Posted on 03/16/2018 8:32:55 PM PDT by Ciaphas Cain
The Comet uncoiled from the siding into a thin, straight line, and went on into the mountains, with the beam of the headlight like an extended arm pointing the way, and the lighted glass curve of the observation lounge ending it off.
Some of the passengers aboard the Comet were awake. As the train started its coiling ascent; they saw the small cluster of Winston’s lights at the bottom of the darkness beyond their windows, then the same darkness, but with red and green lights by the hole of a tunnel on the upper edge of the windowpanes. The lights of Winston kept growing smaller, each time they appeared; the black hole of the tunnel kept growing larger. A black veil went streaking past the windows at times, dimming the lights: it was the heavy smoke from the coal-burning engine.
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 solely on his own “good intentions” and on the power of a gun.
The woman in Roomette 10, Car No. 3, was an elderly school teacher 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, 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 men are evil by nature and unfit for freedom, that their basic interests, if left unchecked, are to lie, to rob and to 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 rulers, 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” railroad 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 law 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.
Another book I loaned out & lost. Oh, well . . .
Thanks for the excerpt. Triggering memories of a long though enjoyable read.
Mr. Galt can be long winded in his speeches to a captive audience . . .
“Another book I loaned out & lost”
Must have done the same, here. Searched for it on the shelves several years ago but unable to find the copy. Now, it appears it might not need to be read again, we’ll be a part of our own real life “Atlas Shrugged”.
Wyatt's Torch was pretty powerful too, IMHO.
As I've sat here and read this thread up to your post I've drawn so many correlations to today's world .... it's almost frightening.
Bttt.
5.56mm
May almighty God have mercy on our once great nation before it is indeed too late, if it isn't already. Tagline
You might enjoy this.
Atlas Shrugged is the Liberal Playbook, they feel confident they can prevent Atlas from Shrugging. They are wrong.
Unbelievably accurate description of today’s progressivism
Thanks for the ping, and thanks for your book.
Anyone unfamiliar with the novel but reluctant to take on an 1100-word behemoth could find the salient ideas in these two selections:
Francisco d'Anconia's Money Speech, and
Hobo Jeff Allen's relation of The Story of The Twentieth Century Motor Company.
Oh, and don't kill yourself trying to digest all of Chapter 26 at once. Rand's editor, Bennett Cerf, thought it would have been a better novel without it. Rand thought there would have been no novel without it. They were both right.
That was one long speech. Something like 30 pages.
Not for nothin’ but this is copyrighted material that you cannot just cut and paste whenever you want.
That entire chapter is downright prescient when it comes to the elites versus "the deplorables". Hillary stating that the coasts and urban areas are the enlightened betters while the rural heartland's are a backward and sorry people...
She and those like her should read that one chapter. And then think REAL damn hard about their choice of words.
Karma cum laud............................
So does Trump “go Galt” and let the carnage come when the Lefties have finally pushed too far?
The man in Car #3, Seat #7, believed in White Privilege and that individual effort was irrelevant.
The woman in Car #6, Seat #10, believed that the Second Amendment should be repealed and that no one should own guns. She also tried to convince everyone on Twitter that no one was trying to take their guns.
The man in Car #8, Seat #11 railed against “The 1%” and believed that he was owed a job.
The man in Car #9, Seat #2 believed that he was a woman, and that people who called him “sir” should be punished by law.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.