THE SOCIAL BLOG

Last night Wadhwa, Arunav and self were having this whole discussion about Atlas Shrugged and the character John Galt. For those who have read the book, they’d remember the question everywhere, “Who is John Galt?”. Well there is this beautiful line in the book that says something to the effect that ‘John Galt is Prometheus coming back to take the fire that he had given away.’ Wow!.

For me the very idea of stopping the motor of the world had been a fascination. Galt and Howard Roark used to my heroes at one point of time. Not to forget, Ive read the books twice. But while Ayn Rand’s idea and philosophy is something to admire, the bigger question is that should we really stick by it and follow it all through our lives? This question was a major part of the discussion that the three of us were having last night. Rand seems to be our heroine, but we ourselves are rational beings. We know what to borrow and what not? For example, the idea that man must do what he feels is right or as Wadhwa put is straight ‘He must do what gives him pleasure’.

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My friend Kruttika had the following signature attached to her email;

“After the war, there is a plan to divide Iraq into three parts: regular, premium and unleaded. “
Jay Leno.

The Iraq war has raised eyebrows of many around the world. Won’t comment about it. Just was amused to see it in her email.

“The beauty of this country is that the system is against the poor”.

-Abhir Dutt

It was really amusing to hear this from a classmate of mine during a presentation.

 There are means that cannot be excused. And I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don’t want just any greatness for it, particularly a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive.

Albert Camu, from Resistance, Rebellion and Death on the French conduct in Algeria.