The Refusal to Think

       A recurring motif throughout the novel seems to be a refusal of all the characters, both the general public and our main protagonists, to think. Rearden is afraid of the thoughts he finds evil: that perhaps the world is an ugly place he does not belong in. Dagny refuses to accept Francisco’s actions, and the idea that her company is falling apart and slipping away from her grasp. 

       When we meet Francisco for the first time in the second section of Atlas Shrugged, he finally reveals to us his moral beliefs and plans. Money, he explains, is not the root of all evil, but the root of all good. If one is corrupted, he has not been corrupted by money, but rather has corrupted money itself. Francisco tells Rearden his plan explicitly; the next day the D’Anconia copper industry will crash as a result of a series of planned accidents. The money all the looters stole from Rearden will suddenly become worthless, and the engines of the world will stop. 

       Rearden is horrified by Francisco’s destructive and vicious nature. He sees it as a refusal to fight. Francisco assures him, as if a teacher to a naive child, that perhaps he must think twice about the circumstances. 

       Our characters each create their own worlds, and look to others for approval and support. Jim Taggart marries the woman who makes him believe his actions are noble, Stadler goes to Dagny to feel powerful again, and Rearden relies on his mistress to convince him that life is still worth living. Their false realities will come to a screeching halt when everything they know to be true collapses. Perhaps this is the real purpose of Francisco’s actions; he will stop the motor of the world to force everyone into a brutal realignment of reality.