Who is John Galt

BearMtnHIB wrote: I think your pulling stuff out of mid-air.

No.

I'm not exactly the only one who has noticed the irony of Ayn Rand becoming the darling of the far-right.

There are many who have commented on it, but here's one succinct commentary.

How is elitist Ayn Rand a tea party hero? The contradiction should concern America.

.....

Tea partiers portray themselves as ordinary Americans fed up with an out-of-control, deeply indebted welfare state. Many no doubt see Ms. Rand – the 20th-century writer and philosopher who railed against state power and collectivist thinking in such novels as “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged” – as a posthumous compatriot.

But by clinging to the superficial commonality of hostility to welfare, tea partiers fail to see (or willfully ignore) something critical: Rand espoused an elitist, oligarchic philosophy that is both fundamentally antiAmerican and deeply at odds with the tea party's own “we the people” cause.

At tea party meetings in September, Rand’s name competed in popularity with Jefferson. Some demonstrations even started with a reading from “Atlas Shrugged,” which was coupled with the declaration that this book should be treated as “America’s Second Declaration of Independence.”

But the ironic truth is that, among American authors over the past two centuries, it is impossible to find somebody who has so openly and consistently praised the American elite as Rand has. Rand created magnate protagonists like John Galt and Francisco d’Anconia who ran their industries and societies without paying heed to public opinion. Rand and her heroes hold ordinary people in great contempt. They would surely be appalled to see how the “everyday Americans” at tea party rallies have demanded that they (not the American nobility nor the Ivy League graduates) should have the decisive voice in American politics.

Rand loves the elite

Tea party activists, in their fervor against the elites, more closely echo the motto of the Russian Bolsheviks who insisted that “the cook if taught will efficiently govern society.” So deep is the tea party mistrust of elite, over-educated Americans that the mediocre academic pedigree of some of their favored political figures seems to be a point of pride.

While tea partiers commend Rand as the champion of individualism, they conveniently forget that in her novels, the only people who seemed to benefit from her aim to protect individualism and the unlimited freedom of action were her Nietzschean tycoons. Indeed, Rand was fully indifferent to the workers in her novels, whom she described as primitive beings – “savages” in the words of Atlas’s steel mogul Hank Rearden, arguably one of Rand’s most beloved personages.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opi ... rn-America

Worth repeating...

Tea party activists, in their fervor against the elites, more closely echo the motto of the Russian Bolsheviks who insisted that “the cook if taught will efficiently govern society.” So deep is the tea party mistrust of elite, over-educated Americans that the mediocre academic pedigree of some of their favored political figures seems to be a point of pride.

Perception is everything. How will the public perceive the movie? Discussing the author of the book this movie was based on is irrelevant.

After all Robert A. Heinlein who is considered a fascist by many on the left wrote a book that probably inspired as many communes as Timothy Leary.

I enjoy input from a self declared neo-con.

kresspin wrote: Worth repeating...

Tea party activists, in their fervor against the elites, more closely echo the motto of the Russian Bolsheviks who insisted that “the cook if taught will efficiently govern society.” So deep is the tea party mistrust of elite, over-educated Americans that the mediocre academic pedigree of some of their favored political figures seems to be a point of pride.

People interpet books differently, just look at the many different ways people view the Bible.
Simply, the TEA Party people adopting Rand prefer men of industry have power over goverment bureaucrats.

Irony? Saw a Galt/Taggart 2012 bumper stocker the other day. Did they miss the point of the book? John and Dagny no longer want to be involved in the creeping communism.

Oh- lookie there, the left complaining about Ayn Rand being elite.

The left never has a problem with the elite- no - people like Al Gore, George Soros, and Obama are just average homey type folk, not to mention Marx.

Looks like the left are trying really hard to find somthing to complain about- too bad they are total hypocrits.

Anyone can adopt Rand's philosophy of thought, elite and common folk alike. All it takes is a belief in one's self and a realization that government is used for control.

I'd rather think like Rand- we are capable of controlling ourselves and running our own lives.

Funny, I didn't see anyone "complaining" about Rand... All I saw were people pointing out the stupidity of the teabaggers for jumping on her as a symbol of something, when she represents everything they are supposedly against... Sorry, "Complaints" are next door... This is "Arguments"...

Too bad most of the 'baggers are too ignorant to understand the disconnect.

BearMtnHIB wrote: I'd rather think like Rand- we are capable of controlling ourselves and running our own lives.

That's just what you don't get. She WOULDN'T have thought most ordinary people capable of controlling themselves and running their own lives. She thought the vast majority to be dim-witted, ugly savages.

She was right- look how many people voted for Obama!

I see you guys only believe in the "will of the people" when it agrees with your will.