“Whatever the legend, somewhere in the
shadows of its memory mankind knew that its glory began with one and
that that one paid for his courage. Throughout the centuries there were
men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own
vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the
step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response
they received—hatred. The great creators—the thinkers, the artists, the
scientists, the inventors—stood alone against the men of their time.
Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was
denounced. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought,
they suffered and they paid. But they won.
No creator was prompted by a desire to
help his brothers, for his brothers rejected the gift he offered and
that gift destroyed the slothful routine of their lives. His truth was
his only motive. His own truth, and his work to achieve it in his own
way. The creation, not its users. The creation, not the benefits others
derived from it. The creation which gave form to his truth. He held his
truth above all things and against all men.
Nothing is given to man on earth.
Everything he needs has to be produced. And here man faces his basic
alternative: he can survive in only one of two ways—by the independent
work of his own mind or as a parasite fed by the minds of others.
The
creator originates. The parasite borrows.
The creator faces nature
alone. The parasite faces nature through an intermediary.
The creator’s
concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite’s concern is the
conquest of men.
The creator lives for his work. He needs no other men.
His primary goal is within himself.
The parasite lives second-hand. He
needs others. Others become his prime motive.
Altruism is the doctrine which demands that man live for others and place others above self.
The second-hander has used altruism as a
weapon of exploitation and reversed the base of mankind’s moral
principles. Man must wish to see others suffer—in order that he may be
virtuous. Such is the nature of altruism. Men have been taught dependent
as a virtue. Men have been taught that the highest virtue is not to
achieve, but to give. Yet one cannot give that which has not been
created. Creation comes before distribution—or there will be nothing to
distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any
possible beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who
dispenses gifts he has not produced above the man who made the gifts
possible. We praise an act of charity. We shrug at an act of
achievement.
The issue has been perverted and man has
been left no alternative—and no freedom. As poles of good and evil, he
was offered two conceptions: egotism and altruism. Man was forced to
accept masochism as his ideal—under the threat that sadism was his only
alternative. This was the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on mankind.
The egotist in the absolute sense is not
the man who sacrifices others. He is the man who stands above the need
of using others in any manner. He does not exist for any other man—and
he asks no other man to exist for him. This is the only form of
brotherhood and mutual respect possible between men. Independence is the
only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of
himself; not what he has or hasn’t done for others. The only good which
men can do to one another and the only statement of their proper
relationship is—Hands off!
Men exchange their work by free, mutual
consent to mutual advantage when their personal interests agree and they
both desire the exchange. If they do not desire it, they are not forced
to deal with each other. They seek further. This is the only possible
form of relationship between equals.
From the beginning of history, the two
antagonists have stood face to face: the creator and the second-hander.
When the first creator invented the wheel, the first second-hander
responded. He created altruism. The creator—denied, opposed, persecuted,
exploited—went on, moved forward and carried all humanity along on his
energy. The second-hander contributed nothing to the process except the
impediments. The contest has another name: the individual against the
collective.”
~ Howard Roark (The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand)
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