Going Galt!!

“Tea parties.” “Going Galt.” You’ve probably seen a growing number of references to these in the media, online, and on signs at rallies reacting to new government spending and controls.

The Boston Tea Party was a rebellion against excessive government. Today’s “tea parties” say “no” to spending without limit and the government takeover of our lives.

“Going Galt!” If you’ve read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, you appreciate the parallels between today’s disintegrating world and the events depicted in that prophetic novel. Atlas Shrugged is the story ofhow productive people went on strike, withdrawing their services in protest against a society that damned them for being productive and expropriated the fruits of their labor.

The ideas in Atlas Shrugged can be powerful moral weapons to roll back the forces of repression and irrationality. The Atlas Society is your premier source for information on those ideas. We’ve compiled this page to help you understand the whole “Going Galt” phenomenon.

What is “Going Galt?”

• “Going Galt” doesn’t simply mean getting angry. That would be “Going Postal.” It means having righteous indignation at the injustice of a political system that bails out individuals and institutions for irresponsible behavior and at the expense of those like you who prosper through hard work and personal responsibly.

• “Going Galt” means asking in the face of new taxes and government controls, “Why work at all?” “For whom am I working?” “Am I a slave?”

• “Going Galt” means recognizing that you’re being punished not for your vices but for your virtues.

• “Going Galt” means recognizing that you have a moral right to your own life, the pursuit of your own happiness, and thus to the rewards you’ve earned with your labor.

• “Going Galt” means recognizing that you deserve praise and honor for your achievements rather than damnation as “exploiters.”

• “Going Galt” means recognizing that you do not need to justify your life or wealth to your neighbors, “society,” or politicians, or bureaucrats. They’re yours, period!

• “Going Galt” means recognizing that the needs of others do not give them a claim to your time, effort, and achievements.

• “Going Galt” means shrugging off unearned guilt, refusing to support your own destroyers, refusing to give them what Ayn Rand termed “the sanction of the victim.” It means taking the moral high ground by explicitly rejecting as evil the premise of “self-sacrifice” that they sell to you as a virtue— in fact “self-sacrifice” is an invitation to suicide.

Tools for Fighting Back!

We at The Atlas Society want you to fight back, to express both your moral outrage and your hopes for a better future, and to be more effective by helping us to help you.

On our website you will find a wealth of information and insight about Atlas Shrugged. You'll find clear explanations of Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, by expert writers. You’ll find an arsenal of intellectual ammunition needed to prevail against the assault on your freedom. And we’re devoting all our time and attention to a new website that, like cruise missiles, will better delivery moral bombs to the targets of envy and resentment.

Atlas Shrugged is still incredibly popular, five decades after its publication, because it offers a dramatic moral defense of the right to individuals live for their own sakes and a vision of a benevolent society based in reason, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Atlas Shrugged at 50: a Tribute in The New Individualist  
 
All about Atlas Shrugged: expert analysis, plot synopses, and more 

The revolt against taxes: collected Atlas Society commentary
 
Is Atlas Shrugging today? Hard-hitting commentary from The Atlas Society
 
Edward Hudgins, “Ragnar Shrugged.”

Edward Hudgins, “Atlas Chased.”

Edward Hudgins, “Atlas Forced into Early Retirement.”

Thor Halvorssen, “Is John Galt Venezuelan?”

The “Going Galt” Phenomenon
 
Helen Smith got it all started with this post.

Megan McArdle took note in The Atlantic online: “Atlas raised his Eyebrows”

Chris Sullentrop surveyed the “Going Galt” scene for the New York Times.

The National Review Online pooh-poohed it.

David Boaz investigated "What Caused Atlas Shrugged Sales to Soar?"

“Going Galt” means a Return to Revolution in The New Individualist, Spring 2009 issue.

David N. Mayer,  "Completing the American Revolution"  

William R Thomas, "Individual Rights: The Objectivist View"

David Kelley, "The Fourth Revolution"

Videos!

*On April 15, 2009 Ed Hudgins braved pouring rain and a heckler to speak to a crowd of well over 1,000--some say it was closer to 2,000--in front of the Treasury and White House at the Washington, D.C. Tea Party, to explain what it is to "Go Galt!"

*On April 14, 2009 Hudgins made brief remarks at a Tax Day press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., organized by Americans for Tax Reform, also to explain "Going Galt!"

Photo: Hudgins at Press Club.                                  Photo: Hudgins at D.C.Tea Party