Galt's Gulch

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  • Posted by LWinn 2 years, 12 months ago
    I know of nothing in Ayn Rand's work that supports the initiation of violence. What her characters do, what she did, when confronted with collectivism is leave. I would bow your doors off on my way to the high frontier if I had a starship and a place to go. I don't. No one does. It is my belief that an objectivist has the obligation to make the next frontier happen. If you have questions about how to do that, I will be pleased to answer them here. Or, you could just correct me about Objectivism.
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    • Posted by $ 25n56il4 2 years, 12 months ago
      Well, if you really want to 'get away from it all' we have a small city in far west Texas called Marfa. We offer the Marfa lights. The International Woman's Foundation offers support to artists over the age of 35 and they can stay at our Bldg 98 (the old Fort David Russell). The Chinati art exhibits (minimalist) are on display at Marfa near our building. We give tours of our Bldg as it is very historical. We have the finest exhibit of wall painting in the U.S. done by Rommel's Afrika Corp Officers who were interned there in WW2. We have the Georgie Patton room and you can stand at the bar he did and get a drink if we are having a party which we frequently do. Pancho Villa was pursued from Ft David Russell.
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      • Posted by $ 25n56il4 2 years, 12 months ago
        Marfa is a mile high and the mountains along the Border are lovely. The movie Giant was filmed at Marfa. Supreme Justice Scalise died at a ranch there. Lots of available land as there are only 5,000 people in the entire county. The nearest Walmart is 100 miles away. There is a hospital and a doctor at Alpine. 25 , miles from Marfa. Fort Davis is a near town and has a magnificent observatory manned by NASA.
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    • Posted by CircuitGuy 2 years, 11 months ago
      "It is my belief that an objectivist has the obligation to make the next frontier happen"
      I wish we could create an experiment based on Objectivist principles in some place that's remote enough to have its own rules but not so remote as to prevent trade. I wish I thought that would come in the form of humans moving to a space station or moon colony just as Europeans came to the Americas. I don't see that happening. Traveling to space and living there is just so much harder than traveling to a new continent.

      I would like to see some country experiment with a free trade zone. My fantasy one is Denmark and Greenland doing some experiment with the mission of providing opportunities for indigenous peoples. They would give a huge amount of autonomy to the region, kind of like how big companies sometimes create a spin-off to develop technologies without being bound to the established company's ways.

      Another thought is a Seasted. Whatever the next new nation-state experiment is, it has to be far but not too far. I don't know if that exists on earth.
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      • Posted by LWinn 2 years, 11 months ago
        Free-trade zones, also called foreign-trade zones, and formerly free ports, are areas within which goods may be landed, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured, and reexported without the intervention of the customs authorities.

        Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZ) are secure areas under U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) supervision that are generally considered outside CBP territory upon activation. Located in or near CBP ports of entry, they are the United States' version of what are known internationally as free-trade zones.

        Is that what you mean?
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        • Posted by CircuitGuy 2 years, 11 months ago
          Yes. It seems like many countries have them: zonas franacas, zonas libres. Sometimes they have duty-free shopping for consumers. I do not understand how they work, but I know the country sets aside certain tariffs to encourage economic activity. I wonder if the concept could be expanded to provide more autonomy as an experiment.
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          • Posted by LWinn 2 years, 11 months ago
            I hope so. I love experiments. What shall we do?
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            • Posted by CircuitGuy 2 years, 11 months ago
              "What shall we do?"
              It won't be me, but I'd like someone to start with a business incubator in some place with a favorable climate to free flow of people and capital. They tried to do it with Blueseed, but if failed. Chad Elwartowski failed. Someone interested would build on the lessons they learned.
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              • Posted by LWinn 2 years, 11 months ago
                A quick look says that Chad Elwartowski (https://www.businessinsider.com/bitco...) was too focused on software, trouble-prone, and a poor planner. It seems the Blueseed concept needed 1000 customers at $1500/month to start but eventually attracted only 31 startups with varying degrees of interest. He has/had no clue what the market is. In addition, the oceans turn out to be a less safe place to challenge national sovereignty than he thought. Forget the ocean; it’s too close. Forget direct challenges; the guns of government are too close. On the other hand, SpaceFarers’ Alien Landscapes approach avoids confrontation as it encourages entrepreneurship and research into sustainability technologies on the path to space colonization. I do not claim to know what the market is. It’s a question we are attempting to answer. I do think (maybe just hope) that if you don’t thumb your nose at the authorities, they won’t shoot at you while you get ready to leave. When you do go, a safe distance might be, say, 200 million miles.
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                • Posted by CircuitGuy 2 years, 11 months ago
                  "When you do go, a safe distance might be, say, 200 million miles."
                  I think the safe distance will be near enough to travel and trade but not so near that travel is a simple every-day affair. Space doesn't meet the criterion of near enough to travel. I hope it will soon.
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  • Posted by j_IR1776wg 2 years, 12 months ago
    Depends on how you define initiate. For example, if the lady in pink in Columbus Ohio had a sidearm, I believe she had a right to shoot to keep herself from being stabbed. So if she did shoot would she have initiated violence? She could not have read the knife-wielder's mind. Is a striking pose initiation of violence?
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