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Is it Harder to Sell Your Soul or to Keep It?
Dangerous and vicious nonsense from The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
“Should we not, then, stop preaching dangerous and vicious nonsense? Self-sacrifice? But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed. It is the unsacrificed self that we must respect in man above all.”
-Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
This powerful novel about an uncompromising young architect who willingly sacrifices everything for his ultimate vision has inspired more than 9,000,000 people to defy convention, relentlessly pursue what they want, and never, ever, EVER give in.
Academic philosophy is justly ridiculed for wasting a ton of time arguing over the meaning of words and the possibilities of language (snore), but here’s one instance where it does actually matter.
And it matters a lot, because this is your Self that we’re talking about here.
We also have to separate and salvage concern for others from what Rand is trying to do philosophically. She’s right when she talks about fighting to keep your soul no matter what, but she almost literally doesn’t care about the well-being of others…
