PRACTICAL APPLICATION (worth rereading)
Directives – This section is worth rereading in order to compare (or is it contrast?) it to the Clinton's proposed National Health Care Program. TNT wants to turn this novel into a mini-series. They were going to ruin it. However, I read they were going to try and modernize it. I don't know how they would do that but I have a feeling TT was going to be turned into a high-tech communication company. However, I see the most modern applications in the health care area. From Pharmaceutical companies, to profitability of HMO's, to ethical issues from research...but it would make a terrible miniseries.
Hunsacker – Out of all the people associated with the history of the 20th Century Motor Company, his account covers the most ground. "Background" was important to him. A person isn’t qualified unless they have the right background. This book clearly shows that success doesn’t depend on "background". I have met some excellent "engineers" who didn’t go to school nor have ANY formal training in engineering. Should I tell them they have nothing to teach me because they don’t have the background I have? That’s as narrow-minded as a person thinking they can’t learn about literature from a person with less formal training than them.
There are a lot of other stories that are enlightening. "How were we to succeed in life if nobody would give us a factory?" and "It was the same factory. We did everything he did." His conception of how to successfully run a factory is primitive. Dagny shows him it wasn’t the same; their research staff was gone. His response is he had to focus on the absolute necessity of interior decorating for morale purposes.
Ivy Starnes – She is worth rereading to establish the principles behind the company when it collapsed. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." and "Rewards were based on need and the penalties on ability. It required men to be motivated, not by personal gain, but by love for their brothers."
Book One "Non-Contradiction" - Chapter Ten completes Book One of "Atlas Shrugged" which was subtitled "Non-Contradiction". This chapter sets up Book Two which is subtitled "Either - Or". Basically, we have seen apparent contradictory behavior in Book One and now it will be time for us to make a choice in Book Two. Finally, there is one key passage to remember throughout this book: "There is only one helpful suggestion that I can give you: By the essence and nature of existence, contradictions cannot exist. If you find it inconceivable that an invention of genius should be abandoned among ruins, and that a philosopher should wish to work as a cook in a diner - check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong."
SUPPLEMENT
"I don’t know why something keeps going wrong unexpectedly all the time. I can’t be blamed for the unexpected." Larkin doesn’t realize things ALWAYS go wrong in a business. Life is also that way. We all have problems; that’s what makes us the same. How we handle our problems is what makes us different. The key is how a person responds to each situation, that is, what action they take. Because the action they take IS in their power. Look how Dagny and Hank have spent the entire book handling problems. It appears that problems pull people towards the negative side of the scale. If a person hasn’t made a conscious effort to move to the positive side, they will keep losing ground and end up on the negative side.
Around 2000, FORTUNE magazine had a cover story on why so many prominent CEO’s had been fired in the previous two years. They showed pictures of over twenty CEO’s and wrote, "These people are intelligent. Why didn’t they succeed?" The answer? They saw the CEO position as a reward for all their years of handling problems. They motivated themselves during their career by thinking, "I’ll work hard to solve these problems so that one day I can be in charge and other people will have to worry about them." (I call this the "frat" mentality. "I’ll let seniors abuse me because one day I’ll be a senior and I’ll get to abuse others.") Once they became CEO, they didn’t want to know about the problems. They wanted to be on TV, interviewed in print and attend high-powered social functions. The article even gave five signs that a CEO is in trouble. One of them was "blaming business conditions on the weather". The article concluded by saying the CEO needs to be the person MOST in touch with the problems. If a person doesn’t crave the problems, they shouldn’t be in charge and responsible. What was their purpose?
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Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
AS 1:10 Wyatt's Torch Plot and Comments
PLOT
Dagny talks with the clerk and then the mayor in hopes of finding the creator of the motor. When she calls back to the office, Eddie tells her she needs to come back because "they’re trying to kill Colorado". Several interest groups have made demands. Dagny decides she can’t stop the politicians, so she will spend her time tracking down the creator of the motor. Dagny works her way through a series of people and ends up meeting Hugh Akston. He tells her not to waste her money searching any more. The special interest group Directives are issued. According to the Directives, TT does not have to pay off their bondholders. Wyatt retires in protest and leaves the hill of Wyatt Oil as a solid sheet of flame.
SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Jim has a plan for TT "I fully intend to protect the interests of Taggart Transcontinental." However, Dagny realizes "The John Galt Line had been only a drainpipe that had permitted Jim Taggart to make a deal and to drain their wealth, unearned, into his pockets, in exchange for letting others drain his railroad."
Larkin doesn’t supply Hank with ore. Instead, Larkin sends it to Orren Boyle.
Lillian works on Hank’s guilt.
The 20th Century Motor Company history involves: Mayor Bascom as the last "sole" owner, Lawson as the president of Community National Bank when it crashed, Hunsacker as the president of 20th C and only man to beat Midas Mulligan, Ivy Starnes was the second generation owner, and Hastings who was the second man to leave.
Hastings’ young assistant invented the motor. Hastings’ widow leads Dagny to Hugh Akston.
Hugh works as a short order cook and gives Dagny a cigarette bearing the sign of the dollar.
COMMENTS
Mayor – "Why does anybody buy a business? To squeeze whatever can be squeezed out of it." This mentality is short-term and killing a lot of businesses today. Squeezing efficiencies out of a process is EXTREMELY profitable because it goes right to the bottom line. It doesn’t get taxed. However, the way to squeeze is to innovate. Do the SAME with less. I saved more than one company over $10 million a year in raw material costs by making the same or better product with less resources. I have yet to meet other "formulators" who intentionally try to make the same product or better with fewer resources. "You’re either virtuous or you enjoy yourself. Not both, lady, not both." What are the implications of living in a world where virtue and enjoyment are mutually exclusive?
Activity – We haven’t discussed profitability yet, but here’s an application. Hank and Dagny know the reason for their actions. They put their effort towards activities that yield the greatest return. "There was no action she could take against the men of undefined thought, of unnamed motives, of unstated purposes, of unspecified morality." To Hank "The same kind of brain can’t do both. Either you’re good at running the mills or you’re good at running to Washington."
Scale - Lillian is taking the opportunity to work Hank over with guilt and is showing she has progressed to a more negative position on the scale. "To love a woman for her virtue is meaningless. But to love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned and undeserved." With the shipment to Boyle, Paul Larkin is now on the negative side of the scale.
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Dagny talks with the clerk and then the mayor in hopes of finding the creator of the motor. When she calls back to the office, Eddie tells her she needs to come back because "they’re trying to kill Colorado". Several interest groups have made demands. Dagny decides she can’t stop the politicians, so she will spend her time tracking down the creator of the motor. Dagny works her way through a series of people and ends up meeting Hugh Akston. He tells her not to waste her money searching any more. The special interest group Directives are issued. According to the Directives, TT does not have to pay off their bondholders. Wyatt retires in protest and leaves the hill of Wyatt Oil as a solid sheet of flame.
SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Jim has a plan for TT "I fully intend to protect the interests of Taggart Transcontinental." However, Dagny realizes "The John Galt Line had been only a drainpipe that had permitted Jim Taggart to make a deal and to drain their wealth, unearned, into his pockets, in exchange for letting others drain his railroad."
Larkin doesn’t supply Hank with ore. Instead, Larkin sends it to Orren Boyle.
Lillian works on Hank’s guilt.
The 20th Century Motor Company history involves: Mayor Bascom as the last "sole" owner, Lawson as the president of Community National Bank when it crashed, Hunsacker as the president of 20th C and only man to beat Midas Mulligan, Ivy Starnes was the second generation owner, and Hastings who was the second man to leave.
Hastings’ young assistant invented the motor. Hastings’ widow leads Dagny to Hugh Akston.
Hugh works as a short order cook and gives Dagny a cigarette bearing the sign of the dollar.
COMMENTS
Mayor – "Why does anybody buy a business? To squeeze whatever can be squeezed out of it." This mentality is short-term and killing a lot of businesses today. Squeezing efficiencies out of a process is EXTREMELY profitable because it goes right to the bottom line. It doesn’t get taxed. However, the way to squeeze is to innovate. Do the SAME with less. I saved more than one company over $10 million a year in raw material costs by making the same or better product with less resources. I have yet to meet other "formulators" who intentionally try to make the same product or better with fewer resources. "You’re either virtuous or you enjoy yourself. Not both, lady, not both." What are the implications of living in a world where virtue and enjoyment are mutually exclusive?
Activity – We haven’t discussed profitability yet, but here’s an application. Hank and Dagny know the reason for their actions. They put their effort towards activities that yield the greatest return. "There was no action she could take against the men of undefined thought, of unnamed motives, of unstated purposes, of unspecified morality." To Hank "The same kind of brain can’t do both. Either you’re good at running the mills or you’re good at running to Washington."
Scale - Lillian is taking the opportunity to work Hank over with guilt and is showing she has progressed to a more negative position on the scale. "To love a woman for her virtue is meaningless. But to love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned and undeserved." With the shipment to Boyle, Paul Larkin is now on the negative side of the scale.
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Monday, January 29, 2007
AS 1:9 The Sacred and The Profane Application
PRACTICAL APPLICATION (worth rereading)
The morning after – Well, we got our answers to how each views sex...Hank wants to be transparent and now he has to hide a part of his life...but he's going to be straight with Dagny about how he feels. Hank feels contempt for Dagny...and more contempt for himself. Dagny wants to understand the cause. She never knew why (cause) she felt light (effect) around Hank. Now she knows the cause and is only ashamed that she hadn't known it before. Dagny doesn't feel guilty...in fact, she is proud. The exact reason for Dagny and Hank’s reaction to the affair (beyond what has been mentioned) is worth rereading; it will come up repeatedly. Mark that page.
Guilt – Not only this chapter, but any mention of guilt in previous chapters is worth rereading. Notice who feels guilty and who feels guiltless. More importantly, notice the circumstances surrounding these feelings. Guilt is the biggest source of pain; it’s self-inflicted. If your job is the source of your stress, you only have to deal with it 8-10 hours a day. If you cause yourself stress, there’s no escaping it. You can’t avoid yourself. Guilt leads to pain, and pain leads to fear.
Contradictions – Previously, we saw contradictions don’t exist. In fact, they are proof that at least one assumption must be wrong. "The unnamed and the unuttered could not clash into a contradiction." Now we see why it’s so important to name an issue and why people on the negative side of the scale don’t want to name issues or talk about them. It proves they are wrong. Silence is VERY telling.
SUPPLEMENT
"For the trouble is that one part of you is on His (God’s) side and really agrees with His disapproval of human greed and trickery and exploitation. You may want Him to make an exception in your own case, to let you off this one time; but you know at bottom that unless the power behind the world really and unalterably detests that sort of behavior, then He cannot be good. On the other hand, we know that if there does exist an absolute goodness it must hate most of what we do. That is the terrible fix we are in.
If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again. We cannot do without it, and we cannot do with it. God is our only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from.
Of course, I quite agree that the Christian religion, is in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through the dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end. If you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth – only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair." (CSL-MC)
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The morning after – Well, we got our answers to how each views sex...Hank wants to be transparent and now he has to hide a part of his life...but he's going to be straight with Dagny about how he feels. Hank feels contempt for Dagny...and more contempt for himself. Dagny wants to understand the cause. She never knew why (cause) she felt light (effect) around Hank. Now she knows the cause and is only ashamed that she hadn't known it before. Dagny doesn't feel guilty...in fact, she is proud. The exact reason for Dagny and Hank’s reaction to the affair (beyond what has been mentioned) is worth rereading; it will come up repeatedly. Mark that page.
Guilt – Not only this chapter, but any mention of guilt in previous chapters is worth rereading. Notice who feels guilty and who feels guiltless. More importantly, notice the circumstances surrounding these feelings. Guilt is the biggest source of pain; it’s self-inflicted. If your job is the source of your stress, you only have to deal with it 8-10 hours a day. If you cause yourself stress, there’s no escaping it. You can’t avoid yourself. Guilt leads to pain, and pain leads to fear.
Contradictions – Previously, we saw contradictions don’t exist. In fact, they are proof that at least one assumption must be wrong. "The unnamed and the unuttered could not clash into a contradiction." Now we see why it’s so important to name an issue and why people on the negative side of the scale don’t want to name issues or talk about them. It proves they are wrong. Silence is VERY telling.
SUPPLEMENT
"For the trouble is that one part of you is on His (God’s) side and really agrees with His disapproval of human greed and trickery and exploitation. You may want Him to make an exception in your own case, to let you off this one time; but you know at bottom that unless the power behind the world really and unalterably detests that sort of behavior, then He cannot be good. On the other hand, we know that if there does exist an absolute goodness it must hate most of what we do. That is the terrible fix we are in.
If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again. We cannot do without it, and we cannot do with it. God is our only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from.
Of course, I quite agree that the Christian religion, is in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through the dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end. If you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth – only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair." (CSL-MC)
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Saturday, January 27, 2007
AS 1:9 The Sacred and The Profane Plot and Comments
PLOT
The morning after Dagny and Hank have sex, they discuss what it meant to each of them. Hank and Dagny meet that night at Dagny’s place. On September 2, Hank goes to a dinner in his honor given by the National Council of Metal Industries and then Hank decides he and Dagny should take a few weeks of vacation. While on vacation, they decide to find the 20th Century Motor Company in order to get machines for Ted Nielsen who has agreed to make Dagny’s engines. The 20th Century Motor Company is deserted except for the remnants of a motor that was able to turn static energy into kinetic energy.
SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Ragnar strikes a ship with Emergency Gift cargo headed for Norway.
James "celebrates" the victory of the John Galt Line by bringing a dime store clerk up to his room. He decides not to have sex with Cherryl Brooks.
Hank wants to know the other man Dagny has been with.
Mr. Mowen fumes about the unfairness of business conditions to a day laborer, Owen Kellogg.
The Legislature passed a Bill giving wider powers to the Bureau of Economic Planning and Natural Resources.
COMMENTS
Scale – Cherryl is hard to pin down. She talks like the positive side of the scale, but her seeming lack of intelligence allows James to convince her about the negative side. We learn more about Jim...just like we learned about Hank, Dagny, and Francisco: "He did not name to himself the nature of his own feeling - never to identify his emotions was the only steadfast rule of his life; he merely felt it..." "The unnamed and the unuttered could not clash into a contradiction." "...unhappiness is the hallmark of virtue. If a man is unhappy, really, truly unhappy, it means that he is a superior sort of person." James is moving beyond –6 with his responses to all that the positive side accomplishes. He is becoming more emotionally unstable.
Story Arc - Dagny sees the calendar says it is September 2...one year has passed since the beginning of the book...and we have completed the story arc begun at the beginning of the book concerning the Rio Norte Line. At the beginning, Dagny needs to replace the Rio Norte Line...during this chapter the John Galt Line is renamed the Rio Norte Line. The rest of the chapter sets up the next story arc...Dagny and Hank go on a vacation and find the remnants of a revolutionary motor in the abandoned Twentieth Century Motor Company headquarters in Wisconsin.
Dagny – Dagny’s handling of her affair with Hank actually shows she’s more positive than Hank. Hank’s belief in ownership AND sex being a base need leads to him feeling guilty about the affair. Hank does not do things half way. "He (Hank) was incapable of halfway concerns." So now Hank resents Dagny for making him have to lie about an aspect of his life. "What I feel for you is contempt. But it is nothing, compared to the contempt I feel for myself. I don’t love you. I’ve never loved anyone." Dagny says she doesn’t feel guilty about it. Let’s put Dagny at +6.5.
Absolutes – "There are no absolutes – as Dr. Pritchett has proved irrefutably. Nothing is absolute. Everything is a matter of opinion." (James to Cherryl) The inability to communicate without using absolutes proves the existence of absolutes.
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The morning after Dagny and Hank have sex, they discuss what it meant to each of them. Hank and Dagny meet that night at Dagny’s place. On September 2, Hank goes to a dinner in his honor given by the National Council of Metal Industries and then Hank decides he and Dagny should take a few weeks of vacation. While on vacation, they decide to find the 20th Century Motor Company in order to get machines for Ted Nielsen who has agreed to make Dagny’s engines. The 20th Century Motor Company is deserted except for the remnants of a motor that was able to turn static energy into kinetic energy.
SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Ragnar strikes a ship with Emergency Gift cargo headed for Norway.
James "celebrates" the victory of the John Galt Line by bringing a dime store clerk up to his room. He decides not to have sex with Cherryl Brooks.
Hank wants to know the other man Dagny has been with.
Mr. Mowen fumes about the unfairness of business conditions to a day laborer, Owen Kellogg.
The Legislature passed a Bill giving wider powers to the Bureau of Economic Planning and Natural Resources.
COMMENTS
Scale – Cherryl is hard to pin down. She talks like the positive side of the scale, but her seeming lack of intelligence allows James to convince her about the negative side. We learn more about Jim...just like we learned about Hank, Dagny, and Francisco: "He did not name to himself the nature of his own feeling - never to identify his emotions was the only steadfast rule of his life; he merely felt it..." "The unnamed and the unuttered could not clash into a contradiction." "...unhappiness is the hallmark of virtue. If a man is unhappy, really, truly unhappy, it means that he is a superior sort of person." James is moving beyond –6 with his responses to all that the positive side accomplishes. He is becoming more emotionally unstable.
Story Arc - Dagny sees the calendar says it is September 2...one year has passed since the beginning of the book...and we have completed the story arc begun at the beginning of the book concerning the Rio Norte Line. At the beginning, Dagny needs to replace the Rio Norte Line...during this chapter the John Galt Line is renamed the Rio Norte Line. The rest of the chapter sets up the next story arc...Dagny and Hank go on a vacation and find the remnants of a revolutionary motor in the abandoned Twentieth Century Motor Company headquarters in Wisconsin.
Dagny – Dagny’s handling of her affair with Hank actually shows she’s more positive than Hank. Hank’s belief in ownership AND sex being a base need leads to him feeling guilty about the affair. Hank does not do things half way. "He (Hank) was incapable of halfway concerns." So now Hank resents Dagny for making him have to lie about an aspect of his life. "What I feel for you is contempt. But it is nothing, compared to the contempt I feel for myself. I don’t love you. I’ve never loved anyone." Dagny says she doesn’t feel guilty about it. Let’s put Dagny at +6.5.
Absolutes – "There are no absolutes – as Dr. Pritchett has proved irrefutably. Nothing is absolute. Everything is a matter of opinion." (James to Cherryl) The inability to communicate without using absolutes proves the existence of absolutes.
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Thursday, January 25, 2007
AS 1:8 The John Galt Line Application
PRACTICAL APPLICATION (worth rereading)
The dinner at Wyatt's house is worth rereading. Wyatt says, "I want as many miles as possible between myself and all the other kinds." This was the first thing I realized about truly successful people; they don’t have time for all the other kinds. Also, they are excellent at recognizing other kinds of people. How? From AS 1:7 "The action of naming an issue instead of evading it, was so unlike the usual behavior of all the men he (Hank) knew…" This is the best way for positive people to recognize people from the other side of the scale. This is also the first step in solving a problem especially if you are managing a group of people. Focus on naming the issue and watch their reaction. If they are positive, it will energize them because it focuses them on a solution. If they are negative, they will fight with everything in them to remove the name of the issue. They’ll even attack you for "oversimplifying" the issue. Their goal is comfort, not growth (solving problems).
Spiritual Issues - "...that man's spirit gives meaning to insentient matter by molding it to serve one's chosen goal."
The comments that led up to it include:
-"Only when one feels immensely important, she had told him, can one feel truly light."
-"First, the vision - then the physical shape to express it. First, the thought - then the purposeful motion down the straight line of a single track to a chosen goal. Could one have any meaning without the other?"
-"Was this the surrender of man's spirit to his body?"
-"Every part of the motors was an embodied answer to "Why?" and "What for?". The motors were a moral code cast in steel."
-"-the power of a living mind - the power of thought and choice and purpose."
SUPPLEMENT
"There was some unbreakable link between her love for her work and the desire of her body; as if one gave her the right to the other, the right and the meaning; as if one were the completion of the other – and the desire would never be satisfied except by a being of equal greatness. " Dagny is realizing that sex is as much spiritual as physical. Hank sees sex as purely physical.
"Modern people are always saying, ‘Sex is nothing to be ashamed of.’ They may mean two things. They may mean 'There is nothing to be ashamed of in the fact that the human race reproduces itself in a certain way, nor in the fact that it gives pleasure.' If they mean that, they are right. Christianity says the same. It is not the thing, nor the pleasure, that is the trouble. The old Christian teachers said that if man had never fallen, sexual pleasure, instead of being less than it is now, would actually have been greater. I know some muddle-headed Christians have talked as if Christianity thought that sex, or the body, or pleasure were bad in themselves. But they were wrong. Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body – which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, our beauty and our energy. Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians. If anyone says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once. But of course, when people say, 'Sex is nothing to be ashamed of,' they may mean 'the state into which the sexual instinct has now got is nothing to be ashamed of.' If they mean that, I think they are wrong." (CSL-MC)
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The dinner at Wyatt's house is worth rereading. Wyatt says, "I want as many miles as possible between myself and all the other kinds." This was the first thing I realized about truly successful people; they don’t have time for all the other kinds. Also, they are excellent at recognizing other kinds of people. How? From AS 1:7 "The action of naming an issue instead of evading it, was so unlike the usual behavior of all the men he (Hank) knew…" This is the best way for positive people to recognize people from the other side of the scale. This is also the first step in solving a problem especially if you are managing a group of people. Focus on naming the issue and watch their reaction. If they are positive, it will energize them because it focuses them on a solution. If they are negative, they will fight with everything in them to remove the name of the issue. They’ll even attack you for "oversimplifying" the issue. Their goal is comfort, not growth (solving problems).
Spiritual Issues - "...that man's spirit gives meaning to insentient matter by molding it to serve one's chosen goal."
The comments that led up to it include:
-"Only when one feels immensely important, she had told him, can one feel truly light."
-"First, the vision - then the physical shape to express it. First, the thought - then the purposeful motion down the straight line of a single track to a chosen goal. Could one have any meaning without the other?"
-"Was this the surrender of man's spirit to his body?"
-"Every part of the motors was an embodied answer to "Why?" and "What for?". The motors were a moral code cast in steel."
-"-the power of a living mind - the power of thought and choice and purpose."
SUPPLEMENT
"There was some unbreakable link between her love for her work and the desire of her body; as if one gave her the right to the other, the right and the meaning; as if one were the completion of the other – and the desire would never be satisfied except by a being of equal greatness. " Dagny is realizing that sex is as much spiritual as physical. Hank sees sex as purely physical.
"Modern people are always saying, ‘Sex is nothing to be ashamed of.’ They may mean two things. They may mean 'There is nothing to be ashamed of in the fact that the human race reproduces itself in a certain way, nor in the fact that it gives pleasure.' If they mean that, they are right. Christianity says the same. It is not the thing, nor the pleasure, that is the trouble. The old Christian teachers said that if man had never fallen, sexual pleasure, instead of being less than it is now, would actually have been greater. I know some muddle-headed Christians have talked as if Christianity thought that sex, or the body, or pleasure were bad in themselves. But they were wrong. Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body – which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, our beauty and our energy. Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians. If anyone says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once. But of course, when people say, 'Sex is nothing to be ashamed of,' they may mean 'the state into which the sexual instinct has now got is nothing to be ashamed of.' If they mean that, I think they are wrong." (CSL-MC)
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007
AS 1:8 The John Galt Line Plot and Comments
PLOT
Dwight Sanders retires after buying the United Locomotive Works, still leaving TT without any new engines. Because of the Equalization of Opportunity Bill, Hank sells his iron mine to Paul Larkin and his coalmines to Ken Danagger. Public opinion is against the John Galt Line because of the "hazards" of Rearden Metal. However, people who denounce Rearden Metal are buying TT stock in other people’s names. There’s an overabundance of crew volunteers for the first ride on the John Galt Line. The first ride is a success with Hank and Dagny on board. On the night of the first ride, Dagny and Hank have sex at Ellis Wyatt’s place.
SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Eddie in confessional – Eddie, who has taken over for Dagny, admits he is afraid.
Dagny desires a man – "To find a consciousness like her own, who would be the meaning of her world, as she would be of his…No, not Francisco d’Anconia, not Hank Rearden, not any man she had ever met or admired…"
An unidentified person appears outside her new office. She later confirms it was not Hank.
Wesley Mouch resigns and becomes the Assistant Coordinator of the Bureau of Economic Planning and Natural Resources. Hank works with Eddie to extend payment terms from TT for the rails.
COMMENTS
Scale – James hopes for bad news on the John Galt Line. He has moved to –6. Hank’s interaction with Paul Larkin and Ken Danagger is enlightening. His feelings for Larkin: "He (Hank) had never experienced an emotion of this kind. It took him a few moments to realize that this was what men called hatred." Larkin may not be in the middle of the scale any more. "When he sold his coal mines to Ken Danagger, Rearden wondered why he felt as if it were almost painless." Danagger shows himself to be Hank’s equal and maybe superior during their deal making. Put Ken at +7. Ellis Wyatt’s says during dinner with Dagny and Hank, "I’ve never had a chance to be what I’m like – except tonight." Wyatt gives Dagny and Hank energy, although he seems to challenge Dagny more. Ellis is at +8.
Value for Value – Hank: "Either I own a property or I don’t." Hank believes trust is useless because it doesn’t follow value for value. Why should he logically expect something from someone who doesn’t benefit? Because he should trust him?
Public opinion – The positive side of the scale doesn’t care for public opinion. Remember Dagny getting slapped for wanting to be popular? Besides, what is public opinion? "People said it because other people said it." The negative side seems to be obsessed with public opinion. Consequently, the people who report public opinion, the press, end up on the negative side of the scale as an occupational hazard. "The reporters…were young men who had been trained to think that their job consisted of concealing from the world the nature of its events."
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Dwight Sanders retires after buying the United Locomotive Works, still leaving TT without any new engines. Because of the Equalization of Opportunity Bill, Hank sells his iron mine to Paul Larkin and his coalmines to Ken Danagger. Public opinion is against the John Galt Line because of the "hazards" of Rearden Metal. However, people who denounce Rearden Metal are buying TT stock in other people’s names. There’s an overabundance of crew volunteers for the first ride on the John Galt Line. The first ride is a success with Hank and Dagny on board. On the night of the first ride, Dagny and Hank have sex at Ellis Wyatt’s place.
SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Eddie in confessional – Eddie, who has taken over for Dagny, admits he is afraid.
Dagny desires a man – "To find a consciousness like her own, who would be the meaning of her world, as she would be of his…No, not Francisco d’Anconia, not Hank Rearden, not any man she had ever met or admired…"
An unidentified person appears outside her new office. She later confirms it was not Hank.
Wesley Mouch resigns and becomes the Assistant Coordinator of the Bureau of Economic Planning and Natural Resources. Hank works with Eddie to extend payment terms from TT for the rails.
COMMENTS
Scale – James hopes for bad news on the John Galt Line. He has moved to –6. Hank’s interaction with Paul Larkin and Ken Danagger is enlightening. His feelings for Larkin: "He (Hank) had never experienced an emotion of this kind. It took him a few moments to realize that this was what men called hatred." Larkin may not be in the middle of the scale any more. "When he sold his coal mines to Ken Danagger, Rearden wondered why he felt as if it were almost painless." Danagger shows himself to be Hank’s equal and maybe superior during their deal making. Put Ken at +7. Ellis Wyatt’s says during dinner with Dagny and Hank, "I’ve never had a chance to be what I’m like – except tonight." Wyatt gives Dagny and Hank energy, although he seems to challenge Dagny more. Ellis is at +8.
Value for Value – Hank: "Either I own a property or I don’t." Hank believes trust is useless because it doesn’t follow value for value. Why should he logically expect something from someone who doesn’t benefit? Because he should trust him?
Public opinion – The positive side of the scale doesn’t care for public opinion. Remember Dagny getting slapped for wanting to be popular? Besides, what is public opinion? "People said it because other people said it." The negative side seems to be obsessed with public opinion. Consequently, the people who report public opinion, the press, end up on the negative side of the scale as an occupational hazard. "The reporters…were young men who had been trained to think that their job consisted of concealing from the world the nature of its events."
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Tuesday, January 23, 2007
AS 1:7 The Exploiters and The Exploited Application
PRACTICAL APPLICATION (worth rereading)
This chapter reveals (names) what I believe is the underlying theme of the book, "Value for value". If there is one thing to take away from this book, it is this concept, because every other concept comes back to it. Also, this is the concept I've found is infallible in creating long-term solutions to tough situations. It absolutely reduces every situation to its most basic elements.
Value for value is the only moral way to deal with people. Basically, the only moral way for me to get you to do something for me is to show you what's in it for you. That is, to show you what "value" you will get out of helping me (giving me a value). We will have plenty of time to explore this concept as the story unfolds. In addition, there are two perversions of this belief.
Moocher - This is a person who appeals to someone on an emotional level. The value they give is to help the other person not feel bad.
Looter - This is a person who appeals to someone with a threat. The value they give is to not take a value away from the other person.
Contradictions - They do not exist. "Check your premises." The name of this first book is called, "Non-Contradiction". In building models, I've found a lot of people stop when they reach what they believe is a contradiction. In reality, it is just proof that they haven't taken a large enough view. They haven't grasped the "Big Picture". I've been able to solve $100+ million problems because I was ruthless about the facts of a situation. I made people prove every assumption they had with deconfirmatory questions. It is obnoxious, but it gets to the truth...and knowing the truth always leads to the long-term solution of every problem.
SUPPLEMENT
Man - "The reasons in favor of prolonging the usage of man are four: etymology, convenience, the unsuspected incompleteness of "man and woman" and literary tradition.
To begin with the last, it is unwise to give up a long-established practice, familiar to all, without reviewing the purpose it served. In Genesis we read: ‘And God created Man, male and female.’ Plainly, in 1611 and long before, man meant human being. For centuries zoologists have spoken of the species Man; ‘Man inhabits all the climactic zones.’ Logicians have said ‘Man is mortal,’ and philosophers have boasted of ‘Man's unconquerable mind.’ In all these uses man cannot possibly mean male only. The coupling of woman to those statements would add nothing and sound absurd.
Nor is the inclusive sense of human being an arbitrary convention. The Sanskrit root man, manu, denotes nothing but the human being and does so par excellence, since it is cognate with the word for ‘I think’.
The thought occurs that if fairness to all divisions of humanity requires their separate mention when referred to in the mass, then the listing must not read simply ‘men and women’, it must include teenagers. They have played a large role in the world and they are not clearly distinguished in the phrase ‘men and women.’ Reflection further shows that mention should be given to yet another group: children." (Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence)
The Dark Knight - At the end, Batman tells Gordon to make him the enemy and lead the pursuit of him because he can bear the pain. When Dagny tells Jim about the John Galt Line she says: "You can help them to curse me and denounce me."
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This chapter reveals (names) what I believe is the underlying theme of the book, "Value for value". If there is one thing to take away from this book, it is this concept, because every other concept comes back to it. Also, this is the concept I've found is infallible in creating long-term solutions to tough situations. It absolutely reduces every situation to its most basic elements.
Value for value is the only moral way to deal with people. Basically, the only moral way for me to get you to do something for me is to show you what's in it for you. That is, to show you what "value" you will get out of helping me (giving me a value). We will have plenty of time to explore this concept as the story unfolds. In addition, there are two perversions of this belief.
Moocher - This is a person who appeals to someone on an emotional level. The value they give is to help the other person not feel bad.
Looter - This is a person who appeals to someone with a threat. The value they give is to not take a value away from the other person.
Contradictions - They do not exist. "Check your premises." The name of this first book is called, "Non-Contradiction". In building models, I've found a lot of people stop when they reach what they believe is a contradiction. In reality, it is just proof that they haven't taken a large enough view. They haven't grasped the "Big Picture". I've been able to solve $100+ million problems because I was ruthless about the facts of a situation. I made people prove every assumption they had with deconfirmatory questions. It is obnoxious, but it gets to the truth...and knowing the truth always leads to the long-term solution of every problem.
SUPPLEMENT
Man - "The reasons in favor of prolonging the usage of man are four: etymology, convenience, the unsuspected incompleteness of "man and woman" and literary tradition.
To begin with the last, it is unwise to give up a long-established practice, familiar to all, without reviewing the purpose it served. In Genesis we read: ‘And God created Man, male and female.’ Plainly, in 1611 and long before, man meant human being. For centuries zoologists have spoken of the species Man; ‘Man inhabits all the climactic zones.’ Logicians have said ‘Man is mortal,’ and philosophers have boasted of ‘Man's unconquerable mind.’ In all these uses man cannot possibly mean male only. The coupling of woman to those statements would add nothing and sound absurd.
Nor is the inclusive sense of human being an arbitrary convention. The Sanskrit root man, manu, denotes nothing but the human being and does so par excellence, since it is cognate with the word for ‘I think’.
The thought occurs that if fairness to all divisions of humanity requires their separate mention when referred to in the mass, then the listing must not read simply ‘men and women’, it must include teenagers. They have played a large role in the world and they are not clearly distinguished in the phrase ‘men and women.’ Reflection further shows that mention should be given to yet another group: children." (Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence)
The Dark Knight - At the end, Batman tells Gordon to make him the enemy and lead the pursuit of him because he can bear the pain. When Dagny tells Jim about the John Galt Line she says: "You can help them to curse me and denounce me."
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Monday, January 22, 2007
AS 1:7 The Exploiters and The Exploited Plot and Comments
PLOT
Dagny is in Colorado working on the Rio Norte. Ellis Wyatt and Hank stop by, individually, and Dagny is now on great terms with both. Dr. Potter from the State Science Institute offers Rearden a huge sum of money if he will sell the rights to Rearden Metal so its introduction can be delayed a few years. Rearden rejects the offer. The State Science Institute (Dr. Ferris) responds with a non-specific slander (opinion) of Rearden Metal. Dagny goes to visit Dr. Stadler at the State Science Institute to appeal the opinion. He declines. TT's stock crashes. Dagny proposes the John Galt Line. The legislature passes the Equalization of Opportunity Bill.
SUBPLOT (loose ends)
The switch company (Mr. Mowen) won't use Rearden Metal for an unspecific reason.
James convinces Dagny into giving a speech supporting Rearden Metal. When she finds out it's a debate with Bertram Scudder she leaves the car. The debate question: "Is Rearden Metal a lethal product of greed?"
John Galt Legend II - "He found the fountain of youth, which he wanted to bring down to men. Only he never came back. Because he found that it couldn't be brought down."
Ragnar and Francisco Background - They, along with another student, were friends who majored in Physics (Robert Stadler) and Philosophy (Hugh Akston) at Patrick Henry University.
Bonds - Dagny gets several businessmen to buy bonds in the John Galt Line. Francisco refuses.
Sex - Hank fantasizes about having "animal sex" with Dagny.
Philip - Hank's mom asks him to give Philip a job because he "needs" it. Hank refuses.
COMMENTS
Scale - The people who openly buy bonds in the John Galt Line are on the positive side of the scale. The people who buy Taggart stock in private are on the negative side of the scale.
Words - The debate was worded in such a way to confine Dagny from talking about what is good about Rearden Metal and allow Bertram Scudder to slander Rearden Metal by implication. If words aren't exact, why do the people who believe this choose their words so carefully?
Man - "Man is just a low-grade animal,...An animal with only two capacities: to eat and to reproduce." One of the main differences between man (See Supplement for use of the word "man") and an animal is a man lives by thought (purposes) while an animal lives on instinct. Isn't that how we know something is man-made vs. natural? If we find something of purpose, (a chair in a field), we know a man has been there. Something of purpose, the chair, doesn't just randomly appear. In fact, look at the two examples. Don't we see "purpose" when we eat? If we were animals, we'd eat with no manners at all. Really, a formal dinner is an extreme act of showing purpose with the creating of rules (etiquette). Think about sex. If we were animals, we'd have sex wherever the instinct overcame us with whomever we wanted. Also from AS 1:6, "But when we prove that knowledge is impossible to man, what's to be left? 'Instinct', replied Dr. Pritchett."
Fear - We discussed the theme of "pain" in Chapter 5. This chapter introduces another theme that comes from pain: fear. Pain causes us to act like animals, not think, and just respond in the short-term through instinct. Notice who is afraid and what makes them afraid. "Thought is a weapon one uses in order to act. He (Hank) saw for the first time that he had never known fear because, against any disaster, he held the omnipotent cure of being able to act."
Sex - Rearden sees sex as an instinctual animal need. He looks at Dagny ("the only person I respected") and thinks, "The lowest of all desires - as my answer to the highest I've met..."
Morality - Morality is discussed throughout this chapter. Dagny asks the old bum, "What is morality?" "Judgment to distinguish right and wrong, vision to see the truth, courage to act upon it, dedication to that which is good, integrity to stand by the good at any price. But where does one find it?" Later, Dagny asks Mr. Mowen, "Do you know what's true?"
The passage with Rearden and his mom summarizes a lot. Here are a few passages: "You're the most immoral man living - you think of nothing but justice! You don't feel any love at all!" "What are they, your mills - a holy temple of some kind?" "If you loved your brother, you'd give him a job he didn't deserve, precisely because he didn't deserve it - that would be true love and kindness and brotherhood. Else what's love for? If a man deserves a job, there's no virtue in giving it to him. Virtue is the giving of the undeserved."
Avoidance of Thought - The State Science Institute wants to stop Rearden from using his revolutionary Rearden Metal. They don't give a logical reason. They don't go on record with any facts. They say they are concerned for others and will undermine it with certain bills if Hank doesn't sell it to them or hold off for a couple years. Dagny later thinks that "It was useless to argue, she thought, and to wonder about people who would neither refute an argument nor accept it."
Eddie tells Dagny: "The State Science Institute has issued a statement warning people against the use of Rearden Metal."
Dagny: "What did they say?"
Eddie: "Dagny, they didn't say it!...They haven't really said it, yet it's there - and it isn't. That's what's monstrous about it."
Dagny talks to Robert Stadler who is the head of the Institute. Their motto is: To the fearless mind. To the inviolate truth. Dr. Stadler: "Men are not open to truth or reason. They cannot be reached by a rational argument. The mind is powerless against them."
Francisco tells Dagny: "I'll give you a hint. Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong." (People not wanting to find out they are wrong will avoid thought.)
Mr. Ward to Rearden: "You know, Mr. Rearden, I don't like people who talk too much about how everything they do is just for the sake of others. It's not true, and I don't think it would be right if it were true."
Rearden has an epiphany about thought: "Thought is a weapon one uses in order to act." "Thought is the tool by which one makes a choice." "Thought sets one's purpose and the way to reach it."
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Dagny is in Colorado working on the Rio Norte. Ellis Wyatt and Hank stop by, individually, and Dagny is now on great terms with both. Dr. Potter from the State Science Institute offers Rearden a huge sum of money if he will sell the rights to Rearden Metal so its introduction can be delayed a few years. Rearden rejects the offer. The State Science Institute (Dr. Ferris) responds with a non-specific slander (opinion) of Rearden Metal. Dagny goes to visit Dr. Stadler at the State Science Institute to appeal the opinion. He declines. TT's stock crashes. Dagny proposes the John Galt Line. The legislature passes the Equalization of Opportunity Bill.
SUBPLOT (loose ends)
The switch company (Mr. Mowen) won't use Rearden Metal for an unspecific reason.
James convinces Dagny into giving a speech supporting Rearden Metal. When she finds out it's a debate with Bertram Scudder she leaves the car. The debate question: "Is Rearden Metal a lethal product of greed?"
John Galt Legend II - "He found the fountain of youth, which he wanted to bring down to men. Only he never came back. Because he found that it couldn't be brought down."
Ragnar and Francisco Background - They, along with another student, were friends who majored in Physics (Robert Stadler) and Philosophy (Hugh Akston) at Patrick Henry University.
Bonds - Dagny gets several businessmen to buy bonds in the John Galt Line. Francisco refuses.
Sex - Hank fantasizes about having "animal sex" with Dagny.
Philip - Hank's mom asks him to give Philip a job because he "needs" it. Hank refuses.
COMMENTS
Scale - The people who openly buy bonds in the John Galt Line are on the positive side of the scale. The people who buy Taggart stock in private are on the negative side of the scale.
Words - The debate was worded in such a way to confine Dagny from talking about what is good about Rearden Metal and allow Bertram Scudder to slander Rearden Metal by implication. If words aren't exact, why do the people who believe this choose their words so carefully?
Man - "Man is just a low-grade animal,...An animal with only two capacities: to eat and to reproduce." One of the main differences between man (See Supplement for use of the word "man") and an animal is a man lives by thought (purposes) while an animal lives on instinct. Isn't that how we know something is man-made vs. natural? If we find something of purpose, (a chair in a field), we know a man has been there. Something of purpose, the chair, doesn't just randomly appear. In fact, look at the two examples. Don't we see "purpose" when we eat? If we were animals, we'd eat with no manners at all. Really, a formal dinner is an extreme act of showing purpose with the creating of rules (etiquette). Think about sex. If we were animals, we'd have sex wherever the instinct overcame us with whomever we wanted. Also from AS 1:6, "But when we prove that knowledge is impossible to man, what's to be left? 'Instinct', replied Dr. Pritchett."
Fear - We discussed the theme of "pain" in Chapter 5. This chapter introduces another theme that comes from pain: fear. Pain causes us to act like animals, not think, and just respond in the short-term through instinct. Notice who is afraid and what makes them afraid. "Thought is a weapon one uses in order to act. He (Hank) saw for the first time that he had never known fear because, against any disaster, he held the omnipotent cure of being able to act."
Sex - Rearden sees sex as an instinctual animal need. He looks at Dagny ("the only person I respected") and thinks, "The lowest of all desires - as my answer to the highest I've met..."
Morality - Morality is discussed throughout this chapter. Dagny asks the old bum, "What is morality?" "Judgment to distinguish right and wrong, vision to see the truth, courage to act upon it, dedication to that which is good, integrity to stand by the good at any price. But where does one find it?" Later, Dagny asks Mr. Mowen, "Do you know what's true?"
The passage with Rearden and his mom summarizes a lot. Here are a few passages: "You're the most immoral man living - you think of nothing but justice! You don't feel any love at all!" "What are they, your mills - a holy temple of some kind?" "If you loved your brother, you'd give him a job he didn't deserve, precisely because he didn't deserve it - that would be true love and kindness and brotherhood. Else what's love for? If a man deserves a job, there's no virtue in giving it to him. Virtue is the giving of the undeserved."
Avoidance of Thought - The State Science Institute wants to stop Rearden from using his revolutionary Rearden Metal. They don't give a logical reason. They don't go on record with any facts. They say they are concerned for others and will undermine it with certain bills if Hank doesn't sell it to them or hold off for a couple years. Dagny later thinks that "It was useless to argue, she thought, and to wonder about people who would neither refute an argument nor accept it."
Eddie tells Dagny: "The State Science Institute has issued a statement warning people against the use of Rearden Metal."
Dagny: "What did they say?"
Eddie: "Dagny, they didn't say it!...They haven't really said it, yet it's there - and it isn't. That's what's monstrous about it."
Dagny talks to Robert Stadler who is the head of the Institute. Their motto is: To the fearless mind. To the inviolate truth. Dr. Stadler: "Men are not open to truth or reason. They cannot be reached by a rational argument. The mind is powerless against them."
Francisco tells Dagny: "I'll give you a hint. Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong." (People not wanting to find out they are wrong will avoid thought.)
Mr. Ward to Rearden: "You know, Mr. Rearden, I don't like people who talk too much about how everything they do is just for the sake of others. It's not true, and I don't think it would be right if it were true."
Rearden has an epiphany about thought: "Thought is a weapon one uses in order to act." "Thought is the tool by which one makes a choice." "Thought sets one's purpose and the way to reach it."
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Saturday, January 20, 2007
AS 1:6 The Non-Commercial Supplement
SUPPLEMENT
Stress - Years ago I took a test on handling stress. People told me I would do well on the 40+ question test. I ended up getting a perfect score. Typical question:
If you gave a talk and no one asked a question, whose fault would it be?
a)all yours b)mostly yours c)yours and the audience d)mostly audience e)all audience.
Next question: What would you do before your next presentation? The answers ranged from "everything in your power to make it better" to "Nothing". All of my answers were "all my fault" and "everything in my power".
Stress occurs when you believe (or is it "feel"?) something is out of your control and you have no power or desire to change it. The people who are stressed out and ready for a heart attack are usually the ones who get emotionally wound up about it "not being fair" and "not their fault". If you feel (or is it believe?) everything is your fault then you have the power to change it. Recall how much James and the negative side of the scale focuses on blaming and faulting others. A person that focused on blaming others will be as unstable as James is depicted.
Hank is a master at handling stress and pain. "He had never spared himself in any issue. When a problem came up at the mills, his first concern was to discover what error he had made; he did not search for anyone's fault but his own; it was of himself that he demanded perfection. But at the mills, it prompted him to action in an immediate impulse to correct error; now, it had no effect...” Hank believes this party is out of his control.
Notice also, that Hank believes in Right and Just:
"...that one had to seek that which was right, because the right answer always won - that the senseless, the wrong, the monstrously unjust could not work, could not succeed, could do nothing but defeat itself."
How We Know What Isn't So - According to the book "HWKWIS", all you can know for sure is whether something isn't true. Our ability to selectively recall supporting facts misleads us into believing something is true or right when it isn't. It's the difference between "compare" and "contrast". For instance, I can try to convince you I drive a Corvette: my car's name starts with a "C", it has four wheels, it has a steering wheel, etc. Just because everything I've said is true and is in common with a Corvette, it doesn't make it a Corvette. "Compare" isn't going to get you to the truth. That's because I'm not seeking the truth, my purpose is to prove my point (look for similarities only).
The way to find out the truth is to ask deconfirmatory questions. That is, "contrast", ask questions that try and prove the premise wrong. The shuttle explosion is another great example. Everyone who looked at the data was trying to prove they could launch the shuttle. That is, "comparing" the data to a launch scenario. However, all the data needed to stop the launch was among the same data they used for their comparison.
Why don't people focus on proving themselves wrong? Because most people are insecure and want to be right, right now. Their goal is not growth; it is comfort. Likewise, the only way for a Christian to know for sure is to try and prove Christianity wrong. When they find something that's wrong, they should remove it and move on. The search for truth is actually a process involving the constant testing and removal of beliefs. The problem is that so many Christians, especially new ones, have the need to feel right, right now. They are a terrible advertisement for Christianity.
The only people who "know" anything are the ones who have challenged and changed their beliefs. Those who haven't changed don't know anything. That's why deduction is the most powerful form of reasoning. Ms. Rand does a great job of using deduction when she demonstrates the logical end (some say exaggeration) of the negative side of the scale. However, deduction and contrasting involves challenging people's beliefs. In order to do this, the setting has to be one of trust and understanding. That's the real tragedy with the loss of civility and the rise of "irony" (sarcasm) in our society. It prohibits us from working together to improve ourselves.
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Stress - Years ago I took a test on handling stress. People told me I would do well on the 40+ question test. I ended up getting a perfect score. Typical question:
If you gave a talk and no one asked a question, whose fault would it be?
a)all yours b)mostly yours c)yours and the audience d)mostly audience e)all audience.
Next question: What would you do before your next presentation? The answers ranged from "everything in your power to make it better" to "Nothing". All of my answers were "all my fault" and "everything in my power".
Stress occurs when you believe (or is it "feel"?) something is out of your control and you have no power or desire to change it. The people who are stressed out and ready for a heart attack are usually the ones who get emotionally wound up about it "not being fair" and "not their fault". If you feel (or is it believe?) everything is your fault then you have the power to change it. Recall how much James and the negative side of the scale focuses on blaming and faulting others. A person that focused on blaming others will be as unstable as James is depicted.
Hank is a master at handling stress and pain. "He had never spared himself in any issue. When a problem came up at the mills, his first concern was to discover what error he had made; he did not search for anyone's fault but his own; it was of himself that he demanded perfection. But at the mills, it prompted him to action in an immediate impulse to correct error; now, it had no effect...” Hank believes this party is out of his control.
Notice also, that Hank believes in Right and Just:
"...that one had to seek that which was right, because the right answer always won - that the senseless, the wrong, the monstrously unjust could not work, could not succeed, could do nothing but defeat itself."
How We Know What Isn't So - According to the book "HWKWIS", all you can know for sure is whether something isn't true. Our ability to selectively recall supporting facts misleads us into believing something is true or right when it isn't. It's the difference between "compare" and "contrast". For instance, I can try to convince you I drive a Corvette: my car's name starts with a "C", it has four wheels, it has a steering wheel, etc. Just because everything I've said is true and is in common with a Corvette, it doesn't make it a Corvette. "Compare" isn't going to get you to the truth. That's because I'm not seeking the truth, my purpose is to prove my point (look for similarities only).
The way to find out the truth is to ask deconfirmatory questions. That is, "contrast", ask questions that try and prove the premise wrong. The shuttle explosion is another great example. Everyone who looked at the data was trying to prove they could launch the shuttle. That is, "comparing" the data to a launch scenario. However, all the data needed to stop the launch was among the same data they used for their comparison.
Why don't people focus on proving themselves wrong? Because most people are insecure and want to be right, right now. Their goal is not growth; it is comfort. Likewise, the only way for a Christian to know for sure is to try and prove Christianity wrong. When they find something that's wrong, they should remove it and move on. The search for truth is actually a process involving the constant testing and removal of beliefs. The problem is that so many Christians, especially new ones, have the need to feel right, right now. They are a terrible advertisement for Christianity.
The only people who "know" anything are the ones who have challenged and changed their beliefs. Those who haven't changed don't know anything. That's why deduction is the most powerful form of reasoning. Ms. Rand does a great job of using deduction when she demonstrates the logical end (some say exaggeration) of the negative side of the scale. However, deduction and contrasting involves challenging people's beliefs. In order to do this, the setting has to be one of trust and understanding. That's the real tragedy with the loss of civility and the rise of "irony" (sarcasm) in our society. It prohibits us from working together to improve ourselves.
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Friday, January 19, 2007
AS 1:6 The Non-Commercial Plot and Comments
PLOT
It is December 10th, the night of Rearden's anniversary party. Hank hates parties and tries to avoid mingling with the guests. Dagny tries to speak with Hank but he is standoffish. Francisco makes an appearance in order to learn what kind of man Hank is. They talk. Dagny hears Lillian make fun of the bracelet from Hank. Dagny challenges Lillian to trade it for Dagny's diamond bracelet. Lillian gives Dagny the blue-green bracelet. We learn about the Rearden's sex life and that the Reardens view sex as an animal need.
SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Equalization of Opportunity Bill sponsored by the Friends for Global Progress states that a person or corporation couldn’t own more than one business. Wesley Mouch tells Hank it is not a threat to be passed.
Ragnar Danneskjold - A pirate that roams the Atlantic taking goods.
John Galt Legend - Francisco says an old lady is right when she tells a story about John Galt. "John Galt sank his ship and went down with his entire crew. They all agreed to do it."
Party Guests - Bertram Scudder wrote an article called "The Octopus" that trashes Rearden.
COMMENTS
Scale - Hank actually seems to be getting along with Francisco better than Dagny does. They still can't completely connect, however "The glance betrayed how much he (Hank) wanted to find the sort of man he thought he was seeing." Francisco's purpose was to learn to understand Rearden. Francisco also talks with Rearden "to give you (Hank) words you need, for the time when you'll need them." Clearly Hank sees something in Francisco that Dagny thinks is gone.
Sex - Hank begins this chapter with NO ENERGY. He tries to figure out why he has all the energy in the world to do amazing things and he barely has enough energy to button his shirt. We learn Hank's perspective of sex:
"He had won his every battle against inanimate nature; but this was a battle he lost."
"He despised a need which now held no shred of joy or meaning...He became convinced the need was depravity."
"He came to believe the doctrine that this desire was wholly physical, a desire, not of consciousness, but of matter, and he rebelled against the thought that his flesh could be free to choose and that its choice was impervious to the will of his mind."
Hank sees sex as a base need that he can't control. "He had sought an act of triumph, though he had not known of what nature." "He grew to hate his desire." Why did he marry Lillian? "It was the difficulty of the conquest that made him want Lillian."
Perspectives on Sex:
-Hank realizes he has been powerless over a need that he considers to be depravity that was wholly physical.
-Dagney from Chapter 5: "...as if, she thought suddenly, as if sensuality were not physical at all, but came from a fine discrimination of the spirit."
-Francisco from Chapter 5: "I still want to sleep with you," he (Francisco) said. "But I am not a man who is happy enough to do it."
The chapter actually ends with Hank overcoming this physical need and not having sex with Lillian. Hank ends this chapter with the energy to overcome the greatest thing he had been powerless over...
PRACTICAL APPLICATION (worth rereading)
Party Guests - The logic (or lack thereof) behind the statements made by the party guests is worth rereading. They are the result of precepts we hear everyday taken to their logical end. Knowing these ends makes it easier in everyday life to lead the people who make these comments to this end. For instance: I love to ask someone how they KNOW they are right when they say you can't KNOW anything. Because they feel it? How do they know they feel it or know that they don't feel it? (See Supplement) I have found that I use the word "believe" where most people use the word "feel".
Francisco and James - Ms. Rand takes one of the precepts, the greed of businessmen, to its logical end in full detail. Francisco tells James he has done EXACTLY what James' stated was virtuous. Why is James upset?
Contradiction - The party is filled with people who are contradictory..."The purpose of philosophy is not to help men find the meaning of life, but to prove to them that there isn't any." Francisco continues his apparently contradictory manner. Again, the author is posing apparent contradictions and you have to decide whether Francisco is more right than everyone else or more wrong than everyone else. If you haven't decided yet, it is only going to get harder...
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It is December 10th, the night of Rearden's anniversary party. Hank hates parties and tries to avoid mingling with the guests. Dagny tries to speak with Hank but he is standoffish. Francisco makes an appearance in order to learn what kind of man Hank is. They talk. Dagny hears Lillian make fun of the bracelet from Hank. Dagny challenges Lillian to trade it for Dagny's diamond bracelet. Lillian gives Dagny the blue-green bracelet. We learn about the Rearden's sex life and that the Reardens view sex as an animal need.
SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Equalization of Opportunity Bill sponsored by the Friends for Global Progress states that a person or corporation couldn’t own more than one business. Wesley Mouch tells Hank it is not a threat to be passed.
Ragnar Danneskjold - A pirate that roams the Atlantic taking goods.
John Galt Legend - Francisco says an old lady is right when she tells a story about John Galt. "John Galt sank his ship and went down with his entire crew. They all agreed to do it."
Party Guests - Bertram Scudder wrote an article called "The Octopus" that trashes Rearden.
COMMENTS
Scale - Hank actually seems to be getting along with Francisco better than Dagny does. They still can't completely connect, however "The glance betrayed how much he (Hank) wanted to find the sort of man he thought he was seeing." Francisco's purpose was to learn to understand Rearden. Francisco also talks with Rearden "to give you (Hank) words you need, for the time when you'll need them." Clearly Hank sees something in Francisco that Dagny thinks is gone.
Sex - Hank begins this chapter with NO ENERGY. He tries to figure out why he has all the energy in the world to do amazing things and he barely has enough energy to button his shirt. We learn Hank's perspective of sex:
"He had won his every battle against inanimate nature; but this was a battle he lost."
"He despised a need which now held no shred of joy or meaning...He became convinced the need was depravity."
"He came to believe the doctrine that this desire was wholly physical, a desire, not of consciousness, but of matter, and he rebelled against the thought that his flesh could be free to choose and that its choice was impervious to the will of his mind."
Hank sees sex as a base need that he can't control. "He had sought an act of triumph, though he had not known of what nature." "He grew to hate his desire." Why did he marry Lillian? "It was the difficulty of the conquest that made him want Lillian."
Perspectives on Sex:
-Hank realizes he has been powerless over a need that he considers to be depravity that was wholly physical.
-Dagney from Chapter 5: "...as if, she thought suddenly, as if sensuality were not physical at all, but came from a fine discrimination of the spirit."
-Francisco from Chapter 5: "I still want to sleep with you," he (Francisco) said. "But I am not a man who is happy enough to do it."
The chapter actually ends with Hank overcoming this physical need and not having sex with Lillian. Hank ends this chapter with the energy to overcome the greatest thing he had been powerless over...
PRACTICAL APPLICATION (worth rereading)
Party Guests - The logic (or lack thereof) behind the statements made by the party guests is worth rereading. They are the result of precepts we hear everyday taken to their logical end. Knowing these ends makes it easier in everyday life to lead the people who make these comments to this end. For instance: I love to ask someone how they KNOW they are right when they say you can't KNOW anything. Because they feel it? How do they know they feel it or know that they don't feel it? (See Supplement) I have found that I use the word "believe" where most people use the word "feel".
Francisco and James - Ms. Rand takes one of the precepts, the greed of businessmen, to its logical end in full detail. Francisco tells James he has done EXACTLY what James' stated was virtuous. Why is James upset?
Contradiction - The party is filled with people who are contradictory..."The purpose of philosophy is not to help men find the meaning of life, but to prove to them that there isn't any." Francisco continues his apparently contradictory manner. Again, the author is posing apparent contradictions and you have to decide whether Francisco is more right than everyone else or more wrong than everyone else. If you haven't decided yet, it is only going to get harder...
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Thursday, January 18, 2007
AS 1:5 The Climax of the D'Anconia's Application
PRACTICAL APPLICATION (worth rereading)
Francisco's philosophy during the background is definitely worth rereading, however it makes more sense the second time through the book. There are two themes worth addressing at this point: words and purpose.
Words - "James, you ought to discover some day that words have an exact meaning." What this does not mean is that your meaning for a word is necessarily the same as my meaning for a word. What this does mean is that words have a meaning that is finite and knowable. The MOST wholly immoral statement is: "Words are not exact." First of all, the statement is false. (This is my strongest reason. I know I told it, but I'll hold my support of it for a later chapter.) Secondly, the statement is made WITH words. How immoral is it for someone to use a method (and need it to work) to prove it is unsound? If they are right (successful in communicating), then they are wrong (the method is sound). If someone REALLY believed this and all its consequences, they'd use another method, other than words, to make their point. The key is to determine the meaning of the words. I have found that Ms. Rand's definitions of key words are the same as the Bible's and the opposite of the common usage. We'll see examples later. By the way, what word(s) did Francisco question?
Purpose - It ALL starts with Purpose. When you find out the purpose, you can explain the actions. You can't make progress (growth) without a purpose. Even a person who doesn't want to progress has a purpose: comfort. To believe that things are without purpose (random) is an inherently flawed belief. Purpose is ALWAYS there; the extent it is realized is the variable. Francisco is the ultimate example of a person who realizes the purpose in EVERYTHING. “an entity devoid of the accidental", "he could always name the purpose of his every random moment", and "Francisco, what's the most depraved type of human being? The man without a purpose."
Ayn is setting up an apparent contradiction: Francisco never fails and is completely purposeful vs. Francisco has failed and has no purpose. Does Francisco have a purpose? (If this were a class...this would be the first test and/or official discussion.)
The rest of the chapter deals with Francisco and Dagny interacting "today". For now, focus on the contradiction mentioned above. Remember, this first book is named "Non-Contradiction". Deciding how to handle the contradictions (and there are several) is the key to the story and eventually helps the reader become more intelligent...Use everything you've learned in the first four chapters to analyze their exchange.
People seem to think this book seems to talk only about business. I find that business is actually a subplot to the main themes. This chapter deals with some spiritual issues:
-Francisco had the "great, guiltless serenity of spirit".
-Francisco (while laying on the ground and "forming a cross with his body"): "What's burning a city - compared to tearing the lid off hell and letting men see it?"
-Dagny watching Francisco with the marbles: "...as if, she thought suddenly, as if sensuality were not physical at all, but came from a fine discrimination of the spirit."
-Francisco: "The church, I think, will stand. They'll need it."
-Dagny: "It took her a moment to recover her eyesight; she had never known what was meant by blasphemy or what one felt on encountering it; she knew it now."
My favorite quote:
"I still want to sleep with you," he (Francisco) said. "But I am not a man who is happy enough to do it."
Sex ought to be an effect...of joy...motive power...purpose.
When people have sex in order to feel joy, they are turning sex into a cause.
Re-read Dagny and Francisco's interaction...it is relatively short and it gives you your first big opportunity to voice an opinion and explain it.
SUPPLEMENT
"What is the problem? A universe that contains much that is obviously bad and apparently meaningless, but containing creatures like ourselves who know it is bad and meaningless. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning." (CSL-MC)
There is a purpose and we can know it. The world and organized religion have a different meaning than the Bible for the word "faith". "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Bible) Faith is likened to substance and evidence (finite and knowable). It simply believes something is going to happen that hasn't happened yet.
For example, do you think the sun will come up tomorrow? (Yes) Has it come up tomorrow? (No) You have faith it will. The important question is "why?" (Because it has always come up every day of my life.) This is called experience. What's another reason you know it will come up tomorrow? Or put another way, if I told you it didn't, what would your reply be? Probably something like, "Did the Earth stop revolving?" This is called understanding; you know why the sun comes up each morning. Therefore faith is based on experience and/or understanding. That's it. When religious people use faith in terms of the unknowable/unexplainable (blind faith) AND something you've never experience before (leap of faith), they are using it differently than what the Bible says. If faith is based on emotion, that is, blindly believing in the impossible, the only way to build your faith would be to do more emotionally unstable things: jump off a building, let a poisonous snake bite you, etc.
Faith is not built by working yourself up in an emotional frenzy. Faith is built with understanding(knowing the "why"). Experiential faith is great but in order to keep it, it has to be translated to understanding faith; otherwise you're going to lose it. If something happens 10 times in a row, you have great faith it will happen an 11th. What happens when it doesn't happen one time? The experiential faith is shot. "Blessed are those who haven't seen and yet believe." (Bible) Why? Because their faith is based on UNDERSTANDING, not EXPERIENCE. We are better off than the Apostles who had experiential faith.
The reason why I like reading the Bible is that it always has a purpose and it gives reasons. (Other religious books tell you what to do WITHOUT giving the reason why.) It's amazing the number of times the words "because", "for", "that", etc. are used in the Bible. The above rant, with additional biblical references, is one that tortures "Christians". Here's another one: Why should you be kind to your enemy? I usually wait for a "faith"-type answer, something about how we are just supposed to do it and aren't supposed to know. Then I say, actually Jesus gives one reason, Paul gives a different one, and Solomon gives both. What is this "Christian's" belief based upon? (Both of the reasons are consistent if you understand a main theme of AS. I'll show this when that theme becomes obvious.)
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Francisco's philosophy during the background is definitely worth rereading, however it makes more sense the second time through the book. There are two themes worth addressing at this point: words and purpose.
Words - "James, you ought to discover some day that words have an exact meaning." What this does not mean is that your meaning for a word is necessarily the same as my meaning for a word. What this does mean is that words have a meaning that is finite and knowable. The MOST wholly immoral statement is: "Words are not exact." First of all, the statement is false. (This is my strongest reason. I know I told it, but I'll hold my support of it for a later chapter.) Secondly, the statement is made WITH words. How immoral is it for someone to use a method (and need it to work) to prove it is unsound? If they are right (successful in communicating), then they are wrong (the method is sound). If someone REALLY believed this and all its consequences, they'd use another method, other than words, to make their point. The key is to determine the meaning of the words. I have found that Ms. Rand's definitions of key words are the same as the Bible's and the opposite of the common usage. We'll see examples later. By the way, what word(s) did Francisco question?
Purpose - It ALL starts with Purpose. When you find out the purpose, you can explain the actions. You can't make progress (growth) without a purpose. Even a person who doesn't want to progress has a purpose: comfort. To believe that things are without purpose (random) is an inherently flawed belief. Purpose is ALWAYS there; the extent it is realized is the variable. Francisco is the ultimate example of a person who realizes the purpose in EVERYTHING. “an entity devoid of the accidental", "he could always name the purpose of his every random moment", and "Francisco, what's the most depraved type of human being? The man without a purpose."
Ayn is setting up an apparent contradiction: Francisco never fails and is completely purposeful vs. Francisco has failed and has no purpose. Does Francisco have a purpose? (If this were a class...this would be the first test and/or official discussion.)
The rest of the chapter deals with Francisco and Dagny interacting "today". For now, focus on the contradiction mentioned above. Remember, this first book is named "Non-Contradiction". Deciding how to handle the contradictions (and there are several) is the key to the story and eventually helps the reader become more intelligent...Use everything you've learned in the first four chapters to analyze their exchange.
People seem to think this book seems to talk only about business. I find that business is actually a subplot to the main themes. This chapter deals with some spiritual issues:
-Francisco had the "great, guiltless serenity of spirit".
-Francisco (while laying on the ground and "forming a cross with his body"): "What's burning a city - compared to tearing the lid off hell and letting men see it?"
-Dagny watching Francisco with the marbles: "...as if, she thought suddenly, as if sensuality were not physical at all, but came from a fine discrimination of the spirit."
-Francisco: "The church, I think, will stand. They'll need it."
-Dagny: "It took her a moment to recover her eyesight; she had never known what was meant by blasphemy or what one felt on encountering it; she knew it now."
My favorite quote:
"I still want to sleep with you," he (Francisco) said. "But I am not a man who is happy enough to do it."
Sex ought to be an effect...of joy...motive power...purpose.
When people have sex in order to feel joy, they are turning sex into a cause.
Re-read Dagny and Francisco's interaction...it is relatively short and it gives you your first big opportunity to voice an opinion and explain it.
SUPPLEMENT
"What is the problem? A universe that contains much that is obviously bad and apparently meaningless, but containing creatures like ourselves who know it is bad and meaningless. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning." (CSL-MC)
There is a purpose and we can know it. The world and organized religion have a different meaning than the Bible for the word "faith". "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Bible) Faith is likened to substance and evidence (finite and knowable). It simply believes something is going to happen that hasn't happened yet.
For example, do you think the sun will come up tomorrow? (Yes) Has it come up tomorrow? (No) You have faith it will. The important question is "why?" (Because it has always come up every day of my life.) This is called experience. What's another reason you know it will come up tomorrow? Or put another way, if I told you it didn't, what would your reply be? Probably something like, "Did the Earth stop revolving?" This is called understanding; you know why the sun comes up each morning. Therefore faith is based on experience and/or understanding. That's it. When religious people use faith in terms of the unknowable/unexplainable (blind faith) AND something you've never experience before (leap of faith), they are using it differently than what the Bible says. If faith is based on emotion, that is, blindly believing in the impossible, the only way to build your faith would be to do more emotionally unstable things: jump off a building, let a poisonous snake bite you, etc.
Faith is not built by working yourself up in an emotional frenzy. Faith is built with understanding(knowing the "why"). Experiential faith is great but in order to keep it, it has to be translated to understanding faith; otherwise you're going to lose it. If something happens 10 times in a row, you have great faith it will happen an 11th. What happens when it doesn't happen one time? The experiential faith is shot. "Blessed are those who haven't seen and yet believe." (Bible) Why? Because their faith is based on UNDERSTANDING, not EXPERIENCE. We are better off than the Apostles who had experiential faith.
The reason why I like reading the Bible is that it always has a purpose and it gives reasons. (Other religious books tell you what to do WITHOUT giving the reason why.) It's amazing the number of times the words "because", "for", "that", etc. are used in the Bible. The above rant, with additional biblical references, is one that tortures "Christians". Here's another one: Why should you be kind to your enemy? I usually wait for a "faith"-type answer, something about how we are just supposed to do it and aren't supposed to know. Then I say, actually Jesus gives one reason, Paul gives a different one, and Solomon gives both. What is this "Christian's" belief based upon? (Both of the reasons are consistent if you understand a main theme of AS. I'll show this when that theme becomes obvious.)
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Wednesday, January 17, 2007
AS 1:5 The Climax of the D'Anconia's Plot and Comments
PLOT
Eddie shows Dagny a newspaper story that proves the San Sebastian Mines are worthless. Eddie and Dagny can't believe Francisco made a mistake. Dagny arranges to meet with Francisco. As she walks to the Wayne-Falkland Hotel we learn Francisco's background and his relationship to Dagny. Francisco tells Dagny that his $15 million investment will wreck her railroad, the Phoenix-Durango and, eventually, Ellis Wyatt.
SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Romance - Francisco is the only man Dagny has been with.
Halley - Dagny shocked Francisco by mentioning Halley's Fifth concerto.
Mrs. Vail - Francisco was in El Paso at the opening of the San Sebastian Line last New Year's Eve.
COMMENTS
Francisco - Alain DeLong was supposed to play Francisco in the proposed 70's film. The overwhelming leader on-line is Antonio Banderas. However: "he spoke English without a trace of an accent, a precise, cultured English deliberately mixed with slang." Francisco always wins at everything. Even when he "lost" at tennis, he won because his purpose was to make Dagny work.
Money - I'm going to leave Francisco's philosophy about money until the famous "money speech".
Scale - Now we see how Dagny got to be a +5. Francisco challenged her in her youth and energized her to make progress in the positive direction. "No matter how good you are, I'll expect you to wring everything you got, trying to be still better." Growth was the focus. However, Francisco is now either intentionally screwing up or he has lost his touch. Either way, he is very far away from Dagny on the scale. They can't seem to connect. In fact, Francisco says to Dagny, "It's you I have to fight." Is he a positive that went negative? Is he off the deep end of the positive side AND the scale is really a circle so he's gone to the extreme of the negative side? Obviously, something needs to be done to our scale to explain Francisco's place.
Pain - This chapter starts to focus heavily on the role of pain. Follow this thread because it is a core theme of the first book. "Pain and ugliness are never to be taken seriously." (Dagny) This includes everything from "unbearable pain" to Dagny being slapped by Francisco for thinking about changing her purpose from excellence to popularity. (The only lie Dagny ever told.) The situations and responses all correlate with another theme to be discussed in later chapters.
The World - "There's something wrong in the world. There's always been. Something no one has ever named or explained." (Francisco)
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Eddie shows Dagny a newspaper story that proves the San Sebastian Mines are worthless. Eddie and Dagny can't believe Francisco made a mistake. Dagny arranges to meet with Francisco. As she walks to the Wayne-Falkland Hotel we learn Francisco's background and his relationship to Dagny. Francisco tells Dagny that his $15 million investment will wreck her railroad, the Phoenix-Durango and, eventually, Ellis Wyatt.
SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Romance - Francisco is the only man Dagny has been with.
Halley - Dagny shocked Francisco by mentioning Halley's Fifth concerto.
Mrs. Vail - Francisco was in El Paso at the opening of the San Sebastian Line last New Year's Eve.
COMMENTS
Francisco - Alain DeLong was supposed to play Francisco in the proposed 70's film. The overwhelming leader on-line is Antonio Banderas. However: "he spoke English without a trace of an accent, a precise, cultured English deliberately mixed with slang." Francisco always wins at everything. Even when he "lost" at tennis, he won because his purpose was to make Dagny work.
Money - I'm going to leave Francisco's philosophy about money until the famous "money speech".
Scale - Now we see how Dagny got to be a +5. Francisco challenged her in her youth and energized her to make progress in the positive direction. "No matter how good you are, I'll expect you to wring everything you got, trying to be still better." Growth was the focus. However, Francisco is now either intentionally screwing up or he has lost his touch. Either way, he is very far away from Dagny on the scale. They can't seem to connect. In fact, Francisco says to Dagny, "It's you I have to fight." Is he a positive that went negative? Is he off the deep end of the positive side AND the scale is really a circle so he's gone to the extreme of the negative side? Obviously, something needs to be done to our scale to explain Francisco's place.
Pain - This chapter starts to focus heavily on the role of pain. Follow this thread because it is a core theme of the first book. "Pain and ugliness are never to be taken seriously." (Dagny) This includes everything from "unbearable pain" to Dagny being slapped by Francisco for thinking about changing her purpose from excellence to popularity. (The only lie Dagny ever told.) The situations and responses all correlate with another theme to be discussed in later chapters.
The World - "There's something wrong in the world. There's always been. Something no one has ever named or explained." (Francisco)
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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
AS 1:4 The Immovable Movers Comments
COMMENTS
Scale - Dagny is stuck at +5. The only way to improve is to find others who are farther positive on the scale. Her goal is growth. She needs others who are better than her to challenge her and give her energy. She finds it in Ellis Wyatt: "She wanted to tell him of the years she had spent looking for men such as he to work with". (Ellis is like a tall Ross Perot.) She also finds it in Hank: "He was the only man she knew to whom she could speak without strain or effort. This she thought was a mind she respected, an adversary worth matching." The strain and effort is in direct proportion to the distance on the scale between the people in question. Throughout the entire novel, notice how the energy level of people changes after their encounters. If they have dealt with someone more negative, they have a lower energy level. If they deal with someone more positive, they have a higher energy level. Notice the use of the word "pain". So far, it occurs whenever a person (negative or positive) deals with a negative person. Anyway, Dagny seems closer to Hank than Ellis. We should put Ellis at +7.
Morning - Like cigarettes, Ms. Rand believes "morning" is a good thing. Betty Pope says, "I hate morning. Here's another day and nothing to do." The first heat of Rearden Metal was described: "To the men at the tap-hole of the furnace inside the mills, the first break of liquid metal into the open came as a shocking sensation of morning."
Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule - The idiocy of this rule should be obvious. However, it is the logical result of the following belief: "the prime purpose of a railroad was public service, not profit".
PRACTICAL APPLICATION (worth rereading)
Interdependence, as mentioned in Covey's seven habits, is shown in its true light in this chapter. "I've got to have men like Ellis Wyatt to produce something to fill the trains I run." When business people focus on their long-term profitability, they don't begrudge others from making a profit because they need them to stay in business. "I don't think you're in business for my convenience." Interdependence is not "being my neighbor's keeper". That is a one-way street. Interdependence is a two way street. Bottom line: Don’t depend on someone who doesn’t depend on you.
Motive Power - The first three chapters set up the background. Chapter Four begins progressing the story along on several fronts. Since this is the beginning of the progress, Ayn deals with "motive power"...the fuel necessary to make progress.
Dagny begins the chapter deciding that joy is one's fuel and determining to find joy from outside herself. She looks to Richard Haley's music and Francisco.
This entire chapter is filled with references to peoples' motives...
McNamara - Why did he quit?
Richard Haley - Why did he suddenly retire?
Francisco - Why did he invest in a losing proposition?
Jim - Why did Jim smile when Conway was destroyed?
"The event meant something to him much beyond the destruction of a competitor. It was not a victory over Dan Conway, but over her. She did not know why or in what manner, but she felt certain that he knew. For the flash of one instant, she thought that here, before her, in James Taggart and in that which made him smile, was a secret she had never suspected, and it was crucially important that she learn to understand it. But the thought flashed and vanished."
The chapter transitions through two general motive discussions...
Anti-dog eat dog rule - What is the motive behind people being in business? Does this rule have anything to do with the motive of people in business?
The concepts of "Looters" and "Moochers" are introduced.
-Looters are people who take things by force.
-Moochers are people who take things by begging.
By the end of the chapter, Dagny interacts with two people who give her energy: Ellis Wyatt and Hank Rearden
-On Wyatt: "She wanted to tell him of the years she had spent looking for men such as he to work with..."
-On Hank: "She had forgotten every problem, person and event behind her;...This was reality...This was the way she had expected to live - she had wanted to spend no hour and take no action that would mean less than this."
The chapter ends with Dagny coming to this conclusion while in Hank's presence: "If joy is the aim and the core of existence, she thought, and if that which has the power to give one joy is always guarded as one's deepest secret, then they had seen each other naked in that moment."
SUPPLEMENT
"Dagny, the whole world's in a terrible state right now. I don't know what's wrong with it, but something's very wrong." (Dan Conway)
"You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind driving you mad." (The Matrix)
We've seen the negative side of the scale focus on excuses and blame. That seems to be their answer to every crisis. From my experience, this is the first thing that truly successful people notice. Covey covers this in his first habit: "Be proactive". This does not just mean do things ahead of when they need to be done. It actually means realize that you are a result of the decisions you've made and you are responsible for your actions. You are in control of your life. You are not powerless. This leaves NO room for excuses and willingly accepts blame. "She saw a faint hint of astonishment in his (Wyatt's) face; this was not the manner or the answer he had expected; perhaps it was what she had not said that astonished him most: that she offered no defense, no excuses." Insecure people focus on blame and excuses.
Jean Renoir Story
Richard Haley wrote an opera that closed after one performance to the sound of booing and catcalls. "That night, Richard Haley has walked the streets of the city till dawn, trying to find an answer to a question, which he did not find." Nineteen years later they put the opera on again and he is celebrated...he retires the next day. Did he get the answer to his question?
I'm going through the top 25 foreign films of all time. The #1 film is "The Rules of the Game" by Jean Renoir...the son of the famous impressionist painter. Two years earlier, he made "The Grand Illusion" and it is on the list at #7. Then he makes "The Rules of the Game". At its premiere in 1939, there was booing and catcalls halfway through the movie. At the end of the movie there is such a disgust that someone tried to set fire to the theater!
Renoir didn't make another movie worthy of the greatest of all time after that...he went a different direction.
Almost 30 years later he helped a restoration group put the "The Rules of the Game" back together as close as possible to the original. It was re-released and immediately declared one of the greatest movies ever made. They told this to Renoir shortly after the re-release. His response?
"You are too late."
Dagny and Hank talking about Rearden Metal: "Hank, this is the most important thing happening in the world today, and none of them know it."
Why don't people recognize greatness?
More importantly, why is peoples' response to greatness "booing and catcalls"?
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Scale - Dagny is stuck at +5. The only way to improve is to find others who are farther positive on the scale. Her goal is growth. She needs others who are better than her to challenge her and give her energy. She finds it in Ellis Wyatt: "She wanted to tell him of the years she had spent looking for men such as he to work with". (Ellis is like a tall Ross Perot.) She also finds it in Hank: "He was the only man she knew to whom she could speak without strain or effort. This she thought was a mind she respected, an adversary worth matching." The strain and effort is in direct proportion to the distance on the scale between the people in question. Throughout the entire novel, notice how the energy level of people changes after their encounters. If they have dealt with someone more negative, they have a lower energy level. If they deal with someone more positive, they have a higher energy level. Notice the use of the word "pain". So far, it occurs whenever a person (negative or positive) deals with a negative person. Anyway, Dagny seems closer to Hank than Ellis. We should put Ellis at +7.
Morning - Like cigarettes, Ms. Rand believes "morning" is a good thing. Betty Pope says, "I hate morning. Here's another day and nothing to do." The first heat of Rearden Metal was described: "To the men at the tap-hole of the furnace inside the mills, the first break of liquid metal into the open came as a shocking sensation of morning."
Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule - The idiocy of this rule should be obvious. However, it is the logical result of the following belief: "the prime purpose of a railroad was public service, not profit".
PRACTICAL APPLICATION (worth rereading)
Interdependence, as mentioned in Covey's seven habits, is shown in its true light in this chapter. "I've got to have men like Ellis Wyatt to produce something to fill the trains I run." When business people focus on their long-term profitability, they don't begrudge others from making a profit because they need them to stay in business. "I don't think you're in business for my convenience." Interdependence is not "being my neighbor's keeper". That is a one-way street. Interdependence is a two way street. Bottom line: Don’t depend on someone who doesn’t depend on you.
Motive Power - The first three chapters set up the background. Chapter Four begins progressing the story along on several fronts. Since this is the beginning of the progress, Ayn deals with "motive power"...the fuel necessary to make progress.
Dagny begins the chapter deciding that joy is one's fuel and determining to find joy from outside herself. She looks to Richard Haley's music and Francisco.
This entire chapter is filled with references to peoples' motives...
McNamara - Why did he quit?
Richard Haley - Why did he suddenly retire?
Francisco - Why did he invest in a losing proposition?
Jim - Why did Jim smile when Conway was destroyed?
"The event meant something to him much beyond the destruction of a competitor. It was not a victory over Dan Conway, but over her. She did not know why or in what manner, but she felt certain that he knew. For the flash of one instant, she thought that here, before her, in James Taggart and in that which made him smile, was a secret she had never suspected, and it was crucially important that she learn to understand it. But the thought flashed and vanished."
The chapter transitions through two general motive discussions...
Anti-dog eat dog rule - What is the motive behind people being in business? Does this rule have anything to do with the motive of people in business?
The concepts of "Looters" and "Moochers" are introduced.
-Looters are people who take things by force.
-Moochers are people who take things by begging.
By the end of the chapter, Dagny interacts with two people who give her energy: Ellis Wyatt and Hank Rearden
-On Wyatt: "She wanted to tell him of the years she had spent looking for men such as he to work with..."
-On Hank: "She had forgotten every problem, person and event behind her;...This was reality...This was the way she had expected to live - she had wanted to spend no hour and take no action that would mean less than this."
The chapter ends with Dagny coming to this conclusion while in Hank's presence: "If joy is the aim and the core of existence, she thought, and if that which has the power to give one joy is always guarded as one's deepest secret, then they had seen each other naked in that moment."
SUPPLEMENT
"Dagny, the whole world's in a terrible state right now. I don't know what's wrong with it, but something's very wrong." (Dan Conway)
"You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind driving you mad." (The Matrix)
We've seen the negative side of the scale focus on excuses and blame. That seems to be their answer to every crisis. From my experience, this is the first thing that truly successful people notice. Covey covers this in his first habit: "Be proactive". This does not just mean do things ahead of when they need to be done. It actually means realize that you are a result of the decisions you've made and you are responsible for your actions. You are in control of your life. You are not powerless. This leaves NO room for excuses and willingly accepts blame. "She saw a faint hint of astonishment in his (Wyatt's) face; this was not the manner or the answer he had expected; perhaps it was what she had not said that astonished him most: that she offered no defense, no excuses." Insecure people focus on blame and excuses.
Jean Renoir Story
Richard Haley wrote an opera that closed after one performance to the sound of booing and catcalls. "That night, Richard Haley has walked the streets of the city till dawn, trying to find an answer to a question, which he did not find." Nineteen years later they put the opera on again and he is celebrated...he retires the next day. Did he get the answer to his question?
I'm going through the top 25 foreign films of all time. The #1 film is "The Rules of the Game" by Jean Renoir...the son of the famous impressionist painter. Two years earlier, he made "The Grand Illusion" and it is on the list at #7. Then he makes "The Rules of the Game". At its premiere in 1939, there was booing and catcalls halfway through the movie. At the end of the movie there is such a disgust that someone tried to set fire to the theater!
Renoir didn't make another movie worthy of the greatest of all time after that...he went a different direction.
Almost 30 years later he helped a restoration group put the "The Rules of the Game" back together as close as possible to the original. It was re-released and immediately declared one of the greatest movies ever made. They told this to Renoir shortly after the re-release. His response?
"You are too late."
Dagny and Hank talking about Rearden Metal: "Hank, this is the most important thing happening in the world today, and none of them know it."
Why don't people recognize greatness?
More importantly, why is peoples' response to greatness "booing and catcalls"?
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