We Approach The Point Of The Novel

Thesis: van Rijn says that he is not an engineer but hires engineers. See here.

Antithesis: Wace, the engineer, thinks that van Rijn is an old blubberbucket, doesn't work, strolls around, talks to the local bosses, complains, is a bloated leech, a lardy old hog and a bragging old goat who lounges around superfluous.

Synthesis: Later, Sandra will explain to Wace that van Rijn is "The Man Who Counts," the organizer and motivator without whom the local bosses would neither accept nor use the new weapons designed by Wace and manufactured to his orders by the local population.

Every society, not just the mercantile capitalism epitomized by van Rijn, has natural leaders who are not necessarily rulers. My example of moral leadership is the one person who steps forward when he and others witness an act of cruelty. The others may follow his lead and overwhelm the perpetrator or they may not, in which case he is on his own. But someone with a gift for leadership can gauge probable responses. Don't put your head above the parapet if the only result is that it will be blown off. But don't hold back every time, either.