1916 WHO IS JOHN GALT?
Over the weekend- my habit is now
to watch a couple of documentaries from Netflix.
I always got into them- but with
the Rocu thing- I can start a few at a time- and then pick up right where I
left off.
I’m watching the Cosmos- Carl
Sagan [excellent by the way].
Just started Greek Civilization-
narrated by one of my favorite actors- Liam Nessen.
And I caught a short one on Ayn
Rand- the now famous author of Atlas Shrugged.
I have never read any of Rand's
stuff- she is a novelist- and I don’t read them.
But- she is also a philosopher-
the founder of the system called Objectivism.
And her works and thought are
more known right now because a movie was made about the book- Atlas Shrugged.
Rand taught a system that said
mans main purpose in life is the pursuit of his/her own happiness.
Now- she was not a strict
Hedonist- she also taught that man should be productive- should be a
contributing member of society- and should be free to excel- to ‘make it’
without the state making the rich guy feel bad about it.
Yes- back to the 99 versus the 1.
As you can see- that’s why her
work has made it back into the collective consciousness at this point in time.
The other day we went to see my
friend John at the hospital- I took Henry [John Henry], John from Arlington-
Andy- and of course myself.
The day before we went to the
bookstore- and I met father John- a nice Catholic Priest.
The guys were calling John [from
Arlington] Joe.
I told Henry 'no- his name is
John’.
Henry quipped ‘too many John’s’
In Rand’s work- she tells the
fictional story of John Galt [who is John Galt? This sign pops up every so
often]
Galt is the leader of the ‘productive’
class in society- the thinkers- producers- etc.
These noble ones rebel against
what they see as an all encroaching Entitlement society- a ‘world’ that keeps
blaming them for the ills of man.
Eventually these productive
people have had enough- and they withdraw from the world and start their own
world- based on the principles of Objectivism.
‘Every man for himself’ type of
thing.
There is one line in the book-
where you have this image of Atlas [the man who has the world on his
shoulders].
He is bowing and bending and
struggling under this Entitlement world.
The ‘have nots’ keep seeing the
‘haves’ as the cause for their problems.
The more pressure put on Atlas-
does not seem to appease the Entitlement class.
So- he shrugs- and walks away.
A couple of years ago when we did
a short history of Philosophy- I never covered Rand.
Why?
She never came up in any of the
stuff I was reading at the time.
Rand was a Russian American who
came to the states in the early 20th century.
She saw the rise of Communism in
her homeland- and she believed that the U.S. was in danger of going down the
same road.
She lived to see the presidency
of FDR- and his creating of what we call the Entitlement society.
But Rand- like other thinkers of
her day- also rejected Faith and Religion [Marx].
She believed that Reason was
enough to establish morality- and build an adequate Ethical society.
To be honest- Ayn was wrong about
this.
But- because she angered the Left
with her capitalist thought- and the Right with her anti God ideas- well she
would alienate not just the 47% [Romney’s gaff] but both ‘47’s’.
Thus- Rand never came up on the
radar when I was studying philosophy.
I have not read the book- but from
what I picked up on line- I can see how Christians would indeed have a hard
time with Objectivism.
In scripture- we don’t see
‘statism’ per se- but we do see a sort of collective ideal.
In the books of Acts we see the
early believers selling their goods and giving to those in need.
We read many-many portions of the
bible that speak about helping the less fortunate.
Yet- the argument is ‘should the
state force man to do this’.
The state- govt. - according to
scripture- has the right to tax.
Rand’s argument [and others] is
‘fine- but don’t demean me because I am one of the producers- don’t demonize
those in society who are holding the system up’.
Rand did not teach that you
should never help another- but she rejected the govt. forcing you to do it.
In Ayn’s Utopia- the John Galt’s
of the world withdraw- they take their toys and go home.
From a biblical perspective- we
are indeed our brother’s keeper.
That does not mean we encourage
people to be non productive- to live off the wealth of others.
But we see the goal of our lives
as more than seeking happiness- more than pursuing the Dream.
No- we often give things up-
material things- in order to pursue a more just society.
In our World- Atlas doesn’t
shrug.
Note- Do me a favor, those who
read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read
them on. Thanks- John. Don’t forget to scroll down on the timeline [Facebook] -
I have posted lots.
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