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Objectivist Rehab Program?

Posted by davidmcnab 9 years, 11 months ago to Education
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The fact that so many people (even people of genius-level intelligence) spend their lives stuck in looter thinking is evidence of just how insidious, powerful and persistent that mind-set is.

Ayn Rand's novels tend to take a black-and-white view of humanity: you're either a producer or a looter and nothing's going to change. But there are some exceptions. For instance, the young man on the pushbike who meets Howard Roark, sees his new housing development, and is transformed for life.

I'm not interested in people who persist in a life-long choice to remain looters. To me, they're like meth addicts who persistently refuse all help, or babies with their insatiable mouths firmly clamped on the tit of State. But I am interested in those who feel, deep down, that something is wrong, that there must be a better way.

For such borderline cases, there is value to be gained from a program to help them migrate to a whole new perspective. Such people need and deserve support - not in the alms-given sense, but in the sense that we all profit when someone new comes into the Gulch for real.

As someone who was raised an brainwashed in a left-leaning family, community, school and university, I can testify that the looter brainwashing effort is nothing short of spectacular. It's about the only thing the looters are brilliantly capable of. So it needs tremendous ingenuity and persistence on our part to support willing people out of that mind-set. This also implies a view of looters not as moral degenerates (unless they persistently refuse all help), but as victims of endemic organised fraud, victims of philosophical injury who often need help to recover. Just as with a lifelong drug addiction, the barriers to escaping looter consciousness are harrowing.

So I wanted to start discussion here on what a "looter rehab" program would need in order to have the greatest possible chance of success with willing people. A healing program, for willing people to evolve out of looter consciousness into free, empowered, ecstatic producers.



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  • Posted by coaldigger 9 years, 11 months ago
    It would be nice to do something dramatic that would instantly change the world but that isn't going to happen. I would like to comb all laws and programs to find and eliminate incentives that provide an equal or better benefit to those receiving aid than is earned by the lowest producer. It is insane to have people trying to qualify for "disability" because then they will be better off than they are doing the job that they currently have. This would be a small step but it would illustrate the principle that production pays better than the dole instead of the other way around. Once this sank in, other progress could be made.
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  • Posted by 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Also - the fact that without a certain amount of critical, rational, logical thinking, you simply can't do your job in this trade. Tears don't make the code work. Nor does violence. Only correct and sustained mental discipline.
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  • Posted by Mamaemma 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    But you were able to look past your brainwashing and look at reality with a reasoning mind. That shows intelligence and discrimination.
    How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb? Only one, but the lightbulb has to REALLY want to change.
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  • Posted by 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Largely from being exposed to the commercial realities of the IT industry. Companies have to pay by merit and outcome, rather than ideology and process, or else they go bust. That, and when I was about to start in that industry, an old school friend at the time put me on to Ayn Rand :)
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  • Posted by Technocracy 9 years, 11 months ago
    A looter rehab program would have one core purpose, to educate a "looter" that there is another effective option for them.

    All we can ever do is place the philosophical feast in front of them, it must be their choice to dig in.

    Force feeding them if they balk is the looter way, they already suffer under the weight of public school indoctrination and brain washing. We cannot do the same.

    Our goal is to set their minds free, not cage them in.
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  • Posted by 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    One of Ayn Rand's most powerful techniques is (ironically) borrowing a trick from one of her lead characters, Gail Wynand. She portrays the protagonists as getting way better sex than the looters. :D
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  • Posted by kevinw 9 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That would work for a Dagney, she would never take anything for free and was not afraid to start over. The withdrawals of a looter might get violent.
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  • Posted by kevinw 9 years, 11 months ago
    Hello DavidMcnab,

    What a great post. This is the direction I wanted to lead to with my "free ride" post but I didn't know how to get there. I was pondering on how to reach those people.

    I like this. It brings to mind a 12 step program, Gulch style. First they have to admit they have a problem (addiction). Then you show them a glimpse of what it could be like with that addiction out of the way. They would have to really want to "fix" themselves.
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  • Posted by $ minniepuck 9 years, 11 months ago
    Take everything away. Start fresh. They will have to work for everything; nothing will ever be given to them for free again. This kind of reminds me of what Dagny went through when she crashed into the Gulch. She had to start over.
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