AS 3:4 Anti-Life

PLOT
It’s August 5th and Jim wants to celebrate "a feeling which he dared not name". Jim and Cherryl argue and Cherryl leaves their house. Cherryl shows up at Dagny’s place, admits she knows the truth about Jim and apologizes for how she treated Dagny in the past. Dagny spends time mentoring her before Cherryl leaves to go home. Meanwhile, Lillian Rearden shows up at Jim’s house and they have sex. Cherryl arrives home. Jim and Cherryl fight. Cherryl runs out and commits suicide.


SUBPLOT (loose ends)
Argentina will be declared a People’s State within two weeks.

A loan of $4 Billion will be granted to Argentina and Chile within three weeks.

Orren Boyle is the president of the Interneighborly Amity and Development Corporation (IADC) which has an exclusive 20-year contract to manage all the industrial properties of the People’s States of the Southern Hemisphere.

Chile and Argentina will nationalize d’Anconia Copper’s properties on September 2.

Jim will sell his d’Anconia stock and buy IADC stock.

Jim can’t help Lillian stop her divorce.

Jim tells Cherryl he married her because she was worthless.


COMMENTS
Life – This chapter deals with life, a big subject that fits perfectly into the model at this point. In the last chapter we looked at sex as 3-dimensional, likewise “life” can be looked at in the same way. In fact, you can tell a lot about people by their definition of “life”. One-dimensional people see it as a binary concept: "not dead”; that is, “you are either physically alive or physically dead". The scale we’ve been using shows a two-dimensional view of "life", that is; a person can have more or less "life". The three-dimensional view realizes that "life" is not just relative to your physical state. There is spiritual, emotional, and mental "life" as well. Consequently, there is energy available from more than just your physical state. That’s what makes it so hard to judge others: we can only see the physical life others have. It’s very superficial to sum up the whole person (mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual) based on just their physical state. Remember, we are unique and therefore have a unique balance of mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual life that makes each of us profitable. Again, we will address uniqueness later. For now, realize people who think "Atlas Shrugged" is anti-spiritual either didn't read this far or didn't understand what they were reading.

Model – As stated above, this is the perfect point to place “life” in the model. Think about it, the last chapter concerned itself with the importance of reason: that it transmutes into a tangible manifestation. It was titled "Anti-Greed" because it was about what society calls "greed": producing something tangible by mixing reason with sound (words). Why should a chapter about life be next? Production is necessary to sustain life. Causality: Life is the effect of profitability. There are two theories to sustaining life.

Eastern – One theory states resources are finite and humans consume resources. Therefore, survival is dependent on minimizing consumption. The central belief of this philosophy is to deny the self. Go without. Everything about the society tries to minimize progress. This necessitates the need to isolate the society from the rest of the world and go into a maintenance mode. This could be done in the past, not today. The world has matured towards interdependence. In fact, today these societies have shown progress in technology and defense. It should be OBVIOUS to these societies they are contradicting their core beliefs. As we’ve learned, there are no contradictions. Therefore, this is a flawed philosophy because they can’t follow it completely and survive. Besides, what is the end result of this philosophy? Death. Eventually all the resources will be consumed and everyone will die. This philosophy just slows down the inevitable.

Long-Term Profitability – The other theory states resources need to be created (produced) by the humans who consume them. The ultimate goal is for society as a whole to produce more than they consume. How is this done? In the short term, resources should only be used to generate resources of MORE value. This is known as profitability. In the long term, effort should be spent to develop more efficient ways to use resources. This long-term profitability method is much better than the Eastern philosophy to ensure the minimum quantity of resources is used. Why isn’t the long-term profitability theory obvious? There are a lot of reasons. The biggest one is people tend to look short term. This theory is risky and could result in a quicker death if it isn’t done well. It is safer and more comfortable for people to prolong an inevitable death. They don’t want to make the effort to come up with more efficient ways, or worse, they think they have a RIGHT to squander resources. Notice, both of these theories can be applied to the spiritual.

Choice – Some people state they have a right to exhausting resources because "that’s what they are there for". The worst part is not that they exhaust resources unprofitably, it’s that they claim they are SUPPOSED to do it. Almost as ignorant are the people who fight for the Eastern philosophy. In order to avoid hypocrisy, these people need to stop flying around in airplanes, driving gas-guzzling cars and living in huge houses. Whatever you believe in, go ALL out, otherwise you’re a living contradiction, and we all know what that really means.

Definition of Life – The most complete definition of “life” is “the ability to grow/repair”. Growing and repairing depend on the ability to create, and creation is done with truth. What does it take for society to live? Society must be able to grow (repair itself), that is, create and supply more. We wouldn’t be able to make it on what was supplied 4000 years ago. What ability do we need in order to supply more (create) for society? The ability to think; discern what is true. The choice is very simple. We can save our way to prosperity or focus on long-term profitability. However, society is made up of people who produce more than they consume and people who consume more than they produce. In order for the society to survive, there need to be producers. Yet, people still believe in the Eastern philosophy and they penalize the producers. There are two things you can do with seed. You can eat it or you can plant it. One philosophy believes in eating it as slow as possible. The other philosophy believes in planting as much as possible. Our society tries to do both. The result is our government makes sure we plant just enough to keep us going; and give away as much seed to unprofitable pursuits as possible. As long as there’s abundance, the government has a cushion when their policies consume too much. In business, it’s known as cash flow. Eventually, there is going to come a day where there is not enough in abundance to cover all the needs of the moment and the account becomes overdrawn.

Crisis – The Eastern philosophy has gotten away with their line of logic because the resources are abundant. We aren’t anywhere near exhausting them. This novel tries to illustrate the fallacy (immorality) of this philosophy by taking these principles to their logical end and applying them to the spiritual. An environment has been set up that is near its end. When the novel begins, we are two years into the crisis. The negative side of the scale would act as irrational as any person does when they are in a personal crisis. Within the setting of this novel, it is obvious trying to slow things down, stop progress and/or stop thinking is wrong. Why isn’t it wrong when we’re not in a crisis and/or near the end?

Feelings - The logic is inescapable. So how do we get around it? How about NOT thinking about it? This is the method of people on the negative side of the scale. Ignore it, don’t talk about it, confuse the issue and try to explain it away. Jim and Lillian are perfect examples. Jim doesn’t want to think. "He jerked his head to stop it: he felt as if his thoughts were slipping down a dangerous blind alley, the end of which he must never permit himself to see." Jim is acting in the opposite way Hank acted in order to determine the "hidden mystery". In fact, Jim flips causality in order to justify NOT thinking: "'If you don't understand it, I can't explain,' he said in the tone of a mystic who implies that a lack of understanding is the confession of a shameful inferiority." If logic isn’t going to guide you, the only thing left is feelings. Feelings without cause/thought fit perfectly into the negative side of the scale. Instinct, animal, illogical, unfocused, unaccountable, expediency of the moment, unquestionable, unprofitable: "He had never intended going anywhere, he had wanted to be free of progression, free of the yoke of a straight line, he had never wanted his years to add up to any sum." Jim argues with Cherryl about love being a feeling. He wanted "to be a man like Hank Rearden without the necessity of being what he is." James wants the result without having the cause.

Dagny – Dagny is in maintenance mode and she hates it. "It had not been a sum of achievements brought into existence, but only a sum of zeroes, of that which did not happen, a sum of prevented catastrophes – not a task in the service of life, but only a race against death." That sums up all the themes.

Cherryl – She was in the middle of the scale. Her belief in Jim pulled her towards the negative, but her limited logic pulled her towards the positive. For instance, we learn this revelation: "She had learned, in the slums of her childhood, that honest people were never touchy about the matter of being trusted." If people protest to having to earn your trust, they may be admitting they aren't honest. Then Cherryl understands: "For the flash of an instant, she grasped the unthinkable fact of a man who was guilty and knew it and was trying to escape by inducing an emotion of guilt in his victim." Cherryl reaches a conclusion about Jim and tells him to his face: "...it's the spirit you want to loot. I never thought and nobody ever told us how it could be thought of and what it would mean - the unearned in spirit." I thought "experts" said Ayn didn't believe in the spiritual. All of a sudden Cherryl stops evading knowledge and pursues the truth. It accelerates her towards the positive end in a hurry. Cheryl wants to produce and Dagny is willing to help her. Speaking of spiritual, look at how Dagny and Cherryl consider themselves "sisters": "No! Not through Jim!" It was an involuntary cry. "No, through our own choice." From the flat part of the scale, the mountain of the positive side turns into a wall if one is going too fast. That’s why the people of the valley didn’t rush others and only told them when they were far enough along. Dagny to Cherryl: "What a distance to travel in less than a year…!" From 0 to 10,000,000! And at the end: "These were not words in her mind, these were the words which would have named, had she had the power to find them, what she knew only as a sudden fury…"

Cause – The subtlest point in the whole novel is "the true character of a person is in the CAUSE." People want jobs or money BECAUSE they are poor. Wrong answer! People squander resources BECAUSE that’s what they are there for. One of my favorites: In the 1990's, I would ask people, "Why are you a Cubs fan?" BECAUSE they are losers. There are a lot of good answers. I’ve always been a Cubs fan. (Loyalty) I grew up in Chicago. (Knowledge, experience) My dad took me to a game when I was young. (Fond memories). It’s amazing the answers people give and what you learn about them (their moral code) when you ask "Why?" Jim's true cause was explained twice. During intercourse with Lillian: "He felt a sightless, heedless fury, part-horror, part-pleasure - the horror of committing an act he would never dare confess to anyone - the pleasure of committing it in blasphemous defiance of those to whom he would not dare confess it. He was himself!" Then, through Cherryl and Jim's exchange: "You...you're a killer...for the sake of killing..." This is the ultimate goal for everyone who has habituated to Evasion.


PRACTICAL APPLICATION (worth rereading)
Dagny’s interaction with Cherryl is worth rereading. In the previous chapters, Dagny has been a student learning about love. Now we see a detailed example of Dagny in the role of teacher. What would cause someone as unfeeling as Dagny to want to help someone else?

Dagny: "I feel terribly sorry for you, Cherryl, and I’d like to help you – not because you suffer, but because you haven’t deserved to suffer." Cherryl: "You mean, you wouldn’t be kind to anything weak or whining or rotten about me? Only to whatever you see in me that’s good?" Dagny: "Of course." Dagny has very specific logical reasons for helping Cherryl and it’s not going to be BECAUSE Cherryl is weak.

"Whenever anyone accuses some person of being ‘unfeeling,’ he means that that person is just. He means that that person has no causeless emotions and will not grant him a feeling which he does not deserve. He means that ‘to feel’ is to go against reason, against moral values, against reality. Well, observe that you never hear that accusation in defense of innocence, but always in defense of guilt. You never hear it said by a good person about those who fail to do him justice. But you always hear it said by a rotter about those who treat him as a rotter, those who don’t feel any sympathy for the evil he’s committed or for the pain he suffers as a consequence." How did our society get so turned around that we actually give the guilty more rights than the seekers of justice?

"Those who grant sympathy to guilt, grant none to innocence. Ask yourself which, of the two, are the unfeeling persons. And then you’ll see what motive is the opposite of charity. Justice, Cherryl." We’re back to justice. The model is tight. (“Charity” is used to mean “unearned value”.)

Everything is going "lukewarm": "...as if nothing were solid, nothing held any shape at all, and you could poke your finger through stone walls and the stone would give, like jelly, and mountains would slither, and buildings would switch their shapes like clouds - and that would be the end of the world, not fire and brimstone, but goo."

Dagny helps Cherryl understand the revelation: "Cherryl, what you've been struggling with is the greatest problem in history, the one that has caused all of human suffering." and "The knowledge that my life is the highest of values, too high to give up without a fight." and "Cherryl, listen to me carefully: that feeling - with everything, which it requires and implies - is the highest, noblest and only good on earth."

Cherryl goes through her own enlightenment before killing herself: "The lights went back to the green of safety - but she stood trembling, unable to move. That's how it works for the travel of one's body, she thought, but what have they done to the traffic of the soul? They have set the signals in reverse - and the road is safe when the lights are the red of evil - but when the lights are the green of virtue, promising that yours is the right-of-way, you venture forth and are ground by the wheels."

Every time someone tells me "Atlas Shrugged" is against the spiritual, I have to believe that person either didn't finish the book or didn't understand it. They are actually telling me a lot about themselves.

The following is for those who want to work the philosophical muscles in their brain...

Everyone learns through understanding or experience. We have seen Dagny is learning through experience.

This chapter showed the only example where Dagny consciously taught someone through understanding; it resulted in a suicide. I don't think Cheryl was ready to hear it. Remember what Francisco (a master of teaching through understanding) said to Dagny in AS 1:5?

"You're not ready to hear it."

If Cheryl had "shadowed" Dagny, I think there was a chance Cheryl would have learned unconsciously through experience.

Why would that have worked? I believe it is because Cheryl is a "type" of Dagny!

Dagny wants to know the why of things and it bothers James. The same is true for Cheryl:

He sighed. "That's it. That's the trouble --- your asking all those why's. Your constant asking of a why for everything. What I'm talking about can't be put into words. It can't be named. It has to be felt."

However, Dagny doesn't want to know the why of people (from the beginning of the book, she is always UNABLE to understand another person's why). Dagny wants to know why others don't understand her. Cheryl wants to know the why of people.

"Jim," she said, with an odd little note of severity in her voice, "what I've struggled for all this time is to understand you."

One more point: In this chapter, James was looking for a celebration. In AS 1:9, James wants to feel superior and commit an act of revenge after Dagny "bested" him with the success of the John Galt Line.

THAT was when James met Cheryl and she talked to him like Dagny, however, James was able to deceive her into his position. I believe James got his victory over Dagny via marrying Cheryl.


SUPPLEMENT
"As long as the natural life is in your body, it will do a lot towards repairing the body. Cut it, and up to a point it will heal, as a dead body would not. A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble – because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time." (CSL-MC)

"He who isn’t being born, is busy dying." (Bob Dylan)

"I tried to classify your species and I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal, on this planet, instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus." (Agent Smith, The Matrix)


Next Chapter: Their Brothers' Keepers

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