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Part One, Chapters IX–X (9 - 10)

#111: Sept. - Nov. 2012 (Fiction)
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Chris OConnor

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Part One, Chapters IX–X (9 - 10)

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Part One, Chapters IX–X (9 - 10)

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Re: Part One, Chapters IX–X (9 - 10)

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When Dagny and Rearden drive through the country, Rearden says:
“I don’t like the looks of this.”
“I don’t either.” Then she smiled. “But think how often we’ve heard people complain that billboards ruin the appearance of the countryside. Well, there’s the unruined countryside for them to admire.” She added, “They’re the people I hate.”
It’s no wonder why she does. Rand and Objectivists views regarding environmentalism and the like can be read about in the many op-ed here on the Ayn Rand Institute’s website:

http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer? ... mal_rights
http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer? ... nmentalism

That scene reminds me of “Exploit the Earth, or Die” from The Objective Standard which is a quarterly journal on culture and current events from an Objectivist perspective, they also have an excellent blog on that site as well, but here is their section on environmentalist related matters:

http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/exp ... or-die.asp

Also they find a revolutionary motor...
“Hank, do you know what that motor would have meant, if built?” He chuckled briefly. “I’d say: about ten years added to the life of every person in this country— if you consider how many things it would have made easier and cheaper to produce, how many hours of human labor it would have released for other work, and how much more anyone’s work would have brought him. Locomotives? What about automobiles and ships and airplanes with a motor of this kind? And tractors. And power plants. All hooked to an unlimited supply of energy, with no fuel to pay for, except a few pennies’ worth to keep the converter going. That motor could have set the whole country in motion and on fire. […]
This is what business can do in regards to inventions. Wonderful isn’t it?
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Re: Part One, Chapters IX–X (9 - 10)

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In regards to Ch. 10:
“[…]Our plan? We put into practice that noble historical precept: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. Everybody in the factory, from charwomen to president, received the same salary— the barest minimum necessary. Twice a year, we all gathered in a mass meeting, where every person presented his claim for what he believed to be his needs. We voted on every claim, and the will of the majority established every person’s need and every person’s ability. The income of the factory was distributed accordingly. Rewards were based on need, and the penalties on ability. Those whose needs were voted to be the greatest, received the most. Those who had not produced as much as the vote said they could, were fined and had to pay the fines by working overtime without pay. That was our plan. It was based on the principle of selflessness. It required men to be motivated, not by personal gain, but by love for their brothers”
So at 20th Century Motors, what this amounts to is communism writ small that was being put into practice there. And it didn’t work, the company went out of business.

It’s absolutely crucial for Marx to have men of ability, as the saying state from his The Communist Manifesto, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”. Well, what happens when said men of ability… disappear? Vanish? As is seemingly happening in the novel to the men of ability…
“[…]How did the plan work out? I do not care to discuss it. Things became very ugly indeed and went fouler every year.
Why that’s because it’s wrong and immoral in theory, which is precisely why it didn’t work in practice. Rand’s morality on the other hand, the moral is the practical, the practical is the moral. There is no dichotomy between the moral and the practical, in her morality. One can read more about her morality as the book goes on, and in her The Virtues of Selfishness, Craig Biddle’s book on Rand‘s morality Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts That Support It, Tara Smith’s book Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist deals primarily with the virtues of Rand‘s morality (I have written a long review of it elsewhere), Tara Smith’s other book on Rand‘s morality Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality.



Hugh Akston at the diner:
“Because I hate to see ability being wasted!” He said slowly, intently, “So do I.” Something in the way he said it made her feel the bond of some profound emotion which they held in common; it broke the discipline that forbade her ever to call for help. “I’m so sick of them!” Her voice startled her: it was an involuntary cry. “I’m so hungry for any sight of anyone who’s able to do whatever it is he’s doing!”
Hard to find men of ability nowadays, Dagny. They keep disappearing…

“Hugh Akston?” she stammered. “The philosopher? . . . The last of the advocates of reason?” “Why, yes,” he answered pleasantly. “Or the first of their return.”
The first would undoubtedly be Aristotle. Rand’s philosophy, she says, is from an Aristotelian line of philosophic descent. Because of it’s Aristotelian logic, it’s use of reason, objectivity, and so forth.


Seemingly right after Mouch’s directives hit, Wyatt’s Torch was lit:
The tax on Colorado, she thought, the tax collected from Ellis Wyatt to pay for the livelihood of those whose job was to tie him and make him unable to live, those who would stand on guard to see that he got no trains, no tank cars, no pipeline of Rearden Metal— Ellis Wyatt, stripped of the right of self-defense, left without voice, without weapons, and worse: made to be the tool of his own destruction, the supporter of his own destroyers, the provider of their food and of their weapons— Ellis Wyatt being choked, with his own bright energy turned against him as the noose— Ellis Wyatt, who had wanted to tap an unlimited source of shale oil and who spoke of a second Renaissance. . . .
Later, when they told her that Ellis Wyatt had vanished, leaving nothing behind but a board he had nailed to a post at the foot of the hill, when she looked at his handwriting on the board, she felt as if she had almost known that these would be the words:

“I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It’s yours.”
It was decently done in the film adaptation Atlas Shrugged Part 1 it’s right at the end, just like in the book. The film is done in 3 parts, just like in the book. And Rand titles each Part in homage/reference to Aristotle, not sure if any one knows that or not.
"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."
- Cyril Connolly

My seven published books are available for purchase, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/Steven-L.-Sheppard/e/B00E6KOX12
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