All love is exception making.
This is not the focal point of the novel by any means. But it’s one of the phrases in the book that I keep remembering. It betrays my personal bias towards romance (not the soap opera kind but the Emily-Bronte kind).
I finally decided to read one of Ayn Rand’s quintessential novels. It’s my first look into secular philosophy. And it amazes me how quickly my views on this novel change as I discuss it with more people. Given that I do not have a solid feel or understanding of this book, I cannot review its contents properly.
I can say that I liked it and will probably read it again at some point. I’m glad I waited till now to read it because it would have definitely influenced my train of thought/principle before I had begun to form my own.
Fountainhead focuses on the supreme right of the individual. True brotherhood is respecting your brother’s right to achieve his greatness as an individual. There is no true collaboration. Collaboration only produces an average of the people and hinders the greatness that could have been if there had been just one to lead with his thought (mind you this book was written using ‘he/him/his’ but it is applied to men and women). The greatest honor you could give another man is to leave him alone. Leave him to his own genius, her own invention.
At first I disagreed with the notion that one can act as an individual with no impact or consequence to others. As a matter of nature, every act we perform has some consequence, some impact elsewhere. I cannot create more energy; if I use more energy then it is being taken from someone/something else.
However, after discussing with others about her collective work, it seems that her philosophy was that
One can act as an Individual with no negative impact on their brother.
That is something I can place faith in, although it is so hard to achieve. First it is very difficult to have individual thought, it is so difficult not to rest on the decisions of the group. But I believe the reward is greater if you can achieve this individuality.
Second, having no negative impact on their brother is difficult because man constantly tries to claim greatness for mediocrity, thus negatively impacting the true great achievements of their brothers. I call this greed. Trying to claim more than what is rightfully theirs. It does not relate only to money but that is normally the easiest way to measure it.
What is most interesting to me is Ayn Rand herself. She was raised in Russia. Her father was a prominent pharmacist before Russia became a Communist country and nationalized his business. Her family then had no claims to what her father had worked so hard for and now lived just like everyone else; they lost all that they had worked for. When she came to America, she embraced capitalism because it would have embraced ambitious people like her father. Her philosophy was directly influenced by her life, how original.
