If there was ever a man to deserve a good beat down, it was Ellsworth Toohey. But we did see a fight between him and Roark.. an intellectual fight. And the result of that was much more satisfying than any physical encounter that could have gone down.
And if it’s not clear, you can always ask for clarifications. But, whatever you do, don’t act as if the other guy is just an animal. Odds are he’s not. He isn’t a dog, he isn’t like a dog, he isn’t in an animal-like frame of mind, and his actions definitely aren’t automatic. He has intentions, he has a plan, and his insults are a part of his plan, not an automatic “sign” of his frame of mind.
I found a quote by Rand which happens to articulate better my thought: “Irrationality is a state of default, the state of an unachieved human stature. When men do not choose to reach the conceptual level, their consciousness has no recourse but to its automatic, perceptual, semi-animal functions.” I consider baseless insults irrational by nature, disconnected from reality, pure emotionalism. Emotion is an automatic function, and to let it run wild is irrationality at its finest. You cannot engage this type of thinking on rational grounds, so you abandon the situation. It’s possible the other person is scheming, but if the context were a bar fight, that’s not a reasonable hypothesis. (I can’t think of good contexts to discuss, but I think of comparing bar fights, to playground insults, to insults from a calm person trying to make you angry).
I found a quote by Rand which happens to articulate better my thought
She isn’t writing about this subject. In the essay you are quoting from, she is referring to two types of men who’s character is defined by irrationality: the Attila and the Witch Doctor, and their followers.
If you wish to communicate what she said in that passage, outside the context of the essay, your best approach would be to name the subject of her sentence. Then, your quote would read: " The irrationality [Attilla and the Witch Doctor profit from] is a state of default, …"
Taking that quote and applying it to someone who is insulting you in a bar is context dropping. One irrational action does not make one either of the archetypes Ayn Rand is talking about in the quote.