There's a scene in the offbeat movie Airheads where embarrassed characters confess their various youthful indiscretions: "I played Dungeons and Dragons", "I used to masturbate constantly", "I was the editor of the school newspaper", "My real name isn't Chaz, it's Clarence", and so forth.

Well, I admit it — in my teenage years I read some Ayn Rand novels. I wasn't too doctrinaire about Objectivism, Libertarianism, or any other Capitalized -Ism ... unlike some folks with severe cases of the disease (and whom Jerome Tucille depicted in his humorous 1972 analytic history It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand). But I dabbled, agreed in parts, disagreed elsewhere. It's great to have simple answers to complicated questions, especially when one is young.

And I still remember the interminable speech by John Galt in Atlas Shrugged. It comes to mind when somebody asks me what I think about a given issue and I reply instinctively with a pointer to a ZhurnalWiki item ... and then begin to fear that the ^zhurnal is turning into an endless chaotic ^z screed.

Who is John Galt? Don't ask me, please!

(see also EmbarrassedLibertarian (28 May 2000), TraditariansVsLibertitionists (3 Aug 2000), ... )

TopicPhilosophy - TopicPersonalHistory - TopicHumor - TopicZhurnal - 2003-09-29

I used to see stickers at Northwestern...near urinals, on walls in halls...'who is John Galt?' That was 40 years ago. – SteveCisler

Who is John Galt?

Didn't he write some new music or something?

(correlates: GreatestInvention, BeTheChange, BootyInTheBoot, ...)