The fabric of man, according to the Bible, is dirt. Under the improper term "earth", this substance means dirt; Yet it is essentially pure until man himself defiles it, with blood, spit, or footprints, just as Eve first mixed it with the juice of an apple. Biologically, a human's zygotic recipe results from the animal drives, hormones, and sometimes the emotions of two other humans. This act, like dirt, can remain beautiful or become tainted. Thus Man bears responsibility for his own cleanliness and his own meaning. If he holds a handful of the earth that created him, or if he looks under a microscope at the haploid from which his cells came and declares it insignificant or dirty, he has declared himself such; if he finds beauty, greatness and potential in his roots, he has discovered them in himself. The latter, described as "the cult of man" 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 Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Fountainhead describes three fundamental classes of power: traditional, inverted, and apathetic, applied by Wynand, Toohey, and Roark, respectively. The main similarity between these men and their techniques lies in their firm belief in the aforementioned concept of the cult of man: the ability to see "not what men are, but what men might be" (328). Each man's expression of this completes the manner in which he controls power, as well as his purposes in doing so. Traditionally, access to power results from external 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 gain power over his gang and his intellectual strengths to influence the adults; the latter continues into one's own adulthood. By the age of fifty-one, Wynand had acquired everything he wanted as a child and much more. He also contemplates suicide. Men fear Wynand; by threatening their reputation and businesses, it threatens their security. They feel obligated to give him what he wants in order to save themselves. Yet Wynand also has a kind of "charming complacency about being used" that lulls others into a false sense of security, only to realize "that they were used instead" (411). . This same kind of charm links Wynand to his adversary, Ellsworth M. Toohey. Toohey, like Wynand, learns his preferred form of manipulation early on; unlike Wynand, Toohey turns to his intellectual supremacy. Rather than asserting himself as the most powerful person, he humiliates himself, even as a child, so that others will view 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. Additionally, by openly admitting his flaws before others can point them out, Toohey subconsciously convinces others that, in fact, he has no flaws. This method, and essentially all of Toohey's methods, works by reversal, that is, by doing the opposite of what is obvious. Rather than saying what he wants people to do, he makes subliminal suggestions until that person not only thinks they want the same thing, but that they conceived the idea on their own. Without a doubt, Toohey's best tool is reverse psychology. His motivations can sometimes provide a, 1993.