This is a very useful book. My partner and I use it as a litmus test for figuring out which of our acquaintances are driven or amused by selfishness, egotism and misogyny. Since it's also over 700 pages long and quite heavy, we occassionally use it to whack each other on the head whenever the other person is bullshitting or doing something excessively stupid.

In the summer, when drinking glasses get ridiculously sweaty, I like to use this as a coaster (I daresay the water and coffee rings give it its sole shred of character). The other day, I repaired an old table with a rotting leg and propped it up to balance using this book. I can't thank Ayn Rand enough because her book has made my life so easy.

“Everything we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute of man – the function of his reasoning mind.”


Trying to point out the inherent flaws in the Ayn Rand’s concept of individual against the world is like reasoning out with my teenage self’s preconceived notions of a noble vision that she believes in *nobody is willing to appreciate my work because they are jealous of me despite seeing my potential to change the course of humanity because the world doesn’t appreciate new ideas*.


My teenage self surely does make some clever and convincing points with her twisted logic but they are limited to the extent of being highly unrealistic because of its apparent inclination towards romanticizing ideals since little did she know how the world actually works.


You might admire her stance on standing up for her beliefs even if the world doesn’t believe in her talent but it doesn’t mean that the world as she believes wants to destroy her in the body or in spirit by its moral corruption. Sometimes it just offers criticism, not the egregious sorts but those whose acceptance can be helpful to realize her full potential because it takes maturity to realize what standing up for the ideals in order to make a change really means.


She might not even want to exist for the world as her hero Howard Roark because she is an utter egoist who exists for her own self, but she is yet to know that revolution first starts with learning, learning to live in harmony with the pioneering talent and its need to lead human race forward, unless you are Ayn Rand’s God!


To tell you the truth, I have never before been unabashedly convinced of the ideals that an author preached but this time I felt so naive to realize how much I wanted to follow Ayn rand’s expositions of her philosophy. I was fully devoted to her characters and her critical observation of the world she builds because it catered to my juvenile sense of moral reasoning but who sets the standards to determine one’s talent as a creator or his worth as man? The man himself or his work? What if it is only the creator who acquires illusion of superiority of his work over others because the people doesn’t consider it great? Are people always second-handers if they don’t concur to a man’s vision of greatness? Maybe sometimes it’s the other way around.


No audience is without its idiosyncrasies of belief, so of course after the brave new world, this is another book which is driven by an ideology whose idealized characters forced me to observe and question the world I live in, and to realize and strive to follow my passionate love for the work that I truly want to do but with a caveat, suffering for the sake of one’s selfishness is not always necessary.

What do you think, does power corrupts people or corrupt seeks power?

#THUYẾT XUYÊN SUỐT:

Có vẻ xã hội trong sách được chia thành hai thái cực rõ ràng: vị nhân sinh và vị kỷ.
+ Vị nhân sinh là học thuyết đòi hỏi con người phải sống vì người khác và đặt người khác lên trên bản thân mình.
+ Vị kỷ theo nghĩa tuyệt đối không bao giờ bắt người khác hy sinh cho mình. Anh ta sống vượt ra ngoài nhu cầu sử dụng những người khác, dù dưới bất kì hình thức nào. Anh ta không hoạt động thông qua họ. Anh ta không sống vì bất cứ ai, vì anh ta không yêu cầu ai phải sống vì anh ta.

#TÉM Ý

+ Vị nhân sinh là hy sinh cho người khác còn bản thân mình thì dẹp đi
+ Vị kỷ là sống cho mình, kệ người khác nhưng không lợi dụng họ hay bắt họ hy sinh/sống vì mình.
(cảm thấy mình VỊ KỶ nhé)

+ Vị kỷ: vì bản thân mình mới làm.
+ Ích kỷ: những cái nào có lợi cho bản thân thì mới làm.

+ Vị kỷ: là sống vì mình, theo quan điểm của mình, nhưng ko bắt người khác phải theo mình hay hy sinh vì mình
+ ích kỷ: là vì mình, là bắt người khác theo mình

#TAKE OUT MESSAGE:

Cuốn tiểu thuyết lan truyền một tư tưởng sống “vị kỷ” tôn thờ bản thân (khác với ích kỷ) mà sẽ dần hiểu ra xuyên suốt trong nội dung của tác giả.

#REFERENCE
+ Sách Dám bị ghét
+ Phim 3 idiots
+ Quảng cáo think difference của Apple.
Có thể đoạn chốt của Suối nguồn là niềm cảm hứng để copywriter viết nên những thoại này trong clip quảng cáo bước ngoặc của Apple:

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”