“Evil” minds pt. 2

Atlas Shrugged – Day 068 – pp. 741-750

Now Rand twists — or rather UNtwists — a commonly held belief.

“We’ve heard so much about strikes. . .and about the dependence of the uncommon upon the common. We’ve heard it shouted that the industrialist is a parasite, that his workers support him, create his wealth, make his luxury possible — and what would happen to him if they walked out? Very well. I propose to show the world who depends on whom, who supports whom, who is the source of wealth, who make whose livelihood possible and what happens to whom when who walks out.”

(Yeah – she actually wrote that last sentence.  Grammatically perfect, but sounds like hell. )

“When thinkers accept those who deny the existence of thinking, as fellow thinkers of a different school of thought — it is they who achieve the destruction of the mind.

Each man in the room goes on and describes the reasons for why they went “on strike.”

Essentially, the revelation for them all was they didn’t need society, society needed them. And to live unrecognized and even reviled as villains, while supporting that society — they’d had enough.

The greatest inventions left on their own, no longer in the nurturing care of the great minds who created them, are useless to the masses.

Galt left his motor behind. He knew it was worthless to the Starnes kids as it was. He knew the principles and ideas behind it could never be taken away from him. That owning all the factories, equipment, resources in the world doesn’t make a man wealthy unless he knows what to do with it all.

The limitless power of the human mind (Ayn Rand is a motivational speaker!)

And now a little background on the start up of their little commune.

How did Galt convince everyone to come along?

“I told them they were right. . . .I gave them the pride they did not know they had. I gave them the words to identify it. I gave them that priceless possession which they had missed, had longed for, yet had not known they needed: a moral sanction.”

The valley was Mulligan’s private retreat for years. When he dropped out, he built a house there and shipped in all the supplies he needed. When he heard about the Judge and Richard Halley quitting, he invited them to join him there.

“We had no rules of any kind,” said Galt, “except one. When a man took our oath it meant a single commitment: not to work in his own profession, not to give to the world the benefit of his mind.”

Eventually their numbers began to grow.

In the beginning they didn’t think they’d ever leave the valley.

“But now we think that we will see, and soon, the day of our victory and of our return.”

“When.”

“When the code of the looters has collapsed. . . .when man finds no victims ready to obstruct the path of justice and to deflect the fall of retribution on themselves — when the preachers of self-sacrifice discover that those who are willing to practice it, have nothing to sacrifice, and those who have, are not willing any longer. . . when they have no pretense of authority left, no remnant of law, no trace of morality, no hope, no food and no way to obtain it– then they collapse and the road is clear — then we’ll come back to rebuild the world.”

That still doesn’t really answer my question. When society hits rock bottom, what will change the masses mindset. If their lives are sponging off a G who is, in reality only stealing from them, what will change that entitlement mentality? What will keep them from expecting the same from the rebuilders? Can they rebuild a moral code in the masses as well? Maybe I’m missing something here.

Anyway, they’ve made their pitch.

She asks for some time to think it over.

She and Galt head back to his place. He carries her in. Brief sexual tension. And then he takes her to her room.

As he’s leaving, she notices inscriptions on the walls.  “You’ll get over it — Ellis Wyatt.” “It will be all right by morning — Ken Danagger.” “It’s worth it. — Roger Marsh.”

“This is the room where they all spent their first night in the valley. The fist night is the hardest. It’s the last pull of the break with one’s memories, and the worst. . . .They’ve all gone through this room. Now they call it the torture chamber. . . This is the room I never intended you to occupy. Good night Miss Taggart.”

And that’s chapter 1. Our intro to the “new world.” Long on philosophical explaining. Short on action. (With another 500 or so pages to go, I’d hope the action picks back up.)  Wonder what happens next. . .