A fictional character in Atlas Shrugged that Ayn Rand fans and a few right wing literati attach cult like status to for reasons that are unknown, obscure or incomprehensible to the rest of us.
Not to “The rest of us” Just the bovine blinkers. Have you read the book, oh mighty one?
Well a week behind the rest of the nation, but for locals looking to occupy something, it’s but a bus trip to PG away
opinion250.com/blog/view/217 … ing+to+p.g.
Is the protest worth the price of a Greyhound ticket? You decide.
[quote=“DarcyMcGee”]Well a week behind the rest of the nation, but for locals looking to occupy something, it’s but a bus trip to PG away
opinion250.com/blog/view/217 … ing+to+p.g.
Is the protest worth the price of a Greyhound ticket? You decide.[/quote]
While they are there, they could go shopping at Wal Mart, Costco and Home Depot!
Hilarious Smurfette. Thats exactly where the anti capitalists get there utilitarian boring clothes. I wish i had the time to explain the irony of that to the bovines.
I’m pretty sure the ill clad protesters don’t understand ZZ Top "They come a runnin as fast as they can cause every woman likes a sharp dressed man"
That may account for why Alice the Goon is better looking than most of the Ms. Protesters.
The reasons are known, but incomprehensible to the rest of us. If these cultists want their libertarian lifestyle, there is one country I know of that exemplifies this ideal — Somalia, and you are welcome to it.
A long time ago. I liked the mysterious John Galt as a fictional character, but I don’t see corporate America as being propped up by an “Atlas” of John Galts, whose pursuit of individualism and self-interest produce good works, while being impeded by the state and its mindless bureaucrats preoccupied with supporting a society of moochers (or bovines if you prefer).
That sense of collective entitlement that Ayn Rand criticized is less prominent than in the past. Perhaps that reflects an ideological shift in recent years, the decline of unions and the practical reality that the deficit financing of (ironically) right wing governments of the Reagan-Mulroney era was no longer affordable and cuts had to be made and expectations had to change.
I’m not sure that liberalism in capitalist America was Ayn Rand’s preoccupation so much as Bolshevism (which her family fled from) and fascism (which was still a recent memory). Like Orwell she reflects her times and the history she lived through.
The “Atlas” that props up corporate America these days is not John Galt and Ayn Rand’s other creative thinkers and inventors, but the state, with its corporate bailouts, tax inequities, war economy, and deficit financing. John Galt does not fit with that reality. He was not bumped off by some leftist government. The era of massive deficits, industrial decline and trade imbalances is disproportionately associated with the Bush era and has carried over to the present.
John Galt’s memory is invoked to try to sustain a contradiction, an expectation from the right that government will provide corporate bailouts and other concessions (who are the moochers now?) while providing tax relief under the guise that doing otherwise would stiffle the ‘inventive genius’ of those who contributed to the problem in the first place, including through excessive stock and real estate speculation.
I think the question is not “Who is John Galt?” but “Where is John Galt?” If he is alive and well I suspect that he moved to one of the BRIC countries quite a while ago, probably not long after W became president.
Man !! You got a big brain. I am genuinely glad i asked the question . There are millions of John Galts. We just don’t come out of the shadows often. You know people like us. Think about people that you know who do their own thing, unencumbered by, and uninterested in Machine and its hoards of blinkers. We work for our own fulfillment and personal gain, however there is not a greedy bone in our bodies.
There are many John Galts in the way that you describe, living in the shadows, but in many cases the price of that individualism is working in day jobs as what Stalin called ‘little cogs’.
John Galt does not describe those who in huge numbers staff and lead modern corporations. They are far more likely to be conformists, compliant, proficient at group think. Large organizations prefer and reward bovine personalities, to adapt your term.
My point is that John Galt is no longer ‘Atlas’, assuming that he ever was, which really isn’t that clear, leaving aside some exceptional cases (Steve Jobs being a recent example in my view).
Ayn Rand still has a huge following. Eva Mendes will not go out with a guy who isn’t a fan. John Galt continues to be an inspiration at an individual level for many.
He has also been appropriated for political purposes and in a way misused, to oppose any leveling of the playing field and to defend a status quo characterized by inequalities of opportunity and wealth that have more to do with circumstances people were born into than the talents that John Galt exemplified.
I’m talking about a head space and life style. Go check out dodge cove. You don’t need to be a fugitive from a corporation to be a John Galt. And for that matter John Galt kept a low profile cog job when he had to returnd to the land of the blinking out of neccessity. You are just not getting it. I was a boring pontificator in Bagdad before you were in your dads bag. but i woke up. someone out there please read the book. I need some help to get our biggest brain with the program. Atlas shrugged is the best possibble focal point for a right left discussion. i have read all your manifestos, now read the rights manifesto. You are all watching the news. mabe its the glare of the screen that makes you all blink, and thanks for the suggestion. I’m well stocked with my meds. Otherwise i might get antisocial about it. I’m going for a beer with john. We don’t grovel in this shit. i should know better. I’m out of here for good. Yeah yeah i know good riddance…did i spell the right?
Is this the point where you call us sheeple?
The need to insult people is really a reflection of your personality, rather than a description of those you insult. Keep it up, I’m sure you’ll be winning people over in no time.
I thought it was a different forum user that used the term sheeple?
[quote=“Right Coast”]I’m talking about a head space and life style. Go check out dodge cove. You don’t need to be a fugitive from a corporation to be a John Galt…
… and thanks for the suggestion. I’m well stocked with my meds. Otherwise i might get antisocial about it. I’m going for a beer with john. We don’t grovel in this shit. i should know better. I’m out of here for good. Yeah yeah i know good riddance…did i spell the right?[/quote]
Actually, I didn’t say anything about your meds, and yes, you did spell riddance correctly. You might work on your over use of ‘bovine’ though. Anyway, take it easy eh.
Promises…promises. 
Take care.
As soon as we can pry a couple tongues out of Thompson Creek’s arse we’ll occupy Fort St. James.
Oh wait, the dirty dozen on the sidewalk benches with the Colt45 in paper bags have been occupying it for decades. Never mind…