Atlas Shrugged – Day 079 – pp. 852-861
You know, I’m thinking. Wasn’t Hank Rearden’s motive one of self-interest too? I mean he made a choice. And he chose what he wanted to do. He knows he can re-build Rearden Metal. Maybe he was protecting a higher ideal too — Dagny. She’s the last remnant of capitalist morality in the world. Maybe this was his way of defending her as a principle. Maybe he is the moral hero of the book.
Anyway, on with the show…
“You have heard it said that I believe that this system has depravity as its motive, plunder as its goal, lies, fraud and force as its method and destruction as its only result.”
That’s a good start.
“It is true that I share the stand of Hank Rearden. His political convictions are mine.”
Hank criticized the G mercilessly and then signed over Rearden Metal which the G then spun as his tacit endorsement of them.
“He signed the one paper which, by all of his previous record, you had expected him to fight to the death.”
Now she says, judge him for the motive of his action…
“For two years, I had been Hank Rearden’s mistress. Let there be no misunderstanding about it: I am saying this, not as a shameful confession but with the highest sense of pride.”
HOLY CRAP! She’s coming clean! (In her own inimitable way.)
“Did I feel a physical desire for him? I did. Was I moved by a passion of my body? I was. Have I experienced the most violent form of sensual pleasure? I have.”
Whoa! It’s the 1950s. Shouldn’t they be going to commercial?
“Bertram Scudder was staring at her; this was not the speech he had expected… he enjoyed hearing this kind of story. . . James Taggart and Lillian Rearden sat frozen, like animals paralyzed by the headlight of a train . . .Chick Morrison’s staff was ready to cut the broadcast off the air in case of trouble. . . but he was curious to hear it.”
Seems Jim and Lill are the only ones who know what trouble lies ahead.
“It was the ultimate form of our admiration for each other, with full knowledge of the values by which we made our choice.”
Can she talk dirty or what?
After a bit more titillation (I guess after figuring out it’s not getting any more explicit), Bertram Scudder interrupts to ask if this story is going anywhere.
“It was the blackmail threat that our relationship would be made public that forced Hank rearden to sign the Gift Certificate surrendering Rearden Metal. It was blackmail — blackmail by your government officials, by your rulers, by your–“
YEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!
Bertram Scudder knocks the mic away from her. Panic ensues.
“The were not fighting over what to do, but over whom to blame.”
Dagny leaves, gets into a cab and heads home.
On the ride, she’s once again thinking about John Galt and how this confession somehow DQs her from ever having him.
I am confused. How would her full acceptance of the reality of life as it has become, push her away from the guy who’s understood the consequences of where this reality was leading from the get go?
She gets home. AHHHHHHH!
Hank’s there. She breaks down in tears. He comforts her.
But apparently it’s not just the emotional throes of the evening that have got her down. She’s planning to tell Hank about JG.
“She felt terror at the thought that she would not have the strength to do it, and terror at the thought that she would.”
Anyway, she’s about to confess when Hank interrupts.
“Hank, there’s something I have to tell you.”
“So have I. Will you let me speak first?”
Ooooh. Mutual confessions. These are always good.
And off we go in to five pages of Hank’s revelations. Let me see if I can cut it down a bit.
“I love you Dagny.”
Wow.
He loves her like he loves his work. WOW!
“You knew it. But it’s I who must say it to you if I am to redeem all those days and to let them be fully what they were for both of us. . . . You knew it and I didn’t, I had to learn it when I sat at my desk and looked at the Gift Certificate for Rearden Metal.”
Better late than never.
He says she knew it all the while he was hurling insults at her in the sack. While he was damning them for giving in to their baser physical lusts.
And then he goes on and on and on about the looters. How he let himself be a pawn in their plans.
“I rebelled against the looters’ attempt to set the price and value of my steel — but I let them set the moral values of my life. . . . I rebelled against the doctrine that my productive ability was guilt — but I accepted, as guilt, my capacity for happiness.”
He’s finally coming ’round.
And now he confesses he’s alienated the only two people he’s ever loved.
Yes, Hank gives a big nod to Francisco.
“I slapped the face of the man who was my friend, my defender, my teacher, the man who set me free by helping me to learn what I’ve learned.”
And of course there’s Dagny. By insisting they keep their affair secret, he gave the looters the ammo they needed to pull this whole thing off.
“People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked.”
That’s interesting!
Anyway, the light’s finally gone on and Hank’s finally found happiness.
“I wanted to say it to you while I still had the right to say it. And because I had not said it at out beginning, this is the way I have to say it — at the end.”
Huh???
“Now I’ll tell you what it was that you wanted to tell me — because you see, I know it and I accept; somewhere within the past month, you have met the man you love. . .”
WHOA!!
“Hank, how did you know?”
He smiled and pointed at the radio. “My darling, you used nothing but the past tense.”
Wait a minute!! “I wanted him, I had him, I was happy…”
Yep she did.
She ‘fesses up.
“. . .but he’s a man whom I can’t have, whom I may never have and, perhaps, may never see again”
(Again, see my bewilderment above.)
But holy crap again! Hank’s cool.
“What you’ll give him is not taken away from me, it’s what I’ve never had.”
Wow! What a sentiment. Hank, the noble, chivalrous MAN!!! (#newrespectforHank.)
“Hank, I don’t think I can explain it, but I feel that I have committed no treason, either to you or to him.”
“You haven’t.”