Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead is a great book to ignite ambition

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Tasneem

28 February, 2011

The Fountainhead, authored by Russian American author Ayn Rand throws light on the great divide between communism and liberalism through her personal encounters.

I JUST finished reading the book, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It would be a disgrace if I called it a mere book with pages that give an extraordinary message. It would be adequately appropriate to call it an integral work of a dignified, intelligent, opinionated and an extremely sorted woman. With the book The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand has changed lives.

Her theory of objectivism so very obviously stated with immense simplicity that it has left me thinking on my morals. Her point on altruism has truly left me spell bounded. Her stress on human mind and its nature and behaviour was stunning.

Pretence to win integrity is a mere act of the weak. Integrity however cannot be defined, but it can be claimed as the ability to stand in a room full of people and be able to laugh openly at them. Morals are nothing but the works of meager who tried to run away from the things they were afraid of. Morals made by mankind and this world of second handers who lived on other peoples needs.

They needed others to help themselves survive. Others were the prime motive. Hence the second handers. She believed that individualism and selfishness is the natural act of human behavior. Selflessness is just the act of being approved. Approved by the group of humans we constitute as a ‘society’. But the true being is to do what it prefers and what it should do for self satisfaction. Not for the society.

Thoughts are the most dangerous because they can be tampered. It is upon a human to let it be tampered or not. Why is it that we care more about what others think? Why does our personal opinion fade in the reasoning of others? All these questions and more are very clearly and simply answered in this book which is full of enlightenment.

This book has helped me realise the vicious circle of the second handers. How much can they do just by pushing their opinions on the people with less power? Power when given is capable of grave things. It is the choice of what we make of the power given is what matters. At the end of the day, self discipline integrity, self respect and not being a second hander i.e. not living on other’s opinion is what makes your life meaningful. Live like you will die tomorrow. Live for yourself.

Be the Howard Roark. Not the Elseworth Toohey. We all are the Peter Keating's and all those who try the other path end up as the Gail Wynand. Look at the prize, Dominique Francon. You have to win it. Be filthy. Be true to your filthiness. This book has showed me a path where expecting nothing makes life so much more challenging.