Toohey is a spiritual killer looking for an opportunity to become a physical one. He has the power to destroy. This power is limited, however, to conformists like Keating, who are looking for a master to follow — and to a panderer like Wynand, who allows Toohey a foothold in his organization because of the columnist's popularity. But over an independent man like Roark, who has no need of him — who does not even think of him — Toohey has no power. His power is limited to those victims who voluntarily grant him their souls or, at least, a beachhead in their lives. Those who grant Toohey nothing, like Roark and Dominique, are in no danger from him.
That Toohey's destructive capacity is limited is true — but it is a relatively minor point. The major point is that Toohey has no power to create. Ayn Rand's claim is that evil is irrational; it does not focus on reality, seeking to build, create, or grow; it focuses only on other men, seeking to enslave, control, and destroy. She calls this point the impotence of evil. Evil men are capable only of destruction, never of construction. They can tear down; they cannot build up. Toohey succeeds in destroying The New York Banner, but is incapable of recreating it after Wynand closes it. Any "victory" won by evil men is empty. They are incapable of creativity and — despite the number of souls they conquer, innocent lives they destroy, or dollars they loot — their lives are miserable. As Toohey tells Keating, "Enjoyment is not my destiny." Happiness comes from achieving values, from building and producing, not from desecrating and destroying.
Roark is a happy man. He creates value by bringing into the world new designs and structures. He is a builder and looks out at nature joyously: "He looked at the granite. To be cut, he thought, and made into walls. He looked at a tree. To be split and made into rafters." His life is filled exclusively with plans to build; even during the times with no clients, he studies the new materials and technologies, learning how to use them, working toward the day when he can apply this knowledge to build a Cortlandt Homes and other new buildings. Even working in a granite quarry is a means toward that end, for Roark saves money so that he can reopen his office and return to architecture. Roark, the independent thinker, is rational (focused on facts, on nature, on reality). This rationality is what enables him to build. Roark is an exemplar of the man who conquers nature, not other men. His rational functioning, like that of a scientist, is what enables him to achieve, build, and produce. Here is the positive side of the issue — the potency of the good. Only the good can achieve values. Only the good can deal effectively with reality. Only the good can create and build. In consequence, only the good can reach a state of flourishing life and experience joy.
