100 unique visitors today (as of 11:35 PM). Surprising, to say the least! Where the hell did you folks come from? I’m really curious. Please tell your story, brief or long, in the comments if you would.
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My husband heard about the “Going John Galt” movement on the radio this morning; I just decided to google it and see what happened. So here we are!
We read the book in the early years after original publication, sometime in the 1960s. We reread it every few years and also refresh outselves on different sections; we particularly call it to mind when reading the newspaper. There’s lots of stuff for an Atlas Shrugged file — and has been over the years. We’ve always bought paperback copies and have had them to give to people over the years, too. However, some of them are too intimidated to start reading it. That aspect has been so very disappointing. I just got the book club at our library to read it for our February/March discussions — we’ll see what happens with that. Here’s to all of us capitalists!
Mike Church Radio Show, Sirius Satellite Radio channel 144 from 9-Noon, mikechurch.com…. He is constantly talking about Atlas Shrugged, and here lately, more about John Galt. One of this mornings guests was talking about “going Galt”.
Rush, Beck,Bortz have all commented on Ayn Rand. Anthem, Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead or one of the other works from her. I have been on several sites looking for people to share Ideas, and all I ever go was bickering. I found this site by typing john galt + strike. several sites popped up. I browswed the comment sections and did not like the bickering. The communist/socialist hate Ayn Rand, and the vast majority are scared to death of what they might discover if they read the virtues of selfishness. I even tried to get the movement started 4 years ago, but no one ever showed up on my blog so I quit. I know I have been monopolizing this site and I apologize for it.
Does anyone else feel like The Forgotten Man because you do not have a team of lobbyist advocating your victim status in Washington? Tired of hearing how cruel and bigoted our society has become all the while special interest groups receive billions of your tax dollars in the name of “social justice”. Have you sacrificed much of your life to gain a modest level of success only to see the fruits of your labor confiscated by government taxation? And how does this administration reward us for our lifetime of responsibility? The tone we receive from Washington is not one of gratitude, but rather of entitlement and contempt.
The sheer arrogance of our President to portray himself as a great man merely because he takes from one American just to give to another is a sad comment to the twisted ideology that now pervades our political climate. Well, I for one have had enough. I pledge to do my best not to support this government in any way. Only by refusing to feed this cancerous system that views hard-earned success as greed will it stop growing and metastasizing. I love my country so it pains me to see its very fabric destroyed by an ideology that proudly rewards bad behavior over merit. I am John Galt.
Rodney Elliott
Chicago
Robert Tracinski in TIA Daily had a news item on “Going John Galt.” I Googled it to see how popular the phrase was and found your site.
In Tracinski’s analysis, it’s more about people who make $250k+ trying to figure out how to lower their incomes so they don’t get screwed by Obama’s plan. I think this bottom-up approach has a better chance of success (showing the consequences of the statist policies) than the top-down approach you have been writing about.
My thinking has been influenced by Tracinski’s “What Went Right” (link below). It’s basically an analysis of how the world changes and what role philosophical ideas have in bringing about that change. I think it’s worth a read if you haven’t read it yet.
Great site so far–I’ve enjoyed reading it.
Sean
Link to “What Went Right” article:
http://www.intellectualactivist.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=1095
http://southernnationalcongress.org/pr12112008.shtml
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2009/HCR0006.html
http://texassecession.com/
We’re not alone.
I appreciate the stories and info, everyone! Keep ‘em coming!
Hi John,
After reading an internet Atlas Shrugged article, I happened to search “John Galt” and was pleasantly suprized to find your site.
Inspired by the ethical business principles of Atlas Shrugged, I’ve been pursuing my own Galt’s Gulch Project independently of what anyone else chooses to do. While the book describes the ideal, a reasonable real world expression is well within reach for any creative adventurous American Capitalist entrepreneur.
This is what I did… I started my own business, worked 20 years to save up enough money to buy a small piece of land outright. Then my wife and I built our own modest home for cash. So now we live completely solvent… no mortgage, no car loan payments, and a zero credit dard balance.
There are certain specific economic sectors which have been infested by leftist socialist third party payer system. They are:
Education
Government
Law
Credit/Debt
Insurance
Healthcare
Unions
Arts
Within reason, we minimize our exposure to, dependence on, or participation in any of these corrupted bankrupt sectors so that their collapse will not bring us down with them.
It’s possible to live a good life and to prosper regardless of economic cycles simply by following Rand’s advice.
Take Care,
Greg
I haven’t even read “Atlas Shrugged” yet, but the synopsis of the plot immediately resonated with my husband and me. I discovered “John Galt” ideas by listening to Sean Hannity and some of his callers the other day. The first caller, a woman, shared what she and her husband had decided to do so that Obama’s administration doesn’t get the fruits of their labors. The next caller, a man, was a parasite, who denounced the ideas of John Galt and loudly cried, “What will happen to the system if all of you top producers stop producing?” I laughed out loud. The guy was genuinely SCARED. Hannity gave the leech a really good lesson in capitalism, citing the statistics from New York: 44,000 hard workers support 9,000,000 people!
My husband is completely FED UP with being stolen from to support the leeches of the world. “John Galt” ideas resonated instantly with him. For 30 years he has been supporting, through taxes, hundreds and hundreds of leeches.
We give to those we choose to give to, happily–those who work hard, those who are productive, and those who are elderly or infirm. But the outright blatancy of this administration’s theft of our earnings, and the mocking of “the rich” from the lazy takers and the liberal media have enraged us. When we heard Obama saying that giving to others is “being neighborly” and heard Joe Biden say “taxes are patriotic” that was THE END.
We cut all of our insurance greatly by using Geico.
We switched to a really cheap oil company.
We paid off our mortgages years ago.
We bought my husband’s mother a house in a low-tax area, for her old age.
We bought a farm and rent out the field to a hard-working farmer and we rent out the farmhouse on the farm to a hard-working brother and his family at very low rent .
We paid off all credit cards and use them sparingly now. We spend very little now.
We bought an additional house in the south which we rent to four people who are hard workers. They produce.
We bought for our home viewing: movies on heroes, the founding fathers, historical events, Hitler, WWII, etc.
We do NOT subscribe to cable t.v. Hollywood is a major part of the problem with our country, especially today’s young people. We want to keep our brains. Anything we watch is either educational, heroic, inspiring, or will help us to become better people and/or Americans. No trashy t.v. or sitcoms for us.
We are saving every penny from now on, putting most paychecks into tax free places, shopping at Dollar Stores for cereal and many other items, planning on moving to the south to cut down on living expenses further, and are fully on board with the Galt ideas that we know about so far. We have much to learn still, however.
Your website is great and I enjoy reading all of your contributors’ ideas. I am a teacher and my husband is an attorney.
You were mentioned on The Colbert Report(Wednesday March 11th, 2009). Just dropped in to see what you were about. K Thanks
The Colbert Report(Wednesday March 11th, 2009 for me also. Immediately after his mention it was not possible to reach your site – too big of a qspike to your hosting server?
Really? Hilarious! Not this site in particular surely, but always nice to hear of the ideas penetrating into the popular mindset. And yeah, i guess that explains why my, um, hosting server (*cough* a G4 Mac Mini in my basement *cough*) had completely consumed all available memory… Oh well, it’s a long term battle of ideas; I’m not going to get too down about (*sniff*) missing my big break!
I also heard about it on Colbert. To be honest I screamed out loud the second I heard Ayn Rand mentioned. I understand the show was a blatant mock of her and her ideals but I was still just so excited. It is rare in my daily life that I come across ANYONE who knows about her, and it can get lonely, so I will take the reference good or bad. They mentioned this site on the show and I immediately went to google to find it. You are now bookmarked on my Mac.
I have been a fan of Rand’s since the age of 16 and her ideals have stuck with me thus far. I think it is good to see the publicity that her work is getting in light of recent economic events, now if only people would actually APPLY the theories. Only time will tell I guess.
He made fun of the fact that your site calls for a work slowdown, yet you “selflessly” plug yourself looking for a job :-p
btw you can watch it again on http://www.colbertnation.com/home tomorrow
Go ahead and ‘Go Galt’. There are 1000s of people on guru.com that have your skill set and would love to have the work that you wont do on principle (or will do if your plug can be believed). The same goes for most of the objectivist wannabe elites that think they’re some sort of ‘unique snowflakes’ that the rest of us civicly minded folks can’t exist without.
In summary “we don’t need you” either.
The colbert report but im confused why im here lol i did read atlas shrugged i guess more money for the author.
Its interesting site! i will keep reading it.
Dude, that is seriously contradictory to the absolute Nth degree. You are advocating a work strike from the country’s employer’s yet you are jobless and looking for work….what are ya? an escapee from belle vue? Then again this is what America is now..fat,lazy,stupid and now mostly out of work and poor.
Sara C: I do, too, although I find it odd considering the ongoing popularity of Atlas Shrugged over the past 50 years. I only learned about it when I saw it mentioned unfavorably on South Park. So, where are all the Rand fans? Where are they hiding? Why are they hiding?
I just finished reading “Atlas Shrugged”, and the similarity to our current situation was uncomfortably startling. Then I saw “going John Galt” was a popular search phrase (Current TV) and thought I’d check in to see what was beginning to happen.
This site was mentioned on the Colbert Report yesterday, so I wanted to check it out. I’ve been searching for groups who want to do something about Obama’s new regime. Check out this site: http://www.taxpayerteaparty.com
Quite amusing…going Galt via a website to organize the selfish masses who seem to adore the idea while schilling for a job at the same time…well I guess when you’re looking for work the one thing you can spend or waste is time. I just took the Big Business approach to things and hired a young programmer in India to do your job. He’ll cost me a 1/10 of what you would have cost. I don’t have to provide healthcare because professional help in preventing disease would be a waste of money for the poor moochers of society. But that’s all ok! Because I am looking out for Me, Myself and I. That’s a great way to go through life.
john,
I’m reading your blog b/c it was featured on Colbert Nation…
to be honest I thought your blog was going to be more incendiary, but so far is verbose… so since I have limited time I just wanted to say hi from Mexico…
Leonardo
Hi salmongirl and Sara,
It’s good that the validity of applying Rand’s ideas to your own life ~doesn’t~ depend on what others do. I have used the inspiration of Ayn’s ethical Capitalist business principles for 30 years and they have ~consistently~ yielded the solvent reward of independent prosperity ~regardless~ of economic cycles… or the moochers and looters.
There are a ~lot~ of individual Rand Objectivists scattered all over America building their “Galt’s Gulches”. And they’re working to create their own bright future based on competently tended present.
I’m on my fourth reading of Atlas Shrugged and am STILL totally astounded how much it MOVES me. So incredibly moving that as I read, there is this wordless cry for justice that rises from deep inside. I use the energy of that passion to drive my life and to give it a purposeful focus towards acheiving practical goals.
Life is an adventure EXACTLY like it is in Atlas Shrugged. And each of us is the captain of our own ship as we pilot it through the storms…
Take Care,
Greg