The Ballad of John Galt - Act II

Just completed Atlas Shrugged last night. It will take me a few posts to digest and present some of what I uncovered.

In my previous post I predicted the viewer would disagree with the claim that it is OK for man to profit from his existence and rationality.

In these modern times we live in it is said that those Men of the Mind exploit those who are not. Think rich oil executive profiting from $4.00/gal gas. A common illustration of this exploitation concept.

Back to Galt's monologue: Galt presents a demonstration that people can not be exploited by men of the mind. Place a person, with no belongings other then them selves (not even money or clothing) in wilderness devoid of all modern advancements of the mind.

Ask that person to do the following:

1. Easily/quickly Cook a nutritious meal
2. Send/recieve an e-mail
3. Travel 100 miles to a neighboring city in less than 4 hours
4. Heal an unfortunate sickness/injury incurred

Men of the mind are the cause of the modern advancements making these tasks possible. What could the Man of the Mind (that "greedy" oil executive) possibly exploit from the person in the wilderness who has no capability to do any of these listed things nor has any other intrinsic value other than their own mind?

Not much.

The modern day attitude towards "greedy" businessmen can't be due to an issue of exploitation as we inherently have nothing of value to offer other than our mind.

Perhaps we just envy what they have, can't they share... OH... yeah... that's covered in the book too... stay tuned!

The Ballad of John Galt

If you tune into the "Recent Reads" list to the left, you probably noticed that I have been reading Atlas Shrugged for quite some time. It is over 1000 pages long and I am nearing the end! The conclusion contains a 60 page monologue given by John Galt that distills the substance of author Ayn Rand's philosophy into the following simple statement.

Man has a right to exist.

Brilliant. Furthermore, Man exists solely for him self. In other words Man's end (or purpose) is him self. Man is his own end and not the means to another man's end. This would make him a slave.

Galt continues with a modification of Descartes famous statement, "I think, therefore I am." into I think therefore I exist. Meaning rationality, our ability to think, is what permits us to exist for our selves. We are the only living beings who rationally have a choice to live for our selves or perish. All other animals and plants live instinctively. Man does not.

Why does this matter? Why do I care?

It is often the men of the mind, the thinkers... the inventors, scientists, engineers, business owners, founders and CEO's of companies that make the world work through their thinking. They are also the ones that today in real life (as in the novel) are vilified because they make profit in doing so. Galt's message illustrates there is no problem with man is profiting from his very existence and rationality. ***I hear the reader screaming rebuttals at their monitor and pointing out flaws to this... don't worry, I will address them in coming posts.

Stick with me over the next few posts because I'm going to get into many more aspects of this novel and how it relates to our world today.

Stay tuned... changes are in the works.

I have been doing some thinking about some new ideas I have had concerning this blog. I want to clue the reader in on these changes that will be happening in the next few months.

For anyone who has followed this blog over an extended period of time, you would probably notice that it has lacked a singular focus. I have written about personal experiences, op-ed posts on news and politics and other times frustrating rants about the world in general. Of course there have been generous doses of extended silence and lack of posting peppered in between as well. At the end of the day, the whole thing probably looks like it was written by an ADD inflicted 10 year old in a toy store darting from one toy to the next.

That's all going to change. Once everything is put into place, there will be a singular focus that will hopefully engage the reader (and the author as well) for some years to come. I have not yet decided if this means Private Life in a Glass House will go dark permanently and be replaced. One of my friends has begged me not to do this because he thinks the blog title is way too clever to walk away from.

So to recap:

1. BIG changes are coming to this blog.
2. Stay tuned over the next few months.
3. I think you will enjoy it.

At the figurative Summit of Mt McKinley… and HUNGRY!

One of the major activities that has been taking up my time energy and effort since finishing up planning the wedding has been training for the Rochester MVP Marathon. This year is finally going to be the year where I take the plunge and run the full marathon (that’s 26.2 miles). As help, I joined up with the Fleet Feet distance training group. Lately I have ben astonished with my progress because just a couple summers ago, I was physically unable to run from such severe acid reflux stomach problems.

Today I capped off an epic 18 mile training run (loop 1 & loop 2). A first for me. If you recall one of my earlier posts about “running mountains” (here and here), today’s run was the scaled equivalent of climbing Mount McKinley.

The great thing about running these distances is the massive amount of caloric intake your body needs. For the next three days, I will crave eating everything in sight. If I avoid all those acid reflux triggers like deep fried foods (which I have) it all works out.

It is really astonishing how the human body works and what it is really capable of.

What better place to start than in paradise.

What is a wedding without being followed up by a good honeymoon? Again due to lack of time, I will just let the photos do the talking again. From July 1 to July 6, Emily and I traveled to Jamaica. We stayed in Negril at the Couples Negril resort (which we highly recommend)

Exploring the pool and beach off in the distance.

Our room with a nice balcony overlooking the beautiful lush garden.

One of the many tropical flowers in the gardens around the resorts. The gardens were full of lush green plants, flowers, ponds, tropical birds.

There were a handful of hammocks hidden throughout the gardens and along the beaches. What a peaceful place to relax with your new wife!

A snapshot of that ring that started it all (along with its new wedding band).

One of the many activities that were offered at the resort was an arts & crafts activity of rock painting. Emily and I painted this rock and left it behind with the other painted rocks in their garden. Looks like we'll have to go back sometime and pick it up. ;-)

The food was AMAZING! This one picture of a decadent desert and slice of tropical fruit does not do justice to all the great food we ate.

A view of the pool and main building for the resort.

Another one of those colorful tropical flowers.

Mango trees growing in the garden. How cool!

One of my favorite pictures of Emily in her beach had and blue polka-dot sun dress.

One of many tropical birds we observed throughout the resort.

Another popular activity was beach volleyball. I played practically every day!

Emily and I on a catamaran cruse to western Negril. Not shown in the picture is the "Pirate Cave", which would be just to the left of this view. I took a swim there with a few others on the cruse.

An egret that came down from his perch in the palm trees for a photo-op.

A view of the pool and swim up pool bar from the main building.

The begining of something special...

Instead of writing at length about this big event in my life, I will just let the photos do all of the talking.



On May 21, 2011, Emily and I celebrated our Marriage at St. Catherines of Sienna in Mendon.
(This coincidentally was also the date of "The Rapture"... which made for plenty of good jokes.)

My beautiful bride.

Us on the altar.

The wedding party at Honeoye Falls.

What a stunning dress!

A kiss shared at the falls.

An adoring look into each others eyes.

Behave now!

At the covered walkway at Nazareth College.

Time to PARTY!

The wedding reception held at The Burgundy Basin had wine themed favors and decorations. After all, we did get engaged while traveling around Keuka Lake on a wine tasting weekend trip.

Stemless wine glasses as favors.

The COOLEST nerdiest cake in the world incorporating our love of both mathematics and chemistry.

Look familiar? ;-)