John Galt Speech

[Extrication]

Hi,

I'm looking for a cogent and intelligent internet based analysis/debate/discussion of the John Galt speech and the novel "Atlas Shrugged". It could be both for or against Objectivist ideas. Ideally it would be unbiased. Could anyone help? It's just for my own personal use so that I may explore the ideas of this philosophical novel.

Thanks

[Zip]

Have you read the novel? Have you studied any of Rand's non-fiction? Have you studied Objectivism?

It's really quite difficult to have a "cogent and intelligent internet based analysis/debate/discussion" if you have not.

You won't find m/any here who are "unbiased".

What in particular are you looking to discuss?

If it is Objectivism in general I would say to start with the first topic in this forum and work your way through, because discussing Objectivism is what we do here for the most part.

[khaight]

I'm looking for a cogent and intelligent internet based analysis/debate/discussion of the John Galt speech and the novel "Atlas Shrugged". It could be both for or against Objectivist ideas. Ideally it would be unbiased. Could anyone help? It's just for my own personal use so that I may explore the ideas of this philosophical novel.

It's not internet-based, but there was a book of essays specifically examining Atlas Shrugged as literature and philosophy published just last month: Essays on Ayn Rand's _Atlas Shrugged_. If you're at all interested in that sort of thing you should check that out.

[Thomas M. Miovas Jr.]

It's not internet-based, but there was a book of essays specifically examining Atlas Shrugged as literature and philosophy published just last month: Essays on Ayn Rand's _Atlas Shrugged_. If you're at all interested in that sort of thing you should check that out.

I haven't read that book, yet, but I did attend the Austin Objectivist presentation of four of those essays read by the authors. I wanted to do a review of that meeting, attended by up to 150-200 people, but I never got around to it. The essays, in general, are very good, and even insightful, especially for beginners. I wouldn't say anything was astoundingly new to old timers, but the insights are excellent. I highly recommend it.

[West]

Here's a link for a presentation on the subject of Galt's Speech, by Onkar Ghate (one of the foremost experts on the subject): http://atlasshrugged.com/book/a-study-of-galts-speech.html

Edited June 11, 2009 by West

[Extrication]

Have you read the novel?

Yes

Have you studied any of Rand's non-fiction?

No

Have you studied Objectivism?

No

What in particular are you looking to discuss?

There were quite a few things that came to mind when I was reading that speech. One thing in particular that I would like to discuss, since you ask is the notion of the cannibal society (page 972). Do you think that Miss Rand believed that USA was a cannibal society? I think I can see what she was getting at. It seems to be that the Australian and American societies are built on successive waves of immigration. New immigrants arrive and perform the less desirable, low wage, and more arduous work thus helping sustain the property market, the welfare system and consequently the lifestyle of the members of previous immigration waves. In such a system older immigrants could be said to be metaphorically cannibalising newer immigrants. Miss Rand was an immigrant herself do you think Miss Rand may have been highlighting the immorality of such a state of affairs having perceived herself as being cannibalised in her early years when she first arrived in the United States and had to support herself by doing menial work? Would anyone like to perhaps conjecture as to any real life evidence (both for or against) of this theory?

[softwareNerd]

... do you think Miss Rand may have been highlighting the immorality of such a state of affairs ...

Nope. Not in Galt's speech. No literal nor oblique reference to such a hypothesis. It appears that you have some conception of "cannibal society" and are reading it into Galt's speech. It is not there.