Nation and the movers

From last class, and thinking about nation building and what it means makes me think to the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.  Though this might not directly associate with what the main categories of an alternative body, I feel like (especially with the term nationbuilding) her novels, The Fountainhead, The Anthem, and Atlas Shrugged enforce this idea of individualism.  The protagonists celebrate individualism and ideas that seem to go against the current.  Society expects them to fit and form to the methods and traditions, and a quality of giving people a reward for such a lack of effort.  In nationbuilding, and thinking about the movers and shakers of the world, it makes me realize how much negativity is used as a natural fuel for motivation and drive.  Fear and insults drive people to do better, but why is this tactic necessary?  Thinking about the laughter as a fuel comment, it seems as though the main basis for why people might do something extraordinary is that they feel that they some how have to be vindicated for whatever trouble had affected them (directly or indirectly).  Leadership and the desire for leadership and changing is based off of negativity.  I was just thinking, what if we stopped and thought, and turning internal negative energy into supportive laughter.