The Creator

I am a capitalist because I aim to profit from all of my actions. I am a creator because I achieve my status and future wealth on my own regards, not because I leeched off of others. This may seem, at first, simple and not nearly developed to be a philosophy of life. But it is.

In The Fountainhead, passionate capitalist Ayn Rand argued for the non-destroyer — the person who sought to achieve his dreams no matter what the cost. The person who lived for himself and was not ashamed of this. The person who used reason to understand the world he lived in. She described a creator. A capitalist. A rational man who loved his life.

This creator was Howard Roark, an architect. Howard Roark lived in a time where society rose to destroy those who admitted that they loved their life and their existence and did not shrink in horror at the concept of personal happiness. Howard Roark was an architect much like he was a man. His existence — his very identity — was found in this categorization.

Roark made an agreement with “Keating”, another character in the story. The agreement was that Roark could design a building just the way he wanted and it would be built because he was selfish, and didn’t want to see his masterpiece marred by the evil of other men. He considered his occupation to be holy.

The agreement was breeched, and the contract ignored. So Howard Roark dynamited the building he had half designed. They breeched his contract. The following speech is his legal defense.

The defense is fairly long. But it could be the most important work of simple yet rational philosophy you could ever read. Consider it the springboard for a creative philosophy for a well-achieved life.

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