Traditionally the great heroes admired by mankind,in both literature and life, are men of distinctively physical prowess.  But it is the men of the mind—the scientists, the thinkers, the producers—whoare truly the greatest achievers.  These are the life-giving creatorswhose work makes possible human success, prosperity, happiness.
  Atlas Shrugged stands in sharp contrast to the anti-mindmentality.  Ayn Rand dramatizes the power of the mind in a story thatis, in effect, an ode to the scientific, technological, and industrialrevolutions.  Atlas Shrugged is like an epic poem, but unlike thoseof Homer and Virgil it does not glorify martial prowess, warfare, and destructionbut reason, science, technology, production.
  The heroic view of the mind presented by Ayn Randstands opposed to two philosophical ideas dominant in Western civilization:the self-sacrifice ethics and the “ivory-tower” view of reason’s impracticality.  Plato and Kant, the leading purveyors of the “ivory-tower” view, have cutthe mind off from practical reality, leading to the widespread conclusionthat heroism is either physicalistic or non-existent.
  In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand has revolutionized ourunderstanding of “heroism.”  She has presented a new, more advanced,intellectual hero.  John Galt is a hero representing the best of moderncivilization—with its science, its medical research, its technologicalprogress, its life-giving intellectual achievements.
  When this new realization catches hold among men—whenmillions of human beings strive to actualize their rational potential—thenwe will be in the midst of cultural Renaissance.
  When that day comes, Atlas Shrugged will have beenthe cause.