[American Thinker] Ayn Rand’s novel, The Fountainhead, published in 1943, has been read by millions of people over the years (37 million books sold). The truncated film version, released in 1949, has been seen by millions of people as well. Of course, the left has always hated Rand, her books and the films based on them. Her philosophy is a celebration of individualism, a testament to gifted and talented men and women who are able to remain true to themselves in a world that reveres and celebrates mediocrity. Ayn Rand was born in Russia in 1905, and educated there; she was twelve years old during the Bolshevik Revolution. She emigrated to the U.S. in 1926.
Her play of 1935, The Night of January 16th, was produced in Hollywood first, then on Broadway. It was a courtroom drama in which members of the audience were chosen as jurors. The play’s intent was to demonstrate the conflict between individualism and conformity, which seems to be the primary conflict between and among Americans today. The left always comes down on the side of submission and conformity -- to their agenda.
Donald Trump is a larger-than-life individual. Rand might have created him for a novel, or based a novel on him had she known him. She profoundly respected people who remained true to themselves when all around them are those striving only for approval for being conventional. Her books and plays were about the tension between individualism and the collectivist mindset of the left.
No wonder the left hates Trump with a blinding obsession to destroy him; his success, his essential happiness and personal fulfillment and his failure to capitulate to their demands enrages them beyond all reason.
Rand’s heroes are engineers, mathematicians, builders and businessmen, not journalists, writers and the professors who believe themselves far superior to the likes of men such as Trump.
The Fountainhead is particularly famous for its representation of newspapermen who relish in creating mob actions, especially against anything new and creative.
Just as when Stravinsky debuted his The Rite of Spring in Paris in 1913, riots ensued, fights in the aisles of the theater; it was new and different. People were stunned by its departure from what they were used to hearing.