Unintentional Going Galt
While reading the news the other day, my wife interjected out of the blue that she appreciated the fact that she no longer was supporting the system. Our kids are grown and we have down sized our lifestyle to the point she no longer has to work outside the home. We live a homesteader's lifestyle by choice and enjoy the slower pace of life. She is currently reading AS for the first time and her comment just surprised me. She felt relieved that she no longer was supporting directly the social system that cripples us. She recognizes that indirectly she still is by my efforts, but just felt better knowing we have gone Galt in increments. I have enjoyed the conversations some have had recently concerning Rand's views on going Galt, but have to say that my desire to get away is of my choosing because of the disgust I have for the system and I know the only person I control is me and I am quickly approaching the time when I have had enough. I wish society operated with more freedom but the fact is it doesn't and I tire of fighting.
Fighting for our rights was not always a waste of time. That is a relatively recent phenomenon. For me, it was 2008/2009 when government decided to favor my competition over me. The US could have been saved in the election of 2012. When Americans re-elected President Zero, they surrendered to a Zero, and at that point, the number of moochers exceeded a critical level where the chance that producers could be protected from moochers electing looters to take our properly earned wages and savings became slim, if not none.
Yes, things are not as bad here as in Communist countries. I have been to Communist East Germany. It did not take long to realize how depraved a society can get. America has gone too far down that path to reverse itself. ... Did you notice that Trump is considering a national debt restructuring? 20 trillion in debt is beyond the point of no return.
I am not benefiting from anything, nor would I ask anyone to. I will not carry others on my back anymore. I come here and expect to go to the LP Convention because I am interested in having relationships with other individuals who think rather than feel, who enjoyed times when the virtues described in Atlas Shrugged were common, and who are, in your words, disgusted now. That pretty much describes most of the people who participate in the Gulch.
I even put forth a considerable effort last summer to see whether it was worth risking my savings on building a place fit for Gulchers. When it became clear that the number of people who wanted to participate in a physical Gulch was too small to make the investment worthwhile, that is when the entire mood in Galt's Gulch Online soured. Now we get "I'm bored"., etc. from many longtime Gulch participants. Such people had a chance for something more, and did not capitalize on it.
A small number of good people have fought very hard against great odds over the years, despite the frustrations and the fact that people are being hurt, making a real difference that makes your lifestyle now possible so that you can flippantly talk about shrugging in it to practice lame humor. "We", contrary to your cynical accusation, have not "surrendered to zeroes", and you are benefiting from that.
But it's hard to tell what he means because he doesn't know himself -- except that he thinks he is "great", everyone who questions him is "terrible", and "eminent domain is wonderful". He will generally say anything to promote his self image of a Pied Piper demagogue and any "deal" selling anyone out on anything. His frustrated followers are, to say the least, engaged in a lot of wishful thinking despite his record and despite -- or perhaps because of -- his crude bullying antics.
There have always been people like Trump. This is more a matter of the state of the culture that now openly supports it as strong arm "man on a white horse" posturing as a Savior. It is truly frightening, both for the phenomenon it is and that this is the Republican alternative to a Clinton, both leading to a Clinton rule. Such is the vacuum left by the default of the intellectuals.
jbrenner previous post: "I have never cared less for the US. It is not worth saving anymore.
"Prior to reading Atlas Shrugged, I was an optimist and full of life. Now I wonder why I worked so hard. I can afford to retire early, and am very close to doing so despite the fact that I love my job"
You are nothing like the heroes in Ayn Rand's novels. You don't understand the novel, its purpose, or her philosophy. Atlas Shrugged was not "contradictory".
You are correct in saying that Rand and her heroes never resigned themselves to negativism. Perhaps they should have. I consider the end of Atlas Shrugged completely unrealistic ... in any period of time. It was the only part of the book that I did not like.
The idea that the world would let Rand's heroes have their way without returning to their looter/moocher ways is utopian and is contradictory to everything in Atlas Shrugged that came before it.
Prior to reading Atlas Shrugged, I was an optimist and full of life. Now I wonder why I worked so hard. I can afford to retire early, and am very close to doing so despite the fact that I love my job.
That is why I am not as concerned about who is president at this point being that it is a "done deal", but rather how can we motivate the Rs that are already there, drawing their salaries and doing little on our behalf. That is why at this point, I really believe that with the candidates that we now have, working on Congress is all we really have left, unfortunately!
Changing one mind at a time in a society that votes its leaders into power when your opposition indoctrinates a few million minds at a time through the government school system is a futile effort. Shrugging is the proper answer.
You may call this pragmatism, but fighting for an unachievable goal is a waste of time.
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