NationStates Jolt Archive

I was just randomly Googling this Ayn Rand character, and I found the John Galt Oath: :D

Who Is John Galt?

I am John Galt!
Some of you are John Galt.

Whosoever leads their life, to whatever extent, after the principles espoused by Ayn Rand through the fictional character John Galt [in 'Atlas Shrugged'],
that person embodies the qualities that John Galt represents.

We are John Galt!

JOHN GALT'S OATH
The world will change when you are ready to pronounce this oath:
I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine

Ayn Rand is a terrible hack propaganda writer and that book stinks bad.

Ayn Rand is a terrible hack propaganda writer and that book stinks bad.
Ah, laugh a little why won't ya :D

Ayn Rand and her "philosophy" stand for everything I oppose.

John Galt -> :rolleyes: :sniper: <- Me

I've never actually done one of those me sniping someone smilie chains before. First time for everything I guess.

Ah, laugh a little why won't ya :D
Laughing is fun. I guess I missed the joke here though.

I can't believe that I had the fortitude to read half of 'Atlas Shrugged.' Worst book I never finished.

I can't believe that I had the fortitude to read half of 'Atlas Shrugged.' Worst book I never finished.
Yeah, I was struggling and struggling and then halfway through one of the 20 page, unbelievable repetitive monologues I thought "why exactly am I doing this to myself", tossed the book across the room and went outside.

You--all of you-- are [seemingly] reading the book the wrong way. I haven't started it yet but from what little I've read, Ayn Rand writes essays in novel form. Most of the speeches and long diatribes and such in the book are not situations that would ever be realistic: John Galt's radio address is way too long for any mortal human to sit through, excepting maybe veteran congressmen.

I'm pretty sure most of you are aware by now that I am more or less an Orthodox Objectivist, but I'll be the first to admit that Rand wrote terrible fiction--it's far from the worst I've seen but you need to learn to read it for the philosophy rather than the story. If you hate them both, that's fine I guess: it probably just means we're going to get into a few heated arguments.

We The Living and The Fountainhead are generally regarded to be superior works of fiction to Atlas Shrugged, which is more of a philosophical treatise than anything else. I'm probably going to start reading AS when my Guild Wars addiction calms down.

Wow, this is the second time I have seen that question come up on as many forums in as many days. Strange.

Interestingly enough, "John Galt" is the pseudonym I affixed to my hotmail Moderator account. People see the name and when they reply they sometimes say something like "Thanks John!" or "Thank you Mr. Galt!"

It's hilarious.

When I saw the name John Galt, the first person I thought of was this man. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Galt) As you can see, he was a far cry from the fictional character.

If Ayn Rand had even an ounce of eleoquence and a fundamental grasp of the concept of brevity, I suspect I would have read more than a few pages of essays. I genrally don't have the patience for long-winded intellectual excerises of academic chest thumping anyway, regardless of political or philosophical stripe.

EDIT: I find Objectivism to be one of the more sensible and defensable of philosophies, but its ignorance to the neccessities of wonder an mystery for the health of the human psyche, and as a motivator in general, make me feel rather disappointed in it as a whole.

Atlas Shrugged was, to be honest, a boring book for me. I enjoy her nonfiction a great deal though. Some of it is outdated, but not nearly as much as, say, Marx's work.
Excellent reading in general, but I'll hold off on reading The Fountainhead.

When I saw the name John Galt, the first person I thought of was this man. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Galt) As you can see, he was a far cry from the fictional character.

If Ayn Rand had even an ounce of eleoquence and a fundamental grasp of the concept of brevity, I suspect I would have read more than a few pages of essays. I genrally don't have the patience for long-winded intellectual excerises of academic chest thumping anyway, regardless of political or philosophical stripe.

EDIT: I find Objectivism to be one of the more sensible and defensable of philosophies, but its ignorance to the neccessities of wonder an mystery for the health of the human psyche, and as a motivator in general, make me feel rather disappointed in it as a whole.
I would argue that it does nothing to discount those neccessities, since the people that pursue and solve them, respectively, are the people that acheive things.

I think her philosophy is a bunch of adolescent nonsense to be frank. There are grains of truth but for the most part its a misreading of Nietsche designed to tap into our most childish instincts.

You--all of you-- are [seemingly] reading the book the wrong way. I haven't started it yet but from what little I've read, Ayn Rand writes essays in novel form. Most of the speeches and long diatribes and such in the book are not situations that would ever be realistic: John Galt's radio address is way too long for any mortal human to sit through, excepting maybe veteran congressmen.

I'm pretty sure most of you are aware by now that I am more or less an Orthodox Objectivist, but I'll be the first to admit that Rand wrote terrible fiction--it's far from the worst I've seen but you need to learn to read it for the philosophy rather than the story. If you hate them both, that's fine I guess: it probably just means we're going to get into a few heated arguments.

We The Living and The Fountainhead are generally regarded to be superior works of fiction to Atlas Shrugged, which is more of a philosophical treatise than anything else. I'm probably going to start reading AS when my Guild Wars addiction calms down.

As you said, YOU haven't started it.... so don't be the Bill O'reilly kind of critic. ;) When I tried to read it, I was sixteen, so I have been giving some thought as to trying again.
Let me know how it goes if you do get to it!

Sorry, Melkor, after reading Atlas Shrugged (and yes, the whole thing paying special attention to the large monologs to get the philosophy), I had a sneaky idea what this was about, and reaing Rand's bio more or less confirmed for the that Objectivism was more or less a reaction to Communism and her experiances of the Russion revolution.

I've read Atlas Shrugged numerous times (at least ten). Nothing beats having a 2 hour long radio speech written into the middle of the book for "hmm, I think I can skip this".

I've read Atlas Shrugged numerous times (at least ten). Nothing beats having a 2 hour long radio speech written into the middle of the book for "hmm, I think I can skip this".
That's what frustrated me. I would say it was more like a 6 or 7 hour speech actually. I just love the image that people are sitting there transfixed while thise guy basically repeats his personal philosophy, with slight variations, over and over again for half the day.

That's what frustrated me. I would say it was more like a 6 or 7 hour speech actually. I just love the image that people are sitting there transfixed while thise guy basically repeats his personal philosophy, with slight variations, over and over again for half the day.
If you read the first page of his speech, you sort of get the idea of the next...oh, 50 pages?