Atlas Shrugged – Day 097 – pp. 1080-1089 + pp. 1090-1099
Guess what? It’s two-fer Thursday. The story between 1080 and 1089 was pretty stock stuff. If it was a movie, it’d be some kind of juxtaposition of scenes with a bit of dramatic background music.
Witness…
“There is no cause for alarm,” said official broadcasts on December 5. “Mr. Thompson wishes it to be knows that the is willing to negotiate with John Galt…”
Cut to a hospital scene where a man beaten by his brother after accusing him of being selfish is wheeled in… Fade to Chick Morrison on whistle stop morale building tour being run out of his first stop… Cut to a woman in NY rushed to the hospital after being hit by a stranger for scolding her child to give away his best toys…
“But we are willing to negotiate!” yelled Mr. Thompson…
Workers above all but the most menial levels are disappearing. No one will take a promotion any more. Factories are burning, planes are crashing, trains are colliding, and refineries are exploding.
“Don’t despair! Don’t give up!” said official broadcasts on December 15…
Wesley Mouch had sent a small army of investigators looking for John Galt. No luck. Who’d they find?
“There’s a John Galt who’s a professor of ornithology, eighty years old — here’s a retired greengrocer with a wife and nine children — there’s an unskilled railroad laborer who’s held the same job for twelve years…”
Oops…
Supplies are in shortage. Prices are skyrocketing. They can’t print money fast enough. (Wow. Does it really work that way?)
On January 22, the final blow to Rearden Steel, which had been nationalized, was dealt. After one supervisor was run out and the second sold all the assets he could they finally burned the factory down.
Then cut to Dagny, who’s reading about the factory. Wishing that Hank wouldn’t have to hear about the fate of his factory. Knowing full well they don’t hide from reality in the valley.
Thompson confronts Dagny asking if she has any information about John Galt. She denies it. Then again inquiring what to do. Her answer is the same. His response is as well.
Cut to Dagny roaming the streets at 4am. (What on earth is she doing out in the midst of this chaos by herself at 4am?)
She has the number 367 in her mind. The address of a boarding house on the East River.
When she finally arrives she sees the writing on the door.
“John Galt, 5th, rear” scrawled in pencil by some illiterate hand…
She climbs the stairs, stand at the door and rings the bell…
“…suddenly there was no door before her and standing on the threshold what John Galt…”
See. Told you it wasn’t much for those 10 pages. But the next 10 get a bit more interesting…
He pulls her in and kisses her. Takes her hat and coat and tells her…
“They’ve surrounded the block by now.”
Dagny insists she wasn’t followed.
C’mon D. But now what she has to do will be harder than anything…
“There is no middle for you to take. And you cannot take my side, not so long as we’re in their hands, Now you must take their side.”
What!!??
He knows them better than she does. They’ll kill her to get to him. And he’ll kill himself rather than live under their rules. So…
“When they come,… tell them you had been trying to find me for them, that you became suspicious when you saw my name on your payroll list and that you came here to investigate. … Afterward, you’ll claim and accept the $500,000 reward they’ve offered for my capture.”
She looks around. This is how you’ve lived?
No like this. And he opens a back room door to “the most efficiently modern laboratory she had ever seen.”
Naturally.
His motor has been powering the whole show. Rand doesn’t mention what he’d been working on. Some scientific marvel to rebuild the world, no doubt.
Suddenly the doorbell rings.
“Now is the time not to be afraid.”
He locks the lab, hands her her coat, and opens the door. It’s the looter gestapo. Stern, official mood fills the air.
“…are you John Galt?”
“My name is John Galt.”
“Are you the John Galt?”
“Which one?”
Dagny chimes in to identify him as the traitor. Suddenly the mood lightens.
“Mr Galt!… It is an honor to meet you… We’re not your enemies, Mr. Galt. I assure you…”
They’re only there to escort him for a conference, a meeting of the minds.
But first they have to see what’s behind the locked door.
Private stuff.
Would you open it?
No.
The soldiers try to force it and whatever magic he warned about in the valley happens and everything behind the door destroys itself. Wonder what Rand had in mind here? I’m getting that mental image of Mel Gibson setting his apartment on fire in Conspiracy Theory. (Great movie — except for Julia Roberts…)
Anyway, cut to the Wayne-Falkland hotel. Galt is sitting in a suite on the 60th floor. In comes Mr. Thompson. Nervous. But forcing himself to believe the things he’s been spouting about John Galt solving their problems.
He’s not under arrest.
“I’m offering you a deal.”
“I’m always open to a deal”
“I knew it!” cried Thompson… “I told them so — all those fool intellectual theorizers, like Wesley!”
“I’m always open to a deal — with anyone who has a value to offer me.”
Oops.
Here’s John Galt’s deal: Get the hell out of the way. Of course that’s still impossible.
“You can’t expect us to ditch the machinery of State. … We’ll co-operate. We’ll compromise. We’ll split fifty-fifty. We’ll keep the sphere of politics and give you total power over the sphere of economics. … you’ll be the Economic Dictator of the nation!”
Galt burst out laughing…
I get the joke. He already is the dictator of the nation — though not as a dictator. He just holds all the cards. Thompson can’t trade with what he doesn’t have. And he still doesn’t seem to realize it.
Nice irony. More to come…