Suomessa ei tietääkseni ole kovin montaa henkilöä, joka olisi lukenut koko Ayn Randin tuotannon. Alan kohta olemaan lähellä tuota kyseenalaista meriittiä. Hulluutta, ajanhaaskausta vai jotain hyödyllistä? Kaikkea noista. Viime vuonna tuli luettua
Atlas Shrugged,
The Virtue of Selfishness,
Capitalism - The Unknown Ideal ja
For The New Intellectual. Nyt luettuna on The Fountainhead ja Philosophy - Who Needs it?. Seuraava Rand (Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology tai Anthem)saa nyt kuitenkin hetken odottaa vuoroaan.
Alkuinnostukseni heräsi pari vuotta sitten Randin filosofiaa kohtaan. Kerrankin löytyi kirjailija ja ajattelija, joka puolusti minua kiinnostavia arvoja ja asioita. Randilla on poikkeuksellinen kyky pukea sanoiksi ikuinen yksilön ja vapauden puolustaminen. Filosofisesti Rand on laadukasta luettavaa. Samoin yhteiskunnalliselta ajattelultaan Rand on terävää tekstiä. Tieteellisesti Randin lukeminen oli selkeä harharetki. Lähdin hakemaan Randilta ajatuksia väitöskirjani viitekehykseen, mutta siltä osin en ole saanut mitään. Rand ei ole akateemisesti noteerattava lähde ja teokset eivät ole missään määrin tieteellisiä, joten väitöskirjani kannalta hurahtaminen Randin kirjoihin oli puhtaasti ajanhaaskausta. Viihdearvoltaan Rand on vähintäänkin keskikastia. Kaunokirjallisina tuotoksina pääteokset Atlas Shrugged ja The Fountainhead ovat pääosin viihdyttävää luettavaa, mutta tarinaltaan turhan pitkiä.
Sitaattiaineistoa saa paljon, ja sitä löytyykin kiitettävästi internetistä, esim
täältä. Siispä kirjojen lukemisen sijasta Randin ajatuksiin kannattaa mielummin tutustua verkossa, ainakin aluksi. Näin säästyy merkittävästi aikaa muulle.
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| Ayn Rand: The Fountainhead |
The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead on Randin toinen kuuluisa teos
Atlas Shruggedin ohella. Osa pitää The Fountainheadia jopa ykkösteoksena, mutta minä asemoin sen kaunokirjallisten teosten kakkoseksi. Kyseessä on älyttömän iso kirja, 727 sivua, joten ihan hetken mielijohteesta tätä eeposta ei lueta. Kannattaa ylipäätään miettiä kaksi kertaa, haluaako tätä teosta lähteä lukemaan. Tarina on mielestäni liian pitkä, ja monilta osin jopa pitkästyttävä. Kuten sitaattipoiminnoistanikin huomaa, ensimmäiset 150 sivua on mukaansatempaavaa, mutta sen jälkeen tulee noin 450 sivun synkkä jakso, josta ei löydy juurikaan mielenkiintoisia asioita, ja siten teos meinaa viedä lukijansa epätoivoon. Meinasin itsekin lopettaa monta kertaa kesken. Lopun 150 sivua sitten onkin taas varsin tiukkaa tykitystä.
The Fountainheadin tarina on selostettu varsin hyvin muiden toimesta, joten en lähde sitä tässä enää selittämään. Kannattaa lukea se vaikka
täältä. Kirjan sisältö selittyy parhaiten sen henkilöiden kautta. Ne löytyy hyvin kuvattuna myös
täältä. Päähenkilö Howard Roark on periaatteen mies, jästipääksikin häntä voisi hyvin kutsua. Elää omien standardiensa mukaan, ei anna tippaakaan periksi, tiedostaa aina olevansa oman maailmakuvansa mukaisesti oikeassa. Kärsii koko elämänsä jääräpäisyytensä myötä menettämistä mahdollisuuksista, mutta ei silti luovu periaatteistaan. Kunnioitettavavaa sinänsä, mutta myös raskasta. Kirjaa lukiessa sitä usein miettii, pitääkö sitä ihmisen olla noin periaatteellinen ja kumpi onkaan tärkeämpää, olla omasta mielestään oikeassa vai olla onnellinen, jos näiden välillä on ristiriitaa. Koko kirjan ajan sitä miettii, miksi asioiden pitää mennä näin. Epäoikeudenmukaisuuden esille tuomalla, Roarkin rooliin samaistuminen on jopa ahdistava lukukokemus.
Kirjan suurin opetus on, että itsekkyys ei ole pahasta vaan nimenomaan päinvastainen eli itsettömyys. Itsetön on ihminen, joka ei ole sinut itsensä kanssa eikä kunnioita itseään vaan elää elämäänsä muille. Tämän epäkohdan The Fountainhead avaa monien arkipäiväisten hahmojen myötä. Liian moni hahmo toi mieleen vastineet oikeasta elämästä. Howard Roarkit sen sijaan ovat harvassa. Kuten myös John Galtit. Vai, kuka on John Galt? Kuten
Atlas Shrugged, niin myös The Fountainhead huipentuu oikeussalissa pidettävään puheeseen. Puhe löytyy tämän tekstin lopusta. Lue vaikka se, sen sijaan The Fountainheadin lukemisen sijasta suosittelen muuta parempaa ajankäyttöä.
"Rules? Here are my rules: what can be done with one substance must never be done with another. No two materials are alike. No two sites on earth are alike. Not two buildings have the same purpose. The purpose, the site, the material determine the shape. Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless it's made by one central idea, and the idea sets every detail. A building is alive, like a man. Its integrity is to follow its own truth, its one single theme, and to serve its own single purpose. A man doen't borrow pieces of his body. A building doesn't borrow hunks of its soul. Its maker gives it the soul and every wall, window and stairway to express it." - Howard Roark (12)
"Every form has its own meaning. Every man creates his meaning and form and goal." - Howard Roark (12)
"I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one" - Howard Roark (13)
"I take the only desire one can really permit oneself. Freedom, Alvah, freedom."
"You call that freedom?"
"To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing." - Howard Roark (141)
"The ability to say Yes or No is the essence of all ownership. It's your ownership of your own ego. Your soul, if you wish. Your soul has a single basic function - the act of valuing. Yes or No, "I wish" or "I do not wish". You can't say Yes without saying I. There's no affirmation without the onw who affirms. In this sense, everything to which you grant your love is yours." - Howard Roark (564)
"Before you can do things for people, you must be the kind of man who can get things done. But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences. The work, not the people. Your own action, not any possible object of your charity." - Howard Roark (604)
"A private, personal, selfish, egotistical motivation. That's the only way I function. That's all I am." Howard Roark (606)
"I don't make comparisons. I never think of myself in relation to anyone else. I just refuse to measure myself as part of anything. I'm an utter egotist." - Howard Roark (608)
"Egotistical? An egotist would have loved it. You use words in the strangest way". - Wynand
"In the exact way. I don't wish to be the symbol of anything. I'm only myself". - Howard Roark (631)
“Yes! And
isn't that the root of every despicable action? Not selfishness, but precisely
the absence of a self. Look at them. The man who cheats and lies, but preserves
a respectable front. He knows himself to be dishonest, but others think he's
honest and he derives his self-respect from that, second-hand. The man who
takes credit for an achievement which is not his own. He knows himself to be
mediocre, but he's great in the eyes of others. The frustrated wretch who
professes love for the inferior and clings to those less endowed, in order to
establish his own superiority by comparison. The man whose sole aim is to make
money. Now I don't see anything evil in a desire to make money. But money is
only a means to some end. If a man wants it for a personal purpose--to invest
in his industry, to create, to study, to travel, to enjoy luxury--he's
completely moral. But the men who place money first go much beyond that.
Personal luxury is a limited endeavor. What they want is ostentation: to show,
to stun, to entertain, to impress others. They're second-handers. Look at our
so-called cultural endeavors. A lecturer who spouts some borrowed rehash of
nothing at all that means nothing at all to him--and the people who listen and
don't give a damn, but sit there in order to tell their friends that they have
attended a lecture by a famous name. All second-handers.” - Howard Roark (633)
"A truly selfish man cannot be affected by the approval of others. He doesn't need it. ... Your ego is your strictest judge. They run from it. They spend their lives running. It's easier to donate a few thousands to charity and think oneself noble than to base self-respect on personal standards of personal achievement. It's simple to seek substitutes for competence - such easy substitutes: love, charm, kindness, charity. But there is no substitute for competence. That, precisely, is the deadliness of second-handlers. They have no concern for facts, ideas, work. They're concerned only with people. They don't ask: Is this true? They ask: Is this what others think is true? Not to judge, but to repeat. Not to do, but to give the impression of doing. Not creation, but show. Not ability, bud friendship. Not merit, but pull. What would happen to the world without those who do, think, work, produce? Those are all the egotists. You don't think through another's brain and you don't work through another's hands. When you suspend your faculty of independent judgment, you suspend consciousness. To stop consciousness is to stop life." - Howard Roark (634)
"Every form of happiness is private. Our greatest moments are personal, self-motivated, not to be touched. The things which are sacred or precious to us are the things we withdraw from promiscuous sharing." - Howard Roark (635)
"I think the only cardinal evil on earth is that of placing your prime concern within other men. I've always demanded a certain quality in the people I liked. I've always recognized it at once - and it's the only quality I respect in men. I chose my friends by that. Now I know what it is. A self-sufficient ego. Nothing else matters." - Howard Roark (636)
"If one doesn't respect oneself one can have neither love nor respect from others." - Howard Roark (636)
"The worst second-handler of all - the man who goes after power". - Howard Roark (636)
Howard Roarkin puhe oikeudessa
“Thousands
of years ago, the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burned
at the stake he had taught his brothers to light. He was considered an evildoer
who had dealt with a demon mankind dreaded. But thereafter men had fire to keep
them warm, to cook their food, to light their caves. He had left them a gift
they had not conceived and he had lifted dardness off the earth. Centuries
later, the first man invented the wheel. He was probably torn on the rack he
had taught his brothers to build. He was considered a transgressor who ventured
into forbidden terrritory. But thereafter, men could travel past any horizon.
He had left them a gift they had not conceived and he had opened the roads of
the world.
“That man, the unsubmissive and first,
stands in the opening chapter of every legend mankind has recorded about its
beginning. Prometheus was chained to a rock and torn by vultures—because he had
stolen the fire of the gods. Adam was condemned to suffer—because he had eaten
the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Whatever the legend, somewhere in the
shadows of its memory mankind knew that its glory began with one and that that
one paid for his courage.
“Throughout the centuries there were men
who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.
Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first,
the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received—hatred. The
great creators—the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors—stood
alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every
great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The
airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious.
Anesthesia was considered sinful. 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
serve his brothers, for his brothers rejected the gift he offered and that gift
destroyed the slothful routine of their lives. His truth was his only motive.
His own truth, and his own work to achieve it in his own way. A symphony, a
book, an engine, a philosophy, an airplane or a building—that was his goal and
his life. Not those who heard, read, operated, believed, flew or inhabited the
thing he had created. The creation, not its users. The 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.
“His vision, his strength, his courage
came from his own spirit. A man's spirit, however, is his self. That entity
which is his consciousness. To think, to feel, to judge, to act are functions
of the ego.
“The creators were not selfless. It is the
whole secret of their power—that it was self-sufficient, self-motivated,
self-generated. A first cause, a fount of energy, a life force, a Prime Mover.
The creator 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. Animals obtain
food by force. Man has no claws, no fangs, no horns, no great strength of
muscle. He must plant his food or hunt it. To plant, he needs a process of
thought. To hunt, he needs weapons, and to make weapons—a process of thought.
From this simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the
wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from a
single attribute of man—the function of his reasoning mind.
“But the mind is an attribute of the
individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such
thing as a collective thought. An agreement reached by a group of men is only a
compromise or an average drawn upon many individual thoughts. It is a secondary
consequence. The primary act—the process of reason—must be performed by each
man alone. We can divide a meal among many men. We cannot digest it in a
collective stomach. No man can use his lungs to breathe for another man. No man
can use his brain to think for another. All the functions of body and spirit
are private. They cannot be shared or transferred.
“We inherit the products of the thought of
other men. We inherit the wheel. We make a cart. The cart becomes an
automobile. The automobile becomes an airplane. But all through the process
what we receive from others is only the end product of their thinking. The
moving force is the creative faculty which takes this product as material, uses
it and originates the next step. This creative faculty cannot be given or
received, shared or borrowed. It belongs to single, individual men. That which
it creates is the property of the creator. Men learn from one another. But all
learning is only the exchange of material. No man can give another the capacity
to think. Yet that capacity is our only means of survival.
"Nothing is given to man on earth.
Everything he needs has to be produced. And here man faces his basic
alternative: he can survive in only one of two ways—by the independent work of
his own mind or as a parasite fed by the minds of others. The creator
originates. The parasite borrows. The creator faces nature alone. The parasite
faces nature through an intermediary.
“The creator’s concern is the conquest of
nature. The parasite’s concern is the conquest of men.
"The creator lives for his work. He needs
no other men. His primary goal is within himself. The parasite lives
second-hand. He needs others. Others become his prime motive.
“The basic need of the creator is
independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It
cannot be curbed, sacrificed or subordinated to any consideration whatsoever.
It demands total independence in function and in motive. To a creator, all
relations with men are secondary.
“The basic need of the second-hander is to
secure his ties with men in order to be fed. He places relations first. He
declares that man exists in order to serve others. He preaches altruism.
“Altruism is the doctrine which demands
that man live for others and place others above self.
“No man can live for another. He cannot
share his spirit just as he cannot share his body. But the second-hander has
used altruism as a weapon of expoloitation and reversed the base of mankind’s
moral principles. Men have been taught every precept that destroys the creator.
Men have been taught dependence as a virtue.
“The man who attemps to live for others is
a dependent. He is a parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves.
The relationship produces nothing but mutual corruption. It is impossible in
concept. The nearest approach to it in reality—the man who lives to serve
others—is the slave. If physical slavery is repulsive, how much more repulsive
is the concept of servility of the spirit? The conquered slave has a vestige of
honor. He has the merit of having resisted and of considering his condition
evil. But the man who enslaves himself voluntarily in the name of love is the
basest of creatures. He degrades the dignity of man and he degrades the
conception of love. But this is the essence of altruism.
“Men have been taught that the highest
virtue is not to achieve, but to give. Yet one cannot give that which has not
been created. Creation comes before distribution—or there will be nothing to
distribute. The need of the creator comes before the need of any possible
beneficiary. Yet we are taught to admire the second-hander who dispenses gifts
he has not produced above the man who made the gifts possible. We praise an act
of charity. We shrug at an act of achievement.
“Men have been taught that their first
concern is to relieve the sufferings of others. But suffering is a disease.
Should one come upon it, one tries to give relief and assistance. To make that
the highest test of virtue is to make suffering the most important part of
life. Then man must wish to see others suffer—in order that he may be virtuous.
Such is the nature of altruism. The creator is not concerned with disease, but
with life. Yet the work of the creators has eliminated one form of disease
after another, in man’s body and spirit, and brought more relief from suffering
than any altruist could ever conceive.
“Men have been taught that it is a virtue
to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been
taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man
who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand
together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.
“Men have been taught that the ego is the
synonym of evil, and selflessness the ideal of virtue. But the creator is the
egotist in the absolute sense, and the selfless man is the one who does not
think, feel, judge or act. These are functions of the self.
“Here the basic reversal is most deadly.
The issue has been perverted and man has been left no alternative—and no
freedom. As poles of good and evil, he was offered two conceptions: egotism and
altruism. Egotism was held to mean the sacrifice of others to self.
Altruism—the sacrifice of self to others. This tied man irrevocably to other
men and left him nothing but a choice of pain: his own pain borne for the sake
of others or pain inflicted upon others for the sake of self. When it was added
that man must find joy in self-immolation, the trap was closed. Man was forced
to accept masochism as his ideal—under the threat that sadism was his only
alternative. This was the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on mankind.
“This was the device by which dependence
and suffering were perpetuated as fundamentals of life.
“The choice is not self-sacrifice or
domination. The choice is independence or dependence. The code of the creator
or the code of the second-hander. This is the basic issue. It rests upon the
alternative of life or death. The code of the creator is built on the needs of
the reasoning mind which allows man to survive. The code of the second-hander
is built on the needs of a mind incapable of survival. All that which proceeds
from man’s independent ego is good. All that which proceeds from man’s
dependence upon men is evil.
“The
egotist is the absolute sense is not the man who sacrifices others. He is the
man who stands above the need of using others in any manner. He does not
function through them. He is not concerned with them in any primary matter. Not
in his aim, not in his motive, not in his thinking, not in his desires, not in
the source of his energy. He does not exist for any other man—and he asks no
other man to exist for him. This is the only form of brotherhood and mutual
respect possible between men.
“Degrees of ability vary, but the basic
principle remains the same: the degree of a man’s independence, initiative and
personal love for his work determines his talent as a worker and his worth as a
man. Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is
and makes of himself; not what he has or hasn’t done for others. There is no
substitute for personal dignity. There is no standard of personal dignity
except independence.
“In all proper relationships there is no
sacrifice of anyone to anyone. An architect needs clients, but he does not
subordinate his work to their wishes. They need him, but they do not order a
house just to give him a commission. Men exchange their work by free, mutual
consent to mutual advantage when their personal interests agree and they both
desire the exchange. If they do not desire it, they are not forced to deal with
each other. They seek further. This is the only possible form of relationship
between equals. Anything else is a relation of slave to master, or victim to
executioner.
“No work is ever done collectively, by a
majority decision. Every creative job is achieved under the guidance of a
single individual thought. An architect requires a great many men to erect his
building. But he does not ask them to vote on his design. They work together by
free agreement and each is free in his proper function. An architect uses
steel, glass, concrete, produced by others. But the materials remain just so
much steel, glass and concrete until he touches them. What he does with them is
his individual product and his individual property. This is the only pattern
for proper co-operation among men.
“The first right on earth is the right of
the ego. Man’s first duty is to himself. His moral law is never to place his
prime goal within the persons of others. His moral obligation is to do what he
wishes, provided his wish does not depend primarily upon other men. This
includes the whole sphere of his creative faculty, his thinking, his work. But
it does not include the sphere of the gangster, the altruist and the dictator.
“A man thinks and works alone. A man
cannot rob, exploit or rule—alone. Robbery, exploitation and ruling presuppose
victims. They imply dependence. They are the province of the second-hander.
“Rulers of men are not egotists. They
create nothing. They exist entirely through the persons of others. Their goal
is in their subjects, in the activity of enslaving. They are as dependent as
the beggar, the social worker and the bandit. The form of dependence does not
matter.
“But men were taught to regard
second-handers—tyrants, emperors, dictators—as exponents of egotism. By this
fraud they were made to destroy the ego, themselves and others. The purpose of
the fraud was to destroy the creators. Or to harness them. Which is a synonym.
“From the beginning of history, the two
antagonists have stood face to face: the creator and the second-hander. When
the first creator invented the wheel, the first second-hander responded. He
invented altruism.
“The creator—denied, opposed, persecuted,
exploited—went on, moved forward and carried all humanity along on his energy.
The second-hander contributed nothing to the process except the impediments.
The contest has another name: the individual against the collective.
“The ‘common good’ of a collective—a race,
a class, a state—was the claim and justification of every tyranny ever
established over men. Every major horror of history was committed in the name
of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equaled the carnage
perpetrated by disciples of altruism? Does the fault lie in men’s hypocrisy or
in the nature of the principle? The most dreadful butchers were the most
sincere. They believed in the perfect society reached through the guillotine
and the firing squad. Nobody questioned their right to murder since they were
murdering for an altruistic purpose. It was accepted that man must be
sacrificed for other men. Actors change, but the course of the tragedy remains
the same. A humanitarian who starts with declarations of love for mankind and
ends with a sea of blood. It goes on and will go on so long as men
believe that an action is good if it is unselfish. That permits the altruist to
act and forces his victims to bear it. The leaders of collectivist movements
ask nothing for themselves. But observe the results.
“The only good
which men can do to one another and the only statement of their proper
relationship is—Hands off!
“Now observe the
results of a society built on the principle of individualism. This, our
country. The noblest country in the history of men. The country of greatest
achievement, greatest prosperity, greatest freedom. This country was not based
on selfless service, sacrifice, renunciation or any precept of altruism. It was
based on a man’s right to the pursuit of happiness. His own happiness. Not
anyone else’s. A private, personal, selfish motive. Look at the results. Look
into your own conscience.
“It is an ancient
conflict. Men have come close to the truth, but it was destroyed each time and
one civilization fell after another. Civilization is the progress toward a
society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws
of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
“Now, in our age,
collectivism, the rule of the second-hander and second-rater, the ancient
monster, has broken loose and is running amuck. It has brought men to a level
of intellectual indecency never equaled on earth. It has reached a scale of
horror without precedent. It has poisoned every mind. It has swallowed most of
Europe. It is engulfing our country.
“I am an
architect. I know what is to come by the principle on which it is built. We are
approaching a world in which I cannot permit myself to live.
“Now you know why
I dynamited Cortlandt.
“I designed
Cortlandt. I gave it to you. I destroyed it.
“I destroyed it
because I did not choose to let it exist. It was a double monster. In form and
in implication. I had to blast both. The form was mutilated by two
second-handers who assumed the right to improve upon that which they had not
made and could not equal. They were permitted to do it by the general
implication that the altruistic purpose of the building superseded all rights and
that I had no claim to stand against it.
“I agreed to
design Cortlandt for the purpose of seeing it erected as I dedigned it and for
no other reason. That was the price I set for my work. I was not paid.
“I do not blame
Peter Keating. He was helpless. He had a contract with his employers. It was
ignored. He had a promise that the structure he offered would be built as
designed. The promise was broken. The love of a man for the integrity of his
work and his right to preserve it are now considered a vague intangible and an
inessential. You have heard the prosecutor say that. Why was the building
disfigured? For no reason. Such acts never have any reason, unless it’s the
vanity of some second-handers who feel they have a right to anyone’s property,
spiritual or material. Who permitted them to do it? No particular man among the
dozens in authority. No one cared to permit it or to stop it. No one was
responsible. No one can be held to account. Such is the nature of all
collective action.
“I did not
receive the payment I asked. But the owners of Cortlandt got what they needed
from me. They wanted a scheme devised to build a structure as cheaply as
possible. They found no one else who could do it to their satisfaction. I could
and did. They took the benefit of my work and made me contribute it as a gift.
But I am not an altruist. I do not contribute gifts of this nature.
“It is said that
I have destroyed the home of the destitute. It is forgotten that but for me the
destitute could not have had this particular home. Those who were concerned
with the poor had to come to me, who have never been concerned, in order to help
the poor. It is believed that the poverty of the future tenants gave them the
right to my work. That their need constituted a claim on my life. That it was
my duty to contribute anything demanded of me. This is the second-hander’s
credo now swallowing the world.
"I came here to
say that I do not recognize anyone’s right to one minute of my life. Nor to any
part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of mine. No matter who makes the
claim, how large their number or how great their need.
“I wished to come
here and say that I am a man who does not exist for others.
“It had to be
said. The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing.
“I wished to come
here and say that the integrity of a man’s creative work is of greater
importance than any charitable endeavor. Those of you who do not understand
this are the men who’re destroying the world.
“I wished to come
here and state my terms. I do not care to exist on any others.
“I recognize no
obligations toward men except one: to respect their freedom and to take no part
in a slave society. To my country, I wish to give the ten years which I will
spend in jail if my country exists no longer. I will spend them in memory and
in gratitude for what my country has been. It will be my act of loyalty, my
refusal to live or work in what has taken its place.
“My act of loyalty to every creator who
ever lived and was made to suffer by the force responsible for the Cortlandt I
dynamited. To every tortured hour of loneliness, denial, frustration, abuse he
was made to spend—and to the battles he won. To every creator whose name is
known—and to every creator who lived, struggled and perished unrecognized
before he could achieve. To every creator who was destroyed in body or in
spirit. To Henry Cameron. To Steven Mallory. To a man who doesn’t want to be
named, but who is sitting in this courtroom and knows that I am speaking of
him.”
