I am currently re-reading Atlas Shrugged for the first time since I first read it two years ago and I am getting a lot more out of it the second time around. In part this is due to the podcast series from Dr. Diana Hsieh in which she discusses the novel in roughly 60 page chunks. It has been fun and informative to take the books in those pieces, reading it first then listening to Diana’s commentary. The podcast series is well worth the $25 price tag if you want help to get all you can out of the book.

As likely everyone knows, a recurring question throughout the book is “Who is John Galt?” In large part, the novel is the story of discovering who he is and what he is doing, and many people come up with different answers to this question, some right and some wrong.

My favorite is given by Francisco d’Anconia when he is speaking the Dagny Taggart. It is not the actual answer, but it provides a wonderful image that captures exactly what John Galt is doing.

John Galt is Prometheus who changed his mind. After centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought men the fire of the gods, he broke his chains – and he withdrew his fire – until the day that men withdraw their vultures.

Today the government hems in and restricts, chains down, the most productive in society, those who have brought us all the prosperity we enjoy, by means of rules and regulations, as distinct from objective laws to protect the rights of individuals, while at the same time feeding off them, just as the vultures fed off the liver of the helpless Prometheus. One difference between today and the world of Atlas Shrugged is that Prometheus is still bound and the vultures still feed upon him.

But for how long? How long before either he breaks free and takes back his fire, or he simply gives up and slowly perishes as the vultures consume more than he can sustain?