Atlas Shrugged – Day 041 – pp. 399-408
No it’s not a cuisinart.
It’s her husband at the reception. In the presence of so many of whom it will impress.
“Your guests are quite impressed. I can practically hear them thinking all over the room. Most of them are thinking: ‘If he has to seek terms with Jim Taggart, we’d better toe the line.”
So it’s not really a gift. More of an exchange? What’s she want?
“Don’t worry, I’m not lobbying for any special interests, I’m not after squeezing some particular directive out of Mr. Mouch, I’m not even after a diamond tiara from you. Unless, of course its a tiara of a non-material order, such as your appreciation.”
Oooooooh. She’s slick.
Then she moves on and finds Dagny.
What does Dagny think of the wedding?
Not much.
How about Jim’s new bride.
Not much either
But wouldn’t she accord another woman the respect due a great accomplishment no matter how they had to go about it.
“Oh, but consider, for instance, how hard other women would have had to work — if work were the only means available to them – to achieve what this girl has achieved through the person of your brother.”
“I don’t think she know the exact nature of what she has achieved.”
But Dagny musn’t hold it against a woman, who does not possess her skills, to use what charms she does possess.
Actually, Dagny can do whatever she wants. Lillian can’t seem to get an upper-hand in the conversation, so she opts to go low.
She notices Dagny is wearing the Rearden Metal bracelet she swapped her for at her own shindig.
What follows is a page and a half of innuendo and non-acknowledgement. Lillian beats around the bush at what Dagny’s wearing the bracelet may indicated to the partygoers. Dagny refuses to take the bait.
“The responsibility and the risk will be theirs, not mine”
Best way to cut off a conversation like this? Address the BS outright:
“Mrs Rearden, is this the manner and place in which you choose to suggest that I am sleeping with your husband?
“Certainly not!” The cry was immediate, it had a sound of panic and the quality of an automatic reflex, like the jerk of withdrawal of a pickpocket’s hand caught in action. . . . “That would be the possibility farthest from my mind.”
“Then you will please apologize to Miss Taggart.”
Oh. Hank steps in.
“Please accept my apology, Miss Taggart, if I gave you the impression that I suspected the existence of a relationship which I would consider improbable for you and — from my knowledge of his inclinations — impossible for my husband.”
Funny thing. Lillian is so practiced in the art of social politics — one step removed from actual politics I guess — while Dagny and Hank both refuse to take part. To someone it would almost seem that they are the perfect couple.
Cut back to Jim who’s going on about “the dawn of a new age.”
“We are breaking up the vicious tyranny of economic power, We will set me n free of the rule of the dollar. We will release out spiritual aims from dependence on the owners of material means. We will liberate our culture from the stranglehold of the profit-chasers. We will build a society dedicated to higher ideals, and we will replace the aristocracy of money by — ”
“– the aristocracy of pull” said a voice from beyond the group.
Yeah, baby! It’s Francisco. A party ain’t a party without him.
And Taggart is unnerved by this unexpected presence. Apparently he wasn’t on the guest list, but Francisco would never miss an event like this.
“You didn’t think I’d want to miss your wedding, James — when you’re my childhood friend and best stockholder?”
Uh oh. Who owns Jim Taggart now?
How’d he know?
“I know the stooge behind the stooge behind every name on the list of the stockholders of d’Anconia Copper. It’s surprising how many men by the name of Smith and Gomez are rich enough to own big chunks of the richest corporation in the world –“
Ah ha!
Taggart said dryly, frowning, “There are many reasons — business reasons — why it is sometimes advisable not to makes one’s investments directly.”
“One reason is that a man doesn’t want people to know he’s rich. Another is that he doesn’t want them to learn how he got that way.
Bam! What are we up to? Francisco 27 – Jim 0
And now it’s time to fuck with Jim some more.
“You should have expected me James. This is the great, formal, nose-counting event, where the victims come in order to show how safe it is to destroy them, and the destroyers from pacts of eternal friendship, which lasts for three month. I don’t know exactly which group I belong to, but I had to come and be counted, didn’t I?”
And then another revelation of truth from Francisco:
“I think it’s funny. There was a time when men were afraid that somebody would reveal some secret o their s that was unknown to their fellows. Nowadays, they’re afraid that somebody will name what everybody knows.”
The open yet unspoken lies and deceptions of the looter class.
Francisco knows everything that has been going on. The looters in Santiago connected with the looters in Washington and struck a deal to squeeze the market and tie in with d’Anconia copper. When the directives were implemented, d’A Copper stock soared. All the Smiths and Gomezs were suddenly much richer. And the Santiago boys slapped another tax on d’Anconia Copper.
He knows everything. They made him richer than he was without him doing a thing.
Francisco strolls off much to Jim’s relief.
Crossing the room, he bumps into Dagny.
He asked “Don’t you want to tell me what a brilliant achievement the John Galt line turned out the be”
“I’m sorry if I show that I’m still open to be hurt. It shouldn’t shock me that you’ve come to the stage where you despise achievement.”
(She still doesn’t have a clue)
“Yes, don’t I? I despised that Line so much that I didn’t’ want to se it reach the kind of end it has reached. . . . Don’t you want to ask me now: Who is John Galt?”
“Why should I want to and why now?”
“Don’t you remember that you dared him to come and claim your Line. Well he has. . .”
???!!!