Who is John Galt?

Juancho here.

If you’ve ever played the first BioShock game and thought that its literary inspiration, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, sounds like an interesting book and that you want to read it—don’t. Or rather, make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into. The book is VERY long, with lots of overly descriptive text, lots of preaching, and an absolutely massive 50+ page speech towards the end of the book. Regardless, if you’re willing to stomach it, it’s an interesting work of fiction that is ultimately a little just too heavy handed. In case you don’t know what happens, I’ll do my best not to spoil it.

The book’s author, Ayn Rand, was a heavy proponent of her own philosophy now known as Objectivism. It’s a philosophy that is radically individualistic, where the individual searches for his own happiness as the highest purpose in life. It values personal achievement and reason as the ultimate standard of decision making. Economically, it proposes freedom for production and laissez-faire capitalism, because it allows men to function purely as traders and exchange not just products and money but the value of their work. The best way to summarize objectivism is probably through Galt's motto: "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

These principles are front and center in the plot of Atlas Shrugged. The main characters are prodigious industrialists who say they’re in it to make money but really work because of the desire to produce value. Their opponents are bumbling government officials or their competitors, who cannot compete with them but continue to devise rules and regulations attempting to destroy their ability to produce, while still needing them to produce and keep the country going. John Galt is only alluded to for most of the book, with the characters making wildly different assumptions of his characters, most of which are actually partly correct.

The story itself is actually quite engaging. Great industrialists are disappearing, sometimes very conspicuously. The ones remaining have to combat an increasingly overbearing government in order to prevent the collapse of modern society. The main characters’ motivations are clearly defined and I enjoyed rooting for them when they achieved small victories. A lot of the side characters are also really cool and refreshingly interesting. The plot also moves at a decent enough pace so that at least one important thing happens in every chapter.

But the book itself is also very flawed. The characters are meant to be archetypes, but they’re so black and white and caricaturesque that they come across as ridiculous, especially the antagonists. The book is full of author filibusters where Rand likes to lengthily espouse her views in inappropriate situations, culminating in the massive speech near the end. John Galt, when he is introduced, is ridiculously perfect and unbeatable, to the point where you can’t really enjoy his appearances in the plot.

As far as the philosophy of objectivism goes, I find myself agreeing only with some of it. I’m a huge proponent of capitalism, but full laissez-faire is excessive, because companies will try to get away with so much that they cause harm to their customers. Ayn Rand wants people to work for their own fulfillment and values, which neglects the social aspect of human nature. She considers all social interactions a “transaction,” which kind of makes sense but it feels really impersonal and hollow to me.

Regardless, it was still a worthwhile read-through. I definitely will not be reading the book again, but I still have fond memories of some of the characters. Consider this a fair warning to you if you decide to read it: it will take up a lot of your time. It’s worth a look if you’re interested in the philosophy but not as much else.

Footnote: There’s a series of movies coming for the book. I saw the first movie. It was decent, if a little rushed. Reading the book definitely helps you understand what’s going on, but it hits the main bullet points in case you don’t have enough time to read the book, yet still enough time to read random ramblings on the internet. =P

See you guys around.