Why is Ayn Rand's Fountainhead still ready today?

Question

This meaning, what elements and themes in the book make the topics in the book still relevant today?

Because I got done finished reading it, and I have to explain why's it's still read today. I'm not sure besides the major theme of the primacy of the individual displayed by Howard Roark is admirable.

And how does all of this relate to objectivism? Thanks for any insight.

Answer 1

The tension between individualism and the "common good" still exists. Ayn Rand stands solidly in the individualism camp.

It is interesting to note that the concept of the "self-made man," as exemplified by Roark, is seen by some as a total myth, on the grounds that no person is self-made. Everyone is born and raised, benefits from infrastructures and insitutions in society-- like educational systems, highway systems, the internet, banking and economic systems--that they did not make themselves. Thus, the "common good" provides the ground from which one might aspire to be a "self-made man," which is an irony that remains with us. The question of the rights of the individual outweighing the "greater good" is still very much debated.

Sorry, don;t know much about objectivism. I do know that Rand was totally anti-communist.