'Who Is John Galt?'
All good points Confucius , Melchior and Ripley
Esp. like some of the last paragraph of the Bookchin quote
but have another view on the last part .
What about individuals , can't they have 'Reflective powers' ,
'the emotive equipment that nourishes rage against unfreedom',
'the desire for social change' and that 'sense of responsibility' too ?
Yeah, if one is really a super hermit one may lose those 'indispensable social moorings' but ...
is it always have to be true ?
Also dunno if everyone that gets something from the philosophy 'has to be one of the great ones'
One is free to pick and choose from these fictional ideas at will , possibly finding something of use without having to luv Ayn's later right wing years or seeing the "Passion" docu / film thing which had some silly *hit .
I dug out Atlas Shrugged this rainy evening and ... please bear with me as I eek out some things here to try to show a bit wider view then has been down the line here so far
To note , Fountainhead was published sometime in 1945 (!) with Shrugged notes starting the year after.
Think for a second about the world at that time , these books were against fascism and communist of the era .
Second page lists 'The Ayn Rand Library' . First title is 'Vol. 1 Philosophy: Who Needs It ?'
Some text from the Intro to the 35th Ed. , by L Peikoff
' In Ayn's notes she differentiates between Atlas Shrugged and the predecessor Fountainhead'
' Atlas' Theme : What happens to the world when the prime movers go on strike.
This means - a picture of the world with the moter cut off.
Show: How , what , why . The specific steps and incidents - in terms of persons, their spirits , motives , psychology and actions - and secondly , proceeding from persons , in terms of history , society and the world.
The theme requires: to show who are the prime movers , why and how they function.
Who are their enemies and why , what are the motives behind their hatred for and the enslavement of the prime movers: the nature of the obstacles placed in their way, and the reasons for it.'
' That last paragraph is contained entirely in The Fountainhead.
Howard Roark and Ellsworth Toohey (arbiter of taste/ imposer of HIS tastes, could be played by say,
R Murdoch) are the complete statement of it.'
So primary concern of FH was showing who these two fictional characters were . '
Rand 'In FH I showed that Roark moves the world - that the Keatings (old school chum of Roark's who later comes to stand for everything hates in the world - the second- handers) feed upon him and hate him for it , while the Toohey's are out consciously to destroy him.
' In Atlas Shrugged , I must show in what concrete , specific way the world is moved by the creators.
Exactly how do the second- handers live on the creators.
Both in spiritual matters - and in concrete physical events ...'
However , for the purpose of the story , ... I start with the fantastic premise of the prime movers going on strike.
A distinction carefully to be observed here: I do not set out to glorify the prime mover (that was FH).
I set out to show how desperately the world needs prime movers, and how viciously it treats them .
And I show it on a hypothetical case - what happens to the world without them.'
... ... ...
BTW I would venture that say, Steve Jobs could be seen as one of the 'prime movers' of our time ,
among other individuals .