For Francisco D' Anconia (Atlas Shrugged) fans...

Atlas Shrugged from Ayn Rand continues to be my favorite piece of fiction. According to a report 445,000 copies of the novel (english editions) were sold in 2011. This speaks volumes about the popularity, influence and relevance it has even today. This 55 year old novel is still widely celebrated and I think it'll continue to do so because of its glory and grandeur. My post below relates to my favorite character Francisco D' Anconia and the sacrifices he made to accomplish his mission. Why did he have to portray himself as a playboy? It looked odd to begin with until the story unfolded and presented the grand picture. Please read on:

Francisco D’ Anconia’s character in “Atlas Shrugged”, I think, is a perfect example of a man on a mission. The venerable author Ayn Rand would have termed it as an ideal and spirited man’s mission and very rightly so. Francisco turns out to be the most important warrior in John Galt’s army against the destroyers of laissez-faire capitalism and more so against the killers of human spirit. Also, his is a character that touches our heart most profoundly. The emotional intensity of the portrayal of his character is such that it would make you cry like it did to me. Apparently, Francisco sacrifices the most for this battle, putting up a very brave front for the sake of the grand mission of spiritual freedom. I want to salute this very fine fictional character, as the main protagonist (John Galt) himself does when he openly declares in front of Francisco—“Whatever any of us has paid for this battle, you are the one who’s taken the hardest beating, aren’t you?” And no matter how much Francisco denies, all of us know that he indeed has; hats off to his immense courage, resoluteness and noble spirit. How much he forfeits is evident from the fact that he gives up the greatest fortune he inherited, the greater fortune he could have built with his intelligence and industriousness, the work that he worshiped and above all his lady love (Dagny Taggart). He therefore becomes the most admirable figure in the novel by dint of his virtue and wisdom. At least I would not hesitate in labeling him as my favorite character in the novel.

Now, it very obviously becomes a matter of great intrigue and grave importance as to why Francisco D’ Anconia chose to project himself as a playboy? It was definitely incomprehensible for anyone knowing him very well. Francisco was a genius and could have accomplished anything he undertook with miraculous finesse. So an advocate of reason who was impervious to any self doubt doing something inexplicable in world’s eyes ought to have a solid explanation. In Francisco’s own assessment, contradictions could not have existed. And as we would know later, he did have a very well crafted purpose and that was to hide from the world his real character and motive. He intended for a perfect camouflage. He did it to join the peculiar “strike” called on by his classmate and best friend at Patrik Henry University, John Galt. It happened to be his method to withdraw from the rest of the world his participation in terms of his business undertakings and above all to withdraw the most vital thing—his mind. As a part of the plan, he undertook to destroy his entire business empire amidst the glare of the world. This of course needed a meticulous planning and for the kind of genius he was, it was but obvious for him to devise a plan to trick the tricksters in their own modus operandi. In a system that had now been prevalent from a couple of earlier generations made life difficult for men of honor and ambition. Considering that any such man would not be naturally selected to run his course in such an environment of conformity, it was important for Francisco to disguise himself as a worthless creature. This made him appear as a “friend” to the looters in the system and subsequently helped him to carry out his destruction plans.

Why did he choose this kind of destruction? Not long after taking over his father’s business, he began to realize and notice a vital error in the collective moral code of the society. Moral code according to him was man’s motive power and a flawed one at that would only worsen the societal plight in times to come. Francisco detected it when he started dealing with the industrial systems of the world. That was when he saw the real picture behind the tax collection mechanisms, various government regulations and labor union strikes etc. He suddenly became aware of the vested interests of various individuals and groups who could be more appropriately called as parasites. He found himself working harder not for his primary motive of earning money but to feed these parasites. Hence, the harder he worked, the more suffocated and burdened he felt. He was getting exhausted; his energies were being wasted while he himself was getting robbed of happiness and joy. This for him was too heavy a price to pay in return of nothing but more work and compromise for a looter’s sake. In a way he was giving sanction to this inverted morality by agreeing to work in this system. And he was not alone in it as there were many others like Hank Reardon, Dagny Taggart, Ellis Wyatt etc, who were doing the same thing. This sanction of theirs was actually the only weapon of the herd morality that was in direct contradiction. It continued to become even more lethal as the time passed because nobody was using the weapon of justice to dislodge it.

What exactly was happening? Utopia of greed was being built all around and the culture of free-trade among individuals and industrial houses was getting disrupted big-time. They preferred need based give and take in place of free trade which men were entitled to. Men’s achievement was being mocked at because the productive geniuses who earlier basked in the glory of their achievements in their respective fields be it metal mines, magnificent machineries, great buildings, stock exchanges, railroads and thousand-ton furnaces etc., could no longer dictate their own terms. They were not free to trade on the so called “humanitarian” grounds. Moreover, they were being looted with the help of regulated and organized robberies. The businesses were not really run by the men who owned them, but by those “humanitarians” who publicly declared money as the root cause of all evil and made villains out of productive and spirited men. These people in the establishment on the other hand themselves wanted to sit on a pile of cash without having to work for it, while running a protection racket for people who could not compete in free-trade environment. They in turn were making the lives difficult for those who worked continuously to make life easier for the society. The actual heroes were being punished for practicing virtue and continually being made to realize that the purpose of ability is to serve the incompetence and that it could only be used for the sake of others even if they did not deserve it.

All this happened because majority of people seemed to have forgotten the very premise of the theory on which America was built upon and how it had embraced capitalism in its truest of spirit. They had forgotten that the man is a being of volitional consciousness, reason being his means of survival. They had forgotten that the existence existed. They had forgotten the objective reality and that A is A. They had forgotten that they needed water when they were thirsty and food when they were hungry and not vice-versa and also that the bread and butter have to be earned first in order to be eaten later. They had forsaken rationality for some mystical belief and faith that no one could be sure of. They had chosen to approach death operating on fear philosophy rather than living with dignity and joy that gave life to the years before death approached. They had chosen to reverse the attitude at their own peril. Since it was important to make the world aware of the catastrophe this inverted morality was causing; the world had to see the direct results of it, and this was only possible when the proponents of the reason went on a strike against self immolation.

What prompted Francisco to join the strike? Francisco, despite the given situation, could have carried on fighting the menace to save his generation against the inevitable disaster, had it not been for his best friend John Galt who had figured out a solution to the above mentioned flaw. John Galt had been through a similar situation and was very clear in his mind to sort it out before it summoned complete destruction of the glorious society he could now see just the traces of. After he worked it out himself, he first discussed it with his best buddies Francisco D’ Anconia and Ragnar Danneskjöld (The genius trio of Patrik Henry University) and gave them enough time to think. He made them see the guilt that came from self-betrayal which was a sin of the highest order. He also made them realize that it was high time they put an end to this mindless farce that was happening everywhere even if it meant going on a strike. A unique form of strike through which they withdrew best of minds from the rest of the world and let it run by those who believed in nothingness of men’s mind.

Francisco, initially a little worried, however, listened to the call of his conscience and joined John Galt. He started the reverse motion with equal sincerity and went on to become an enlightened warrior of Galt’s army. He did not hesitate to pose as a playboy, a title that was completely opposite to the persona he actually had. It served him as a blessing in disguise for the nobler purpose he set out to achieve because he truly believed in what John Galt said in his speech that the world they desired can be won, it existed, it was real, it was possible and it was theirs. Their victory in the end was in fact the triumph of the Human Spirit.