- It's flashback time!
- We get a chapter dedicated to the life story of Ellsworth Toohey.
- In a nutshell, we find out that Toohey was a wimpy kid who developed a lot of resentment for kids who were bigger, faster, stronger, smarter, or richer than him.
- Basically Toohey hated anything that was distinctive.
- He decided that he liked ideas of humility and submission, and he started embracing and preaching that as he grew older.
- At college and beyond, he gained a following with his ability to say nice sounding things and manipulate people.
- Toohey worked as the world's worst career advisor for a while and encouraged mediocrity and conformity.
- He then started writing and became a celebrity after he started publishing.
- And that catches us up to the present day.