AS 3:1 Atlantis

PLOT
Dagny crashes her plane in the valley. She comes to and meets John Galt. He takes her to his house and calls Dr. Hendricks who bandages her up. John Galt shows her all the men he’s taken away from her. He shows her the tool shed housing the motor and the oath. That night she has dinner with John Galt, Midas Mulligan, Ellis Wyatt, Ken Danagger, Hugh Akston, Dr. Hendricks, Quentin Daniels, Richard Halley, and Judge Narragansett. They discuss their histories and why they are in the valley. Dagny stays overnight in John Galt’s guest room.


SUBPLOT (loose ends)
John Galt, formerly of the 20th Century Motor Company, invented the motor.

John Galt was the destroyer that walked out of Danagger’s office.

The producers who hold up the world (Atlas’s) are on strike.

Midas Mulligan owns the valley where the strikers hide out.

Francisco was John Galt’s first recruit twelve years ago.

The only people they are waiting for in the valley are Dagny and Hank.


COMMENTS
Model – The model has now been framed and it’s amazingly compact. The Scale is logarithmic. People who are at an 8 (10,000,000) are too far beyond 7’s (and lower) to be understood. Quentin Daniels was pretty far along before he met John Galt. In fact Mulligan says, "Oh, he’s no problem at all. He needs nothing but to get acquainted with the place. He seems to know all the rest." That’s why Francisco repeatedly told Dagny she wasn’t ready yet. The distance was too great for her. With some people, it would take Galt hours to span the distance. With Dagny, he’s taking up a whole day and hard selling her; so far, it’s still not enough.

Seven Habits – Ms. Rand has conjugated the seven habits of highly effective people. It makes one wonder if Mr. Covey should be paying royalties. Thinking back to the start of the book and using our scale, here are the seven habits in order.
· Be Proactive – "It’s not my fault, I didn’t have a choice" vs. "Responsibility (i.e. ability to respond)"
· Begin with the End in Mind – "Short term, expediency of the moment, results" vs. "Long term, causes"
· Put First Things First – "Vague orders, Just get it done!" vs. "Prioritization, finite resources, doing things well"
· Think Win/Win – "Looter, Moocher" vs. "Value for Value"
· Seek First to Understand…Then to be Understood – "Prove your point, compare" vs. "Find the truth, contrast"
· Synergize – "People are animals" vs. "Everyone has a unique ability, interdependence"
· Sharpen the Saw – "What’s the point of trying, I’m good enough" vs. "Growth, you can always be better"

Heaven – When Dagny comes to, she is in Heaven. (This is the best detailed description of Heaven I’m aware of.) Her first thoughts are "But of course". Now that she is awake and in a greater reality, it all makes sense. Her first words to John Galt are, "We never had to take any of it seriously, did we?" She has achieved a MORE real state and her former reality is not nearly as important as she made it out to be. She never had a reason to experience pain, fear, and guilt. "We have no laws in this valley, no rules, no formal organization of any kind." How does one enter Heaven? "Where is the front door?" "Here", he said, pointing to his forehead." The Oath: "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." To get to Heaven: "No amount of physical force will do it. Only a thought can open that door." And "It’s a sound lock. That sentence (The Oath) is the combination of sounds needed to open it." So it takes two things to get into Heaven: a thought (belief) and an audible oath (utterance).

Jobs – "Because they know that there’s no such thing as a lousy job – only lousy men who don’t care to do it." Interdependence says that everyone has the ability to contribute something. Every productive person and job is valuable. "We had no rules of any kind, except one. When a man took our oath, it meant a single commitment: not to work in his own profession, not to give to the world the benefit of his mind." The strikers who remained in the outside world took jobs not requiring the use of their mind. "I’ve done nothing, Miss Taggart. And that’s the whole of my secret." Not using your mind equals nothing. "Any man who’s afraid of hiring the best ability he can find, is a cheat who’s in a business where he doesn’t belong." It’s rare to find people who are secure enough to hire the best.

Unknown Author – Ms. Rand places herself in the valley as the best fishwife. She is described as having dark, disheveled hair and large eyes. "She’s a writer. The kind of writer who wouldn’t be published outside. She believes that when one deals with words, one deals with the mind." She even elevates herself above Dagny. When Dagny meets the writer: "she experienced a feeling she had never known before: a stab of jealousy." Ms. Rand makes Dagny jealous!

Enemy – John Galt tells Dagny she is the enemy if she doesn’t stay. Again, people in the valley see Dagny as the enemy, not the people on the negative side of the scale.

Understanding vs. Agreement - I have taught plenty of people about focusing on understanding instead of agreement. Agreement is out of your control. Understanding is in your control AND is necessary in order to reach agreement. "We never demand agreement." and "We do not tell - we show. We do not claim - we prove. It is not your obedience that we seek to win, but your rational conviction. The conclusion is now yours to draw - we can help you name it, but not to accept it."

Spiritual - When someone tells me "Atlas Shrugged" is about capitalism and doesn't have a spiritual emphasis, it proves they either haven't read the entire book or they aren't intelligent. "But she knew that there was no meaning in motors or factories or trains, that their only meaning was in man's enjoyment of his life, which they served-" and "now this is like that dream you imagine in childhood, when you think that some day, in heaven, you will see those great departed." "Miss Taggart, you'd want them to look at you and to say, 'Well done.' " and "All work is an act of philosophy." and "No one has ever believed in the irrational; what they do believe in is the unjust."


PRACTICAL APPLICATION (worth rereading)
The whole chapter is worth rereading because it presents the ideal world. It also sets the tone for the Third Book: the morality between the individual and their creator. Consequently, the third book takes on a spiritual focus. However, if I had to narrow it down, the two most important sections are the dinner conversation and Ellis Wyatt’s economic lesson at Wyatt Oil. The topics of the dinner conversation will be revisited in subsequent chapters (Dr. Hendricks: "I quit when medicine was placed under State control."), so I’ll focus on the valley’s revolutionary economy.

"I’m producing everything I need, I’m working to improve my methods, and every hour I save is an hour added to my life. It used to take me five hours to fill that tank. It now takes me three. The two I saved are mine – as pricelessly mine as if I moved my grave two further hours away from every five I’ve got. It’s two more hours released from one task, to be invested in another – two more hours in which to work, to grow, to move forward." 1) This group produces ONLY what is necessary. 2) This group focuses on improving their methods, not sitting back and raking in the cash.

"If my oil takes less effort to produce, I ask less of the men to whom I trade it for the things I need. I add an extra span of time to their lives with every gallon of my oil that they burn. And since they’re men like me (have a sound moral code), they keep inventing faster ways to make the things they make." 3) Their focus is to get by on lower prices! They are focused on charging each other LESS!!!!! If all the "big cheeses" in our world want to be impressive, let’s see them try making the same return charging less. That takes ability… create products that don’t need to be replaced every 2 to 3 years. Think back to Rearden Metal. It was half the weight AND twice the strength of steel. Most companies would dilute that formula and make it ¼ the weight and the same strength. Also, remember Hank and Dagny bragged a lot about charging a fortune for their products. We already established Hank was not moral in his personal life. Now it now looks like Hank was not moral in business. What quality did Hank have that was super human and worthy of our admiration?

"That’s our market and that’s how it works for us – but that was not the way it worked in the outer world. Down what drain were they poured out there, our days, our lives and our energy? Into what bottomless, futureless sewer of the unpaid-for? Here, we trade achievements, not failures – values, not needs. We’re free from one another, yet we all grow together. Wealth, Dagny? What greater wealth is there than to own your life and to spend it on growing? Every living thing must grow. It can’t stand still. It must grow or perish." 4) Their objective is NOT money (physical)…their objective is GROWTH (spiritual). In order to grow, a person needs time. Their “wealth” is TIME TO GROW. 5) In the outer world, the production is given to those who don’t produce, only consume. THIS leads to waste.

This secret makes the beginning of the book come into focus. When people want something from the positive side, they are always asked "Why?" If their answer is because they will return a value, they get it. If they say, "Because I need it", then they don’t get it. What’s amazing to me is how often I hear this today. I believe the poor should get help (and we’ll deal with that in subsequent chapters). However, they shouldn’t get it BECAUSE they are poor. They should get it because they are going to give a return. Yet, you never hear people talk about what the poor are going to produce. In fact, if you insist they get a job, (or give a return) you’re called heartless and unfeeling. Why do those people want the poor NOT to grow?

The key application here shows up in pricing. The people in the valley know they must pay the right price. When people get a discount in our world, they need to determine if they are paying the true value or too little. Interdependence says the seller needs to make enough to survive. Actually, it could be said "price gouging" consumers is done by heartless people. They are taking money away from someone and possibly ruining their business, livelihood, and life. Likewise, people who sell products need to set the right price. What is the right price? "What the market will bear." WRONG!!! People who do this are cheating the buyer AS WELL AS other businesses unable to sell their products because the "over-pricing" producer has depleted the buyer’s disposable income. In trying to keep this brief, I’ll leave it to you to determine the morality of a producer who sells non-essential items.

Bottom line: The ideal economy would have people following a sound moral code who produce more than they consume. Only essential needs are produced and consumed. If everyone produced more than they consumed, they could spend the extra resources on making their products better using fewer resources. Finally, because they realized their interdependence, they would charge others less so the others could spend less time producing and more time creating more efficient methods…i.e., growing.

This is the ideal and should be referenced whenever you try to solve an economic issue. Like all ideals (heroes), it may be impossible to attain from our current state, but it is what should guide us and cause us to aspire to it. (How could someone read this chapter and not allow it to change their life? The answer is coming…)

In late 2008, the U.S. had a financial crisis. The reason for the crisis and the ultimate solution are contained in Wyatt's example. What has always bothered me since I graduated college is people are making money OFF OF MONEY. There is nothing tangible about what a currency trader, lawyer, banker, etc. provide to justify their salary...let alone their outrageous salary. Did this REALLY take a genius to figure out? A society where 1% of the people control 90% of the resources AND the way these people made their money was by NOT creating anything tangible. So, the bottomline is we as a culture DON'T THINK.

I have pissed off both the Ayn Rand Institute and the Objectivist Institute people by stating Ayn's essays are two dimensional when compared to her novel Atlas Shrugged. ALL you need to read from Ayn is "Atlas Shrugged" IF you truly understand it. This novel goes farther than her essays because of the practical applications...because of the spiritual component. The solution to the current crisis (and the next crisis) is spiritual/cultural.

The One Dimensional person says we should make everyone have the same amount of money...from those according to ability, to those according to need. Socialism.

The Two Dimensional person says giving to those who can't produce will only make them more unprofitable. That people need to get a reward for creating, so let people have as much reward as they want. Capitalism

Ayn presented a Three Dimensional model in The Valley. People OUGHT to do what they enjoy AND make sure they create something tangible in order to continue to do what they enjoy. In fact, (and this is the part that makes the two dimensional people lose their minds) the REAL goal of the three dimensional businessperson is to LOWER their prices and take a minimum salary.

The Two Dimensional person can't see this is BEYOND themselves, so they think since there are only two dimensions and this isn't their belief, it MUST be One Dimensional...and they cry "socialism". Capitalism plays into the worst within us...it sets MONEY as a goal and there is no end to what a person will DO to achieve this objective. Worse, it believes HAVING = HAPPINESS. How intelligent are these people with a lot of money when they continue to take salaries in the short term that don't make them happy in the long term? In fact, it actually guarantees the source of their salary will dry up in the long term, but until it does they are celebrated....hell, they are REWARDED! The Two Dimensional people actually believe we NEED these people in order to achieve our objectives!

Our system is the effect of culture. We set HAVING as the objective and we celebrated the method of attaining this objective: not producing tangible products. The world will eventually reject this two dimensional model. Will they go to One Dimensional or Three Dimensional?

Two quick applications: I know a guy (Jim) who negotiated to be a distributor for a raw material supplier. He got a 50% discount when he’s the distributor. Initially he ordered some product and asked "How much?" The supplier said 50%. Jim said, "I’m not a distributor yet. Why don’t you charge me full price?" The supplier hemmed and hawed. Jim said, "Is it worth full price?" The supplier said it was. Then Jim said, "Then charge me full price." Paying the right price forces Jim to come up with better methods to make his profit. It’s also a moral issue. How can Jim charge his customer’s full price if he doesn’t believe it’s worth it?

The product made with this raw material is in high demand. Jim could charge a bundle. Jim laid out the numbers to an associate and said, "I spent years setting pricing as VP of Marketing, however, one of the reasons I wanted to work with you is to learn a better way of doing this. What should we charge? Should we start at our price and crank it up to see what the market will bear?" The associate said, "No, I have a multiple calculated determining the profit necessary to deliver the product over the long term." Jim said, "What if we can get more. Should we raise the price?" The associate said, "No."


SUPPLEMENT
"I know that you’re afraid. You’re afraid of change. I’m going to show them…a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible." (Neo, The Matrix)

"The Turks tell their People of a Heaven where there is a sensible Pleasure, but of a Hell where they shall suffer they don’t know what. The Christians quite invert this order; they tell of a Hell where we shall feel sensible Pain, but of a Heaven where we shall enjoy we can’t tell what." John Selden, c. 1650 (From Dawn to Decadence)

"That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Bible)

"There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God." (Solomon)

"For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should you eat." (St. Paul)

"All the same, the New Testament, without getting into details, gives us a pretty clear hint of what a fully Christian society would be like. Perhaps it gives us more than we can take. It tells us that there are to be no passengers or parasites: if man does not work, he ought not to eat. Every one is to work with his own hands, and what is more, every one’s work is to produce something good: there will be no manufacture of silly luxuries and then of sillier advertisements to persuade us to buy them. And there is to be no 'swank' or 'side', no putting on airs. To that extent a Christian society would be what we now call Leftist. On the other hand, it is always insisting on obedience – obedience (and outward marks of respect) from all of us to properly appointed magistrates, from children to parents, and (I am afraid this is going to be very unpopular) from wives to husbands. Thirdly, it is to be a cheerful society: full of singing and rejoicing, and regarding worry or anxiety as wrong. Courtesy is one of the Christian virtues; and the New Testament hates what it calls 'busybodies'."

“Each of us would like some bits of it, but I am afraid very few of us would like the whole thing. That is just what one would expect if Christianity is the total plan for the human machine. We have all departed from that total plan in different ways, and each of us wants to make out that his own modification of the original plan is the plan itself. You will find this again and again about anything that is really Christian: every one is attracted by bits of it and wants to pick out those bits and leave the rest. That is why we do not get much further: and that is why people who are fighting for quite the opposite things can both say that they are fighting for Christianity." (CSL-MC)

"It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money; that is all. When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balances prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better. There is hardly anything in the world that someone can’t make a little worse and sell a little cheaper – and people who consider price alone are this man’s lawful prey." (John Ruskin)


Next Chapter: The Utopia of Greed

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