’’Howard Roark laughed, ’’ it began.
The story portrays an uncompromising architect, cocksure and full of aesthetic principle, fully aware of his superiority to others. I was mesmerized.
High school was a time of difficulty for me, as it is for many people. I was a good student, but not nearly as good as I could have been. I felt misunderstood, unappreciated, and alone. Then came Howard Roark. He knew his own value, and radiated it without shame. I envisioned a world where I was free to do as I will (’’Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.’’--Aleister Crowley). In The Fountainhead, altruism is despised.
Quite a seductive way of looking at things. I am smart, other people are not--therefore, I get to make the decisions and everyone else gets to follow them. Libertarianism being an outgrowth of this idea, it too began to seduce me. An active libertarian would, of course, exclaim that Libertarianism is all about being free, about people not controlling other people. Yes, it’s about being free-- being free to crush or be crushed.
The Fountainhead is still full of seductive ideas for me. It is a compelling story, and mostly free of the repetetive lecturing of Atlas Shrugged. I have decided to largely reject Ayn Rand’s philosophy (even a libertarian must admit I am free to do so), but I still find her aesthetic ideas interesting, and it certainly is possible to be uncompromising about art without being evil.