Yes. A fountainhead which does not spring water anymore is nothing but a reminiscent of past, with no bearing on present and future. The Fountainhead of Ayn Rand lost its water long back (assuming it had lot of water when it was written). She says a building is a function of its purpose, I say her fiction is a function of her time and her past. I agree I have minimal knowledge of her time and her past but I am sure of my time, and in my time society is never an enemy of geniuses and one need not to sacrifice self to help the society. A person who does not have an established self is not even capable of contributing towards the society. I know lot of people who are brilliant and who do not compromise with the work ethics; and still they take time to help others around them in their own ways. That is real genius. Society is an act of symbiosis between different individuals, each contributing based on their capacities and constraints. Society expects only from those who can help themselves, others are expected to try to help themselves and improve. A society has never been a fair playground. There is a theory of dependency which says interdependence is an interaction between independent people and dependent people are not even independent. How to deal with those people who always seek help without trying to be better and become parasite in the society is a different problem altogether.
I am not commenting on her writing, it might be true when she wrote it. I am commenting on the reading by people who converted that work of fiction into a philosophy, for this so called philosophy is totally flawed in present time. It has no vision of interdependence as if being independent is everything and the pursuit of happiness in one’s life should end there. Thanks heaven it is not, but it is indeed prerequisite for the next stage of interdependence. Only happy people can increase others happiness.
For me the hero of The Fountainhead is Mr. Gail Wynand. The man who redeemed his self by sacrificing himself for someone else. And that is the point.
A linky for those who never read the book (don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything) = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead
