The whole fiasco with the Francisco acquiring the San Sebastian
mine which flopped seemed like it was a representation of the idea that one
should not follow others blindly based only on their credentials, yet the situation
represents more than that. When it is revealed that Francisco did this on
purpose and almost as a prank, it shows how power that is acquired through the
lack of human consideration is easily abused. Francisco, who does not care for
the moral aspect of business and is basically a boy genius, does not seem to
see anything wrong in his actions toward the San Sebastian mine, where he is
abusing his powers so that he may amuse himself at the actions of others. Then,
in the next chapter, we get to see a foreshadowing for the demise of the nation
in the form of a newspaper clipping in Hank Reardens jacket announcing the
proposal of an Equalization of Opportunity bill, which would force businesses
to choose only one venture. This would mean that Rearden would not be able to
own many of the different ventures that he currently owns. This coincides with the
passage of the Anti-dog-eat-dog rule which forces the train companies to agree
to not compete for certain areas. Both of these proposals are extremely
conservative in nature and seem to be intentionally created to show the destruction
of these massive corporations. The novel seems to be trying to leverage a
criticism toward the idea of large corporations and many free market ideals
that are key to the functioning of democracy. This would explain why the novel
portrays the main characters as somewhat heartless fat cat bureaucrats.
No comments:
Post a Comment