Ayn Rand

I don't think that anyone can properly read an Ayn Rand (1905-1982) novel without first understanding her history (Russia 1905-1931, America 1931-1982), her philosophy (reason, individualism, capitalism), and the time period in which she came of age. 

One must also understand that the characters in her works of fiction are over-stated caricatures of the ideas they represent, in order to avoid the tedium of trying to understand them in any other way. 

With that in mind, the genius of her seminal work 'Atlas Shrugged' (1957) cannot be over-stated, and the genius of its predecessor 'The Fountainhead' (1943) is equally noteworthy. In both books, Rand has a fixation on the seemingly altruistic 'humanitarian' with latent, corrosive intentions. 

On this front, her depiction of Ellsworth Toohey in 'The Fountainhead' lays the groundwork for the much more deleterious characters in 'Atlas Shrugged'.

"One Small Voice" [Toohey's Newspaper Column] never seemed to say anything dangerously revolutionary, and seldom anything political. It merely preached sentiments with which most people felt in agreement: unselfishness, brotherhood, equality. 

"I'd rather be kind than right." 

"Mercy is superior to justice, the shallow-hearted to the contrary notwithstanding." 

"Speaking anatomically - and perhaps otherwise - the heart is our most valuable organ. The brain is a superstition." 

"In spiritual matters there is a simple, infallible test: everything that proceeds from the ego is evil; everything that proceeds from love for others is good."

"Service is the only badge of nobility. I see nothing offensive in the conception of fertilizer as the highest symbol of man's destiny: it is fertilizer that produces wheat and roses."

"The worst folk song is superior to the best symphony."

"A man braver than his brothers insults them by implication. Let us aspire to no virtue which cannot be shared."

"I have yet to see a genius or a hero who, if stuck with a burning match, would feel less pain than his undistinguished average brother."

"Genius is an exaggeration of dimension. So is elephantiasis. Both may be only a disease."

"We are all brothers under the skin-and I, for one, would be willing to skin humanity to prove it."

It is this last quote that reveals Toohey's utter disregard for humanity, at least when it comes to the humanity represented by the individual. He only cared for humanity in the abstract, which leaves quite a lot of room for the destruction of the individual along the way. 

What is humanity if not an aggregation of individuals? 

Keep that in mind whenever you hear seemingly altruistic 'humanitarians' lobby for the curtailment of individual rights, the derision of individual achievement, and the use of the inevitable inequities of life as proof that 'benevolent' control of resources is required for a more equitable distribution of them.