October 20, 2007
by Clay Barham

Roark's speech, from the Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand, deserves to be read and heard many times, lest we forget. Roark summed up his case to a jury with these words;

"Thousands of years ago, the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burned at the stake (with what) he had taught his brothers to light, but he left them a gift they had not conceived, and he lifted darkness off the earth. Throughout the centuries, there were men who took first steps down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision. The great creators -- the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors -- stood alone against the men of their time. Every new thought was opposed; every new invention was denounced. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered, and they paid. But they won."

"No creator was prompted by a desire to please his brothers. His brothers hated the gift he offered.  His truth was his only motive. His work was his only goal.  His work -- not those who used it.  His creation -- not the benefits others derived from it -- the creation which gave form to his truth. He held his truth above all things and against all men. He went ahead whether others agreed with him or not, with his integrity as his only banner. He served nothing and no one. He lived for himself. And only by living for himself was he able to achieve the things which are the glory of mankind. Such is the nature of achievement. Man cannot survive except through his mind. He comes on earth unarmed. His brain is his only weapon. But the mind is an attribute of the individual."

"There is no such thing as a collective brain.  The man who thinks must think and act on his own. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be subordinated to the needs, opinions, or wishes of others. It is not an object of sacrifice. The creator stands on his own judgment; the parasite follows the opinions of others.  The creator thinks; the parasite copies. The creator produces; the parasite loots.  The creator's concern is the conquest of nature; the parasite's concern is the conquest of men. The creator requires independence. He neither serves nor rules. He deals with men by free exchange and voluntary choice. The parasite seeks power. He wants to bind all men together in common action and common slavery. He claims that man is only a tool for the use of others -- that he must think as they think, act as they act, and live in selfless, joyless servitude to any need but his own."

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"Look at history: Everything we have, every great achievement has come from the independent work of some independent mind. Every horror and destruction came from attempts to force men into a herd of brainless, soulless robots -- without personal rights, without personal ambition, without will, hope, or dignity. It is an ancient conflict. It has another name: ?The individual against the collective.'"

"Our country, the noblest country in the history of men, was based on the principle of individualism, the principle of man's "inalienable rights." It was a country where a man was free to seek his own happiness, to gain and produce, not to give up and renounce; to prosper, not to starve; to achieve, not to plunder; to hold as his highest possession a sense of his personal value, and as his highest virtue his self-respect.  Look at the results. That is what the collectivists are now asking you to destroy, as much of the earth has been destroyed."

Is there a better case made for a political system fashioned from individual freedom, the liberty to pursue legitimate self-interests and achieve personal prosperity, which enriches both families and communities, against the primacy of community interests, which are only the expressed interests of rulers and enriches only them?  America grew from the belief that our Creator gave us our rights and freedoms, not government or the community.  It proved itself when measured again the rest of the world that follows the ideals of community being most important.

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Clay Barham [send him email] has been a candidate for the California legislature and a stand-in talk show host for ABC.  He was educated in physical and behavioral sciences, with a Ph.D. in sociology.  He is the author of five books, with his latest being Foundations of Modern American Conservatism and Liberalism: The Roots of Freedom and Tyranny.  Visit his website at http://www.claysamerica.com.