A Question About John Galt

[realitycheck44]

I was reading For The New Intellectual the other day when I came across the story of Twentieth Century Motors (from Atlas Shrugged), "From Each According To His Ability, To Each According To His Need" ( ). As it describes John Galt, "The first year, he figured out a work process that saved us thousands of man-hours. He gave it to 'the family', and didn't ask anything for it, either, couldn't ask, but that was all right with him. It was for the ideal, he said. But when he found himself voted as one of our ablest and sentenced to night work, because we hadn't gotten enough from him, he shut his mouth and his brain. You can bet he didn't come up with any ideas, the second year."

Okay my question is why did he give it to "the family"? In We The Living, Kira knew intuitively it was wrong to live for anyone but yourself. Since Rand said that she knew Communism was wrong from the age of twelve, why didn't John Galt, with all his training from Hugh Akston, realize immediately that the philosophy adopted by Twentieth Century Motors was wrong?

The only thing I can think of is he had not seen the outcome of Communism first hand, whereas Miss Rand/ Kira had. I don't necessarily think this is needed, though. John Galt should have realized that the new philosophy required man to live for the state/common good. Rand portrayed him as the ultimate hero, so I assume she had him act that way for a reason too. I just can't find it.

Any thought or comments would be appreciated.

Zak

[KevinD]

Why do you think that passage refers to Galt?

[GoodOrigamiMan]

Nothing to worry about -that wasn’t John Galt- that was some other young innovator who had some innovative ideas. I’m not sure if he ended up leaving the company or hiding his competence and staying – but either way, no more good ideas came out of him.

[realitycheck44]

I thought the quote refered to John Galt because at the very end, it says "A young boy - the one who had been punished for giving us a useful idea in our first year- got up, as we all sat silent, and walked straight to Ivy Starnes on the platform..."

Actually, I don't know why. Now, that I referenced Atlas Shrugged (instead of just FTNI), I see that John Galt was the first to quit.

Thanks guys. My bad.

Zak

[Free Capitalist]

1) Read the book further, it's explained what Galt did at the factory.

2) Doh, is there any way at all to keep the book's suspence intact in a public forum like this? That's part of the book's charm. Suggestions?

[realitycheck44]

1) Read the book further, it's explained what Galt did at the factory.

I have already read it. I just forgot what happened, probably for two reasons.

1. I got caught up in the excitment of finding a flaw in John Galt, or Rand.

2. I read Atlas Shrugged during week-long backpacking trip, and I found that I did not retain some of the specific events. I should re-read it, but right now its not at the top of my list.

As to how to keep the excitment in the book, I do not know. However, if you were reading it, why would you go to a thread about John Galt? I absolutely agree that it is a large part of the books charm. I would hate if anyone told me the ending to The Fountainhead (which I haven't read); thus I would not go to a thread about Roark, Keating, or Tooney.

[White Eurocentric Male]

The young man worked one year under the new policy. During this year he figured out a better work process. John Galt walked away the moment the new policy was announced. So the young man couldn't be JG. In an objectivist company, the young man's carreer would rise like a rocket, and his wages too. In this place he only got more work.

Hmmmm seems familiar.

[Free Capitalist]

The point is, you're not supposed to know there even is a John Galt until the worst in the book has happened. There's the climax of the first two sections, and the triumph of the third due to Galt's appearence on stage. If you already know he exists, a good part of the crisis of the first two sections becomes less dramatic (traumatic) for the reader.

So if anyone has ideas about how to keep his name out of the forum like this, or to otherwise retain that mysterious aspect of Atlas Shrugged, let me know. I don't know if GreedyCapitalist would approve heavily moderating all posts pertaining to the subject. Maybe we should deal with it like we deal with movies, having Spoiler disclaimers.

[Praxus]

Perhaps from now on if you are refering to any book and you are giving away anything important about it, simply put "*Spoiler Alert*" or something to that effect at the begining of the post title.

[orangesiscool]

just curious, if you read Galt's speech out loud, does it come out as three hours long?

[realitycheck44]

The point is, you're not supposed to know there even is a John Galt until the worst in the book has happened. There's the climax of the first two sections, and the triumph of the third due to Galt's appearence on stage. If you already know he exists, a good part of the crisis of the first two sections becomes less dramatic (traumatic) for the reader.

Yeah, I sort of agree. I don't want to argue, but since this is true, why did Peikoff have that "introduction" in the thirty-fifth edition? It should have been after the novel, not before. I read the whole thing and it gave away so much of the novel. He did the same thing in We The Living. The reason I sort of agree is I was wondering about John Galt even though I knew he existed, the question was "who was he?". Anyway, I don't have any suggestions, but I won't ask any more questions about John Galt until we figure out a better way to let others know.

[prosez]

just curious, if you read Galt's speech out loud, does it come out as three hours long?

Actually, its more like 4 hours (audilbe.com.)

[aturner]

Interesting, I just listened to the Galt speech using Audible (from New Intellectual) and it came to about 3 hours at the point in the speech where he says (paraphrasing) "now that you've listened for three hours". I found this rather revelatory of the detail to which Ayn must have gone in producing this work - obviously she or someone else read it out loud and timed it. Then again, watching Ayn deliver impromptu dissertations, maybe she dictated the speech

[prosez]

Interesting, I just listened to the Galt speech using Audible (from New Intellectual) and it came to about 3 hours at the point in the speech where he says (paraphrasing) "now that you've listened for three hours".  I found this rather revelatory of the detail to which Ayn must have gone in producing this work - obviously she or someone else read it out loud and timed it.  Then again, watching Ayn deliver impromptu dissertations, maybe she dictated the speech 

My CD player must play slower

[orangesiscool]

by the way, all of you need to go to nationstates.net, and after you make your "nation" move it to the region galts gulch. it will make sense when you get there.