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!