The chief engineer's view of life as a power struggle of each against all is brought
home to Charles Gould. He recognizes that, stripped of illusory idealism, he and
Hernandez are "equals" who both wield power, that there is no fundamental
difference between his power and that of a bandit. On the surface, the "debasing
contacts" refers to the corruption that Charles Gould is forced to participate
in -- through bribery and politics to dealing with bandits -- which has tainted
his own power and brought it down to their level. However, this is also a more
general indictment of dream-ideals as such, which must be expressed in "activity,"
i.e., which must interact with the outside world, and which inevitably become
debased by the contact. See .