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More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.comFore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com42THE EDUCATION OF AYN RAND, 1905–1943To effect this transvaluation of values Rand had to carefully redefineselfishness itself. Egoism or selfishness typically described one who“puts oneself above all and crushes everything in one’s way to get thebest for oneself,” she wrote. “Fine!” But this understanding was missingsomething critical. The important element, ethically speaking, was “notwhat one does or how one does it, but why one does it.” 6 Selfishnesswas a matter of motivation, not outcome. Therefore anyone who soughtpower for power’s sake was not truly selfish. Like Rand’s neighbor, thestereotypical egoist was seeking a goal defined by others, living as “theywant him to live and conquer to the extent of a home, a yacht and a fullstomach.” By contrast, a true egoist, in Rand’s sense of the term, wouldput “his own ‘I,’ his standard of values, above all things, and [conquer]to live as he pleases, as he chooses and as he believes.” Nor would a trulyselfish person seek to dominate others, for that would mean living forothers, adjusting his values and standards to maintain his superiority.Instead, “an egoist is a man who lives for himself.” 7What sounded simple was in fact a subtle, complicated, and potentiallyconfusing system. Rand’s novel reversed traditional definitions ofselfishness and egoism, in itself an ambitious and difficult goal. It alsoredefined the meaning and purpose of morality by excluding all socialconcerns. “A man has a code of ethics primarily for his own sake, notfor anyone else’s,” Rand asserted. 8 Her ideas also reversed traditionalunderstandings of human behavior by exalting a psychological mindsetutterly divorced from anything outside the self.As Rand described Howard Roark, she reverted to her earlier celebrationof the pathological Hickman from “The Little Street,” again mixingin strong scorn for emotions. “He was born without the ability to considerothers,” she wrote of Roark. “His emotions are entirely controlledby his logic . . . he does not suffer, because he does not believe in suffering.”She also relied liberally on Nietzsche to characterize Roark. As shejotted down notes on Roark’s personality she told herself, “See Nietzscheabout laughter.” 9 The book’s famous first line indicates the centrality ofthis connection: “Howard Roark laughed.”Like Nietzsche, Rand intended to challenge Christianity. She sharedthe philosopher’s belief that Christian ethics were destructive toselfhood, making life “flat, gray, empty, lacking all beauty, all fire, allenthusiasm, all meaning, all creative urge.” She also had a more specific