FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Man Who Belonged on Earth

A Publius Essay | 28 March 2009 | Publius

[Publius]

Part II: Either-Or
Chapter I: The Man Who Belonged on Earth

Synopsis

At the State Science Institute, Dr. Robert Stadler reflects on the harsh winter just ended. There had been rail incidents that affected society, a five day power outage at the Institute and talk about conserving fuel. What irks Stadler is the book on his desk, Why Do You Think You Think?. It demeans logic and rational thought, questions the very nature of reality, is written by Dr. Floyd Ferris, Top Coordinator of the State Science Institute, and is published under the Institute’s aegis.

Dr. Ferris arrives half an hour late due to a car breakdown and the inability to find an open gas station on America’s empty roads. Stadler complains that Ferris is spending too much time in Washington and asks what is going on with the oil shortage. Ferris says the Institute has taken over the reclamation of the Wyatt oil fields while explaining to the country that Wyatt had never fired his fields but had perished in the accident that set them ablaze. The government is now operating those fields. Reclamation is going well, and Wesley Mouch has agreed to a larger appropriation for the effort with the concurrence of three other bureaucracies. But other than getting one well to give up six and a half gallons of oil, the effort is not a success.

One of Stadler’s concerns is Project X. Ferris explains that “X” stands for “xylophone”, and it would be most inadvisable for Stadler to mention this top secret project.

But Stadler is most concerned with Ferris’ book, characterizing it as “indecency”. Ferris says it is a best seller. Stadler calls it the work of a drunken lout, leering with its hatred of the mind; it can be summed up by one word: “Obey.” He is furious that it has come from the Institute. Ferris says the book is not for scientists, but for the general public. Stadler is upset that Ferris has taken the work of Simon Pritchett and given it legitimacy by turning it into science. Ferris says that people don’t want to think and that they will bless anyone who takes the obligation of thinking away from them; Wesley Mouch himself is pleased by the book. Stadler is unable to permit himself to think that the things suggested by the book are possible in a civilized society. Ferris says, “That is admirably exact ... You cannot permit yourself.” Ferris tell Stadler to stick to his science. Stadler heads to New York for a meeting with Dagny.

Dagny scratches a Colorado freight train off the Taggart roster as she has struck so many others. Lawrence Hammond has retired and disappeared, and Hammondsville will no doubt dry up and blow away as have the towns of Wyatt Junction and Stockton. With Wyatt’s fire, new operators had claimed the oil business until prices rose to the point where large customers turned to coal, and the government rationed oil and levied a special tax to subsidize out-of-work oil hands. Then the government subsidized the oil operators but just those with connections. Coal briefly became king until Andrew Stockton retired, closed his foundry and disappeared. The only thing that Dagny can discover is that somebody spent most of the night talking to Stockton before he vanished.

With the oil shortage, Dagny is running coal burning steam locomotives and depending on Ken Danagger for coal. Jim is getting a government subsidy for every train running, and those subsidies produce more revenue than Dagny’s operations. Jim brags that he is responsible for the best six months in the railroad’s history.

Wesley Mouch has unfrozen the nation’s railroad bonds but only to certain people. A whole new profession of “defreezing” has been created by young wonders just out of college who know how to fill out the government paperwork – and who have connections.

Dagny’s engineers, who searched the abandoned plant of the Twentieth Century Motor Company, found nothing; they interviewed people who worked there and learned nothing. The Patent Office was yet another dead end. Dagny’s friend at the Taggart Terminal cigarette stand can’t even locate the brand of Hugh Akston’s dollar sign cigarette.

Dagny’s attempt to find an engineer to reconstruct the motor encounters people who don’t think it will work, don’t care if it will work, want too much money to make it work, or believe that if the motor works, it should be suppressed because of the harm it would do to the egos of lesser scientists. She decides to approach Dr. Robert Stadler.

Stadler is happy to see Dagny, but remembering her last meeting with Stadler, Dagny is extremely formal. Her statement that Stadler is the only great mind left in the world touches him deeply. Showing him the incomplete specifications of the motor, Stadler quickly becomes the consummate professional and is beside himself with excitement as he perceives what the designer has wrought. But Stadler can’t think who could have designed the motor, why he would have designed it – making a massive scientific breakthrough in the process – at a factory in rural Wisconsin, and he is even more shocked that the designer didn’t seek him out. His statement that even a greedy industrialist with no brains would have taken the motor to make a fortune prompts a bitter smile from Dagny. She asks him to recommend someone who could work on the motor, but Stadler tells her he can’t even find the kind of simple talent possessed by a decent garage mechanic. He asks to see the motor.

Dagny takes him to the underground vault. Upon seeing the motor, Stadler is thrilled to see a great new idea that isn’t his. He condemns the mediocrities who fear anyone with an idea better than their own and who envy achievement. He and Dagny briefly experience a meeting of the minds. Stadler recommends a young engineer named Quentin Daniels who works at the Utah Institute of Technology; he has no desire to work for the government but only for his own wealth. Utah Tech has gone under, but Daniels is still there.

As they walk through the underground warren, they hear a frustrated rail crew working on a repair, and one of the men says, “Who is John Galt?” Stadler doesn’t like the expression but says he once knew a John Galt, now deceased. Had he lived, the whole world would have talked of him. Dagny points out that the whole world is talking of him. Stadler reacts in terror: “He has to be dead.”

Hank Rearden refuses an order from the State Science Institute for ten thousand tons of Rearden Metal for something called Project X. He has had problems with the Fair Share Law and ended up with an arbitrary government figure for what he could produce. He now has a backlog of orders for the next fifty years. The rights to Rearden Metal – what we would call “derivatives” today – are being bought and sold on a gray market by speculators with everybody making a profit but Hank. Those speculators who get the rights are those with connections in Washington.

The government has assigned him a bright young boy just out of college as his Deputy Director of Distribution; the plant workers call him the Wet Nurse. He offers Hank a shot at getting Rearden Metal to his friends with a little help from Hank’s wallet for “expenses”. Hank rebuffs him after the Wet Nurse’s lecture on moral flexibility in the absence of absolute standards. He warns Hank about his rejection of the Institute’s order.

Hank is visited by a paramilitary inquiring about Hank’s reasons for refusing the order. Hank won’t provide that answer and refuses to sell anything to the Institute for any purpose. The paramilitary explains that Hank must obey the law; Hank tells him to arrest him and steal whatever he wants from the railcars sitting in the steel mill’s yard. The paramilitary is horrified at how the public would react but tells Hank that he will regret his decision.

Hank gives Dagny a priceless ruby pendant, undresses her and puts it on her naked body. But his best gift is a fur coat he gives Dagny before they go out to dine in New Jersey. Hank tells Dagny that he is giving her these gifts for his own pleasure, and Dagny seconds that emotion. He tells Dagny that he was so cold and formal to her at the party at his house because he wanted her.

After a meeting with copper producers, Hank discovers that they are hamstrung by a sweetheart deal between the government and Francisco d’Anconia.

Hank visits Dagny at her apartment, and she updates him on her meeting with Stadler about the motor. Hank tells Dagny she should not have met with Stadler because he was seeking validation for what he had been before he sold his soul. Hank is now penetrating the heart of darkness. He and Dagny are the intended victims, and the looters seek the sanction of the victim, forcing him to face the world from the looters’ perspective.

Derivatives and Hank Rearden

A derivative is a security whose value is derived from another security. As early as 1792, when the New York Stock Exchange opened for business, derivatives were sold as bets on the rise and fall of interest rates. It started as a form of hedging but ended up as the source of our first government scandal.

Alexander Hamilton had bedded a woman who was involved in a badger game with speculators on Wall Street as accomplices. In return for her silence, Hamilton was to give her accomplices advance notice of the purchase and sale of Treasury bonds. To his credit, Hamilton fell on his sword, admitted his infidelity and saw his political career go up in flames. From his perspective it was a small price to pay to preserve the credit rating of the infant United States.

Rand makes an interesting point here. Hank Rearden is the inventor and developer of Rearden Metal; by rights the profits should go to him. But thanks to government interference, he is not reaping the benefits of his labors; Wall Street speculators are. These are people who neither sow nor reap but profit from their connections in Washington. It is the epitome of immorality.

What Chapter Are We Living In Today?

This question came up when this project was conceived; essays and newspaper columns likened our time to the book. Well, look what happened in Olympia, Washington.

Six Democratic legislators in the Washington State Legislature introduced a bill to prevent Boeing from threatening to move out of state. That's right. Threatening.

Our tale begins with a different bill, one that would have forbidden any company from requiring employees to attend a meeting about labor issues. It was called the “Worker Privacy Act”, and it violated federal labor law. Although Boeing maintained a respectful silence, its friends said that this would be the last straw that would cause the company to move its production facilities to North Carolina. But then the Washington State Labor Council got caught sending threatening e-mails to legislators about it, e-mails that opened a window into corruption in Olympia. The governor and Democratic leaders in the legislature then publicly killed the bill and sent the e-mails to the Washington State Patrol for investigation.

Organized labor and its allies in Olympia were livid, so six legislators introduced a bill that would make it illegal to threaten the relocation of manufacturing jobs, especially jobs involving commercial airplane manufacturing. Boeing could leave, but it could not threaten to leave.

Do you remember Bertram Scudder’s Public Stability Law, later enacted by Wesley Mouch via administrative law? We have arrived.

Some Discussion Topics

1. Increment the body count by two. Andrew Stockton and Lawrence Hammond have both disappeared. And we now know that a mystery man sat down with Stockton for most of the night before he vanished.
2. In an earlier chapter, I wrote of the concept of “rent seeking”, the pursuit of government subsidy for the sake of profit. Jim Taggart was chosen by the board because of his connections in Washington, and now he is making subsidies the lifeblood of the railroad. Where else is this going on today?
3. They call it “defreezing”, and young college grads are going to work as consultants selling their services to investors to fill out the necessary bureaucratic paperwork to get reimbursed for the frozen railroad bonds. An individual defreezer’s success is directly proportional to his connections in Washington. Are we scenting the stench of the K Street sewer here?
4. We first hear the expression “the sanction of the victim”. This is to become one of the main themes of the book. It might be premature to ask how this relates to today’s world, but it might not be a bad idea to start cataloging incidents that fit this concept.

Next Saturday: The Aristocracy of Pull

Next week’s chapter contains Francisco’s Root of Money Speech, one of the large set pieces of the book. It is a critical insight into Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism and a good primer on capitalism. There are three ways one can handle the speech.

• Read it linearly as part of reading the chapter.
• Skim it and read it thoroughly on a second pass.
• Skip it entirely and then read it thoroughly on a second pass.

The speech is important to understanding what Rand is trying to get across, so it’s critical to pay proper attention to what she is saying. Take your time, read it, and prepare to discuss it thoroughly.

[Publius]

FReeper Book Club

Atlas Shrugged

Part II: Either-Or

Chapter I: The Man Who Belonged on Earth

Ping! The thread has been posted.

Earlier threads:
Our First Freeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Theme
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Chain
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Top and the Bottom
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Immovable Movers
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Climax of the d’Anconias
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Non-Commercial
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Exploiters and the Exploited
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The John Galt Line
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Sacred and the Profane
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, Wyatt’s Torch

[CrappieLuck]

You do an excellent job of excerpting this story and comparing the events in Atlas Shrugged to our, real world, current events.

I think about this book so often when I look at what is going on in Washington, especially the demonization of business and the ‘Greedy” CEOs.

Thank you for taking the time to do this.

I have been enjoying these threads since you started the project

[sneakin]

May I suggest an overlooked political science textbook written in 1935?

The Von Mises Institute has it online in PDF format.

It was written principally for post grad political science types, so its not simple in it language. It more clearly defines all the “isms” as they apply to the difference between government and the State.

Do not let the title frighten you, it is NOT about “black helicopters” or anything at all of that nature.

Hit the link and read just of few of the endorsements by critical thinkers of that time.

The book nails Oh-bummer cleanly.

http://mises.org/etexts/ourenemy.pdf

[demsux]

Wesley Mouch = Barak Obama

[patton]

Exce3llent write up. Impressive.

“We first hear the expression “the sanction of the victim”. This is to become one of the main themes of the book. It might be premature to ask how this relates to today’s world, but it might not be a bad idea to start cataloging incidents that fit this concept.”

Removing tax exemptions from people who make “too much money” is an example, I think.

[Montfort]

Take a look at the Amazon sales rankings for the two editions of Atlas Shrugged. People are getting the the parallels.

[MtnClimber]

The use of crisis situations for power hungry politicians to grab power (Cloward-Piven Strategy of Orchestrated Crisis) is disturbing in the book and even more disturbing to watch actually happening. The US government may soon have the power to seize financial institutions if they are deemed to be at risk of failure and could threaten the economy. I predict that the next to be targeted by the government looters will be insurance companies, health care providers, the auto industry, food production/distribution and transportation. The problem is (in AS and with the US leftists) is that their policies caused the crisis situations in the first place, they blamed the industrial “victims” or their misguided or purposeful policies, and then used the crisis for their own benefit. And only a small percentage of the population questions the obvious lies.

[Loud Mime]

Thanks for the Ping!

I’m posting Alexis de Tocqueville’s work today on another thread.

This new administration, as bad as it is, may be spurring a new revolution in political study.

[demsux]

Exactly right...my opinion is that BHO will target doctors and other health care providers with his “cap on compensation” due to the “health care emergency”.

[mick]

I experienced an incident last year in Camden NJ that I have related before on another thread here at FR. It seems appropriate now in the context of "The Sanction of the Victim" discussion.

I own a small manufacturing company which was located in Camden NJ. We have been plagued by graffiti on our building painted there by the local gang bangers. It is a growing problem in Camden. I've repainted my building two times but after each repaint the boys go artistic once again. I finally gave up because the police would not do anything about it and business is bad and I could no longer afford it.

Enter the City government. The City passed an ordinance to require companies occupying graffiti stained buildings to clean it up at their own expense. I was visited by an armed inspector and issued a ticket to paint my building. I went to city hall and talked to the director and tried to explain to her that without proper police enforcement the only result would be a waste of money on my part and the graffiti would return. She just said the laws the law and they were cracking down in an attempt to clean up the city. Cracking down on the businesses not the punks doing it one should note.I refused again and was issued a second ticket for non compliance with the first order.

Now it just so happens that the mercantile license was coming due ( talk about looters having the power over a productive enterprise! ). Well, the city refused to issue my company the license unless I painted my building. I refused again. This time the armed inspector came back with a "suit' who explained to me that if my license were to expire they would close my building and not allow me to operate. I decided that it wasn't worth the expense and signed an agreement to paint my building and was issued my license. Going out the door after my capitulation the head honcho woman said to me,"Now don't you feel better that you are contributing to the clean up of Camden". True story.

I fired the three neighborhood kids working part time, took my skilled people and moved the business out of Camden last fall. The building is empty and covered with graffiti.

[whodathunkit]

I fired the three neighborhood kids working part time, took my skilled people and moved the business out of Camden last fall. The building is empty and covered with graffiti.

A round of applause for you, Sir. _You_ are John Galt !

[mick]

No I'm not. I paid the protection money and moved out of town feeling like a sell out to my principles. And I was.

And in the final analysis that is the paramount evil of collectivism....you are faced with the hobbesian choice of either going down in flames for the "right" and taking your family and employees with you, or trying to survive. I do business in Ukraine and I can tell you that the compromises people in the old USSR had to make just to feed their kids is unbelievable to an American. The beauty of free market capitalism is that average people like me can prosper and maintain dignity. The first thing you lose in collectivism is dignity. And telling yourself you had no choice never makes it easier. I tell myself I ran away to fight another day. Maybe. Or maybe I just wanted to survive and save my ass.

[patton]

Good for you!

[patton]

Voting with your feet is never anyone’s first choice, but sometimes it is a survival skill.

Don’t be so hard on yourself.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Great thread, but you might be interested to know that there was a real John Galt.

John Galt, novelist, colonial promoter (b at Irvine, Scot 2 May 1779; d at Greenock, Scot 11 Apr 1839). While struggling to survive as a man of letters, Galt became involved with Canadian affairs, first as agent for those claiming losses in the WAR OF 1812, and subsequently (1824) as secretary of the board of directors of the CANADA CO.

He came to Upper Canada on several occasions, remaining 1826-29 as company superintendent and founding the town of GUELPH in 1827; the town of Galt (now CAMBRIDGE) was named after him. He had continual conflict with the directors and was eventually recalled and spent his last years in impoverished ill health. Galt's best-known fiction deals mainly with Scottish life, and his writings, except for his Autobiography (1833) and Literary Life (1834), show only a limited influence of his Canadian involvements. Two of his novels embody his idea of emigrants best suited to the US (Lawrie Todd, 1830) and Canada (Bogle Corbet, 1831).

The town of Galt, Ontario has been combined with some other municipalities to form Cambridge, Ontario. However, I believe there still is a shopping center called the "John Galt Mall".

[CottonBall]

The beauty of free market capitalism is that average people like me can prosper and maintain dignity. The first thing you lose in collectivism is dignity. And telling yourself you had no choice never makes it easier. I tell myself I ran away to fight another day. Maybe. Or maybe I just wanted to survive and save my ass.

We have an awful lot of people today that haven't even realized they've sold their souls. They're the worst of the lot.

Your staying would have been far worse. You only paid the 'protection' money once and then left - that was a good move. Staying 20 or so years - that would've been giving in. Good thing you had a better place to move to - eventually, we may not have those choices.

[CottonBall]

What irks Stadler is the book on his desk, Why Do You Think You Think?. It demeans logic and rational thought, questions the very nature of reality, is written by Dr. Floyd Ferris, Top Coordinator of the State Science Institute, and is published under the Institute’s aegis.

Our education system is headed down this road. Secondary schools are there, but colleges will have to succomb soon (if they haven't already) because of the dumbed-down students they are handed. The liberal arts majors might be more dumbed down now than in the past and I know technical majors now require more liberal arts electives than they did when got an engineering degree, but I hope the technical classes' requirements haven't changed. I think those will be the last to go.

Ferris says that people don’t want to think and that they will bless anyone who takes the obligation of thinking away from them;

Again, dumbed down elementary and secondary schools have made this a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Who is John Galt?” Stadler doesn’t like the expression but says he once knew a John Galt, now deceased. Had he lived, the whole world would have talked of him. Dagny points out that the whole world is talking of him. Stadler reacts in terror: “He has to be dead.”

Why the terror? This isn't the first character in the book to be afraid when John Galt is mentioned, I believe.

He and Dagny are the intended victims, and the looters seek the sanction of the victim, forcing him to face the world from the looters’ perspective.

This is like the winpy RINOs in Congress accepting the Dem's premises as correct and then trying to fight them based on that false premise. Funny that it hasn't worked. /s We need to only look at our own perspective and stand firm.

[r-q-tek86]

And telling yourself you had no choice never makes it easier. I tell myself I ran away to fight another day. Maybe. Or maybe I just wanted to survive and save my ass

Not to mix Rand novels, but my first employer told me "We all start out thinking we are Howard Roark, and we all end up realizing we are Peter Keating." I wanted to kick his ass. Now, 25 years later, trying to find that next project so I can still pay my employees, I realize that he was right.

[stylin_geek]

I’m going to take the easy question. Currently, so-called
“green energy” requires subsidies in order to be “profitable.”

In a way, we’re not currently living this particular chapter. We’ve been living this chapter for several years now.