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Heroism in The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead is a story about heroism. The novel is a triumphant cry of protest against all those who insist that life is about mediocrity. That man is destined to suffer. The greatness of The Fountainhead lies in its ability to inspire hope and confidence in its readers, to show how much is possible. For more than fifty years now, people all over the world have been looking towards this great book for support and sanction, for encouragement and hope, for ideas and answers. The Fountainhead applauds strength and greatness in human spirit, giving its readers a hero they can admire, respect, idolize and love. Howard Roark -- the hero, the ideal man, the human being.
When Roark said in the courtroom, "Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value, what a man is and makes of himself, not what he has or hasn't for others", he summarized the whole philosophy in these handful of words. To Roark, independence meant everything. From this one value of his arose all his other values and qualities. To him, there was no substitute and no alternative to independence. He held no authority above the judgement of his mind, he held no one higher than himself. Roark felt a fundamental indifference towards others -- he cared two hoots about what the world thought of him.
The people Roark chose as friends and comrades all shared this basic quality - independence. His teacher, Henry Cameron, was a fiercely independent man. So were Steven Mallory, Austen Heller, Mike Donnigan and Gail Wynand. Roark's only hallmark of a man was his independence, or the lack of it. His 'enemies', the men who hated Roark, yet recognised his greatness, were all dependents and parasites. Peter Keating thirsted...
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...ife as Keating and Toohey saw it. A choice between life as it "ought to be" and life as it is.
The Fountainhead is more than a story about heroism. It is a story about a way of life. It will continue to be the most inspiring book of all times and will continue to hit readers with its immortal philosophy and tremendous courage. It will continue to offer answers. The choice is ours.
Works Cited and Consulted
Berliner, Michael S., ed. Letters of Ayn Rand. By Ayn Rand. New York: Dutton, 1995.
Maslow, A.H. (1968) Toward a Psychology of Being. New York: Van Nostrand.
Peikoff, Leonard. The Philosophy of Objectivism, A Brief Summary. Stein and Day, 1982.
Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead. New York: Plume, 1994.
Rogers, C.R. (1980) A Way of Being. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Walker, Jeff. The Ayn Rand Cult. Carus Publishing Company, 1999
The book, Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History, written by Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio, is a first-hand account of the dangerous but successful mission, aided by Hollywood and the Canadian government, to rescue six US diplomats from Iran after they escaped the US embassy during the Iran Hostage Crisis. Even though this is a non-fictional story, it still has themes. This story about courage and problem-solving conveys many important messages to the reader. The most meaningful message that Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio are trying to convey to the reader is that no matter how difficult it seems to solve a certain problem, you can solve any problem as long as you put your mind to it, and are confident
Throughout the 20th century governmental responsibility has made remarkable progress. One major milestone of the widening of the responsibility of the federal government was it’s making an obligation to care for the elderly and retired in the form of social security. In 1935, the Social Security Act was enacted by the federal government to provide financial security to the elderly, retired citizens in America. Although the federal government first took on this responsibility in 1935, it is still affecting our lives today. However, social security would not have advanced this far without many organizations and individual reformers to begin and improve social security throughout history.
Ayn Rand said that the theme of The Fountainhead is "individualism versus collectivism, not in politics, but in man's soul." I want to comment on three specific aspects of this theme, as it is embodied in Roark's character and his interactions with the other figures in the novel. Roark is a man of independence, he is an egoist, and he is a creator, a paragon of productive achievement. These three concepts—independence, egoism, and achievement—are the key to understanding the moral sense of The Fountainhead and the ways in which it differs from the conventional ethos.
As two men on the extreme sides of conformity and independence, it is hard for Keating to understand how someone could be so sure of himself, whereas it is incomprehensible for Roark to believe that Keating could have so little self-assurance and such a lack of resolve regarding the decisions he chooses to make. In this r...
The Social Security Act was enacted in 1935, and since then it has undergone numerous revisions and amendments. Today the act covers a wide range of benefit programs, including Medicare, unemployment compensation, and Supplemental Security Income. The major portion for which the Social Security Act has become known, however, is the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program, or OASDI. While today the OASDI program is most frequently referred to as “Social Security,” it is only a thread in what has been called the “social safety net.” Therefore, throughout this paper, it should be understood that Social Security will be the term used to refer to all its encompassed programs as a group, as a matter of convenience.
Michael Jones worked his whole life. At the age of 15 he started as a dishwasher at a restaurant a mile away from his house. He never graduated high school because he had to quit school to help his single mom support a family of six. There were many times in his life where he worked two jobs, but at minimum-wage, if that, 80 hours a week still did not go far. By the age of 20 he was married, and soon began to have a family of his own. Michael is a simple man but a hard workingman. Michael rarely took vacations, worked 60+ hours a week, and raised four daughters of his own. After about 25 years of marriage Michael and his wife divorced. Recently Michael turned 65, and against his desire to keep working, his doctor suggested that he retire, due to suffering from two heart attacks, one when he was 50, the other when he was 62. For 50 years Michael has worked many jobs, unfortunately, due to his limited education, he often worked minimum paying jobs. During the first half of this working life he was supporting his family, and Michael was only able to save for retirement after his children had graduated college. Only his latest employer offered pension plan. Now after working his whole life, Michael is left with $305 a month from his pension, and $742 from Social Security. Social Security has become his major source of sustainment. The Social Security Administration (SSA), has become a lifesaver for Michael and most retirees. This paper will attempt to answer how the Social Security Administration came to be, and what it does for the country and its hard working citizens. It will give a brief overview on the history of the administration; what statutes give the agency its authorities; ...
The White House, along with the politically biased Social Security trustees’, argue that Social Security is facing a crisis in that “the currently legislated structure of revenues and benefits, the system will eventually be unable to meet its financial obligations” (Bethel University, 2006, p.344). At its inception in the 1930’s, “there were more than sixteen workers to support each Social Security recipient. Today, there are about three, and in 2031, that number is predicted to dwindle to about two (Driscoll & Konczal, 2009). And the number of retirees is expected to nearly double from about 37 million to around 73 million (Driscoll & Konczal, 2009). So how to pay for this? The White House’s proposed solution is to establish individual retirement accounts which would be gradually phased in for younger entrants into the workforce allowing them “to build a “nest egg” for retirement…” (Bethel University, 2006, p.347) while maintaining the existing structure for those 55 or older. Other seemingly attractive features are ownership and control, the ability to in...
"Social Security Should Be Run by the Government" by Institute for America's Future.Capitalism. Noël Merino, Ed. Current Controversies Series. Greenhaven Press, 2010. Institute for America's Future, The Perils of Privatization: Social Security Privatization Cuts Lifetime Benefits; Makes Senior Citizens Vulnerable to Poverty: The Impact in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Institute for America's Future, 2008. Reproduced by permission. .
Social Security has played a major role in supporting the elderly as well as sick and disabled financially for many years. However, we do not know how long this will last their are many problems facing social security and the funding of it with the population continuing to grow more and more people are taking advantage of social security. The main problem is people who do not really need the help and free income of social security abusing it making the government actually spend more than they actually putting into the social security fund. In this paper I will not only discuss the problems surrounding social security but also solutions in which could not only help better social security but also make it available for generations to come.
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
It stated heavier taxes on the wealthy, new way of controlling banks and public utilities, and a huge work relief program for those people who were unemployed. Social Security has been around for so long, but now people under the age of sixty-five think it will go bankrupt before they retire, according to a new CNN/TIME poll, and most of them do not think they will be able to save enough on their own. Only thirty-one percent say that the system is currently in a crisis; majority just feels that there are problems but not a crisis. The way you feel about Social Security is based totally on what age you are. People over fifty seem to think the system is fair while others feel it is not. In the Industrial Age, a Defined Benefit pension plan meant that the company guaranteed you, the worker, and a defined amount of money for as long as you lived. This made people feel secure because these plans assured a stead...
Many Americans depend on Social Security benefits--from retirees, disabled workers, and dependents. Furthermore, numerous retirees have not saved enough money for retirement through other sources, so they count on Social Security as their basic source of income during their later years. Recently, the number of persons receiving Social Security has increased dramatically. This is largely due to the increasing number of persons in the baby boomer generation retiring and also people living many more years past retirement age. This increase in beneficiaries has initiated concerns and questions about the future of Social Security for persons still working. Recent studies have shown that in its current trend, the surplus of funds for Social Security will be depleted in the near future as the increase of payments will begin to exhaust the fund’s resources. To that end, reform of some kind is needed to help sustain this benefit for future generations to come (Social Security Administration, 2014).
There is another type of hero that almost no one is aware of. In the poorest areas of the country, live mostly minorities and other ethic background. All their lives they’ve been expected to work harder and expected not succeed in life. Some individuals living in poverty with a determination to succeed work hard all of their lives to become what everybody doubted they could. Escaping the crime, drugs, and prostitution is enough to escape hell, even if they don’t go to college. Despite of their financial problems, drug and crime surroundings, or difficulties in the language skills, their desire to triumph fuels their persistence. Those who make it to success are the few living examples of the purest form of hero anyone can be. They are not only their own heroes but also the heroes of the poor children who dream of becoming like them someday.
Social Security was founded on the idea that those who work extensively and hard should not become impoverished due to retirement or disability, nor should their families suffer in the event of early death. As the nation’s income protection program, Social Security supports families, not just individuals. Children, youth, and grandfamilies (grandparents and other relatives raising children) increasingly rely on Social Security as a safeguard against poverty, however their voices are often overlooked. More than 6.5 million children in the United States receive part of their family income from Social Security. One thirds of the 50 million people who receive Social Security benefits today is younger than age 65. If Social Security didn’t exist, the older generations would stay in their positions even longer not allowing for the younger generations to take their places in the workforce.
The birth of the social security program started as a measurement to implement “social insurance” during the great depression of the 1930s, when the New York stock exchange crash in 1929 America then slipped into economic depression with unemployment exceeded 25% so president Roosevelt’s sign the social security act to help the poverty rates among the senior citizen which exceeded 50%, since then social security has became increasingly controversial.