No, I think the guy with the sign saying “This way (Obama’s logo) is slavery” is the dumbest motherfucker alive. I think it the crowd wasn’t entirely stupid white people, someone would have had a talk with him about what slavery is.

They clearly missed the sequel: Atlas Rolled On The Floor Laughing

Somebody is really in denial about being the first in his company to be laid off.

What about the revolution sign?  Economically privileged twits can’t even be arsed to actually Go Galt and start making slightly less obscene amounts of money, and now they’re making laughably empty threats about revolution? 

The stupid, it burns.

Does anyone know what the point of the “Obama abort this” sign is?  I can’t make out the pictures on it.

The pirate hat is kinda cool. Is that a “Galt” rally at Walt Disney World?

If you’re going Galt, GO ALREADY!

No need to bandy about whinging.  John Galt wouldn’t whine about trying to get a second chance.  GO!

The complete lack of pigment in the crowd makes me very sad.  Some of us melanin-deprived folks do have brains, hearts, and souls.

That device does beg the question though: why would a capitalist god create a device that would sustain itself without need for purchasing more and more fuel?  (At least, as far as I understand it.  I got roughly 100 pages into Atlas Shrugged before i gave up.)

You are not John Galt.  You’re a bunch of wuss-puss douchewads who work in the overcrowded IT field and think you’re geniuses.

Let me clear this up for you idiots.  You are not John Galt.  You don’t have any creativity.  You won’t be missed if you leave society, and you won’t last outside of it.  Besides, in case you pants-pissing whiners missed it, this isn’t a stupid novel by a reactionary anti-Soviet asshole, it’s real life, and in real life people like you are a minority and the rest of us have already seen through your garbage.

I know you’re convinced, with the fervor of a flagellating zealot, of your perfection, your superiority, and your irreplacability in society.  But let me break it to you: you’re not unique little snowflakes.  You’re ignorant, cookie-cutter children with overly-common skills.  We can replace you with people who don’t believe destructive, selfish bullshit.  In fact, I propose we do that anyway - if you won’t follow up on your toothless threats on your own, we’ll make you.

Er, I guess that’s what Zifnab was getting at…but still, I can hear conservative yahoos shrieking Socialist at ideas of a self-sustaining motor.

You’re a bunch of wuss-puss douchewads who work in the overcrowded IT field and think you’re geniuses.

It is amazing how many of them work in IT.  Hello?  If they’re such incredible geniuses, shouldn’t they be working in microbiology or nuclear physics, fields that require a great deal of intelligence and knowledge and that are of incredible use to humanity?

I don’t understand anyone who thinks he’s a special and irreplaceable talent.  There ain’t many of those.  I’m sure as hell that _I’m_ not one.  So you have these gatherings of people who think they’re special and who are angry about their higher taxes… when they’re not special, and their taxes are, um, lower.  So, I mean, what the fuck, people?

Also, I think a John Galt-level sooper genyus could come up with a better sign than a torn packing carton electrical-taped to a paint stirrer stick.

And, generally speaking, we have a great number of durable goods that last long enough to raise the question of why an aggressively capitalist society would want to build them.

Except for those bastards that designed iPods to wear out in exactly 1 year and 1 day, right after the warranty is void. I hate those kind of people so hard. They *could* make awesome durable stuff but instead they design it to die at a moment designed for maximum money and inconvenience. I’m actually blanking on the phrase now… “engineered failure”? “designed senescence?” “annoying-ass Apple apoptosis?” :p Ya’ll know what I mean…

(And to stay on-topic, those people make me feel simultaneously better and worse about myself. Sure, I’m cooler than they are, but I’m also stuck in here with them!)

It is amazing how many of them work in IT.

Bonus points if they work in IT for a defense contractor.

Being in IT or engineering creates a “perfect storm” for potential to admire Rand. First, they tend to be moderately bright. However, despite their moderate levels of intelligence, they work in a field that offers pretty good but ultimately middling wages where there’s a hard ceiling. Then they read Rand who convinces them they’re supermen, but looking at their own lives, they realize that they’re not captains of industry and masters of the universe, so they have to blame someone, and since blaming themselves or simply being happy with what they’ve been fortunate to find themselves with, they instead decide that they’re not the superrich captains of industry because someone, like the government, the liberals, or regulations, is holding them back.

I wonder if going Galt will be incorporated into the next series of the IT Crowd?
Graham Linehan take note!

As this goes on, I tend to think this whole “movement” is actually unfair to Rand. I mean her idea, a strike of the creators, is at least good enough for a mediocre novel.
And there is some conflict in the novel: Dagny Taggart doesn’t want to join the “strike” because it means destroying her railroad.

Now these people: Are the ready to destroy their work place or their business? I don’t think so.

It is just the same old story: Petit-bourgeoise believing they are captains of industry and inventor-entrepreneurs and lokking down on the proletarians. pretty commoni the twenties and thirties and we know how that ended.

I don’t understand anyone who thinks he’s a special and irreplaceable talent.

Thanks to the ongoing mass mis-reading of the Harry Potter series, look for more.

” I mean her idea, a strike of the creators, is at least good enough for a mediocre novel.
“

Thing is the people claiming to go Galt aren’t the creators at all. They are the moochers and the management fucktards who fuck up the businesses causing them to go under.

“They *could* make awesome durable stuff “

As long as you want to pay far more and don’t mind waiting for a decade or more for new features to come out in the followup units.

I wonder if going Galt will be incorporated into the next series of the IT Crowd?

You mean talking about going Galt - actual Going Galt would mean not having much income to buy cheetoes and the latest version of their favorite violently sexist video game.

Why is everybody so certain that all these Galties are in IT?  Seriously.  Why?

Let me be the millionth person to say unto the Latter-Day Galts, “Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?” 

Also, can we put Mr. Going Galt into a Texas steel cage match again Mr./Ms. Obama = the way to slavery?  And put it on pay-per-view?  Pretty please?

Seeker, reread the comments.  This isn’t conjecture, it is observation.

gwangung:
Thanks for the link to that analysis of Rand and a child-murdering sociopath.  My god, I knew that people could use Randian thought to become indifferent to humanity, but Rand’s lauding of a monster on the grounds that he did what he wanted and the public is loathsome for finding him horrifying?  Sweet, merciful God.

The fact is, “Objectivism” is the wrong word for her philosophy.  It’s essentially capitalist sociopathy, or, more accurately, capitalist Stalinism: the same loathing of humanity in general, the same contradictory reasons for that loathing, the same notion that they can be crushed and killed in the name of a greater vision and humanity at the end of the killing sprees.

Ms Kate, I did read the comments.  I see a lot of people saying it but no basis for that.  Clarify.

Except for those bastards that designed iPods to wear out in exactly 1 year and 1 day, right after the warranty is void.

Total derail, but I’ve had three iPods so far and haven’t experienced this with any of mine.  The first lasted about 3 years, and to be perfectly honest I could have gone another six months with it had I not come down with a case of the Ooooh Shinies.  My second one (a shuffle given out as a corporate gift) is still going strong 2+ years later, showing absolutely no signs of wear and tear.  My third one I’ve had for about a year and a half, and again it works as good as the day I got it. 

I better go knock on wood, shouldn’t I?

And to bring it back around to some on-topic discussion:

I wonder how many people who work in IT went into computers in the first place 20 years ago when the then-current wisdom was that anyone who worked in a computer-related field was destined for greatness, and that it was something you had to really be one smart cookie to even aspire to? 

I can imagine that being taught to believe you were going to be Bill Gates when you grew up could really fuck up someone who woke up 20-25 years later to discover they were a totally replaceable cog at a lower level of a gigantic corporate machine.  And I definitely remember all the techie kids in my high school (at the tail end of that ‘computers = big bucks’ era) loving Atlas Shrugged because it totally “spoke to them”.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all to run into a few Galters at my upcoming reunion.

John Stuart Mill really was far too generous to them.  The really are all stupid.

So, am I the only guy in IT who’s been fascinated by and attracted to the technology since I first encountered what were then called minicomputers circa 1974? 

I never expected to make anything more than a good living, didn’t get into it because I was unable to do something else I loved better, I’ve never believed I was irreplaceable, and I’m just damn glad to still have a job at my age in an industry that often discards you when you pass 40.

I’ve never read any Ayn Rand, but I’ve seen the Gary Cooper version of The Fountainhead (downloaded from a bittorrent so no one profited and all I lost was a couple hours and a few braincells), which, outside of reading parts of the Cliff Notes on Atlas Shrugged, is as close as I’ve ever come to Ms. Rand’s oeuvre.

There are plenty of odd people in IT, no question (and I’m probably one of them).  But the vast majority, like with most fields, are just ordinary people, no better and no worse than ordinary people you find doing any other kind of job…

I do agree with the sentiment that if they are that unhappy with their ConservoFascist dreamworld being exposed as a fallacy due to the actions of the overclass they worship, then they should just Galt off…as long as I get dibs on some of their stuff…

I just noticed something else hilarious about this picture.  Right in front of the Going Galt d00d, opposite the guy with the You Don’t Want Another Revolution sign, there are two bikers carrying an American flag. Apparently they missed the memo that they are no longer Toetully Patriotic, Man! and are now brazen revolutionaries questioning the very legitimacy of the government. 

Which is especially nice because it really is a good reminder that less than 6 months ago the main political meme amongst this crowd was My Country, Right Or Wrong.  I’m torn between thinking it must be hard to be such sheeple, or that it must be nice never to have to think critically about anything, just swallow whatever coolaid Glen Reynolds passes your way.

I rather think, gwangung, that it’s like those women who fall desperately in love with such murderers: there’s something about somebody who cares for nothing and destroys what he touches that gets some mentally unbalanced women’s hormones racing.  Sad, but true.  And Objectivists have built a personality cult around a woman who was the intellectual version of such pathetisad cases.

Mike, I don’t think that all IT workers are like that, but I certainly know a lot of people that fit the description to a tee.  People who were told that their shit didn’t stink because COMPUTERS = $$$$$$$, and grew up to discover that when tens of millions of people all over the world discover that fact at the same time, suddenly COMPUTERS = just another job.

preying mantis,  I think the sign might be carried by a child, and have an arrow pointing to the carrier.  It also has a blue paint child’s handprint of the sort we all made in first grade for mother’s day.

I wonder if going Galt will be incorporated into the next series of the IT Crowd?

You mean talking about going Galt - actual Going Galt would mean not having much income to buy cheetoes and the latest version of their favorite violently sexist video game.

Moss & Roy are clearly too lazy for the latter!
I’m not so sure about Jen though…

had I not come down with a case of the Ooooh Shinies.

I love that turn of phrase and I am totally borrowing it the next time I buy something techy…

“We are John Galt” sounds terribly collectivist if you ask me.

Objectivism FAIL.

The “tea party” movement is like a right wing ANSWER, with none of the entertainment value and twice the pointlessness.

I mean, really. No paper mache puppets? No dance troops? And they call this a protest?

“The “tea party” movement is like a right wing ANSWER, with none of the entertainment value and twice the pointlessness. “

Come on it’s hilarious that they don’t know that what the term teabag means these days. Honestly you can make phone of the movement just on the newsreports of them teabagging the whitehouse.

Blast didn’t preview the comment. Should make funny of the movement just on the newsreports of them teabagging the whitehouse.

I pointed out on a right-wing comment board what “teabagging” is slang for, and they claimed they knew that and it was just a way of saying “fuck liberals”. Or something.

I’ve never read any Ayn Rand, but I’ve seen the Gary Cooper version of The Fountainhead (downloaded from a bittorrent so no one profited and all I lost was a couple hours and a few braincells),

*STICKS FINGERS IN EARS* LALALALALALALALAICANTHEARYOUICANTHEARYOULALALALALA

(“Why, yes, I don’t mind being a big bad cop on behalf of corporate greedmongers seeking rent from copyrights on stuff they own, but did not create.  Nope, it’s totally what I wanted to do when I became a librarian.”)

Come on, Phoenician, data wants to be free!  And what is a bittorrent of a movie, even one as pointless as The Fountainhead than data…?

“You are all invidivuals!”

“Yes, yes! We are all individuals!”

“Except for those bastards that designed iPods to wear out in exactly 1 year and 1 day, right after the warranty is void.”
I think you’re just unlucky. I’ve got 3 iPods (all of which I got for free after my parents replaced them with newer models), one works just fine, the batteries are shot in the second (but it works fine if you hook it up to an adapter), and the third is broken for the second time (I dropped it, both times. I also dropped both the others, but they’re older models and much tougher) but can probably be fixed again…

” the batteries are shot in the second (but it works fine if you hook it up to an adapter), “

If it is a lithium ion then the cells are dead and need to be replaced. Lithium Ion batteries are good for about two years then they lose 40% of their charge potential.

If everyone Goes Galt, who’s gonna make the motherfucking duct tape and laser printers for the “We Are John Galt” signs?

I mean, really. No paper mache puppets? No dance troops? And they call this a protest?

Not even a lowly drum!  Pshaw!

Galt the Galt off, or Galt the Galt up.

I wonder if going Galt will be incorporated into the next series of the IT Crowd?

I doubt it. Rand has no real cultural presence in Britain, and the basement server peeps don’t really fit into the same kind of “Asperger’s libertarian” mould. Having an American transfer who’s a Henlein-Rand-gun freak might be fun, though.

gwangung, thank you for sharing!  Why am I not surprised that Rand’s “ideal man” was a complete sociopath!

ewww.  Just eww.

PhysioProf - only exurban middle management types get to Go Galt.  All the proles need to get the fuck back to work.  And let’s not even bring up those goddamn lazy hippies, students, and other coastal elites who obviously contribute nothing anyway…

The “lost sequel” to Atlas Shrugs…

From the Genius of “Bob the Angry Flower”...
“Atlas Shrugged 2: One Hour Later”

Hehehe… “Going Galt” indeed….

Thanks to the ongoing mass mis-reading of the Harry Potter series, look for more.

If Harry died, it would have been Neville. If Neville somehow died, it would have referred to someone else entirely. That’s how “only the chosen one can slay the great evil” works. Slaying the great evil makes you, by definition, the chosen one.

“Can I say something about destiny? Screw destiny! If this evil thing comes we’ll fight it, and we’ll keep fighting it until we whoop it. ‘Cause destiny is just another word for inevitable and nothing’s inevitable as long as you stand up, look it in the eye, and say ‘You’re evitable!’”

All I have to say is good riddance. These are the same self absorbed delusional emotional retards that I have to put up with at work. The ones that constantly bitch about everything and actually swallow Rand’s bilge believing that society would fall if it wasn’t for them. Funny thing is, in my experience they are usually the laziest, whiniest, sneakiest workers in the firm. So all I have to say is, “Don’t don’t let the door hit you in the ass”. If these cyphers actually disappeared we might actually get some work done.

P.S. All you picking on us IT guys might want to consider that *koff*Lawyers*koff* are some of the worst offenders in over valuing themselves

I wish these people would stop threatening and just leave society already.  We’d be better off without them.  They think they are doing us a favor by staying around, but they’d do us a bigger favor by leaving.  In reality, they are afraid to actually leave because they know they would be proven wrong and they’d cry when they see how well we do without them.

MikeEss -

No, not the only one.  However, I will note that I have found a disturbing number of Rand followers (who then expressed this politically by becoming enamored of Ron Paul) in our chosen profession.

I’ve not gotten close enough to any hard-core Rand admirers to study the phenomenon in detail, but I strongly doubt that the Objectivist streak in IT has anything to do with people who were retrained for IT after careers that were obsoleted or with people who got into IT just for the money.  (which, I’ll be honest, could probably include me; the money lured me away from math grad. school)  Instead I think it has something to do with the nature of IT work itself.

So what’s weird about IT work?  Well, two things come to mind.  First, there’s a huge difference in the productivity of star programmers and a programmer who’s only so-so, and a similar gap between an average programmer and a non-programmer trying to program.  Second, I’ve noticed that my employer (and employers I’ve had in the past) has put up a very good abstraction layer, making it appear as though all that’s necessary for money to roll in is that code gets written.

It occurs to me that these two traits could combine to create an exaggerated impression of one’s own self worth.

keshmeshi: If they’re such incredible geniuses, shouldn’t they be working in microbiology or nuclear physics, fields that require a great deal of intelligence and knowledge and that are of incredible use to humanity?

(works in IT). (looks around the office). (sees a significant number of people with PhDs in physics.)

Because IT is where the jobs are? Or, at least more jobs than in cutting-edge research?

Zifnab: we have a great number of durable goods that last long enough to raise the question of why an aggressively capitalist society would want to build them.

Getting less, though. New devices break down so much faster than old devices that it cannot be accounted for by the bathtub curve alone.

tootiredoftheright: As long as you want to pay far more and don’t mind waiting for a decade or more for new features to come out in the followup units.

When I walk into a store and say, “I don’t need all those features. I want a realiable device. Do you have any that you’d think is good for more than X years?”, the usual answer is, “There is no such thing. If you don’t need the speacial features, take the cheapest. It’s probably good for two years, just like the most expensive.” So I’m still using a 20 year old TV, a 15 yo electric kettle and a 30 yo stereo, and replace the DVD player every two or three years.

All you picking on us IT guys might want to consider that *koff*Lawyers*koff* are some of the worst offenders in over valuing themselves

FWIW, the one person I know at all well who is currently making a living as an attorney is freaked because there are going to be layoffs at her firm and she knows exactly how replaceable she is.  Granted I don’t know a shit-ton of working IT folks who are currently Galting it up, but I will say that it’s interesting how much the techies tended to see themselves in Atlas Shrugged when we were teenagers.

It’s worth noting that John Galt’s original claim to fame was inventing a device that captured ambient static electricity to solve the world’s energy needs for the foreseeable future.

Ah, so it’s not just psychology, sociology, philosophy and economics she got hilariously wrong, but basic physics too? Why am I not surprised?

FWIW, I work in IT and have no illusions about my creativity or replaceablity. But then I am in the UK…