You judge a man moral by his actions or, as in this case, his inaction. You do not judge a man by his thoughts. You do not know his thoughts. This is a major error of those fond of psychology and psychologizing. From Galt’s speech: “a breach of morality is the conscious choice of an action you know to be evil, or a willful evasion of knowledge, a suspension of sight and of thought.”
In the Fountainhead, there was a scene where Gail Wynand got beat by a drunken longshoreman. He had managed to drag himself around a corner to a saloon. �The saloonkeeper came out. It was the only time in his life that Gail Wynand asked for help. The saloonkeeper looked at him with a flat, heavy glance, a glance that showed full consciousness of agony, of injustice�and a stolid, bovine indifference. The saloonkeeper went inside and slammed the door. He had no desire to get mixed up with gang fights.� This is what we see. There was no mention of what the saloonkeeper thought. The description says just enough for you to see that the saloonkeeper understood the situation and choose not to act on that knowledge.
A man may think many things, but still choose moral actions. Only the man himself knows his thoughts. Only his actions can be judged. As long as we are alive, to live, action is our foremost obligation.
Gail Wynand judged these two men according to their actions. The longshoreman was drunk and acted on that level of thought. He acted poorly, yet he acted accordingly to his judgment. The saloonkeeper had no such incoherency. He is a man who chooses to act less than one, to act less than an animal. Even many animals will help their own. He chose not to act at all.
�Years later, Gail Wynand, publisher of the New York Banner, still knew the names of the longshoreman and the saloonkeeper, and where to find them. He never did anything to the longshoreman. But he caused the saloonkeeper’s business to be ruined, his home and savings to be lost, and drove the man to suicide.�
No, I do not think what Wynand did was right, but I like justice. I also liked The Count of Monte Cristo. You bastards who declare “Judge not that ye be not judged” can go fuck yourselves. You allow others to act immoral so that you may do so also? I�ve mentioned before about what happens to people with a fucked up morality. You have to sneak in a little �evil� to actually live. Miserable bastards, my principle is to “judge, and be prepared to be judged.”
No sympathy for the devil.