The Fountainhead - Howard Roark Speech (Ayn Rand)


From The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, Gary Cooper as Howard Roark delivers the memorable courtroom speech in self-defense for dynamiting Courtland.







Channel: Entertainment
Uploaded: August 10, 2006 at 7:56 pm
Author: Sidewinder77

Length: 00:05:53
Rating: 4.76
Views: 149243

Tags: individualism Ayn Cooper collectivism capitalism self-ownership Rand Fountainhead Gary

Embed Code:


Video Comments:
BlackProteus (December 2, 2008 at 1:51 am)
deinse81 -

Lying about the puppy forces me to misperceive reality to your advantage ... even if your advantage is frivolous and pathological. It is therefore wrong. But if your end is to somehow save a factory full of Jews from Nazi genocide, then it justifies the lie.

Why are we arguing this? And what is your point, really, about ends and means? Somehow this has a bearing on whether or not the current economic troubles are due to market deregulation?
deinse81 (December 1, 2008 at 4:49 am)
And just to end a conversation I'm getting tired of, here's why lying is fine in your Nazi example:When Hitler came to power in Germany, and first started attacking Jews,then everyone else, every person in that country had a decision to make: they could either support him, or do the moral thing and oppose him. As a result, from that point on moral, anti-Nazi Germans were at war, and could do anything to any Nazi they saw, including kill them, and such an act would've been perfectly moral.
deinse81 (December 1, 2008 at 4:41 am)
It's irrelevant what objectivists believe. The point is that someone claiming to be qualified to pass judgement over an entire philosophy should've been able to understand what lying is and what it isn't: Let's say I lie to you about having a puppy here in the room with me. What power does that give me over you, and what does that force you to do against your will, if your idea that lying is coersion is true?
BlackProteus (December 1, 2008 at 12:52 am)
deinse81 -

This is not such a controversial point, I didn't think, even for Objectivists. And we are far away from the issues, but I'll play along.

Lying is, as I wrote, an expression of power over someone by misleading them. It is an intellectual form of force or coercion. Just like physical violence, it is generally wrong and immoral. However, one's purpose -- or end -- can make it ethical. For example, self-defense.

1