Who Is John Galt?

Post Reply New Topic

I've re-discovered Ayn Rand. In Atlas Shrugged she raises a hypothetical question.

What if all the creative minds -- the Intellectuals -- of the world went on strike?

Consider this possible scenario:

All the intellectuals of the world -- society's most productive members (artists, designers, innovators, inventors, engineers, entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists, and so forth) -- realize the futility of their attempts to survive in a society that hates or resents them for their initiative, integrity, and their ability to create and achieve. They then go on strike against those who use the force of law and moral guilt to confiscate their accomplishments, and refuse to allow their ideas to be appropriated by governments, "Big Business," or the military.

No new designs, direction, innovations, inventions, ideas, inspiration, leadership, or research occurring anywhere in the world. Medical science would be at a standstill. Only those cures, preventive measures, and medical treatments currently in use today remain. No new fashions, game software, or entertainment anywhere. The same old characters, jokes, and scripts, with only already-copyrighted material to fuel Hollywood's insatiable appetite. The same old rhetoric repeated generation after generation with no resolution to any of the social issues plagueing the world. Only fossil fuels to run our cars, homes, and industries. You get the picture...

Imagine no invention
Old tech everywhere
No new ideas for us
No one even cares

Imagine all the the masses
Stuck in Status Quo

You might think it perfection
But how perfect would it be
To know that nothing's getting better
Nothing new for us to see?

(Apologies to the fans, friends, and family of John Lennon.)

Discuss...

what if all the people with asperger's syndrome went on strike?

and what if all truly creative people were only those with asperger's syndrome?

i see potential for drawing attention to exploited aspies.

Nobody would be able to kill on a mass scale because smart people wouldn't make the weapons

...and he graduated from a French university, which meant he wasn't too dim... 'course, so did Ai Qoc, otherwist known as 'Uncle Ho'...

imagine technology stuck at its current level for the next ten to twenty years. imagine that the cell phone ipod or computer that you own right now is the best that you will ever see for the next generation. imagine no more medical advances. imagine.

what if tech were to stagnate right now?

That will simply not happen. Thinkers can't for the life of them stop thinking; artists can't stop creating. A fine mind is too powerful for self-imposed abstinence.