Changes

At first, the strike rules were as simple as the plan itself. Anyone having savings to retire on, retired. Any other man would take the lowest job that he could find, a job bringing in just enough to put food on the table.

At first, the strike rules were as simple as the plan itself. Anyone having savings to retire on, retired. Any other man would take the lowest job that he could find, a job bringing in just enough to put food on the table.

The first two men whom he recruited to join him in this strike of the men of the mind were his two former fellow students, Francisco d'Anconia and Ragnar Danneskjold. Francisco was devastated. He could not argue with his old friend's logic. But for him personally, the logical endpoint was that stepping down as head of D'Anconia Copper SA would not be enough. He must ''deliberately destroy'' the family enterprise. As he would later say to [[Dagny Taggart]], the last holdout among the people of the mind, "I am not merely leaving it as I found it; I am leaving it as Sebastian d'Anconia found it. And let the world try to get along without him or me!" As cover for his activities, Francisco d'Anconia cultivated a reputation as a typical "millionnaire playboy," or what is sometimes called a "trust fund kiddy." Thus people regarded his actions as irresponsible. No one would suspect, until far too late, that his actions were in fact deliberate and calculated.

The first two men whom he recruited to join him in this strike of the men of the mind were his two former fellow students, Francisco d'Anconia and Ragnar Danneskjold. He summoned them to his walk-up and told them the situation and his plan. Then he gestured out the window, toward the lights of New York. "When you see those lights go out," said Galt, "then you will know that our job is done."

 

Francisco was devastated. He could not argue with his old friend's logic. But for him personally, the logical endpoint was that stepping down as head of D'Anconia Copper SA would not be enough. He must ''deliberately destroy'' the family enterprise. As he would later say to [[Dagny Taggart]], the last holdout among the people of the mind, "I am not merely leaving it as I found it; I am leaving it as Sebastian d'Anconia found it. And let the world try to get along without him or me!" As cover for his activities, Francisco d'Anconia cultivated a reputation as a typical "millionnaire playboy," or what is sometimes called a "trust fund kiddy." Thus people regarded his actions as irresponsible. No one would suspect, until far too late, that his actions were in fact deliberate and calculated.

Ragnar Danneskjold followed his own chain of logic, but also was driven by towering wrath and indignation. Like Francisco d'Anconia, he did not believe that merely quitting the world was sufficient. He proposed to go to active war with it. The world system robbed men of the mind; he, therefore, would take back from that world and give back to them whom the world had robbed. Thus he became a [[privateer]], and for the next twelve years he built a reputation as the scourge of the high seas. John Galt did not ask him to do this. In fact, Galt worried himself sick over Danneskjold every year. But John Galt did not actively oppose him, either—for if anything, Ragnar Danneskjold was an even more competent philosopher than Galt was.

Ragnar Danneskjold followed his own chain of logic, but also was driven by towering wrath and indignation. Like Francisco d'Anconia, he did not believe that merely quitting the world was sufficient. He proposed to go to active war with it. The world system robbed men of the mind; he, therefore, would take back from that world and give back to them whom the world had robbed. Thus he became a [[privateer]], and for the next twelve years he built a reputation as the scourge of the high seas. John Galt did not ask him to do this. In fact, Galt worried himself sick over Danneskjold every year. But John Galt did not actively oppose him, either—for if anything, Ragnar Danneskjold was an even more competent philosopher than Galt was.

== Life in New York ==

== Life in New York ==