Who is John Galt?
A Letter to the Editor (Stu News) in support of Ayn Rand
In Stu News Marrie Stone throws political stones at Ayn Rand, whose compelling works are more poignant and timely than ever before. With extreme bias, Stone grossly misrepresents the great works of this author, who grew up experiencing firsthand fascism, totalitarianism, and the brutality of governments who crush opposition and individualism.
I first read Ayn Rand’s works at 14, in a household where summers required reading to educate our minds. Thankfully FB, TikTok and IG and other mind-dumbing social media didn’t exist. Michener, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Orwell, Dickens, Twain and others were daunting, but powerful. The magnificum opus of Atlas Shrugged was more than 1,100 pages. It was and remains one of the most powerful influences in my life, and many other millions who understand the dangers of big government, as we witness the destruction of our Constitutional Republic from within. America was founded on principles of individual liberty, to safeguard against government tyranny, now being subverted by career politicians and the weaponization of bloated, unchecked, unelected agencies like the DOJ, FBI, CIA, IRS, DHS, WHO, etc., against the American people.
President Trump’s recent “indictment” is just the latest example of this weaponization of our legal system, where political opponents are persecuted amid a two-tier system of justice. Laws for thee, but not for me, reminiscent of the Russia from which Ayn Rand escaped. Armchair liberal William Downs contorts Rand’s works from the safety of his cozy casting couch.
Ayn Rand’s works are not about selfishness, but individual liberty, individual greatness and success forged by hard work and determination, the inherent right to own what you produce, to not sacrifice your principles and values for the false communistic notion of equal economic outcome for all. It is that same rugged individualism, sweat and grit which made America strong and proud. Rand’s philosophy is grounded in the refusal to tread along like sheep to the slaughter, the refusal to bow down to small minded, power-hungry men who build and risk nothing, but want to own and control everything, a rejection that the individual must be destroyed for the “greater good.”
The Fountainhead’s message is brutally more true now than first written over 60 years ago. Same for Atlas Shrugged. As President Trump said, they are not coming for him, they are coming for you and me. What should be on trial is not Ayn Rand, but the government she gravely warned us about. Where is John Galt?
— Jennifer Welsh Zeiter —