If Atlas Shrugged were written by Francisco D'anconia, Eddie Willers would never have died.
The point Ayn Rand made with "killing" Eddie Willers was that not following her philosophy means death. I've already pointed in the past that the role of the character of Eddie Willers is to present to the reader, ... himself. Eddie Willers is the reader.
The reader, who is the average American in Ayn Rand's times - post-new-deal of course - who is doing his job, don't spend his money, can afford a living in New York City, but also someone who doesn't ask too many questions, trust his superiors and hope for a happy ending. The problem with American of Ayn rand times is, of course, that they didn't object to the new deal and, as a result, got in return World War II and the welfare state. (Actually, accepting the term "superior" is bad enough :) Making sure she made the correct point in Atals Shrugged, Ayn Rand chose for Eddie Willers an undoubted fate.
Eddie was not a bad man.
He had a job, he made a living, he was content. He was a moral person in Aristotelian scale, not so on the newly introduced Objectivist. It takes an Atlas Shrugged-long read to grasp this point, but it is clearly understood: If you don't take full responsibility on reality cover-to-cover, you end up paying rent for an apartment in a building you designed. Paying rent instead of owing the building is nasty, but not as nasty as death. Ayn Rand accelerated the fate of her not-truly-believers to make sure we - the readers - get the point.
In Ayn Rand's world, there is no room for making mistakes. this is not a childish Kantian world, in which "I didn't mean to make harm" saves you from punishments for your crime. Any crime. And it rightly does.
I think, however, that an Objectivist world, a world in which anyone is a hero, crafting his own character, shaping his dreams and making them true, mistakes are unavoidable. Plenty of characters end up unjustly "loving" other characters in Atals Shrugged. Eddie should have left Dagny, find another job, making room for a new love. He hadn't done so. So what? Is it enough to sentence him to death?
אל חשש, יהיה משהו בעברית בקרוב מאוד.
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