287
“’Look at it. A sublime achievement, isn’t it? A heroic achievement. Think of the thousands who worked to create this and of the millions who profit by it. And it is said that but for the spirit of a dozen men, here and there down the ages, but for a dozen men – less perhaps – none of this would have been possible. And that might be true. If so, there are – again – two possible attitudes to take. We can say that these twelve were great benefactors, that we are all fed by the overflow of the magnificent wealth of their spirit, and that we are glad to accept it in gratitude and brotherhood. Or, we can say that by the splendor of their achievement which we can neither equal nor keep, these twelve have shown us what we are, that we do not want the free gifts of their grandeur, that a cave by an oozing swamp and a fire of sticks rubbed together are preferable to skyscrapers and neon lights – if the cave and the sticks are the limit of our own creative capacities. Of the two attitudes, Dominique, which would you call the truly humanitarian one? Because, you see, I’m a humanitarian.’”

2 Comments:
So, here are my thoughts on Toohey’s monologue up to page 287 in The Fountainhead.
This speech reinforces Tooheys “for the benefit of the masses” attitude and shows the two opposing paradigms or philosophical differences between Toohey and Roark. This is a call to action by Toohey to stop Roark from continuing on his current path of becoming a successful and prevalent architect.
Roark is threatening the wellbeing of the simple masses by showing them what is possible of a great or super human being. He is rocking the boat with his greatness. Toohey, by not writing about him as he has told Dominique is his methodology for holding Roark down, is keeping the masses safe from experiencing Roark’s greatness and therefore seeing their own inadequacies. Toohey can be seen as the Jesus to Roarks antichrist or vice versa depending on whose paradigms you agree with.
It is then interesting to consider why he promotes Peter Keating to such an extent. Does this mean that he only finds Keating mediocre and not threatening to egos of the masses? Is he keeping the bar low?
Also, by holding down Roark Toohey is keeping the dozen or so men who created “the sublime achievement” (a creation of god?)exalted and holy because he is not letting an antichrist rise. Roark is threatening to outshine the gods and become a god himself, a god that threatens all the values of the established society.
Toohey takes both of the attitudes he has presented. The masses should recognize that “these twelve were great benefactors, that we are all fed by the overflow of the magnificent wealth of their spirit, and that we are glad to accept it in gratitude and brotherhood.” He does not believe that the masses should ever aspire to or even believe that it would be possible to aspire to the greatness of these men. They should only worship. Therefore Roark has to be repressed so that the knowledge of what the masses are incapable of does not result in suffering and we do not recognize the “limit of our own creative capacities.” To keep society continued in homeostasis the knowledge of the possibility of the superman needs to be squashed so that everything that keeps things running smoothly is not turned upside down.
Great architecture is religion and great architects are gods. Men cannot be gods. Roark threatens this.
Please comment.
If you are an egoTist, you want everyone else in the world to be an altruist.
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