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What Would... John Galt Do?

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I was riding the bus today and saw a man sitting a few rows away. On his wrist was a pretty typical looking bracelet like the ones that were popular a while back--the simple woven band with the letters WWJD ("what would Jesus do?") written across it. I went back to my book and only got a few words read before I did a double take. Instead of WWJD, this man's bracelet said WWJGD. I immediately racked my brain for any surnames of Jesus that could begin with a G, thought of none, and wondered if the bracelet was a takeoff meant to refer to John Galt. By the time I decided to ask him about it he was getting off the bus at a stop that wasn't mine, so I never solved the mystery. Has anyone heard of a bracelet like this?

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I have a bunch of white rubber bands from the One campaign that I got last year.

I made a WWCND bracelet for my son out of it several months ago. (What Would Chuck Norris Do?).

I have often thought of pulling out the Sharpies again and putting WWJGD or WWARD on them hahah.

Also WWFSMD just for fun.

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Thanks for this blog link. I've enjoyed reading it. Got more good links from it as well.
What about the guy's diatribe about Microsoft being a monopoly and that it ought to be paying billions of dollars in damages for the hartm it has done consumers? With "friends" like the author of that blog... who needs enemies. Edited by softwareNerd
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The whole WWJGD thing would tend to just complicate things in my opinion. For those who understand the reference it's neat, but when asked about it in curiosity I think it would make people ask, "Is that some sort of religion?" I find at that point it's hard to continue to explain anything effectivley because there stuck on the concept of religion.

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My thinking may be a little off on this, but as catchy and cute as WWJGD seems, isn't it a bit "second hander"?

Instead, how about one the says, "WWID", What Would I Do?

WWRCD - What Would RationalCop Do? :)

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Instead, how about one the says, "WWID", What Would I Do?
That's an improvement, but it also has some dubious epistemological connotations. How about "What Should I Do" or, to turn those oughts into is's, "What Will I Do?", but even that suggests an infirm grip on the relationship between my knowledge and action. So I suggest IWARITCOMKTAMLAYCJDWI.
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My thinking may be a little off on this, but as catchy and cute as WWJGD seems, isn't it a bit "second hander"?

Instead, how about one the says, "WWID", What Would I Do?

WWRCD - What Would RationalCop Do? :)

I don't know if that aspect of it is exactly second hand, since John Galt represents a concretized moral ideal-- and thinking what "he" would do in a certain circumstance might sometimes be an effective approach to discovering a moral course of action, when one is not immediately clear. But I do think adopting a Christian slogan and trying to turn it into an Objectivist slogan is "second hander" in a kind of absurdly ironic way.

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I don't know if that aspect of it is exactly second hand, since John Galt represents a concretized moral ideal-- and thinking what "he" would do in a certain circumstance might sometimes be an effective approach to discovering a moral course of action, when one is not immediately clear.

But not the essential or final approach, right? The final, and essential approach is confirmation with one's own judgement and reason. The reason you have to ask yourself what would Jesus do is because one can't reason out the mixed bag of contradictions that is Christian ethics. Not true of Objectivism, and for sure, and Objectivist woudl NEVER stop at "John Galt would do this so I will too...". I'm with Rational Cop on this one. I think the question is second-handed.

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I've thought about a WWDD bracelet (Dagny), and although the question itself is somewhat second-handed, there are many things that Dagny would probably do that I would not (and vice versa), so the bracelet would never be a final answer to the question 'What am I going to do?'. Instead, it would be a reminder of my own ideals, and a reminder that I have a right to follow them. Also, it would be something to make me :D when I'm :dough: .

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If I wanted a bracelet with some inspirational message, it wouldn't instruct me to inquire as to what somebody (me or anyone else) would do. I would want it to say "Kick a**". For me, that would serve not as an invitation to violence, but rather as a reminder that whatever I'm doing, it needs to be done hard and with passion. My legal work? Yup. My music? Yup. My friends? Yup. My romantic interest(s)? Yup.

Those two words, crass though they may be, are all the inspiration I need. And with that in mind, I'm about to go follow my own instructions with this agency and partnership law, and my laundry. Sweet!

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I thought that Ayn Rand actually mentioned something along these lines in The Romantic Manifesto . . . she said that numerous times people had told her that they'd had some difficulty in life and when they thought of Howard Roark the nature of the problem instantly became clear: because the fictional person acts as a concretization of a vast number of abstractions. So when you ask yourself, "What Would John Galt Do?" What you're actually asking is, "What's the right thing to do?" and using a concrete (John Galt) to stand for a vast and complicated abstraction.

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This was on one of the links (3rd I believe)

WWJGD What Would John Galt Do? (neo-objectivist slogan)

Neo-Objectivist? Did I miss something?

neo objectvist is a term for those that think they get objectivism, but don't...and basically want to steal some of the ideas they think are good without understanding many of the underlying principles of the philosophy...kind like libertarians and David Kelly. :thumbsup: Well, that is my opinion on it any way.

Okay...here is my new idea for a bracelet: WWIDFAKB: What Would I Do For A Klondike Bar?

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Here's another possibility, even simpler and more direct. "Think."

Does this mean we should have ads on television saying how we should not prosecute cigarette companies and should support individual rights? Should we also film it like it was filmed on a cell phone?

Gaaaaah, do we really need another 'chic' "T"-word ad campain with pages in magazines that fall out on purpose? That would not be desirable methinks. ;-)

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