Men can not exist by being ignorant towards reality and those who are ignorant are the ones born into a world of wealth. Jim Taggart has a fight with his wife, Cherryl, between pages 795 and 800 which I found to be a really big eye opener to the differences between classes. The general belief of society is that the rich are more noble then the lower class but in this fight, it is clear that Cherryl, a women born to poverty, seeks more justice than Jim does. After Dagnys big performance on the Bertram Scudder show, "the friends in Washington" completely dismiss the controversy and made Sudder "the scapegoat." (page 798). In all angles of looking at it, this is wrong. Sudder was forced by Washington to air Dagny in the first place, unknowing of the consequences and in the end, he lost everything. The government and Jim would have rather blamed him than acknowledge their disgusting ways of control. "Don't you know that it was my neck, if some other hadn't ever been found?" Jim claims that all he wants is the best for the public, but how can he assure that if he can't even give justice to those around him? Scudder and Dagny were both 100% innocent and the public has the right to know the ways their government is being run yet the continue to be lied to. The government as a whole is a coward and everyone who is in a high positions got there "by climbing carcasses". All of the socialists may seem saintly but they are the worst ones out there.
I feel bad for Cherryl because she married Jim Taggart based on a lie. When she first met him, she thought he had been the savior of the John Galt line and that he was the one that made it all happen when in reality, it was all Dagny. Yet he took the credit so this whole time she's been thinking he is some sort of God who will be the savior of the world when in the real world, he is just a coward who puts the blame on others. The worst part is that before Cherryl married Jim, she had such a beautiful outlook on life and how anything could be possible, but Jim crushed that for her. "'Where have you been all these years? What sort of a world do you think you're living in?' .... 'I'm trying to find out,' she whispered. Her shoulders were sagging and her face looked suddenly worn, an odd, aged look that seemed haggard and lost." Jim is slowly morphing that girl filled with hope for the world, into a depressed faithless housewife and that is just what those "friends I'm Washington" do.
By denying reality, they are harming everything around them. "Your friends in Washington never uttered a word about it. They do not deny the things she said, they did not explain, they did not try to justify themselves. They acted as if she had never spoken." As a result, they screwed themselves over, got an innocent man fired, and lied to the public. This is definitely not a government I would want to live under.
Mona-
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your post, the first sentence caught my attention because it is applicable to the rest of the novel. Those who are ignorant are born into the wealth of passiveness and undeservingly gain an elite status. The politicians in Washington never endure hard labor or work for successful outcomes; instead they use force, fraud and plunder to make ineffective and worthless results. The people born without ignorance are intellectual and know how to position themselves in society as contributors and their values lead to success. It is clear that Cheryl is becoming more like Dagny, she is fed up with corrupt political shortcomings and wants government transparency and progress. Her transformation while married to James Taggart almost resembles the clarity of a child that becomes plagued by societal values as she ages into an adult. However, I do question whether it was Cheryl’s responsibility as a citizen to stay updated on political affairs and be more knowledgeable of James Taggart. One excuse may be that the government’s censorship on media had made her oblivious. This means that every citizen is just as unaware as Cheryl was before she got married to James. It was interesting to see how quickly Cheryl reacted and changed when she realized the government’s true affairs.
The way you described the ignorance in the book was spot on. The men in Washington live through ignorance, especially Jim. I can imagine Jim saying "ignorance is bliss" when in reality it is not. I agree with you when you say you feel bad for Cheryl because Jim was feeding her lies but at the same time when they first met, Jim was not entirely sure about what Cheryl was talking about until she mentioned which should have been a sign to her that he could have been lying. Camille brings up a good point about those who are born into wealth and the elite status are the ones who are completely ignorant while those in a lower class see the world for what it truly is. It is interesting to see how people can change when they are faced with the truth.
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