The fabric of man, biblically, is dirty. Under the misnomer “soil,” this substance means dirt; yet it is essentially pure until Man himself soils it, with blood, spit, or footprints, just as Eve first anointed it with the juice of an apple. Biologically, the zygotic recipe for a human results from the animalistic impulses, hormones, and sometimes emotions of two other humans. This act, like dirt, can remain beautiful or become contaminated. Therefore Man has the responsibility for his own cleanliness and meaning. If he holds in his hand a handful of the earth that formed him, or observes under the microscope the haploid from which his cells arose, and declares it insignificant or dirty, he has declared himself the same; if he finds beauty, greatness and potential in his roots, he has discovered them within himself. The latter, classified as "man-worship" by Ayn Rand in her introduction to The Fountainhead, is practiced by several characters, notably Ellsworth Toohey, Gail Wynand, and its protagonist, Howard Roark. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The Fountainhead outlines three basic classes of power: traditional, inverted, and apathetic, applied by Wynand, Toohey, and Roark, respectively. The salient similarity between these men and their techniques is their firm belief in the aforementioned concept of man-worship: the ability to see “not what men are, but what men might be” (328). Each man's expression of this is complementary to how he commands power, as well as his goals in doing so. Traditionally, the attainment of power comes from outward superiority and intimidation. This is Gail Wynand's practice. Born into poverty with “nothing but his two fists” (400), he uses his physical strengths to have power over his gang and his intellectual strengths to influence adults; the latter continues into his adulthood. At the age of fifty-one, Wynand has achieved everything he wanted as a child and more. He is also contemplating suicide. Men fear Wynand; By threatening their reputation and businesses, it threatens their security. They feel obligated to give him what he wants to save themselves. Yet Wynand also has a kind of “charming complacency in being used” that lulls others into a false sense of security, only to realize that “they had been used instead” (411). This same kind of fascination connects Wynand to his opponent, Ellsworth M. Toohey. Toohey, like Wynand, learns his favorite form of manipulation early in life; unlike Wynand, Toohey veers towards his intellectual supremacy. Instead of establishing himself as the most powerful person, he humbles himself, even as a child, so that others will see him “as a martyr” and treat him with “respectful concern” (294, 295). He instills in others the same sense of security as Wynand, as well as a deep sense of trust. Furthermore, by openly admitting his flaws before others can point them out, Toohey unconsciously convinces others that he, in fact, has no flaws. This, and essentially all of Toohey's methods, work by inversion: they do the opposite of what is obvious. Rather than saying what he wants people to do, he makes subliminal suggestions until that person thinks that not only does he want the same thing, but he conceived the idea himself. Arguably, Toohey's greatest tool is reverse psychology. His motivations can sometimes provide justification, such as exploiting Hopton Stoddard to acquire a home for subnormal children; the flaw in its charitable intentions, however, is the lack of real function. The house, 1993.