So... "Who was John Galt?" Amoung many things, he was a fugitive from the dysfunctional Soviet system... and, he was certainly no stranger to the realities that accompanied a half baked Socialist ideology... When the 'light of day' was upon them... And, though he failed to see the awesome splendor and Power of sincerely held Faith... I think he saw clearly how a capitalist based military-industrial complex was vulnerable to corruption also. "The only proper purpose of a Government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man's self-defense, and, as such, may resort to force 'only' against those who 'start' the use of force. The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foriegn invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud from others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to 'objective' law. But a government that 'initiates' the employment of force against men who had forced no one, the employment of armed compulsion against disarmed victims, is a nightmre infernal machine designed to annihilate morality: such a government reverses its only moral purpose and switches from the role of protector to the role of man's deadliest enemy, from the role of policeman to the role of a criminal vested with the right to the wielding of violence against victims deprived of the right of self-defense. Such a government substitutes for morality the following rule of social conduct: you may do whatever you please to your neighbor, provided your gang is bigger than his. - John Galt (Atlas Shrugged, Centenial Edition, Signet... page 973. Copywright, Ayn Rand, 1957) ttr
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