The John Galt Line (Zane Mandell)

This chapter title is able to perfectly encapsulate everything that has gone on up until this point and as it will follow after. When I first read it, I was not sure whether it was about the line of speech, or the new railroad, and in fact it was both. The way that this line comes to fruition tells me as a reader a lot more about the character of Ayn Rand. Rand glorifies the situation between Dagny and Henry to create this idea that individuals can conquer their battles and defy the man. The Man in this novel takes many different forms, of course by the Man I mean government and anything attributed to its doings. It may be the State Science Institute, Wesley Mouch, or the Equalization of Opportunity Bill; but all three share the common thread of being antagonizing forces to those that Rand holds highest, the individuals. Now here is where I truly develop a problem with the thought process of Rand. She says that government is putting shackles on the people who are best and trying to make it themselves and elevates those who do not do not do any real work, this is by no means true in the real America. Her America that she has developed up unto this point is not the real America, it is a competitive market that has regulations so the big don’t get to big and the small have a chance. What Rand is getting at here is that if you are a big guy who is a hard work, you should be allowed to get bigger, at the expense of others. Rand’s assumption here is that you can only be a hard worker if you become big, but if there is already a massive force in the way of the little guy, without government intervention, he has no chance, because for the big guy to succeed the small must fail. Rand yet again has made poor assumptions with the glorification of the John Galt Line, my political and economic beliefs truly make this novel a tough read.