A resonance frequency approach to stopping the motor of the world
In a prior thread, we considered the possibility of committing sabotage to stop the motor of the world. To stimulate the discussion, I took the role of "devil's advocate" and suggested that Galt might have engaged in sabotage. There was almost universal agreement that Galt would have lost his moral authority to lead the Gulch if he had committed sabotage, rather than only convincing titans to go Galt.
A recent thread entitled "Obama is John Galt" started by jimjamesjames was largely shot down as well, and for good reason.
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/30...
However, that thread made me reconsider strategy for stopping the motor of the world.
The looters and moochers in real life have taken Cloward and Piven's strategy of overwhelming "the system" with more and more moochers. This is an act of sabotage. This is a moral line that we have decided not to cross. This puts us at a strategic disadvantage.
Add to that disadvantage the fact that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are convincing others (like Larry Ellison of Cisco Systems) to give to charity. I urge you to look at how many billionaires have taken The Giving Pledge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_...
Someone here in the Gulch recently suggested that this giving pledge might actually be their way of going Galt. I forget which Gulcher suggested this (Zenphamy? sjatkins?) and apologize to that person.
We all know what Ayn Rand thinks about altruism. I have said previously that the charitable contributions of these billionaires may lengthen the time for the collapse of the looter/moocher era sufficiently that there may not be a time when producers like us would be able to go back into the world. Their charitable contributions delay the inevitable pain for the moochers.
Now switch gears and start thinking about physics and differential equations.
Think back to when you took physics and learned about constructive and destructive interference. If there is a disturbance that causes an object to oscillate at its resonance frequency (or an integer multiplier of it), then the object will break MUCH faster.
For an introductory treatment of resonance frequencies, go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonance
For an example, see the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXS...
If we are to stop the motor of the world, an alternate solution would be to do something that reinforces the interference that the looters or those encouraging people to take the Giving Pledge are applying.
Does it make sense to convince MANY producers to go Galt, or will we be more effective by harnessing the momentum of The Giving Pledge to accomplish the goal of depriving the looter/moocher world of producers?
If one takes producers out of the system, how does this change the 2nd order differential equation(s) that would describe the producer-looter-moocher problem?
Please comment on
a) how one would implement such a strategy; and b) whether this would count as sabotage.
A recent thread entitled "Obama is John Galt" started by jimjamesjames was largely shot down as well, and for good reason.
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/30...
However, that thread made me reconsider strategy for stopping the motor of the world.
The looters and moochers in real life have taken Cloward and Piven's strategy of overwhelming "the system" with more and more moochers. This is an act of sabotage. This is a moral line that we have decided not to cross. This puts us at a strategic disadvantage.
Add to that disadvantage the fact that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are convincing others (like Larry Ellison of Cisco Systems) to give to charity. I urge you to look at how many billionaires have taken The Giving Pledge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_...
Someone here in the Gulch recently suggested that this giving pledge might actually be their way of going Galt. I forget which Gulcher suggested this (Zenphamy? sjatkins?) and apologize to that person.
We all know what Ayn Rand thinks about altruism. I have said previously that the charitable contributions of these billionaires may lengthen the time for the collapse of the looter/moocher era sufficiently that there may not be a time when producers like us would be able to go back into the world. Their charitable contributions delay the inevitable pain for the moochers.
Now switch gears and start thinking about physics and differential equations.
Think back to when you took physics and learned about constructive and destructive interference. If there is a disturbance that causes an object to oscillate at its resonance frequency (or an integer multiplier of it), then the object will break MUCH faster.
For an introductory treatment of resonance frequencies, go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonance
For an example, see the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXS...
If we are to stop the motor of the world, an alternate solution would be to do something that reinforces the interference that the looters or those encouraging people to take the Giving Pledge are applying.
Does it make sense to convince MANY producers to go Galt, or will we be more effective by harnessing the momentum of The Giving Pledge to accomplish the goal of depriving the looter/moocher world of producers?
If one takes producers out of the system, how does this change the 2nd order differential equation(s) that would describe the producer-looter-moocher problem?
Please comment on
a) how one would implement such a strategy; and b) whether this would count as sabotage.
Previous comments... You are currently on page 2.
Regarding your questions, I would ask the same ones as well, rhetorically, and would add that since we have a longer lifespan than our forebearers, it would seem that there is even more reason why we should try to do something which would bear fruit in our own lifetimes.
The main point of this thread was to ethically postulate a way to collapse the looter/moocher world in a short enough time such that there would be a world worth coming back to. While a wonderful story, at least in this era, it would not be possible to remove enough producers in the way that Galt et al. did to collapse the system soon enough to make it worth coming back to the world.
Your point, livefree-NH, is to go further and say that, even by modifying the resonant frequency for human behavior, one would not collapse the looter/moocher world fast enough to make it worth returning to. I cannot disagree. In fact, my comment suggesting that John and Dagny coming back to the world may not have been the correct ending to AS was not well received (and I didn't expect it to be). The reason I said that is because we are in agreement.
I daresay that attempting to modify the resonant frequency of the magnetic reversal of the sun would fail in your lifetime, if only because you would not live long enough to take enough data points to confirm the change. The same would hold true for making a change in human behavior that is most likely fruitful over generations, and not in shorter term.
In other words, you can (maybe?) make a change that will make the world a better place for your grandkids, but making a change today isn't measurable today.
This is a new development in Europe: https://ari.aynrand.org/blog/2015/01/27/...
South America tour: https://www.aynrand.org/search-results?s...
Yaron Brook radio: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/yaronbrook/...
" The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments."
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, section 191
Now, there are some interesting ways to view doing exactly this..
Were we to suddenly start supporting
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/perso...
of course with intentionally faulty ( but loud ) arguments. There are really only a few meaningful outcomes..
People would suddenly see just how bad the idea is and want nothing to do with it.
Or worse, they prove they are in fact sheep and follow along.
In both cases you would be sabotaging the system. In either case the amazingly bad idea loses..
Ok, there is a third outcome where the true believers attack your poor support, but then they are expending energy on that instead of trying to push such a bad idea.
As long as the workers continue to supply the shelves of (insert big box store name here) then we can just stop paying on the way out.
The workers don't care one whit if the accounting department does it's job or not, as long as the workers do the work the shelves will be supplied in the absence of the shareholder's dividends.
Please don't respond if all you are responding with is crapitalist rhetoric.
The only supply signal needed is empty shelves.
The Prez is in no way Galt.
Interesting. I actually have been working my way through calculus text at lunchtime at the office, feeling a need to brush up enough to teach my kids (and, perhaps, other kids).
Somebody thought Obama was Galt? Haha...there's some sabatoge! I just brought up the "you didn't build that" mess with a couple friends yesterday and they never heard of it.
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