1st Annual John Galt Awards at Florida Tech on 3/30 at 6:30 PM
The following is my draft script for the awards ceremony. Please recommend edits for consistency with Objectivism. The last part has references to Rand, and to William R. Thomas. I think I will also reference the Ayn Rand lexicon web site as well.
An anonymous person identifying himself/herself as Midas Mulligan from among the members of Galt’s Gulch Online has donated money toward Florida Tech’s Nanotechnology Minor Program. This is one of the reasons I advertised in the Galt’s Gulch Marketplace, so I thank both the donor and those involved with running the Galt’s Gulch Online web site:
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com
With thanks to Midas Mulligan, we are celebrating the first annual John Galt Academy Awards and Movie Night at Florida Tech on Wed. 3/30 in Olin Engg. 118 at 6:30 PM to honor those graduating with minors from our program, as well as three individuals whose research and development accomplishments have been particularly noteworthy.
The Kern Entrepeneurial Engineering Network (or KEEN) is co-sponsoring the event because I think that there is a lot of overlap between KEEN’s values and those embodied by John Galt.
http://engineeringunleashed.com/keen
KEEN was founded by the Kern Family. The values embodied by the Kern Family Foundation are forming good character, providing quality education, instilling an entrepreneurial mindset, and rediscovering the value of work. Notably, almost all of the universities funded by KEEN are private.
http://www.kffdn.org/
Other faculty on campus recently wrote a proposal funded by KEEN last summer, and I am starting to write one that will hopefully spread the nanotech minor curriculum that Prof. Kurt Winkelmann and I have developed to a much larger audience. The establishment of the John Galt Academy Awards and Movie Night at Florida Tech will further my own goals and KEEN’s goals of establishing the proper philosophy and mindset to accompany the technical skills incorporated throughout the rest of the Nanotechnology Minor Program curriculum, and hopefully the entire Florida Tech College of Engineering.
First, we will honor those who are completing the Nanotechnology Minor this semester. Please come up as you hear your name, take your certificate, and we will have a group photo after all eight honorees have received their certificates. Craig Boger, Chase Krause, Andrew McCaskill, TJ Peplinski, Kit Stewart, Brayden Thompson, Julia Worrell, and Zuhoor Yamani
Next, I am going to honor two individuals who have been in my research group. Clyde (Doug) Brown and Thaddeus Berger have been virtually inseparable over the past two and a half years. They have used 3D printing to print rocket propellant grains and provided the seeds for what will become a partnership between Florida Tech, a small rocket company, and a major aluminum manufacturer.
The third honoree is the person I have referred to occasionally as a future John Galt. His name is Carlos Gross-Jones. After designing and fabricating an electrospinner for the tissue engineering research of Dr. Chris Bashur and me, he then developed a prototype for an inexpensive atomic force microscope. After that, in a move worthy of John Galt, he left to get paid more by other faculty and staff within Florida Tech’s College of Engineering, while starting the development of a 3D printer of metals partially under my supervision.
After the awards are given, I will provide pizza, popcorn, and drinks to students who attend the ceremony. They have paid their tuition, and so I see no problem in declaring the food and drinks as part of a value-for-value exchange.
I have paid the producers of the Atlas Shrugged movie trilogy via Galt’s Gulch Online under the following terms for tonight’s movies. Students attending the ceremony will be able to watch all three movies in the AS trilogy, at my expense as part of their tuition value-for-my instruction plus Academy and Movie night value exchange. Faculty who attend are expected to pay on their own, as would guests of either faculty or students. I think Ayn Rand would consider anything else to be altruism, which she abhorred. I am recommending $10 per attendee. I have made a down payment of $250 for 25 attendees, with more to come if attendance exceeds expectations, plus any money that is collected from faculty and guests.
At this point, the students will probably be wondering “Who Is John Galt?” Galt is a fictional character from the book “Atlas Shrugged”, a novel by Ayn Rand, the founder of the Objectivist philosophy. In Greek mythology, Atlas holds up the world. Atlas Shrugged asks its readers to consider what would happen if producers decided to shrug or go on strike. The Objectivist philosophy is defined by Ayn Rand and summarized at William R. Thomas’ web site at The Atlas Society below as
http://atlassociety.org/objectivism/a...
"Question: What is Objectivism? Answer: "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." — Ayn Rand, Appendix to Atlas Shrugged
Objectivism is the philosophy of rational individualism founded by Ayn Rand (1905-1982). In novels such as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Rand dramatized her ideal man, the producer who lives by his own effort and does not give or receive the undeserved, who honors achievement and rejects envy. Rand laid out the details of her world-view in nonfiction books such as The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.
Objectivism holds that there is no greater moral goal than achieving happiness, but one cannot achieve happiness by wish or whim. Fundamentally, it requires rational respect for the facts of reality, including the facts about our human nature and needs. Happiness requires that one live by objective principles, including moral integrity and respect for the rights of others. Politically, Objectivists advocate laissez-faire capitalism. Under capitalism, a strictly limited government protects each person's rights to life, liberty, and property and forbids that anyone initiate force against anyone else. The heroes of Objectivism are achievers who build businesses, invent technologies, and create art and ideas, depending on their own talents and on trade with other independent people to reach their goals. Objectivism is optimistic, holding that the universe is open to human achievement and happiness, and that each person has within him the ability to live a rich, fulfilling, independent life."
The remainder of my introduction will be a summary of John Galt, on whom the award’s name is based, as well as some of the other movie characters so that the students can follow the movies a little better. I left this part off, because it would have exceeded the 5000 character limit.
An anonymous person identifying himself/herself as Midas Mulligan from among the members of Galt’s Gulch Online has donated money toward Florida Tech’s Nanotechnology Minor Program. This is one of the reasons I advertised in the Galt’s Gulch Marketplace, so I thank both the donor and those involved with running the Galt’s Gulch Online web site:
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com
With thanks to Midas Mulligan, we are celebrating the first annual John Galt Academy Awards and Movie Night at Florida Tech on Wed. 3/30 in Olin Engg. 118 at 6:30 PM to honor those graduating with minors from our program, as well as three individuals whose research and development accomplishments have been particularly noteworthy.
The Kern Entrepeneurial Engineering Network (or KEEN) is co-sponsoring the event because I think that there is a lot of overlap between KEEN’s values and those embodied by John Galt.
http://engineeringunleashed.com/keen
KEEN was founded by the Kern Family. The values embodied by the Kern Family Foundation are forming good character, providing quality education, instilling an entrepreneurial mindset, and rediscovering the value of work. Notably, almost all of the universities funded by KEEN are private.
http://www.kffdn.org/
Other faculty on campus recently wrote a proposal funded by KEEN last summer, and I am starting to write one that will hopefully spread the nanotech minor curriculum that Prof. Kurt Winkelmann and I have developed to a much larger audience. The establishment of the John Galt Academy Awards and Movie Night at Florida Tech will further my own goals and KEEN’s goals of establishing the proper philosophy and mindset to accompany the technical skills incorporated throughout the rest of the Nanotechnology Minor Program curriculum, and hopefully the entire Florida Tech College of Engineering.
First, we will honor those who are completing the Nanotechnology Minor this semester. Please come up as you hear your name, take your certificate, and we will have a group photo after all eight honorees have received their certificates. Craig Boger, Chase Krause, Andrew McCaskill, TJ Peplinski, Kit Stewart, Brayden Thompson, Julia Worrell, and Zuhoor Yamani
Next, I am going to honor two individuals who have been in my research group. Clyde (Doug) Brown and Thaddeus Berger have been virtually inseparable over the past two and a half years. They have used 3D printing to print rocket propellant grains and provided the seeds for what will become a partnership between Florida Tech, a small rocket company, and a major aluminum manufacturer.
The third honoree is the person I have referred to occasionally as a future John Galt. His name is Carlos Gross-Jones. After designing and fabricating an electrospinner for the tissue engineering research of Dr. Chris Bashur and me, he then developed a prototype for an inexpensive atomic force microscope. After that, in a move worthy of John Galt, he left to get paid more by other faculty and staff within Florida Tech’s College of Engineering, while starting the development of a 3D printer of metals partially under my supervision.
After the awards are given, I will provide pizza, popcorn, and drinks to students who attend the ceremony. They have paid their tuition, and so I see no problem in declaring the food and drinks as part of a value-for-value exchange.
I have paid the producers of the Atlas Shrugged movie trilogy via Galt’s Gulch Online under the following terms for tonight’s movies. Students attending the ceremony will be able to watch all three movies in the AS trilogy, at my expense as part of their tuition value-for-my instruction plus Academy and Movie night value exchange. Faculty who attend are expected to pay on their own, as would guests of either faculty or students. I think Ayn Rand would consider anything else to be altruism, which she abhorred. I am recommending $10 per attendee. I have made a down payment of $250 for 25 attendees, with more to come if attendance exceeds expectations, plus any money that is collected from faculty and guests.
At this point, the students will probably be wondering “Who Is John Galt?” Galt is a fictional character from the book “Atlas Shrugged”, a novel by Ayn Rand, the founder of the Objectivist philosophy. In Greek mythology, Atlas holds up the world. Atlas Shrugged asks its readers to consider what would happen if producers decided to shrug or go on strike. The Objectivist philosophy is defined by Ayn Rand and summarized at William R. Thomas’ web site at The Atlas Society below as
http://atlassociety.org/objectivism/a...
"Question: What is Objectivism? Answer: "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." — Ayn Rand, Appendix to Atlas Shrugged
Objectivism is the philosophy of rational individualism founded by Ayn Rand (1905-1982). In novels such as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Rand dramatized her ideal man, the producer who lives by his own effort and does not give or receive the undeserved, who honors achievement and rejects envy. Rand laid out the details of her world-view in nonfiction books such as The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.
Objectivism holds that there is no greater moral goal than achieving happiness, but one cannot achieve happiness by wish or whim. Fundamentally, it requires rational respect for the facts of reality, including the facts about our human nature and needs. Happiness requires that one live by objective principles, including moral integrity and respect for the rights of others. Politically, Objectivists advocate laissez-faire capitalism. Under capitalism, a strictly limited government protects each person's rights to life, liberty, and property and forbids that anyone initiate force against anyone else. The heroes of Objectivism are achievers who build businesses, invent technologies, and create art and ideas, depending on their own talents and on trade with other independent people to reach their goals. Objectivism is optimistic, holding that the universe is open to human achievement and happiness, and that each person has within him the ability to live a rich, fulfilling, independent life."
The remainder of my introduction will be a summary of John Galt, on whom the award’s name is based, as well as some of the other movie characters so that the students can follow the movies a little better. I left this part off, because it would have exceeded the 5000 character limit.
SOURCE URL: http://my.fit.edu/~jbrenner/floridatechnano.JPG
Jan
Physics. Is breaking. my Grammar. And speling.
Jn
I find your efforts to be heroic.
I used to wonder where the next crop of heroes will come from. Looks as if you've got a handle firmly on it.
It's a glimmer of hope in a discordant world.
Well done, very well done. Impressive.
Respectfully,
O.A.
Productive work and education in science and technology are not unique to Ayn Rand and do not characterize her philosophy as a whole. It is one thing to advocate and support those particular virtues while admiring "John Galt". It is quite another to equate anyone who does it, regardless of other fundamental contradictions, with Ayn Rand in the name of "a lot of overlap".
Please do not equate this conservative KEEN foundation with Ayn Rand. Objectivism is not whatever you happen to believe just because you like some aspect of Atlas Shrugged.
The KEEN foundation is explicitly advocating religious faith, conservative homilies, and altruism, while excluding fundamental principles of Objectivism:
"We believe that character is formed in a moral ecology comprised of institutions such as families, religious congregations, and youth organizations."
"Work is also an effective, if often overlooked, way to contribute to the well-being of others."
"Individuals need a mindset that adds 'know-why' to technical 'know-how' to contribute to the success of their colleagues and employers, as well as to create value for others."
"As such, our Faith, Work, and Economics Program seeks to partner with organizations that (1) recognize the economy as a moral system in which people exchange their work and that (2) promote free enterprise grounded in moral character as an effective way to instill dignity, lift people out of poverty, and produce human flourishing."
If you want to support an organization's better activities you can do it in your own name. Using the name "John Galt" in tribute to achievement is fine, but you shouldn't be rushing to tie "John Galt" to whatever you happen to support regardless of the rest of Ayn Rand's philosophy, as if the character Galt said little else than a couple of virtues about productivity.
If you want to direct people to learning more about Ayn Rand then cite her works directly. There are much better and accurate sources than second hand accounts trying to rewrite it in what someone else thinks is a more 'acceptable' form.
Be very careful how you summarize John Galt in the part of your presentation that you did not have room to include here. You have frequently shown in posts on this forum that you do not understand basic ideas in Ayn Rand's philosophy and often contradict them while claiming to be "90% there". Ayn Rand was not a conservative.
If you want a systematic summary of Ayn Rand's philosophy beginning with her sense of life and how she approached the need for philosophy in different realms -- rather than the more technical, longer, and more comprehensive account in OPAR -- read Allan Glotthelf's On Ayn Rand in the Wadsworth Philosophers Series, limited to 100 pages.
describes your manner::: acerbic. . I appreciate
your recommendations about OPAR and Glotthelf. -- j
.
.
The KEEN organization and I have mutually decided that cosponsorship is not in our interests for many of the reasons that you stated. Thank you for providing me clarity regarding my moral compass. Cosponsorship with KEEN may be in my best interest, but it is not in KEEN's best interest, nor in Objectivism's best interest.
I still cling to hope and selfishly wish my idea of an Atlas Puked award would get traction. Not an original idea, the concept is similar to Sen. Coburn's recognition, or Proxmire's Fleece Award or even Laugh-In's (sorry to anyone under 55) Flying Fickle Finger of Fate award.
Not to take anything away from awarding real achievement at your event--I need some levity when digesting the sheer madness of the PC, Left, Looter Moocher class.
Great Job and thank you-
Dennis
better off with this event ... and we can wish that it might
continue into the future!!! -- j
.