A little background for those who have not read Atlas Shrugged. John Galt is a character in that book who leaves a very fruitful and profitable career as an engineer at Twentieth Century Motors when he learns that the company is going Socialist. He completely vanishes off the face of the Earth and the line 'who is John Galt?' becomes the question asked by everyone whenever something just doesn't make sense.
So for those who HAVE read Atlas my question is this:
Who exactly is John Galt and what would he mean in today's pop culture driven society?
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Sometimes I think that government fits that old-fashioned definition of a baby: An alimentary canal with an appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
- Ronald Reagan
i have actually been thinking about putting "who is John Galt?" screened in to the tint in my back window.....
as far as today's John Galt? i do not think there is one, (at least i hope no one would hide out and wait for society to collapse) but i REALLY think we are living Atlas Shrugged....
i love Ayn Rand's perspective and politics. she may be more Libertarian than i am, but she was pretty good at telling a story with her ideology spun in...
I'm not looking for a person on the global stage who represents Galt. I'm looking for what ideals and personality traits he exhibits. Basically a character breakdown of the guy. I have my own idea of him and I'm just curious to see if it's even close to everyone else's ideas.
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Sometimes I think that government fits that old-fashioned definition of a baby: An alimentary canal with an appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
- Ronald Reagan
The new John Galt is those of us who have been able to cut back on our incomes and thus are now in a lower tax bracket than the year before.
This means that the IRS/Treasury Dept is now collecting less revenue than the year before and thus depriving the government of funds. You might ask how would this make a impact? Do the math. Plus the fact that the unemployment rate is now around 17%, yes that is the real figure when you count those who have either given up on finding a job or have quit looking and are living off of savings.
Right now the treasury is scrambling to find funds for all of the socialist projects and promises.
I AM JOHN GALT!!!
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06' GT Tungsten gray,seq. turn sigs. no spoiler.
XM,
An armed man is called a citizen.A disarmed man is called a subject.
i need to think about this for a minute. because actually, if you really think about it, he abandoned his country men to teach them a lesson. what he did by recruiting the top industrialists and minds accelerated a decline of the country, i think he would have been better off leading a strong, loud opposition. sort of like Glenn Back does?
that would not have made for a good story, and Ayn Rand needed John Galt to be "that guy" to build the story.
The new John Galt is those of us who have been able to cut back on our incomes and thus are now in a lower tax bracket than the year before.
This means that the IRS/Treasury Dept is now collecting less revenue than the year before and thus depriving the government of funds. You might ask how would this make a impact? Do the math. Plus the fact that the unemployment rate is now around 17%, yes that is the real figure when you count those who have either given up on finding a job or have quit looking and are living off of savings.
Right now the treasury is scrambling to find funds for all of the socialist projects and promises.
i need to think about this for a minute. because actually, if you really think about it, he abandoned his country men to teach them a lesson. what he did by recruiting the top industrialists and minds accelerated a decline of the country, i think he would have been better off leading a strong, loud opposition. sort of like Glenn Back does?
that would not have made for a good story, and Ayn Rand needed John Galt to be "that guy" to build the story.
That is true to a extent. But the jest of the book was that the majority of the population was conditioned into thinking that those who were productive and were the industrialist/businessmen were the evil and greedy ones while those who were in government and had no business experiance were the ones who knew how things should be run and could manage things better than the private sector............ Sounds familiar huh??
__________________
06' GT Tungsten gray,seq. turn sigs. no spoiler.
XM,
An armed man is called a citizen.A disarmed man is called a subject.
That is true to a extent. But the jest of the book was that the majority of the population was conditioned into thinking that those who were productive and were the industrialist/businessmen were the evil and greedy ones while those who were in government and had no business experiance were the ones who knew how things should be run and could manage things better than the private sector............ Sounds familiar huh??
yeah, after i read Atlas Shrugged the first time (about a year ago) i lost alot of sleep thinking about how prophetic it all seemed...
THat's what I was getting at. Is the character of John Galt trult a protagonist in every way or did he also have some antagonistic traits also? I know when I was reading it, I kept catching myself cussing whoever it was that was stealing away all the industrialists until close to the end when the REAL big flick was revealed.
I do fancy myself a nice Galt's Gulch though.
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Sometimes I think that government fits that old-fashioned definition of a baby: An alimentary canal with an appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
- Ronald Reagan
THat's what I was getting at. Is the character of John Galt trult a protagonist in every way or did he also have some antagonistic traits also? I know when I was reading it, I kept catching myself cussing whoever it was that was stealing away all the industrialists until close to the end when the REAL big flick was revealed.
I do fancy myself a nice Galt's Gulch though.
if you find one...will you please include me?!?!
yeah, he was a an antagonist with a protagonist agenda.
i need to think about this for a minute. because actually, if you really think about it, he abandoned his country men to teach them a lesson. what he did by recruiting the top industrialists and minds accelerated a decline of the country, i think he would have been better off leading a strong, loud opposition. sort of like Glenn Back does?
that would not have made for a good story, and Ayn Rand needed John Galt to be "that guy" to build the story.
Rand was an "egoist". The individual was the core of her belief-set. An individual who adhered devoutly to the U.S. Constitution, and who would NOT tolerate collectiveism stealing his life. An egoist (or later Objectivist as her Party and ideology came to be called) would NOT be seeking to teach a lesson to those who had fallen into socialist beliefs - he would (as the whole premise of the book showed) withdraw from them, look to his own welfare, and when the inevitable collapse occured, and most of the socialists died as soon as there was nothing left to loot, it would be no skin off his nose.
This is the whole idea, that the free individual did NOT owe his lifesblood to the collective, including tutoring them like wayward children.
Only the rare and occassional free individual who was as yet unwilling to forego their mistaken loyalty to the United States (which no longer represented the wonders of the U.S. Constitution, but was just a gang of thugs and communists) might be found and their education expanded to include the truth.
In a nutshell, only those persons who were of personal, individual VALUE to Mr. Galt and his fellow Objectivists were worth the effort of even trying to bring them to Galt's Gulch. No one was concerned about the country or the evil collective that had overrun it and the rest of the planet.
It is a science fiction story about a tiny group of hardy survivors rigorously selected from among the billions to survive a self-inflicted and oddly compelling "end of the world".
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tripleblack
"You can never be free until you let yourself go."
what do you do for a living? that was incredible. you are either REALLY smart, or my money is on a teacher?
thanks- you have actually sent me back to re-read Atlas Shrugged with a new perspective.
I'm a writer and an artist, primarily known for my Fantasy and Science Fiction illustrations. If you look at my profile page you can find some samples of my stuff, or via my homesite at www.stanbruns.etsy.com.
I'm also a Libertarian, and most of us have spent a little time studying things like Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, and of course our favorite reading, the U.S. Consitution.
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tripleblack
"You can never be free until you let yourself go."
Trip, I think Ayn Rand was more into Objectivism? And yes, Individualism.
Correct, as I said above: "Rand was an "egoist". The individual was the core of her belief-set. An individual who adhered devoutly to the U.S. Constitution, and who would NOT tolerate collectiveism stealing his life. An egoist (or later Objectivist as her Party and ideology came to be called) would NOT be seeking to teach a lesson to those who had fallen into socialist beliefs..."
Egoism was her initial "stage", before she formalized things in an actual movement/Party "Objectivism".
This is similar to my own path, where Objectivism predated my joining the Libertarian Party, which of course only partially overlaps the tenets of Objectivist ideology.
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tripleblack
"You can never be free until you let yourself go."
who IS John Galt? 
