Chapter 7. The The Exploiters and The Exploited.
Characters
Dagny
Rearden
Dr. Potter of the State Science Institute
Mowen: switch-maker who runs out on contract
Eddie
Ben Nealy: contractor of the Rio Norte Line, quits
Dr. Stadler: head of the State Science Institute, former teacher of 3 once promising young men –Francisco, Ragnar, and an unnamed pupil
Dr. Floyd Ferris: Co-ordinator of the State Science Institute
Gwen Ives: Rearden’s secretary
Rearden’s mother
Philip
Mr. Ward
Morality
In a diner, Dagny is talking with an old bum. She asks him what morality is. He replies, “Judgment to distinguish right and wrong, vision to see the truth, courage to act upon it, dedication to hat which is good, integrity to stand by the good at any price. But where does one find it?”
The Legend of John Galt
This time, John Galt is reported to be the man who found the fountain of youth. He finally found it at the top of a mountain. He wanted to bring it “down to men. Only he never came back… Because he found that it couldn’t be brought down.”
John Galt remains the mystery man in legends, myths, and rumors.
Three Pupils like sons
Dr. Stadler used to teach at the Patrick Henry University. There were three pupils that, like Dr. Akston, he considered sons. “These three men, these three who held all the hope which the gift of intelligence ever proffered, these three from whom we expected such a magnificent future — one of them was Francisco d’Anconia, who became a depraved playboy. Another was Ragnar Danneskjold, who became a plain bandit. So much for the promise of the human mind… The third one did not achieve even that sort of notorious distinction. He vanished without a trace — into the great unknown of mediocrity. He is probably a second assistant book-keeper somewhere.”
Dr. Stadler tells this story to show that the mind is useless, that “men are not open to truth or reason,” that they are “nothing but vicious animals, they are greedy, self-indulgent, predatory dollar-chasers.”
The John Galt Line
Dagny steps down for Taggart Transcontinental, forming her own company to take over the Rio Norte Line in Colorado. She renames it the John Galt Line. When asked why she decided on that name, she replies, “I hate the doom you’re all waiting for, the giving up, and that senseless question that always sounds like a cry for help. I’m sick of hearing pleas for John Galt. I’m going to fight him… I’m going to build a railroad line for him. Let him come and claim it.”
With the John Galt line itself, Dagny is fighting the beliefs commonly held by society. With the name, she is fighting the futility, the grayness that comes with the question ‘Who is John Galt?’
Philosophy of a Depraved Playboy
Francisco tells Dagny that “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.”
This is opposite of what Dr. Pritchett believes: “You do not grasp the fact that the universe is a solid contradiction… of itself.” (from chapter 6)
Philosophy of Hank’s Mother
Rearden’s mom wants him to give a job to Philip. Rearden protests, “By the means of getting from me a salary he can’t earn for work he can’t do?” Rearden’s mom later says, “If a man deserves a job, there’s no virtue in giving it to him. Virtue is the giving of the undeserved.”
Rearden refuses to believe that his mother knew what she was saying and that she truly meant it.
The Bill
The Equalization of Opportunity bill passes. Rearden refuses to let it stop him and doesn’t discuss it with anyone, except to say “business as usual.”
Quote
Dagny: I keep thinking about what they told us in school about the sun losing energy, growing colder each year. I remember wondering, then, what it would be like in the last days of the world. I think it would be… like this. Growing colder and things stopping.
Rearden: I never believed that story. I thought by the time the sun was exhausted, men would find a substitute.
Dagny: You did? Funny. I thought that, too.
The English Student 