Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Who Is John Galt?

Georgia

Excerpt from John Galt's Speech:
Is it ever proper to help another man? No, if he demands it as his right or as a duty that you owe him. Yes, if it's your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle. This country wasn't built by men who sought handouts. In its brilliant youth, this country showed the rest of the world what greatness was possible to Man and what happiness is possible on Earth.

John Galt's speech - mini version here
Wikipedia
John Galt is a fictional character in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. Although he is absent from much of the text, he is the subject of the novel's often repeated question "Who is John Galt?" and the quest to discover the answer.
As the plot unfolds, Galt is acknowledged to be a creator and inventor who symbolizes the power of the
individual capitalist. He serves as an idealistic counterpoint to the social and economic structure depicted in the novel. The depiction portrays a society based on oppressive bureaucratic functionaries and a culture that embraces the stifling mediocrity and egalitarianism of socialistic idealism. In this popular mass ideology, the industrialists of America were a metaphorical Atlas of Greek mythology, holding up the sky, whom Galt convinces to "shrug," by refusing to lend their productive genius to the regime any longer.
As of August 2010 the Who is John Galt? billboard still displayed along I-95 in Georgia.









1 comment:

Janis said...

I like this...now I know. Thanks for sharing this info. Life is all about choices, morals n values.