[general_re]

Only as a deus ex machina to spring forth some Noble Undertaking on the hapless reader. Yeah, yeah - Francisco goes to work in the mills. Which, by the way, puts him in the perfect position to mount his white charger and lead the workers in defending against looter thugs - what a coincidence, that he just so happened to be in the right place at the right time! Phew, that was close, eh?

Gimme a break - Rand just shoved him in there to reveal just what sort of an Alpha Male we're dealing with here, buster, so you can forget about winning against these guys, you looters, you. Can we possibly imagine a more transparent plot device? Oh, oh - I know! How about if Francisco descends on the mills in his flying saucer and uses his Reardon Metal-enabled Super-Hypno Powers to organize the workers - that's only slightly less believable than the feckless-playboy-with-a-heart-of-gold bit Rand gives us, right?

[fortheDeclaration]

At least one of her characters (I believe the Aristotlian philosopher) was working as a short order cook.

Remember, the 'movement'consisted of thousands of people, not just the few that Rand had as the leaders.