Who is John Galt?

In 2000, I was traveling so much for business that I instituted a rule for myself – no work on business-related flights. My rationale was that I was dipping into my personal time by flying all over the globe, and felt as though I needed to have some control over my life. So I started ensuring that I always had a good book with me for any trip I took. While Marc and I were getting to know each other in Europe in 2002 and I was flying back and forth, one of the books that I read that summer was The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. I really enjoyed it and was telling Marc about it when he said, “Atlas Shrugged [also written by Ayn Rand] is way better” or something to that effect, which is what someone else at work also said. So I went to Barnes & Noble over lunch one day before another flight and picked it up.

Marc and my former colleague were correct. While The Fountainhead was a great book and very thought provoking, I enjoyed reading Atlas Shrugged much more – the characters, the story, everything. Dagny Taggart, one of the main characters in the book, is probably one of my favorites out of all of the books that I have read. Here is a very quick summary of the book – for a more comprehensive discussion, click here.

In the world of Atlas Shrugged, society stagnated when independent productive achievers began to be socially demonized and even punished for their accomplishments, even though society had been far more healthy and prosperous by allowing, encouraging and rewarding self-reliance and individual achievement. Independence and personal happiness flourished to the extent that people were free, and achievement was rewarded to the extent that individual ownership of private property was strictly respected. The hero, John Galt, lives a life of laissez-faire capitalism as the only way to live consistent with his beliefs. [From Wikipedia]

Throughout the book as more and more achievers decide to give in and not pursue excellence, these productive achievers start reciting the phrase, “Who is John Galt”, which basically implies not to ask tough questions because no one knows the answers. OK what does this have to do with anything, right?

So some of you may have heard about the fire in NYC at the former Deutsche Bank building where 2 firemen were killed last weekend. This building was in the process of being demolished as it was at the World Trade Center site where some of the tragic events of 9/11 occurred. As I was reading an article about the lack of water available to the firefighters to quell the fire, I read that the company managing the demolition was called The John Galt Corporation of the Bronx. I thought to myself what an odd name for a company and of course thought back to when I was reading Atlas Shrugged. In today’s NYT, there is an article entitled, “Obscure Company is Behind 9/11 Demolition Work”. How ironic since most of the book is spent with Dagny trying to figure out who exactly is John Galt and now we have this mystery company somewhat in the middle of this tragic accident. Anyway the fire was a horrible event in an area where plenty of suffering has already occurred, and I read someplace that 2 more workers were injured at the same site today. Not good.

Another book that I recently wrapped up is The Conservative Soul, by Andrew Sullivan, a political blogger. One of my friends, Nat, told me about him and that he had some interesting ideas so I thought it would be worth a read. Basically the book examines what it’s like to be a conservative in today’s political climate and discusses how the Republican party has moved away from its roots of fiscal responsibility and taken on a new mandate of religious fundamentalism. Some of the text was kind of tough to get through because when you were able to comprehend what he was saying, he would hammer it home again…. and again…. and again. I didn’t agree with everything in the book, but it was worth the time to get a different perspective on things. For me: I personally wonder what our country could achieve if we focused on managing the US (i.e., budget, veterans care, health care, education) as opposed to preaching their religious beliefs into law (i.e., no federal funding of stem cell research – why?). I’d probably respect our current administration a little bit more if they actually stuck to fiscal responsibility and not spending so much money on things that are really not helping much of its constituents.

[NOTE: This is my opinion, and not Marc’s. It’s not that Marc agrees or disagrees – I just don’t speak for him.]