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Next Person Who Asks 'Who Is John Galt?' Gets a Smack
http://strangeherring.com ^ | January 7, 2009 | Anthony Sacramone

Posted on 01/07/2009 11:39:36 AM PST by This Just In

Next Person Who Asks ‘Who Is John Galt?’ Gets a Smack

Posted by Anthony Sacramone on January 7, 2009

The more appropriate question is, Where is John Galt? And the answer may be “prison.”

I remember my Randian days, late-70s/early 80s, when libertarianism and the virtue of selfishness and the integrity of the individual were high on my list of values. I had read The Fountainhead and, yes, all of Atlas Shrugged, as well as several of Rand’s smaller philosophical works. I found her vision compelling, especially during the late Carter years, when collectivism was not only fashionable on campuses but heralded as the unified field theory of economic and social life by many on the Stupid Left. (I also had little use for religion back then — for any form of authority, for that matter.)

Here we are again, with free markets and deregulation in tatters, at least in the thinking of those who now wield political power. Big Government is not only back but deified. And Republicans have played their fair share in that turn of events. But what goes around, comes around. Big Government will become Big Brother and there will be a revolt, although unclenching the adamantine grip of the bureaucracies from the lives of citizens will take decades.

And then the free-market/entrepreneurial right will go nuts again, and people will be left homeless and jobless, and the wheel will turn another 180, and so on and so on …

I think I will take up Anthony Burgess’ prescient The Wanting Seed once again, what with its Augustinian and Pelagian antinomies.


TOPICS: Humor; Politics; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: johngalt
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To: This Just In

John Galt, meet Henry Bowman.


21 posted on 01/07/2009 11:52:42 AM PST by Free Vulcan (No prisoners. No mercy. 2010 awaits.....)
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To: This Just In; aynrandfreak; PGalt; BradyLS; DoctorMichael; bruinbirdman; RobFromGa; Dagny&Hank; ...

To me the only worthwhile thing on this post is the link to the blogger’s page which has an entirely different posting with the delicious title of, “Biden Thinks Obama Made a Mistake on Panetta, Obama Thinks He Made a Mistake on Biden.”

Can someone use this opportunity to actually post something useful today?


22 posted on 01/07/2009 11:54:24 AM PST by FreeKeys ("The 'haves' are those who have freedom, and...it is freedom that the 'have-nots' have not."Ayn Rand)
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To: Wyatt's Torch

Maybe we also should be looking for Dominique Francon as well?


23 posted on 01/07/2009 11:54:43 AM PST by mnehring
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To: Tunehead54

Look up Pelagius and Augustine, and their views on original sin.


24 posted on 01/07/2009 11:54:54 AM PST by LexBaird (Behold, thou hast drinken of the Aide of Kool, and are lost unto Men.)
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To: This Just In

How about “We never had to take any of it seriously, did we?”


25 posted on 01/07/2009 11:56:08 AM PST by RichInOC (No! BAD Rich! (What'd I say?))
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To: The_Victor; JohnGalt
"Who are you?"

who who,

who who...

26 posted on 01/07/2009 11:56:09 AM PST by Mad Dawgg ("`Eddies,' said Ford, `in the space-time continuum.' `Ah,' nodded Arthur, `is he? Is he?'")
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To: This Just In

L Neil Smith...

The Probability Broach,
The Mitzvah (with Aaron Zelman)
Hope (with Aaron Zelman)

More enjoyable stories, more engaging characters, and definitely more guns, than Ayn Rand.

I am here, John Galt.


27 posted on 01/07/2009 11:59:13 AM PST by petro45acp (CRA, UAW, public education, decline of the republic, IT'S THE DIMS' FAULT!)
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To: This Just In

Perhaps a more appropriate question these days might be:

Who is Joe the Plumber?


28 posted on 01/07/2009 12:01:45 PM PST by Welcome2thejungle
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To: All

I am. (We are)I read FR everyday!


29 posted on 01/07/2009 12:06:08 PM PST by John.Galt2012
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To: This Just In
And then the free-market/entrepreneurial right will go nuts again, and people will be left homeless and jobless . . .

Dumbass. The funny thing is, those who are homeless and jobless are still far better off under capitalism. A jobless 35 year old in Greece is still living with their parents. In America, they are getting government housing an a welfare check because capitalism produces enough wealth to be milked by big government. I wonder if this jerk has ever viewed the plight of the homeless in third world socialist hell-holes? They are begging money to keep from starving to death, not to score their next bottle or drug fix.

30 posted on 01/07/2009 12:07:25 PM PST by Vigilanteman (Are there any men left in Washington? Or, are there only cowards? Ahmad Shah Massoud)
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To: Vigilanteman

Read post #13. :^)

The satire reaches total saturation.


31 posted on 01/07/2009 12:11:28 PM PST by This Just In (Support Christian Homeschoolers)
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To: This Just In

It’s about to be......WHERE IS JOHN GALT.


32 posted on 01/07/2009 12:13:05 PM PST by Carley
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To: Rightly Biased
I am actually re-reading Atlas Shrugged now

I just finished it and have encouraged others to read it also. When asked why it should be read, I say because it explains our world today and where it is going. You will understand everything after finishing this book.

A friend told me that she read a short blurb that 2% of the entire country is currently reading Atlas Shrugged.

33 posted on 01/07/2009 12:17:07 PM PST by SoftballMominVA
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To: This Just In
Didn't John Galt replace Gabby Hayes as John Wayne's side kick?
34 posted on 01/07/2009 12:17:35 PM PST by JimC214
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To: This Just In
Here we are again, with free markets and deregulation in tatters,

Bull pies...
We haven't had free markets since the 19th century in America. That's the 1800's for those of you edumacated in public schools.

35 posted on 01/07/2009 12:20:35 PM PST by listenhillary (No representation without taxation! ~~ Mark Steyn)
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To: This Just In

John Galt is the heroic main 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 oft repeated question, “Who is John Galt?”, and the quest to discover the answer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Galt


36 posted on 01/07/2009 12:23:59 PM PST by OPS4 (Ops4 God Bless America!Jesus is Lord!)
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To: This Just In

Where in the World is John Galt?


37 posted on 01/07/2009 12:34:43 PM PST by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus (Nihil utile nisi quod honestum - Marcus Tullius Cicero)
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To: This Just In

How is John Galt?

BTW, I’ve got my copy of Atlas Shrugged on order. Should be cracking it open about this time next week...


38 posted on 01/07/2009 12:35:02 PM PST by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I figure the odds be fifty-fifty I just might have somethin' to say)
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To: LexBaird

Pelagius is that guy that Darth Sidious killed, isn’t he?

</nerd>


39 posted on 01/07/2009 12:36:44 PM PST by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I figure the odds be fifty-fifty I just might have somethin' to say)
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To: This Just In

Are you series?

I have to know if this is Hugh.

Just Akston the question.


40 posted on 01/07/2009 12:41:14 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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