Saturday, March 21, 2009

These Are John Galts Speaking...

Dr Helen interviews three people who claim to be "going Galt." Apparently in reality this means anything from deliberately taking less well paying jobs through to giving up your health insurance (Shome mishtake, shurely? - Ed) to giving up smoking. Yes, really!

Note: segment starts around 9 mins in.

8 comments:

gregnyquist said...

Perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of this report is all those followers of Rand "going Galt" who didn't want to be interviewed. Now if we consider that these are the same people who want to see a society in which the initiation of force is outlawed, and who believe this society can be reached by refuting the "subjectivism" of Kant, isn't there a psychological pattern of sorts that emerges here? What possible motive might explain a person who doesn't want to be interviewed on an internet TV station and who wants to believe that the initiation of force can be outlawed without imperiling in any way his own precious hide?

Michael Prescott said...

Since this post is categorized under "Objectivist Oddities," I thought this quote from a young Alan Greenspan would not be out of place. I read it today on a blog eloquently titled aynrandsucks.

Quoth Greenspan:

“Ayn Rand is the greatest human being who has ever lived. Atlas Shrugged is the greatest human achievement in the history of the world. Ayn Rand, by virtue of her philosophical genius, is the supreme arbiter of any issue pertaining to what is rational, moral, or appropriate to man's life on earth.”

The same blog features an amusing line-by-line literary analysis of the opening lines of Atlas Shrugged, which is, per the former Fed chairman, "the greatest human achievement in the history of the world."

Oddities, indeed!

Michael Prescott said...

By the way, in the ARCHN blog roll, the link to The Rathouse is mistyped. (The "http" part is repeated.)

Daniel Barnes said...

Thanks Mike, will retype.

I am not sure this is correctly attributed to Greenspan. It's a partial quote from Nathaniel Branden in which he summarised the central tenets of the Randian inner circle. In full it reads:

“Ayn Rand is the greatest human being who has ever lived. Atlas Shrugged is the greatest human achievement in the history of the world. Ayn Rand, by virtue of her philosophical genius, is the supreme arbiter in any issue pertaining to what is rational, moral, or appropriate to man’s life on earth. No one can be a good Objectivist who does not admire what Ayn Rand admires and condemn what Ayn Rand condemns. No one can be a fully consistent individualist who disagrees with Ayn Rand on any fundamental issue.”

While Greenspan was part of the inner circle at various times, these words aren't his.

Michael Prescott said...

Thanks for the clarification. I'm glad to knoe Greenspan was never quite that far gone!

physhy said...

Thanks for the clarification, friends. I have corrected the entry over at aynrandsucks, with a nod to you. Indeed it never quite sat right with me, either, to attribute these words to Greenie, but I just wasn't on the ball enough to formulate this. - Jim

Daniel Barnes said...

No worries, physhy.

Moby said...

I don't think you should give Megan McArdle short shrift; she's pretty interesting, so by all means listen to the first nine minutes. She makes the perfectly quotidian point that people will, as a matter of practical necessity, withdraw their efforts from participation in the economy if they judge that they're getting hosed.

Well, now that I think about, in my own case at least, that's as maybe: I'm nothing if not a sucker for altruistic sacrifice, and lots of it.

The triptych of wannabe John Galts are, on the other hand, something else. Why do I feel pretty much zero identification with these three schlubs? Because they all look like basement-dwelling troglodytes? Because I have a sneaking suspicion that their withdrawal from Babylon won't register even with the many-tentacled octopus that is the IRS? Kind of have a soft spot for the cute girl, though. Reminds me of my Vancouver days when I thought joining the local co-op would make a difference.