Who was John Galt? More on Ayn Rand.
by Jon Rappoport
August 1, 2017
“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it’s yours.” (John Galt, Atlas Shrugged)
More on Ayn Rand, the most hated and adored novelist of the 20th century.
Her 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged, proposes a radical effort by inventor John Galt, and his assembled creative colleagues, to withdraw from society and take their inventions with them.
Civilization is already crumbling, owing to the federal government and its cronies installing a socialism based on top-down domination and the theft of material and intellectual private property.
Galt decides that a head-on struggle with the government would be futile. Instead, he wants to apply the coup de grace: remove the authentic creators from the scene and let the system implode.
Here are key Galt quotes from the novel:
“You propose to establish a social order based on the following tenets: that you’re incompetent to run your own life, but competent to run the lives of others—that you’re unfit to exist in freedom, but fit to become an omnipotent ruler…”
“Why is it immoral to produce a value and keep it, but moral to give it away?”
“The doctrine that ‘human rights’ are superior to ‘property rights’ simply means that some human beings have the right to make property out of others…”
“You called it selfish and cruel that men should trade value for value—you have now established an unselfish society where they trade extortion for extortion. Your system is a legal civil war, where men gang up on one another and struggle for possession of the law, which they use as a club over rivals, till another gang wrests it from their clutch and clubs them with it in their turn, all of them clamoring protestations of service to an unnamed public’s unspecified good…”
There are key elements of the novel that escape many people’s attention. For example, Galt is the inventor of a revolutionary engine that can provide energy to the whole planet. He created the engine. He owns it. The government, on the verge of an economic collapse, wants to take Galt’s engine from him and use it for “the greater good.”
Galt refuses.
He knows, of course, that the government could do unpredictable things with that engine—they could, in fact, put it in a vault and bury it.
On the other hand, he could maintain control over his invention and sell the abundant energy—not with the objective of becoming a king or an oligarch—at a price he sets. And eventually, the world would be swimming in energy.
Agents of the government (who resemble CIA types) kidnap him and prepare to torture him to get their hands on his engine—but at the last minute his friends rescue him, and they vanish to Galt Gulch, a hidden valley, where they wait for the government to cave in, collapse, thereby ushering in, by necessity, a truly free market.
Author Rand doesn’t bother spending time in her novel excoriating energy companies for their secret deals with government and their monopolies. She lets the chips fall where they would: in favor of the creative individual and his private property, his own inventions.
This is one reason why leaders of collectivism and their addled followers hate Rand and her work. They scream that every good thing in this world must be given away, which means that every good thing will be taken over by men who hate life and freedom and the individual and hate the population as a whole, while pretending to be messianic altruists.
Among these addled followers of collectivism are people who believe they themselves are unable to earn a living, and therefore insist that “everything should be free.”
For decades now, an operation has been underway to convince more and more people (especially the young) to see themselves as dependent. As if that status were righteous, as if that status were a badge of honor.
This is an intense rejection of the free and independent individual.
“You didn’t build that” and “we’re all in this together” and other such inanities are sparks shot by weapons of degraded thought. They intend to encircle humanity in a wretched fume of pretended helplessness.
Indeed, there is no intention to raise up the individual. Instead, there is a goal of sinking to the lowest common denominator—as if at the bottom of a stagnant lake lies some magic clue to the resurrection of the human species.
There, at last, beyond desperation, is the “sharing and caring” everyone has been seeking. This is the core of a Church of Failure.
Because at the bottom, there is nothing but sludge. And in this case, the fishermen of souls are casting their nets for participants in a half-light dystopia of abject need.
Endless need, never to be satisfied—the ultimate spiritual drug.
In Atlas Shrugged, John Galt wins. Rand wrote about the ultimate victory of the individual, and that is why she is a silver bullet aimed at vampires.
(To read about Jon’s mega-collection, Exit From The Matrix, click here.)
Jon Rappoport
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.
Thank you for this article. Now I want to read Ayn Rand. I’ve not read her. Did some digging on Wiki about her and just set her to the side. She’s not the Conservative and Constitutionalist I am but I think good reading it would appear.
Pretty amazing when one considers Rand was a Bolshevik communist – which is the pinnacle belief in “collectivism”.
In some strange way, I guess one could make a connection between her Russian Jewish background and Bolshevism. Zionism I can see – it’s in her writings. But Bolshevism? And to think that for all these years I had the strong impression she hated communism.
Read the descriptions of Rand’s hectoring, communist-style control (including denunciatory “show trials” of any who strayed from her line) of her band of close acolytes, whom she dubbed “The Collective”–people like psychologist Nathaniel Branden (her one-time heir and the person to whom “Atlas Shrugged” was initially dedicated) and psychiatrist Alan Blumenthal. A consistent supporter of personal freedom she was not!
Objectivism is just another ideology that has been promoted to serve the bankers’ strategy of maintaining their dominant position in society by means of dialectical diversions.
Critics have this compulsion to muddle her personality with her writings. As much as I think she is one of the best defenders of liberty ever, I too find her personality disagreeable and often contrary to her writings. What’s important is that we did not learn about her failings from her written works; we learned them from people who knew her personally.
Rand wrote in defense of free market capitalism. If you connected bankers to political capitalism or socialism, then you would make sense.
But surely, if she treated the people around her like abject underlings, one must question her understanding of the concept of liberty?
Since bankers create the money that allows things to be done in a modern economy, and will do anything to protect their privileged position, it’s self-evident that they are connected to “political capitalism”, socialism, and every other ideology.
I read this in 1957, but am re-reading it NOw. Thanks for highlighting her books.
Thank you Jon for talking about Ayn Rand. It is so inspiring to focus on such amazing people, who over came untold odds and great suffering.
She wasn’t perfect, but no one is. That is not what is important. It was so important to her that she warn people so they didnt have to suffer what she and so many others did.
i wish i would have had access to her writings when i was younger, I had to fight my way out of backwardness and did not know anyone who even knew who she was or how important her message still is.
Its amazing to me this gift was given to the world quite a long time ago, long enough to have taken another course, and so many chose to ignore it creating the dystopia we face today.
It is unbelievable the amount of stupidity and ignorance that immerses human society that makes Jesus’ admonition of not casting pearls amongst swine so true. Yet we still cast pearls, as a prayer for a better world for ourselves and our children.
Thank you to all of you who rise above the mire and the lowest common denomination and choose to shine their own light. Never give up, never give in.
Be wary of falling into the habit of judging others to be “swine”: you can end up not having a reason to work for the improvement of society, which is a condition inevitably leading to despair. Note that Jesus also said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
if it looks like a duck walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, its a duck. that is not judgment, its fact. as is the fact that you do not understand what Jesus meant when he said this. nor bothered to understand and read what i said. you happen to be very judgmental toward rand, so naturally you would claim others are judgmental.
i could care less what level humans choose to vibrate on, it has nothing to do with me, the quality of my life, nor my happiness, which is always my personal choice. only a puppet allows others to pull their strings and feel bad based on irrelevant opinions. why should i despair because of others’ choices?
your reasoning behind improving society is very collectivist and based on external assumptions. your choice, but not mine.
I am not impressed by people who claim to know for a certainty what Jesus’s words actually meant. Posit a meaning for consideration if you like, but categorical assertions that you have an inside track on the truth must arouse suspicion of self-delusion.
It’s certainly true that Rand’s position is incompatible with working toward general societal improvement. Like Karl Marx, her inclination was to prefer to see the whole enterprise blown up. I suspect that this is what lies behind the sedulous promotion of her writings, which effectively remove her adherents from the lists as contributors to the incarnation of the City of God.
The flaming hypocrisy that Rand displayed (although it should be mentioned that her key supporter psychiatrist Alan Blumenthal eventually gave the alternative explanation that her behavior resulted from serious personality disorders) is a trait that elicited some of Jesus’s harshest judgmental pronouncements.
It occured to me that Ayn Rand was writing about the creation of a “breakaway civilization” where the creators and their financiers took their technologies and left town. Fast forward to today where advanced technologies are actively suppressed and approximately 40 TRILLION has gone missing from the federal budget and everyone is clueless as to it’s whereabouts. That’s enough capital to finance another civilization or to pay dividends to a occult colonial power – take your pick…
A great and timeless novel. Galt’s engine reminds me of Tesla and the “hidden valley” reminds me of all the deep underground military bases that have been built since the conclusion of WW II.
Imnaha, that thought has occurred to me too. “Atlas Shrugged” can be seen as a saga of how a benevolent breakaway civilization was founded in the nick of time. As to the nature of the breakaway civilization going on in this world, that is another question. It could be certain corporations in league with certain intelligence agencies who jealously guard their technological breakthroughs, but are willing to be allies-of-convenience against the rest of us. Or it could indeed be a full blown civilization with breakthroughs in biology as well as energy and space propulsion. It’s members may well be on their way to being a breakaway species with IQs of 200 and lifespans of 300 years. I believe Jon would have some very useful thoughts to share on this topic.
Breakaway civilizations aside, there are plenty of real-world examples of mini-Galt’s Gulches. The Skunworks at Lockheed was a self conscious effort to assemble the best and the brightest, get them out from under the bureaucrats and deadwood, so they can make amazing military aircraft. Legendary sports teams, elite special op units, certain Silicon Valley start-ups–all examples of what high-level individuals can do when the barriers to working together are removed.
Any collective greater than the individual depends on people who really are individuals. The human body is a marvelous collective depending on a tremendous variety of individuated cells. A strong ecosytem comes from the interplay of individuated species. The false, short-cut collectives that depend on stunted sameness would hardly be fit to produce a slime mold in the natural world.
To me, the fundamental problem is this: the ecology of human flourishing depends on proper parenting, beginning with pre-natal care. Children can overcome tremendous adversity (sometimes one person can give them the encouragement that inoculates them against the toxic people in their life.) Nevertheless, as children, we’re terribly vulnerable. “Atlas Shugged” presupposes Atlases. In this world, it’s much more a case of “Atlas Mugged:” potential Atlases strangled in the crib.
Amen brother. Word is Melinda Gates is now “convinced of the serious ‘over-population’ problems and has now cast aside her Catholic views and all in on the latest contraception. She has been a resister to the need for depopulation up until now. Getting press and you’ll hear more on the latest technology which BGMF is throwing their money and influence behind. More on this later – and the twisted reasoning.
Art has been corrupted, and hidden and censored it has to be..its where individuals hang out. It is were soul freedom can be tasted. And it fills us with such power, to read it, to hear it to see it. It is slowly being turned in the present, into someone addictive and hollow of meaning, a spectacle. Profane. The music scene in Europe is so dfferent to North America. North American pop music is really only jingles for commercials.
Good song writers are poets, the poem started first before the song, and following the great long tradition of the Troubadour; that of Occitania, before us and their beginning. They carried the messages of the soul to the souls; Albi, Besier’s, Narbonna, Nimes all gone now burnt in the fire of the church and nothing left but a scripted history of heretics.
Real art is occulted now.
But every so often, I hear a voice from the wilderness of a long lost past..gone from us now.
Art has become propaganda… lies.
But still someone like this might pass through…
https://youtu.be/ELKbtFljucQ
“Iron Sky” -Paulo Nutini
We are proud individuals living for the city,
But the flames couldn’t go much higher.
We find Gods and religions to,
To paint us with salvation.
But no one,
No nobody,
Can give you the power,
To rise over love,
And over hate,
Through this iron sky,
That’s fast becoming our minds.
Over fear and into freedom.
Oh, that’s life
Left dripping down the walls
Of a dream that cannot breathe
In this harsh reality
Mass confusion spoon fed to the blind
Serves now to define our cold society
From which we’ll rise over love,
Over hate,
Through this iron sky,
That’s fast becoming our minds.
Over fear and into freedom.
You just got to hold on!
You just got to hold on!
Ohhh ohhhh oh oh
[Sample from “The Great Dictator” (1940) movie – Charlie Chaplin:]
(To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair.
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed,
The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress.
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die,
And the power they took from the people will return to the people.
And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men –
Machine men with machine minds and machine hearts!
You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men!
You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful,
To make this life a wonderful adventure
Let us use that power!
Let us all unite!)
And we’ll rise over love,
And over hate,
Through this iron sky,
That’s fast becoming our minds
Over fear,
Into freedom.
Into freedom!
From which we’ll rise over love,
And over hate,
Through this iron sky,
That’s fast becoming our minds
Over fear,
Into freedom
Freedom
From which we’ll rise over love,
And over hate,
Through this iron sky,
That’s fast becoming our minds.
Over fear and into freedom.
Freedom!
Oh!
Rain on me!
Rain on me!
Rain on me!
Seems quite culturally typical to me–spouting abstractions to evoke nebulous, undirected emotions, for which you demonstrate your own enthusiasm by much gyrating and by forcing your voice.
Aw shucks Bob, thanks…and you used so many big words in that complement
Tell me are your any relation to Colonel Klinck….”I know noth think, noth-think.
https://youtu.be/UHD_53UqBeA
Galt/Rand are correct, Jon
The system runs a complex fear campaign on it consumers. Only when the consumers refuse believe/engage (call it what you will) will there be systemic collapse. With no system, accounting laws and (more importantly) MONEY cease to have value.
Even so, “every man for himself” would be a major step backwards and I think the system leverages the fact extremely well. Their actual malice is extremely limited and “sneaky”. Oh so sneaky.
Best
OT
Rand died penniless and destitute. Poetic justice at its best.
Abinico warez:
No she did’nt, how do you think the Ayn Rand institute survives. She left around $750,000, her notes and letters, poetry and what-not. That was published and sold. She had rich friends who liked her.
That transgender man story giving birth…too funny. Way too funny.
Slummin it are we…hm.
Here, slum on this:
—————————————————————————–
Ayn Rand Was A Secret Welfare Queen – KnowledgeNuts
http://knowledgenuts.com/…-rand-was-a-secret-welfare-queen
Ayn Rand Was A Secret Welfare Queen. … Rand died of cancer brought on by her excessive … The difference with Ayn Rand is that she at least earned money and …
—————————————————————————–
In the end she had no trouble taking government money – total hypocrite
Albeani:
Isn’t that strange, loser, your link turned up as a dead end. The page could not be found. Usually that means IT DOESN’T FUCKING EXIST, pull down, more than likely because it was slanderous, packed full of lies. …albino, al beano abinci…. being a wetback I’d imagine you don’t read much Rand…hm. Rand is about success. Plus its way too WHITE.
Do make a lot of money trolling, I notice you do it a lot… SFB. Do they point you, and say sickem, or do you wake and say, “Hey, I don’t like Ayn Rand, she’s a commie, and I don’t like commie’s.”
Recently the New York Slimes was caught placing a book on it’s (dubious) “best seller list” in place of one exponentially outselling their “favored” title because of content potentially harmful to medicine/big pharma’s hold on lucidity.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/06/12/fat-for-fuel-book-sales.aspx
This type of treachery makes me doubt even their “best seller list”. How difficult would it be for the snakes to bulk purchase a few hundred thousand books of a “favored” title, warehouse them, post on “the list” which will invariably cause sales to shoot up, then, covertly leak those warehoused copies BACK into the market?
When you consider the RAMPANT censorship of google/amazon/Facebook to anything critical to whom THEY consider untouchable, I can see people being thrown in prison for years for not blindly following the holocaust narrative as they have been in 17 “free” nations in the west (and others) for years now.
I’m dumping their list in favor of just speaking to friends (who may have read a given title) about what they think of it
The problem with Rand, of course, was that she was great on dissing Communism, but actually believed in Capitalism.
And Capitalism is an economy based on unearned income, where the very rich sit on their arse, and suck blood from people who DO produce stuff.