Would you rather be selfish or selfless? Conventional thought teaches us that selfish = bad and selfless = good. But, in Ayn Rand's popular novel, The Fountainhead, she creates the utter evil character, Ellsworth Toohey, who preaches selflessness from beginning to end, and the utter heroic character, Howard Roark, who admits he is too egotistical to have a statue symbolize him because he does not wish to be the symbol of anything.The Fountainhead is built from Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, defined as rational individualism. She says, "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."
Personally, I am not sure whether Objectivism would work in reality, but in theory I think it's a great philosophy. It may be cliche, but I found the following quote about Objectivism, and being the "sunshine" that I am I really like it and would like to believe in it: "Objectivism is optimistic, holding that the universe is open to human achievement and happiness and that each person has within him the ability to live a rich, fulfilling, independent life. " --William Thomas
The Fountainhead is a great book. I truly enjoyed reading every long, tiny print, 704 pages of it. I recommend it freely. Whether you buy into Objectivism or not, it is worth reading.
2 comments:
Well, Ayn Rand showed that her philosophy definately does work in reality through the actions of her characters. But don't take her art literally- she didn't intend that.
You should read her nonfiction/philosophic writings to better understand her philosophy and how it is a guide to life.
Will this Objectivism philosophy help me win President? It sounds just selfish enough to work.
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