March 11, 2015:

I AM:  Libertarians and Objectivists

In Ayn Rand’s book and later movie, Fountainhead, starring Gary Cooper, as Howard Roark as the protagonist of the book, Roark is an aspiring architect who firmly believes that a person must be a "prime mover" to achieve pure art, not subject to councils or committees of individuals which lead to compromise and mediocrity and a "watering down" of a prime mover's completed vision. Howard Roark represents the triumph of individualism over the slow stagnation of collectivism. He is eventually arrested for dynamiting a building he designed, the design of which was compromised by other architects brought in to negate his vision of the project. During his trial, Roark delivers a speech condemning "second-handers" and declaring the superiority of prime movers; he prevails and is vindicated by the juryThe character of Roark was at least partly inspired by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Rand described the inspiration as limited to "some of his architectural ideas [and] the pattern of his career".  Author Ayn Rand denied that Wright had anything to do with the philosophy expressed by Roark or the events of the plot.