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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: mnehrling; LexBaird

Thanks, I’ve forgotten more stuff I learned than I can remember. ;-) I could Google/Wiki but it is irritating when “erudite” leaves 99% thinking “opaque”. Throw in one more sentence in explanation. IMHO. ;-)


41 posted on 01/07/2009 12:43:44 PM PST by Tunehead54 (Nothing funny here. ;-)
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To: SoftballMominVA

I have never read it and when I asked hubby if there was a copy of it in the house he informed me that his copy of it disappeared long ago.


42 posted on 01/07/2009 12:45:34 PM PST by Gabz (Happy New Year)
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To: mnehrling

And more importantly. . . .what is Dagny’s phone number ???


43 posted on 01/07/2009 12:48:49 PM PST by Salgak (Acme Lasers presents: The Energizer Border: I dare you to try and cross it. . .)
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Comment #44 Removed by Moderator

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

Depends on what the word "useful" means. Freepers have the opportunity to do this all day long, but it seems to be a rare skill these days.

45 posted on 01/07/2009 1:00:29 PM PST by Misterioso ( Socialism is an ideology. Capitalism is a natural phenomenon.)
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To: This Just In

I know who John Galt is, I just don’t give a damn. And yeah, I read the damn book.


46 posted on 01/07/2009 1:01:53 PM PST by ozzymandus
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To: This Just In
But are we allowed to ask Who is John Galt Construction?
47 posted on 01/07/2009 1:02:38 PM PST by NYC GOP Chick (www.israelsoldiers.org Friends of the IDF, taking care of soldiers, so the IDF can buy more bombs)
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To: chs68

Do you know when it was dedicated and why? The map shows it to be about four blocks long.


48 posted on 01/07/2009 1:07:58 PM PST by Misterioso ( Socialism is an ideology. Capitalism is a natural phenomenon.)
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To: SoftballMominVA
> A friend told me that she read a short blurb that 2% of the entire country is currently reading Atlas Shrugged.

Count me in as part of that 2%.

49 posted on 01/07/2009 1:25:35 PM PST by ADemocratNoMore (Jeepers, Freepers, where'd 'ya get those sleepers?. Pj people, exposing old media's lies.)
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To: Rightly Biased

Currently 3/4ths through my 4th (5th?) reading myself.

(tho I must confess that the last few readings I’ve skimmed through the “this is John Galt” speech.)


50 posted on 01/07/2009 1:27:08 PM PST by jonno (Having an opinion is not the same as having the answer...)
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To: ADemocratNoMore

I had to buy my copy because our library has a waiting list for its three copies. My sister in Missouri had a similar situation — 12 people waiting for one of three copies.


51 posted on 01/07/2009 2:00:13 PM PST by SoftballMominVA
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To: Welcome2thejungle
Perhaps a more appropriate question these days might be:

Just who the Heck is Caroline Kennendy?

52 posted on 01/07/2009 2:01:48 PM PST by Oztrich Boy ("The urge to save humanity is almost always a false face for the urge to rule." - H L Mencken.)
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To: This Just In

I just want to find the Gulch...


53 posted on 01/07/2009 2:04:52 PM PST by RobFromGa (It's the Spending, Stupid! (not the method of collection))
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Comment #54 Removed by Moderator

To: DouglasKC

The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only, there is no stopping in the white zone.

NO! The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading and there is no stopping in the red zone.


55 posted on 01/07/2009 2:07:55 PM PST by Travis T. OJustice (Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.)
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To: petro45acp
American Zone.

Henry Martyn.

Bretta Martyn.

The Crystal Empire.

Lever Action.

Still need to add Hope to my collection.

56 posted on 01/07/2009 2:10:01 PM PST by Dead Corpse (What would a free man do?)
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To: Travis T. OJustice

I’ll pass on the fish...


57 posted on 01/07/2009 2:10:29 PM PST by Dead Corpse (What would a free man do?)
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To: Oztrich Boy
Just who the Heck is Caroline Kennendy?

Hold the Schlossberg?

58 posted on 01/07/2009 2:11:31 PM PST by Travis T. OJustice (Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.)
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To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers
".....BTW, I’ve got my copy of Atlas Shrugged on order....."

I finally read it last year. I was kicking myself for waiting so long just after finishing it..

I underlined the heck out of my copy. Bought a second copy for my kid.

Funny I got to the same sort of place in my thinking years before I actually read it. I certainly am glad that I now actually know who John Galt is.

59 posted on 01/07/2009 2:20:53 PM PST by Radix (There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those with loaded guns & those who dig. You dig.)
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To: Travis T. OJustice

The white zone is for loading and unloading only. If you gotta load, or unload, go to the white zone. You’ll love it.

We take you now to a garage in Canoga Park...


60 posted on 01/07/2009 2:28:31 PM PST by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (I figure the odds be fifty-fifty I just might have somethin' to say)
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