The Aristocracy of Pull

by Morgan Freeberg | December 6, 2008 10:33 am

St. Wendeler has taken to throwing around the Ayn Rand phrase Aristocracy of Pull[1]. His explanation of the meaning of the phrase means a great deal more to me than whatever’s in the book, which frankly didn’t make much of an impression and probably didn’t convey the idea that was intended. Perhaps, if I started over again with Page One immediately after finishing the last chapter, I would have figured out where Rand was going with this.

My memory’s fuzzy and all these refresher courses in Atlas Shrugged take significant time, which I do not have at the moment. I seem to recall Dagny is not to be credited with this phrase, instead the authorship goes to Bertram Scudder, President of the National People’s Commission on whatever whatever whatever. The setting was Hank and Lillian Rearden’s anniversary party (Update:) James and Cherryl Taggart’s wedding reception.

We’ll see just how much of my senile memory remains, tonight. Or tomorrow night, or the night after…it’s not exactly bobbing up to the top of my stack of priorities.

But I do agree with Wendeler that the time is right for the true meaning of the phrase.

Just wow. Once upon a time, your corporate bank account balance was determined not by your ability to offer sales pitches to bureaucrats, but instead by your ability to build things and produce things. To cook up stuff ordinary people could use.

Remember that?
Now that the chapter’s been closed on that bygone era, I wonder how much responsibility the iPresident-Elect Man-God Messiah will claim for writing its obituary. Will He stand atop a pedestal and claim Himself as the righteous slayer of that generation of greed? Or will He blame it on FaPoBuAd again (failed policies of the Bush administration)?

That’s what I’m waiting to find out.

Update: It wasn’t Dagny and it wasn’t Bertram. It was Francisco d’Anconia, in the middle of p. 375. I’ll opine further later, because it’s a worthy thought.

And Wendeler’s right, we are headed there. Actually we’re well past that trailhead.

Cross-posted at House of Eratosthenes[2].

Endnotes:
  1. Aristocracy of Pull: http://www.rovianconspiracy.com/2008/11/aristocracy-of-pull.html
  2. House of Eratosthenes: http://mkfreeberg.webloggin.com/the-aristocracy-of-pull

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