Going John Galt

John Galt proved that prosperity and happiness ultimately rested on man’s ability to think and produce values.

He demonstrated how the production of values required judicious planning and invested time.  He understood that if time and energy were to be invested, then a man had to be certain of the outcome.  An indispensable component of certainty came from having the freedom to act on his plan and keep the profit.  He concluded that freedom was only possible when individual rights and property were protected.

In Atlas Shrugged, John Galt witnessed the loss of freedom in a decaying society.  The freedom of each man to pursue his own happiness was uprooted due to mankind’s beleif  that self-sacrifce was life’s highest purpose.  He saw the loss of freedom as the logical result of an altruistic society that upheld sacrifice as a moral duty.  The freedoms guaranteed by  individual rights and the duties required by the moral code of altruism were contradictory.  Both could not exist at the same time and since politics rested on morality, duty to serve others overcame freedom to pursue happiness. 

The wealth producers were demonized as immoral for profiting from their work.  They were forced to relinquish part or all of the values they created in the name of altruism.   The supposed immorality of material gain and profit sanctioned the seizure and redistribution of their wealth.  John Galt realized that his enemies’ power was supplied by his own productive energy and moral sanction.  The harder he worked the stronger his enemies became.  He had only one choice; to shrug and ask others to shrug as well.

John Galt shrugged off the unearned guilt imposed on him and the burden of supporting the men who demonized him.  Free from the constraints of altruism, Galt could act confidently and without guilt.  As more producers shrugged, Galt’s enemies could no longer gain sustenance and praise from the redistribution of their profits.  They eventually imploped.

The duties required by altruism were contrary to freedom.  Since prosperity and happiness required freedom, Galt had to bury altruism.  He upheld the morality of rational self interest, which defends man’s right to pursuite happiness.  Galt’s revolutionary conception of selfishness as a virtue provided the proper foundation for a political system that protects freedom.

Going John Galt requires integrity and courage.  It means being proud of who you are, living according to rational principles, and standing by what you believe .  A is A.

Mark Dohle