What does "Who is John Galt?" mean?
Posted by BlueNova 11 years, 6 months ago to Philosophy
In Atlas Shrugged, the movie Part 2, Dagney said it stood for giving up and despair. I didn't take that it means that. I'm interested in what you all think.
That is, when the company was in their large gathering and the company was about to fall apart, John Galt stood up and called out their stupidity in front of all. He was an unknown to most, and the phrase makes sense as in "well, who the f*ck is John Galt?"...
Meaning that anyone can be that person that stands up.
Dagny did see it differently. She thought people were giving up too easily with that attitude. "Not going to think about it...thinking about it won't change anything...who is John Galt..."
The 20th century engineer that started the expression had a different meaning for it too - I think in the sense of "who does this guy think he is?" Galt was on a mission he considered preposterous for an individual to undertake. Not that he was critical of Galt - he almost considered the guy to be super-human as the plan began succeeding.
The antagonists in the movie - almost the same sense as the 20th century engineer. But with contempt. Who does this pile of garbage think he is...?
As for me, I am not John Galt. I am more like the Truck Driver on the mine ledge who wanted to be more than that.
I was a little surprised that the movie didn't start with the phrase as the book did. I think it will go down in literary history as famous as "They call me Ishmail." in Moby Dick.
I am now at a point that I would say "Who knows John Galt, knows the answer to the question?" or, "Ask John Galt for the answer!"
But it doesn't do it for me yet. It may be that it's up to the interpreter to interpret and leave it at that. But I'm afraid that I'll look stupid when I'm asked if it isn't an effective reply. Maybe it's the same as when a artist such as a painter, leaves it up to the viewer to interpret.
For the man in the diner, it's a simple situation to analyze the meaning of the question but I cannot think of what he really means. Maybe, John Galt knows why I can't pay is his meaning. The why being, I can't make the money to pay.
Anyway, If I'm right on the interpretation angle, I'm right; and, you're all right.