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Why are the heroes in Atlas Shrugged good-looking?

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Cbaoth

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After considering this question at length, I believe there is basically one central idea that separates Stadler from Roark.  Stadler wants what he hasn't earned.  He wants respect and power and freedom for himself, but in a context where he gets this unconditionally, without effort.

...  It's hard to make a sharp contrast between Stadler's disdain for people, and Roark's aloofness, for example.

Wrong. That's not the central idea of Stadler.

Apparently it is difficult for YOU to contrast Stadler with Roark.

It's not nearly so difficult for me. There's a big difference between loving the best in Man and hating Mankind in general.

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As I recall Stadler always said, "What can you do when you are dealing with people?"  This would probably be his justification for not caring.

Stadler's "What can you do when you deal with people?" showed that he cared very much about them -- and he was AFRAID of them. It is the essence of his problem -- and of Wynand's as well. Both men eventually gave up trying to find the answer, concluding that their only option was to control other men.

Compare that with Roark who spent over a decade trying to figure out the "Principle Behind the Dean" or Dagny struggling to understand what the looters were after. They knew there was a reasonable answer and they weren't dealing with something incomprehensively monstrous they had to control.

When I see people, including Objectivists right here on this forum, who seem overly concerned or even obsessed with other people's problems and are looking for a way to "make them" be rational, I see people with a ""What can you do when you deal with people?" problem. It is often difficult to understand other people and know what to do about it, but there ARE answers and trying to control people isn't it.

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I'm having a tough time understanding how anybody could think that it's hard to make a distinction between Robert Stadler, one of Ayn Rand's most despicable villains, and Howard Roark.

Stadler doesn't just have "disdain" for people, he sees other people as being not good enough for anything but living as slaves to support those who he sees as the "better people", such as himself.

Stadler doesn't think he should have to earn anything. He thinks that his superior scientific knowledge entitles him to take whatever wealth he wants from people who have earned it. Even when he knows that his knowledge is being used to develop a weapon to enforce tyranny, he does nothing to stop it (and he has plenty of opportunities to do so). He doesn't care about the evil he's supporting and making possible.

This is a person with a deep-seated hatred of man.

How does that even begin to compare with Howard Roark? It is true that Roark is a man who is completely indifferent to many men: mediocrities such as Peter Keating and Guy Francon. He doesn't care about them, but he has no desire to control them or live at their expense.

But far from being "aloof", he is a passionate valuer of the best in men.

To see this, re-read the scenes in which he meets Mike Donnigan (the electrician), Henry Cameron, and Steven Mallory. (These scenes are some of my favorites in the book; I'll sometimes re-read them when I want some inspiration, and examples of the best in Man.) Also, follow the development of Roark's friendship with Austen Heller.

Consider how the lives of each of these men were enriched by knowing Howard Roark.

His relationships with these men show, in fact, how naturally, easily and benevolently Roark deals with other people.

Also notice how much the occupants of Roark's buildings come to appreciate them and how the man who "wanted to have clients in order to build" has in fact constructed buildings that made the lives of the occupants so much easier. Think, for example, of what a relaxing vacation a man will have who stays at Roark's Monadnock resort - and all because Roark was thinking of what people really need when they go on vacation.

Roark isn't a gregarious party-hound. And he doesn't seek out the company of incompetent or mediocre people who have nothing of value to offer him. But this does not imply that he has any kind of misanthropic streak. Rather, it is confirmation that he seeks the best in other men, as he does in his work.

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Wrong. That's not the central idea of Stadler.

Apparently it is difficult for YOU to contrast Stadler with Roark.

It's not nearly so difficult for me. There's a big difference between loving the best in Man and hating Mankind in general.

If one believes that Stadler hates mankind in general, then the distinction is very easy. In my original reading, I interpreted his actions differently. Having trouble dealing with people, especially scientific incompetence, or people who don't share his work ethic would be sufficient for him to utter the phrase "what can you do when you're dealing with people". In my first reading, it was not clear the extent to which it indicated general misanthrope. Similarly, when he doesn't stop development of the death ray, or the publication of anti-science drivel in his name, it is clearly a character flaw. A horriffic one, but I misjudged its nature on first reading to be more related to cowardice, than malice.

Anyway, I'm done with Stadler and Roark comparisons. If Stadler genuinely hates mankind, he's certainly not comparable to Roark -- even if Roark destroys buildings, and rapes, etc.

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