The Journals of Ayn Rand (93 page)

Now,
in the story, men are returning to fear of and dependence on nature. Their food (agriculture) depends more and more upon weather conditions. Show signs of the return to savage superstitions—prayers and rites, instead of rational action, science, and invention—a sign of sheer despair and helplessness. When a major disaster strikes (flood, earthquake, tornado, etc.) there is no recovery; the town or railroad line or factory has to be abandoned (always “temporarily”—but men begin to see that such “temporary” conditions are permanent). Therefore we see the return of the constant, cringing dread of natural disasters.

(In connection with this—the Taggart Bridge.)

This is the process of “the encroaching jungle”—the signs of the return to savagery in material life, since men have returned to the principles of savagery in their spiritual life.

An interesting point to make is the parasite’s misunderstanding of the machine. Unthinking men ([including] any second-hander, parasite or collectivist, since they are the men who have rejected, suspended, or left undiscovered the concept of independent rational judgment) see a machine performing many tasks automatically, with perfect logic, which eliminates the need for the machine’s operator to think (in certain specific respects
only). They then imagine that the machine is a mechanical, automatic substitute for thought;
that the product of reason is a substitute for its source, that it can be preserved and used without its source, and that all one has to do is take over that product; then the unthinking man will become the equivalent of the thinker. (He will not need the thinker any longer, in fact, he must destroy the thinker in order to seize this substitute, the thinker’s product, the machine, which will then make him as good as the thinker.) That is the crucial mistake of the collectivists.
Show that only intelligence can deal with automatic aids to intelligence.
(They are only aids, not substitutes.) The greater the intelligence and ingenuity that went into the creation of a machine, the greater is the intelligence required to keep that machine functioning. Destroy the intelligence—and you will not be able to operate or keep the machine. Destroy the source—and you cannot keep its result. Destroy the cause—and you cannot have the effect.

In society as a whole, the machines are not independent entities, finished and cut off from their creators, which will continue functioning by themselves. The machines are products of the creator’s energy, which are kept alive, kept functioning by a continuous flow of that energy (or
intelligence); that energy is the spiritual fuel which the machines need in order to work, just as they need physical fuel;
cut off the energy (the intelligence, the capacity of independent rational judgment) of the creators—and the machines stop dead; the machines will fall apart and disintegrate in the hands of the parasites, just like a dead body without the energy of life. The machines are extensions of man’s intelligence; they are
aids to intelligence;
when that which they were created to aid is gone, they are useless. Then they go, too. They cannot function on their own. They are not independent of intelligence.

It is only the presence of creators that permits a fool to use a machine he does not understand and could not make, creators whose intelligence is free to keep the machines (and the whole world) going for everybody. The creators are the eternal motor, the continuously functioning “fountainhead.” When the parasites stop them—everything stops. (And the parasites destroy themselves.)

This is important.
Be sure to bring it out.

In relation to the story, this is the basic reason and pattern of TT’s disintegration.

To use
any
machine—an automobile, a Mixmaster, or a railroad system—one must know
how
to use it and
for what purpose.
The machine will not give you the knowledge or the purpose. The machine is a wonderful slave to take orders. But it cannot give you the orders. The collectivist, like the savage, expects the machine to give
him
orders and set a purpose for him, a purpose for its own function and for his. (Another collectivist reversal.)

James Taggart knows neither how to run a railroad nor for what purpose it should be run. He thinks—“for the public good.” But the purpose of the railroad is not “the public good.” When the railroad (or any machine) stops serving the specific, individual good (or
purpose)
of any man connected with it (of those who run it and those who use it), it stops having any purpose at all; when there’s no purpose or end, there is no way to determine what means to use to achieve it; there is then no standard of means at all, therefore one can’t know what to do even at short range (the parasite’s range), even at any one given moment (the given moment must be determined by the long-range purpose, by the end, by its relation to the whole). Therefore, the whole system (or machine) stops.

Holding the productive ability of the creator down to the level of the parasite; the holding down of the strongest to the level of the weakest. Such as: union rules to the effect that better workers must not work faster or produce more than incompetent or weaker workers (“unfair competition”); the barber’s union that forbade ambitious barbers to keep their shops open on Sunday—it was “unfair” to the barbers who wished to loaf.

This is an eloquent [illustration] of the fool’s idea of where wealth and production come from (he has no idea—he thinks it’s just there, to be “divided up”). The consequences to society as a whole and to the parasites themselves are obvious.
Show specific examples of this and trace the results in concrete steps.

For the plot construction, consider key activities of mankind (all connected with the railroad): food, clothing, shelter—as represented by
wheat, cotton, lumber.
Connect them with the story of TT.

The three attitudes of the parasites toward the creators are: (1) “We don’t need you at all”; (2) “We need you—therefore you must serve us” (the appeal through weakness and pity); (3) “Never mind any reasons, or who’s right or wrong—we’ll just
force
you to serve us.” Show concrete illustrations and examples of all three attitudes.

James Taggart alternates between (1) and (2) [in his attitude] toward Dagny (and everyone else). At the end, James Taggart and the rest of the parasites try to resort to (3) in regard to Galt.

Hank Rearden is a constant victim of (1) and (2) from all his relatives and associates throughout the story.

(You may need more, and more specific, examples and incidents of this.)

Actually, the parasite’s attitude is: first, “Help me, because I’m weak and you’re strong, I need you so much”; then second, when he got what he wanted: “Don’t be so damn conceited, I don’t need you at all.” Here, the parasite got the effect and forgot the cause. In regard to his appeal, the parasite is humble and begs for charity—so long as the creator will not permit him anything else. The moment the creator is demoralized and disarmed through the creed of altruism, the parasite turns arrogant and demands help as his rightful due, as the creator’s duty. “Help me because I need you,” then becomes an order, a command—not a plea.

The parasite considers himself defrauded of his personal property—the creator’s help. Thus the creator’s energy and its products are assumed to be the property of the parasite.
Virtue
—
strength, intelligence, competence
—
has no property rights (to itself), but vice
—
weakness, stupidity, incompetence
—
has
property rights (to virtue).
Altruism does this. This is implicit in altruism, logically and consistently. But it is only the creators who make this possible by their acceptance of altruism. The responsibility here is that of the creators; it is up to them to stop the vicious procedure; they are the cause of their own destruction. (This is for Hank Rearden.)

As to attitude (3)—it comes about when (1) and (2) have destroyed all sense, morality and decency in human relations. Then parasites come to (3)—to the belief in plain force, to the bestial arrogance of the criminal moron (“the drooling beast”). Without the groundwork laid and prepared by (1) and (2), the parasites would not think of (3), or would not dare to think of it. The plain criminal types, who exist in any society at any time, would be of no danger or consequence (certainly not
spiritually),
since they would be regarded and treated as what they are: the plain criminal, the anti-rational or sub-human.

By associating with the parasites and a world living on the principles of the parasites, the creators offer themselves up for unspeakable suffering, and achieve, in the net total result, the opposite of that which is their purpose. They suffer in order to be able to do their independent creative work—and only give their enemies the means to torture them and to destroy their work. (Their work survives or is achieved
only
to the extent to which
their
principles of independence are followed, actually or by default. And to have these principles followed even to that extent, the creators purchase that possibility by their own suffering.)