1.Butwhat can you do when you have to deal with people?

This question is uttered on many occasionsby Dr. Stadler, first in Part One, Chapter VII. The question demonstrateshis and the looters belief that people are generally irrationaland must be dealt with in a manipulative or repressive manner. Stadlerbelieves most people are incapable of rational thought and mustbe told what is best for them. He believes they will support purethought only if it is government-sanctioned, and this is why hehas supported the creation of the State Science Institute. As thestory progresses, this view of people becomes a justification forthe increasing power of the government and its adoption of bruteforce. The question is also stated by Dr. Floyd Ferrisat the unveiling of Project X. While coercing Stadler to deliverhis speech praising the monstrous machine, Ferris reminds him thatat a time of hysteria, riots, and mass violence, the people mustbe kept in line by any means necessary. He underscores his messageby quoting the question Stadler himself is known for asking.

Francisco says this to Dagny in PartOne, Chapter VII, when she challenges him for squandering his talentas a worthless playboy. Dagny asks him how he can be such a paradox,how a man as capable, brilliant, and accomplished as he is can alsochoose to be a worthless playboy. It does not seem possible thathe can be both, and yet he seems to be. In asking her to check herpremises, Francisco suggests that it is indeed not possible. Hecannot be both things at once, because contradictions cannot exist.A thing is what it is, not something else entirely. Therefore, theremust be another answer that Dagny has not seen yet. Hugh Akston(who had been Franciscos teacher) says something similar to Dagnywhen she meets him at the diner where he works as a short-ordercook. He tells her this in response to her disbelief over why afamous philosopher would choose to work in a diner, or why a motorwith the power to revolutionize industry would be abandoned in ruins.He urges her to look beyond her assumptions in the search for an answerthat could make sense.

Francisco says this to Dagny in PartTwo, Chapter V, after they discover the words Who is John Galt?scratched into a table at a restaurant. She says there are so manystories about him, and Francisco tells her that all the storiesare true. Metaphorically speaking, they are, and Franciscos Prometheusstory is especially apt. Prometheus was a figure from Greek mythology.He was a titan who stole fire from the gods and brought it to mento improve their lives. In return, he was chained to a rock andtortured. Vultures ate his liver each day, only to have it growback at night to be eaten again. In Franciscos comment, Prometheus(personified by Galt) represents the great industrialists who haveprovided men with prosperity and improved their lives with theirinventions and products, but have received only condemnation andgovernment interference in return. These men, led by Galt, havedisappeared and taken their prosperity-generating minds (the firethey had provided) with them. They will no longer allow themselvesto receive torture as payment for their talents, and they will onlyreturn their talents to the world when they are no longer punishedfor bringing them.

This is the oath the thinkers recitewhen they join the strike and come to live in the valley; we firstencounter this oath in Part Three, Chapter I. No one may stay untilhe or she is willing to take the oath freely. Dagny first encountersit as an inscription on the building where Galts motor is kept.The words are so powerful that the sound of Galt reciting them opensthe locks of the buildings door. When Dagny sees the inscription,she tells Galt this is already the code she lives by, but she doesnot think his way is the right way to practice the code. He tellsher they will have to see which one of them is right. Later, whenit is clear that Galts way was right, Dagny solemnly recites theoath to Francisco in the Taggart Terminal just before they rescueGalt from the looters, in Part Three, Chapter IX. The strikerscode presents Rands belief in egoism, or the doctrine of rationalself-interest. Rand believes that individuals have an inalienableright to pursue their own happiness based on their own values andthat they must be free to pursue their own self-interest as theychoose. Under this code, people have no obligations to each otherbeyond the obligation to respect the freedom and rights of otherself-interested people.

This passage is part of the radio broadcastdelivered by John Galt to the people of America in Part Three, ChapterVII. The man he refers to is the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle,whose work had a profound influence on Rand and her philosophy ofObjectivism. The concept that A is A was put forth in AristotlesLaw of Identity, where he held that everything that exists has aspecific nature and a single identity. A can only be A; it cannotalso be B. For Galt (embodying Rands philosophy), this means thatthings exist: they are what they are regardless of the nature ofthe observer. Even if a person wants A to be something else or believesit should be something else, it is still A. The work of a personsconsciousness is to perceive reality in its objective sense, toidentify and recognize it as what it is, not to invent an alternatereality. Galt and the thinkers he represents are rational and perceivethe reality that is, while the looters try, through denial, coercion,and manipulation, to assert an alternate reality that cannot be.

See the original post:

SparkNotes: Atlas Shrugged: Important Quotations Explained