invented altusim.'
'The creator- denied, opposed, persecuted, exploited-wnet on, moved forward and carried all humanity along on his energy. The second-hander contributed nothing to the process except the impediments. The contest has another name: the individual against the collective.'
'The 'common good' of a collective - a race, a class, a state-was the claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over men. Every major horror of history was commited in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfisness ever equaled the carnage perpetrated by disciples of altrusim? Does the fault lie in men's hyprocrisy or in the nature of the principle? The most dreadful butchers were the most sincere.....The only good which men can do to one another and the only statement of their proper relationship is ---Hands off!!!!!'
Ayn Rand---1935 The Fountainhead
Deep deep deep.
Everyone in this day and age should read or reread this book. There are so many things she wrote that are perfect for the discourse that we read about everyday in the modern world. Facebook, Twitter and the like are alturism in it's almost perfect form.... divide and conqure. Scary that this women almost a hundered years ago was EXACTLY right in her views and our leaders today would do themselves a huge favor in figuring out what she is trying to say....
We are headed down a very slippery slope folks and the individual is the one that is going to pay the price. Having to join the crowd might just be what she says... it's another form of slavery- just one that people don't see and often give themselves to without knowing.....OPEN YOUR EYES and see the truth people and we need to express our individualism in this society- in the correct way now. More than ever in the course of history we need to stand and fight for our individuality and being the creator of our own history and lives.
