Posted on 09/30/2022 3:44:58 AM PDT by EBH
"As the tunnel came closer, they saw, at the edge of the sky far to the south, in a void of space and rock, a spot of living fire twisting in the wind. They did not know what it was and did not care to learn.
It is said that catastrophes are a matter of pure chance, and there were those who would have said that the passengers of the Comet were not guilty or responsible for the thing that happened to them.
The man in Bedroom A, Car No. 1, was a professor of sociology who taught that individual ability is of no consequence, that individual effort is futile, that an individual conscience is a useless luxury, that there is no individual mind or character or achievement, that everything is achieved collectively, and that it's masses that count, not men.
The man in Roomette 7, Car No. 2, was a journalist who wrote that it is proper and moral to use compulsion 'for a good cause' who believed that he had the right to unleash physical force upon others - to wreck lives, throttle ambitions, strangle desires, violate convictions, to imprison, to despoil, to murder - for the sake of whatever he chose to consider as his own idea of 'a good cause',which did not even have to be an idea, since he had never defined what he regarded as the good, but had merely stated that he went by 'a feeling' -a feeling unrestrained by any knowledge, since he considered emotion superior to knowledge and relied soley on his own 'good intentions' and on the power of a gun.
The woman in Roomette 10, Car No.3, was an elderly schoolteacher who had spent her life turning class after class of helpless children into miserable cowards, by teaching them that the will of the majority is the only standard of good and evil, and that a majority may do anything it pleases, that they must not assert their own personalities, but must do as others were doing.
The man in Drawing Room B, Car No. 4, was a newspaper publisher who believed that mend are evil by nature and unfit for freedom, that their basic interests, if left unchecked, are to lie, to rob and murder one another - and, therefore, men must be ruled by means of lies, robbery and murder, which must be made the exclusive privilege of the rules, for the purpose of forcing men to work, teaching them to be moral and keeping them within the bounds of order and justice.
The man in Bedroom H, Car No. 5, was a businessman who had acquired his business, an ore mine, with the help of a government loan, under the Equalization of Opportunity Bill.
The man in Drawing Room A, Car No 6, was a financier who had made a fortune by buying 'frozen' railway bonds and getting his friends in Washington to 'defreeze' them.
The man in Seat 5, Car No.7, was a worker who believed that he had "a right" to a job, whether his employer wanted him or not.
The woman in Roomette 6, Car no. 8, was a lecturer who believed that, as a consumer, she had "a right" to transportation, whether the railroad people wished to provide it or not.
The man in Roomette 2, Car No. 9, was a professor of economics who advocated the abolition of private property, explaining that intelligence plays no part in industrial production, that man's mind is conditioned by material tools, that anybody can run a factory or a railroad and it's only a matter of seizing the machinery.
The woman in Bedroom D, Car No. 10, was a mother who had put her two children to sleep in the berth above her, carefully tucking them in, protecting them from drafts and jolts; a mother whose husband held a government job enforcing directives, which she defended by saying, 'I don't care, it's only the rich that they hurt. After all, I must think of my children.'
The man in Roomette 3, Car No. 11, was a sniveling little neurotic who wrote cheap little plays into which, as a social message, he inserted cowardly little obscenities to the effect that all businessmen were scoundrels.
The woman in Roomette 9, Car No. 12, was a housewife who believed that she had the right to elect politicians, of whom she knew nothing, to control giant industries, of which she had no knowledge.
The man in Bedroom F, Car No.13, was a lawyer who had said, 'Me? I'll find a way to get along under any political system.'
The man in Bedroom A, Car No.14, was a professor of philosophy who taught that there is no mind - how do you know that the tunnel is dangerous? - no reality - how can you prove that the tunnel exists? - no logic - why do you claim that trains cannot move without motive power? - no principles - why should you be bound by the laws of cause and effect? - no rights - why shouldn't you attach men to their jobs by force? - no morality - what's moral about running a railroad? - no absolutes - what difference does it make to you whether you live or die anyway?. He taught that we know nothing - why oppose the orders of your superiors? - that we can never be certain of anything - how do you know you're right? - that we must act on the expediency of the moment - you don't want to risk your job do you?
The man in Drawing Room B, Car No.15, was an heir who had inherited his fortune, and who had kept repeating, 'Why should Rearden be the only one permitted to manufacture Rearden Metal?'
The man in Bedroom A, Car no. 16, was a humanitarian who had said, 'The men of ability? I do not care what or if they are made to suffer. They must be penalized in order to support the incompetent. Frankly, I do not care whether this is just or not. I take pride in not caring to grant any justice to the able, where mercy to the needy is concerned.'
These passengers were awake; there was not a man aboard the train who did not share one or more of their ideas. As the train went into the tunnel, the flame of Wyatt's Torch was the last thing they saw on earth." - Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged", p566-568
But, but is she trying to tell us something more than just death of the ideology? It she telling us that people cannot turn away from it? Maybe. The thought chills me to the bone, but maybe she was telling us something way more than we care to admit.
Consider liberals today. We often admire their lock-step mindset. Even when faced with truth and facts, they'll not change their mind or heart. We have entire culture to turn around, Rand seems to tell us we cannot and that death is their only fate.
While I know this thread will go off the 'rails' into some of Rand's real life perspectives, I hope it doesn't. My thoughts are not focused on her personally, but on what was being conveyed in this scene as it relates to today.
Are we already in the tunnel?
Is the only way to let it/them all die?
Can people of this mindset be saved from this fate?
Are we already in the tunnel? Yes
Is the only way to let it/them all die? Yes
Can people of this mindset be saved from this fate? Only Jesus Christ can open their eyes.
No. You cannot help people who don’t want help.
Especially if they are mentally ill.
Yeah. I really think it’s over for this country. We may be able to rebuild a Second Republic of the United States but it will not consist of 50 states, it will not be born without bloodshed, and it will not exist in my lifetime. The Do-Gooders have thrown away the best thing mankind has ever built.
Car number 14
The last few lines in Car #14 remind me of the covid injection and how they manipulated millions or how their philosophical thinking has been corrupted beyond logically thinking if they should.
It really is stunning to corollaries.
If they are Do-Gooders, how can they reject truth and facts?
Do the perceived good thing, even if it is harmful, even if it means death?
.
I am not sure that Rand even knew how much she understood. She certainly understood human nature and how it is twisted to support Communism.
The Democrats use this thinking as an instruction manual.
Sadly, Rand’s only “solution” is to apply force and kill them. She lacked morality, but, in the end, may be right.
Indeed we may have to let God sort them out. As we creep ever closer to eternity it is like we are witnessing the separation happening. People actually choosing en-masse and no amount of Truth changes their hearts.
The Do-Gooders have no knowledge of the Good. They are like Liz Cheney who seems to think she is a Republican. No one else in the country shares that belief.
I agree she may not have realize how much she understood. But what she did understand shaped her books. Was this passage vengeance? I do not think so. It may have taken me years to grasp what she was actually telling us. I have always taken it as the death of the ideology, until recently.
It bothers me.
Do gooders, is apt. Second paragraph. A legend in his own mind, selfless in his ownmind.
Mask wearing said it all that these people are stuck.
“Sadly, Rand’s only “solution” is to apply force and kill them.”
They killed themselves. They reaped the consequences of their beliefs.
L
I suppose I never thought of the passage as any kind of vengeance. It was clear objectivism. The people described were killed by the physical detachment of their own ideas from reality. The train they had created could not make it through the tunnel. They would not ever accept anyone’s explanation as to why not.
In this passage, yes.
I was referring more to Dagney’s commando raid at the end of the book, with my comment.
Well, if he paid it back, I'd save him. But the rest? Welcome to the tunnel, scumbags.
We make choices. And choices made in ignorance or stupidity will one day come back to annoy us or kill us. If critical mass in a nation operates that way, the nation is doomed.
My understanding of Rand was that she wanted people to continually learn and apply the objective knowledge acquired in productive pursuits so that one could live and even thrive.
She understood that man not only works. But creates and even gives selflessly. But it’s all on you. They are your decisions to make. Enjoy your rewards for good decisions. Don’t blame others for your bad ones.
She would not stand in the way of charitable giving, for example. She would admonish givers to know to whom and what causes they are giving to with a full understanding of how their gifts would be used. The same for investing money in a business.
Her favorite holiday was Christmas. Not because she was a Christian. (She wasn’t.) But because she saw in it a joyous celebration of giving to others out of the bounty of one’s own labor. Giving gifts out of good will because you want to and because you can afford to. Good decisions and hard work have paid off and now we’re going to enjoy it, too, so to speak.
“He who comes to kill you, arise and kill him first.”
L
And bad. The divide in America boils down to a lack of shared values. Our value/belief system is predicated in a belief in God. God is at the top of the hierarchy and all beliefs should trace to the top of the hierarchy. Western Civilization is also predicated on this hierarchy.
Every attempt at socialism/communism share a common objective: eliminate God and replace God with the state. At a spiritual level, that is always doomed to failure. Unfortunately the failure always occurs after mass atrocities against the people. The 20th century is filled with examples. I am loathed to the idea that Nietzsche was right, “God is dead, and we killed him.”
Bkmk
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