Someone on Misha’s site found this absolutely amazing piece of work.  I know many of you hear the name “Ayn Rand,” and you tend to groan and roll your eyes.  I can understand that.  Her writing can be cumbersome and somewhat preachy.  But her ideals are inspirational.  They’re real.  Her principles and ideals are what I have stood for every moment from the day my parents escaped the shithole that was the Soviet Union and brought me here, to a place where I had every opportunity to succeed.

Rand was prophetic in a lot of ways.  She saw what was happening as she was writing Atlas Shrugged, and she extrapolated her view of the future from what she saw.  And now, her horrifying vision is nearly here, and I will proudly stand up and proclaim…

I AM JOHN GALT

I
have had it up to my eyeballs with the ever-growing government, the
nanny-state, the collectivism, the whole world demanding more and more
from the producers.  I am done with the corrupt politicians, the
slackers, the deadbeats, and all the looters and moochers.

I
am sick of a government which has drifted from its early Constitutional
foundation of limited central goverment and great individual freedom,
and become a bloated behemoth consuming 40 percent of our economy and
hungry for more.  I am finished with out-of-control political
correctness and its attendant thought police outlawing truth in order
to cater to those who would destroy us.

HERE I STAND.  I AM JOHN GALT.

Whether
the world around me likes it or not, I will put my foot down and insist
on personal responsibility and accountability.  I will tell my
government to take its hands off my rights, my freedom, and my wallet. 
If the people of other nations are content to allow their countries to
devolve into Hell, that’s their business.  I’m sick of financing their
destruction.  They can plunge into chaos on their own dime.

As
for my own, I will be a call for my government to return to doing those
things which are right for a legitimate government to do – to form a
more perfect Union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure
the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.  Not to
regulate the price of milk, meddle with the mortgage market, bail out
failing companies, or tell me how to raise my children. 

HERE I STAND.  I AM JOHN GALT.

And
I have a pulpit.  I may not be able to stop the motor of the world, but
I will stomp on the brake, and I will fight for control of the steering
wheel before the motor seizes up on its own – and believe me, that
motor is on its way to seizing up.

I will give Caesar his due, but I will not bow to him.

I am John Galt.  Come and join me, or come and get me.  Here I stand.


I have often wished that the productive, the intelligent, the hard-working, the producers and the heroes could go on strike.  I have often wondered what would happen if they did.  I have often wondered if the motor of the world would stop.  I hoped it would.

I still do.