The Virtue of Unselfishness

When I was in a college, I saw a poster advertising an Ayn Rand study group and the book The Fountainhead.  Was disgusted by the summary of her philosophy, "The Virtue of Selfishness."  Seemed like portraying ordinary ignorance, selfishness, as wisdom.

Saw the movie recently The Fountainhead.  Finished it, and still wasn't sure whether it had anything to do with philosophy, or if it was just a movie that happened to have the same name.  The movie was certainly full of disreputable characters, and the protagonist didn't seem much better.  He was an architect who was loyal to his artistic vision and eventually got to design something according to his personal vision.

Like, so what?  He was fortunate that he won in the end, but that's all it was, was good fortune.  He had no morality, or ability to see beyond himself.  

It's depressing that there are people who think that this is somehow a commendable philosophy or a virtue.  I can be happy for an architect that he succeeded as an architect, but it was nothing more significant or commendable than that.  Everyone in the movie was selfish.  The protagonist was no different.  He had an artistic vision which he was loyal to, but this was no more selfish than anyone else.  So why pretend that the movie somehow displayed that selfishness is a virtue.

Rand was just an ordinary person lacking the ability to understand morality or virtue.  The world is full of them.