On Fri, 13 Feb 1998, Richard Goodale wrote:
> 2. Even though all I know about John Galt is what I read in LO16957 (i.e.
> his name),...snip...
I'll add just a little more...
John Galt is the fictional hero of Ayn Rand's _Atlas Shrugged_. In the
book, Galt and others with great capabilities are asked to subordinate
their interests for the good of society. Galt leads a rebellion in which
he and friends go on strike viz. working with their real skills, and drop
out by taking menial jobs. Without the "good" people, society crumbles,
the economy falls apart, the last rail bridge to New York fails, and
more...
There was a long discussion about this on LO in Sep 1996. Look at
Linkname: Learning-Org Sep 1996 by subject
URL: http://world.std.com/~lo/96.09/subject.html
and find the subjects "Ayn Rand..." and "Atlas Shrugged...". (You'll note
that one participant uses 'JohnGalt' as his email address.)
This book and _The Fountainhead_, also by Ayn Rand, are memorable stories
that make her philisophical point.
What's the relevance to Org Learning? To me, there's a real subtlety here,
a dilemma. Individual and collective aspiration are important for org
learning. (Personal Mastery, the enrollment concept, view of leadership
doing work they really care about.) Yet, it is unsatisfying to me when it
is used solely in pursuit of selfish narrow purposes, not in service of
something larger.
Finally, and I'm indebted to Jack Hirshfeld (an active participant in the
96 disucssion) for this, Ayn Rand wrote in a period in which communism
appeared to be very attractive to the intellectual community. Jack
suggested we should remember that Rand's powerful stories emerged from
that millieu, not from our current period.
-- Rick
--
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