Who is John Galt?

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It's been nearly two days and nobody has told me who John Galt is.

Don't make me slap the whole bunch of you.


:|
 
A guy who has WAY too long of a monologue in a book that's much longer than it needed to be and beats you over the head with the author's philosophy until you end up sitting in a corner just rocking back and forth and muttering to yourself about dollars and trains. :|

Or a Scottish author.
 
I like the answers, so far. Unfortunately, I don't think any of you gave me the correct answer, full-fledged answer..."John Galt is the man who stopped the motor of the world".
 
Wow! how many years has it been that I"ve heard that question...it was during the early 70's in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County..bumper stickers were on hundreds of cars belonging to the beach crowd...the stickers read, "Who is John Galt?'" I'm not really certain of who he was or where he was from...one evening, we stopped to question an obvious drifter..give him a buck or two and send toward the LA city limits...we demanded some form of ID; a name of a family member who we could call to possibly arrange transportation and such...he wouldn't answer us...Finally, out of the top of his head, this dissheveled looking fellow answers, "I'm John Galt, you've been looking for me!...now let me go!" off he went!!! who knows, maybe it was John Galt....:)

So, there's one answer.....:)
 
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I brought it up because I've been reading 'Atlas Shrugged" and wondered how many of us knew who he is, or who has read the book or knows of the philosophy of objectivism or whatnot?

Whether you agree with Rand's belief in objective reality or not, it's worthy of discussion, right? Perhaps not worthy of salivation as some would think, but worthy of consideration.

The more I read, the more questions I encounter, so it's a great issue to ponder.
 
Personally, I think Miss Rand is way too heavy-handed in her writing, and, most ironically, it is almost as if she (either consciously or subconsciously) created a Soviet-style personality cult and applied to capitalism. Regardless, communism, fascism, Ayn Rand...they're all such modernist constructions when I look back.

I dunno...it's notable as probably the most dominant conservative philosophy of the 20th century, which is probably why it is never brought up in the same breath as all the leftist philosophies of the century, but it's the personality cult is ultimately what makes "objectivism" less of a philosophy and more of an atheistic religion, in my opinion. "What Would Ayn Do?" Regardless, I would say that "objectivism" likely hit its apex during the 1980s, with the kind of laissez-faire "greed is good" capitalism that was most notable for that era. It shouldn't be a surprise either; many business CEOs are influenced by Ayn Rand and Alan Greenspan is a noted adherent too. But getting back to that ultimate "objectivist" question--WWAD?--it was noted that she hated Reagan for being too involved with the Religious Right, but she died in 1982, before much of the "Reagan Revolution." I am curious if she would have grown to like him in the end.

Melon
 
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