"For twelve years, you have been asking: Who is John Galt? This is John Galt speaking. I am the man who loves his life. I am the man who does not sacrifice his love or his values. I am the man who has deprived you of victims and thus has destroyed your world, and if you wish to know why you are perishing--you who dread knowledge--I am the man who will now tell you."
From
Ayn Rand's
Atlas Shrugged
Twelve years prior to this statement,
John Galt went on
strike--a strike of the
mind.
Society wanted to
leech off of
his creativity,
his intelligence,
his genius. They would not recompense him for his accomplishments, rather they would scorn him for his
natural abilities.
So he left. Before he left, though, he vowed to
stop the motor of the world.
Through
fear and uncertainty of the possibility of his statement coming true, society decided to try to
ignore John Galt's mere existence, making him a
common phrase:
Who is John Galt? The term came to be used as an
end-all conversational piece, when people are presented with a statement that questions any accepted
hypotheses of the day. People didn't want to
think any more.
The question eventually came to represent the
self-immolation of
society. People began to
stop thinking, stop
questioning, stop
progress. As society started
falling apart at its seams, people looked to the
geniuses, the
entrepreneurs, the
scientists, the people with
ability to carry the burden. But
society just
devoured these people.
At the point where there was no hope,
John Galt returned.
Who is John Galt?
John Galt is the man who could do what he said.
John Galt stopped the motor of the world.