Posted on 06/27/2009 7:38:16 AM PDT by Publius
Synopsis
Jim Taggart hands a hundred dollar bill to a bum on the street, and the bum contemptuously takes no notice of the denomination.
Under the Railroad Unification Plan, the machine has run down further. There are ripples.
Jim has been busy. His day began with a meeting with the Argentine ambassador where he discovered that Argentina was to be declared a people’s state in two weeks. It was followed by a cocktail party at Orren Boyle’s where it was decided to loan $4 billion to Argentina and Chile. That was followed by a party given by Jim at the bar on the 60th floor of a skyscraper that looked like a cellar in which was formed the Interneighborly Amity and Development Corporation, an outfit presided over by Orren Boyle that would possess exclusive rights to run the industrial concerns of the various people’s states of South America. The final event had been held at the home of the Chilean ambassador, who appeared to be nothing more than a gangster. Here Jim had learned that on September 2, all d’Anconia Cooper properties would be nationalized. Jim had made a mental note: sell d’Anconia, buy Interneighborly. He feels no pleasure in this because he is not thinking about money any longer, and that bothers him. In his mind is a fogbound alley that holds things he prefers not to think about.
Arriving home, Jim senses in Cherryl that things are no better here. He brags that he has closed a big deal today, and she seems neutral in her reaction. He asks for champagne while he brags that he and a group of men will control the nationalized properties of South America to help the underprivileged. He complains that slum dwellers like Cherryl have no humanitarian spirit of altruism, something that can be felt only by those born to wealth. Cherryl has no sympathy for the welfare philosophy; having come from the slums, she knows that most of the poor want something for nothing. She tells Jim straightforwardly that he doesn’t care about the humanitarian spirit either. He brags that he will end up one of the richest men in the world, and she indicates that even if he does, she wants nothing from him. She tells Jim that she respects Hank Rearden as Jim brags about having beaten him.
Cherryl is proud of what Dagny did on the radio and has noticed that the government never answered her charges. Jim explains that Bertram Scudder took the fall for that disaster. It was better for the nation – and Jim – that Scudder become the scapegoat. Scudder’s fatal mistake was his membership in the Tinky Holloway faction. The Chick Morrison faction won, and Holloway traded Scudder for some favors. Cherryl is horrified that this is the kind of victory her husband is winning. Jim complains that he did not create this world, he only lives in it. In Jim’s words Cherryl hears the echo of her drunken father.
Cherryl had worked hard to be Mrs. James Taggart, approaching the task as would a military cadet, but Jim was never satisfied. She could not understand the intellectual scum that formed Jim’s orbit. She perceived that men like Simon Pritchett and Balph Eubank were phonies. In her mind was an oncoming headlight that held things she preferred not to think about. And her worst discovery was that her husband was also a phony. The only true thing Jim had said was that he was surrounded by enemies. Conversations with people within the railroad revealed to Cherryl that his enemies did in fact work there – and he had earned their hatred. It was from Eddie Willers that she had finally learned the truth about Jim and Dagny.
When she confronts Jim about it, he turns ugly and accuses her of ingratitude. He can’t put into words what he wants; it can only be felt. Cherryl can’t accept this and says that what she loved about him wasn’t real. Cherryl now feels something – and it’s fear. Jim accuses her of being a gold-digger who trades love, but can’t just give it. Loving a man for his virtues is cold justice; it’s unearned love that matters. Cherryl explodes. Jim is a charlatan like the welfare pimps, wanting unearned love and unearned admiration. He wants to be like Hank Rearden without working for it.
The champagne arrives, and Jim mockingly proposes a toast to Francisco, which Cherryl refuses. Jim comes unglued and leaves the room.
At her apartment, Dagny yearns to be back in Galt’s Gulch and hopes to spot John on the street in New York. The doorbell rings and in comes Cherryl. She is there to pay a debt; she apologizes for everything she had said at the wedding. She admits that she now knows the truth about who really runs the railroad. She knows that her husband is a worthless moocher; the girls now have a bond. Dagny admits that when people say she is hard and unfeeling, it is true – because she is being just. Dagny has held herself above the terrible world Jim inhabits by one rule: To place nothing above the verdict of her own mind. This connects with something Cherryl had felt in her poor youth in Buffalo, something people around her had wanted to destroy. A premonition tells Dagny to suggest that Cherryl stay with her tonight, but Cherryl decides to go home. She looks broken.
Moments after Cherryl has left Jim, Lillian Rearden shows up. Lillian is unhappy about the quality of the new class of looters, who are not “our crowd”. Lillian is there for a favor: she needs Jim to use his influence to stop the divorce. Hank has purchased everyone necessary to get his divorce and keep Lillian away from his money. All of this happened because Lillian had done critical favors for Jim. He kids her about how she always said she didn’t care about money, but she says she cares about poverty. Bertram Scudder can no longer help, but if Jim could get Wesley Mouch to intervene... Jim explains that the channels of pull have become so convoluted that it is impossible to get favors from the right people anymore.
Jim and Lillian drink champagne. Lillian says that Hank thinks little of Jim, and Jim wants just once to beat him. And in a sense he does in the next few minutes, as he beds Lillian Rearden. She is even less fun than Betty Pope.
Cherryl comes home in time to catch them after the act. She confronts Jim who becomes enraged and then brags about it. She asks why he married her; Jim tells her she was a cheap little guttersnipe from Buffalo who had no choice but to love him as he was – because she was worthless. He wants her to accept his love as alms because she could never hope to earn it. The oncoming headlight finally hits Cherryl, shattering her. She sees through Jim, telling him he is a killer for the sake of killing; he slaps her for her effrontery.
Cherryl runs out of her apartment on a wild but aimless run through the streets of Manhattan. A social worker approaches her and asks if she is in trouble, then grabs her and reprimands her for being a drunken society girl. Tearing herself away, Cherryl screams and runs headlong into the East River.
Discussion Topics
Hey, it’s as good as a BTTT.
Reminds me of what happens if you feed racoons or bears and then stop.
Thanks, I appreciate the compliment.
I’m also going to echo one of the other posters on the thread. I only post when I think I’ve something to contribute to the discussion.
Another thought for you in regards to the bum versus Jim Taggart.
In David Horowitz’s “Radical Son” he talks about Berkeley, CA and the radical city council that took control of city government. The city council was out of control and pushed through every liberal/socialist agenda/experiment they could think of. It was so bad, citizens had to constantly attend meetings to try and keep things under control. One citizen commented that it wasn’t not possible to “just live” in Berkeley, one had to be active politically and be constantly on guard.
In AS and our current society, both the very wealthy and very poor are waging war on the middle class.
The very rich can afford intrusive government policies, because they’ll still be rich. The very poor don’t mind, because they don’t produce, they merely take.
The middle class, the people who just want to live and go on about their business, are forced to spend their time paying attention to politics. They can no longer allow themselves the luxury of “just living” in the United States.
The both of you have been providing excellent analysis and commentary, and I always come for that if nothing else.
This has so far been an excellent series of discussions among all who have participated, but here just as in real life I am more the listener, interjecting when I believe I have a special insight or certain expertise.
On the subject of this book I am content to allow the two of you (and several of the others on these threads) to run circles around me, confident that within my own areas of passion I can do the same.
ping
Deserves repetition:
“I can’t speak for anyone else, but I haven’t missed a week. I tend not to want to post unless I have something interesting to say, which isn’t always the case. Your work, and Bill’s are always appreciated thought.”
I could not say it any better. I cannardly wait for the FReeRepublic Saturday Atlas Shrugged thread!
Next week the plot gets a good kick in the — er, rump. It’s going to be an exciting Independence Day.
For my part, I finished AS several weeks ago (might re-read it soon; I’ll just skip the longer monologues). I have been reading the threads at work on Monday morning for the last couple weeks because I recently moved and STILL do not have internet access in my new home.
I suspect if she were alive today, Ayn Rand would despise Comcast as much as I do, but that’s another topic.
I first read AS in the 1960's. A good friend insisted (slightly) that I would appreciate it. He was correct.
Since then I have reread AS every 2-3 years, purchasing the paperback to give away after I finish every one.
Oddly enough, only a matter of days before you started this book club I had ordered yet another copy!
You, billthedrill, and every other poster here in the review are appreciated more than I can express thanks!
Hopefully the people whom I have pointed to the (much appreciated) weekly review will one day make others aware of Atlas Shrugged!
I fear we in the U.S.A. are approaching the last part of this prophetic book.
For many of my 74 years I have witnessed so much of AS come true.
My home confuser has expired ..I was chomping at the bit to get back to work so I could catch up at least reading this thread.
You touched on a subject that has been on my mind recently.
Johnson's Great Society may have done some good but the harm it did and is doing has reverberated down to our current difficulties.
Fatherless families and multigenerational welfare recipients meant younger and younger girls were having kids due to the check that was coming.
Kids were never intended to have kids..It takes a mature adult to be a parent...You give to your children from your wisdom and your fullness. Kids having kids have nothing to give them..they have no wisdom, no experience, no values..They use babies to fill up their internal emptiness.
With the loss of fathers came the loss of shame..It used to be kids were very concerned about bringing shame on their fathers name...Bringing shame on the family..It was part of the family values. With a single mother and each kid having a different biologic father...there is no name to be proud of.
This need for pride got shifted into pride in the gangs...With nothing legitimate to be proud of they went feral.
Lack of fathers also eliminated role models for teens...Their role models became the biggest drug dealer or the sports figure. If there is no man to teach a boy how to become a man...they will become a predator.
Concurrently with this came the black pride movement...Being smart and accomplished in anything other than sports was acting white..Kids beat up other kids for being bookish..
Add in the victim mentality that is indoctrinated into them in school and you have the prescription for the perfect disaster.
The recent riots in Ca after a sports team win has become normative.
You bring up the point that black neighborhoods had doctors and lawyers and businessmen...Think back to 1968 in LA...
Riots burned their own areas of town..Nobody is going back in to be burned out again...That would be insanity.
Poverty does not breed crime....Crime breeds poverty.
Sorry to be late to the party.
LOL!
No, but I first heard the term at the “Over the Line” beach softball tournament in San Diego in the mid-1970s.
Since this is a family oriented web site, I’ll reFRain FRom further defining its meaning and usage at OTL.
I first read AS in high school, right after it was first published. I was most profoundly impressed, as were most of my teenage FRiends.
I have regularly re-read it over the years and I am still profoundly impressed with Ms. Rand’s grasp of the evils of the LIEberal/Socialist/Marxist “reality.”
Pity that more Americans are not so impressed with Ms. Rand’s work.
If they were, chances are very good that we’d be an entirely different, better and much FReer country.
It may not be too late, but the bell is tolling.
Yes, that it will!
Bring it on!
Three copper wires break, and — oh! — what chaos is unleashed!
I’d argue, though, the pay of wait staff is much closer to free market principles than other wages.
Most restaurants don’t have problems finding wait staff. If restaurant wages were too low, no one would work for them.
I’ve been surprised at how much a good waitress can make a decent restaurant. And, the nice thing about cash tips is being able to keep a few bucks without the IRS knowing about it.
Fear? What fear? AS has a very happy ending, AFAIC.
President Johnson; the most aptly named of the 44, IMHO.
I heard something funny lately about Berkeley. I seems the “powers that be” decided that all houses must be retrofitted to be energy efficient. 80 year old drafty victorian houses must be sealed and insulated. When the home owners got the bill and figured out how much it would cost them, all hell broke loose!
We're thinking of changing it. Dagny marries Wesley Mouch and goes to work for a political activist in Chicago, who, with no qualifications whatever, manages to flimflam his way into the highest office in the country...naw, never mind. Who would ever believe that?
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