My recent letter to the editor
Posted by marc 8 years, 3 months ago to The Gulch: General
I recently wrote this to the editor of my local newspaper and she plants to run it soon. Just thought I would share it with you folks!
To The Editor:
The trilogy of “Atlas Shrugged” movies (available on DVD only up here when they were on the big screen theaters) was almost totally prescient—we have “looters” and “wreckers” galore—just take a look at the federal government!
We as a nation are in such deep and dire straits it’s beyond pathetic; it’s downright terrifying!
Obama is trying to disarm the civilian population by enacting “gun control” i.e. gun Confiscation making laws with “my pen and my cell phone.”
And NOBODY in Congress is standing up to him!
I watched all three of the “Atlas Shrugged” DVD movies recently, and I was again shocked at how downright prophetic they were! Was Ayn Rand a secular prophet? And those who made her novel into three movies?
My question is not “Who is John Galt?” but “WHERE is John Galt when we need him so badly now!?”
Marc V. Ridenour
To The Editor:
The trilogy of “Atlas Shrugged” movies (available on DVD only up here when they were on the big screen theaters) was almost totally prescient—we have “looters” and “wreckers” galore—just take a look at the federal government!
We as a nation are in such deep and dire straits it’s beyond pathetic; it’s downright terrifying!
Obama is trying to disarm the civilian population by enacting “gun control” i.e. gun Confiscation making laws with “my pen and my cell phone.”
And NOBODY in Congress is standing up to him!
I watched all three of the “Atlas Shrugged” DVD movies recently, and I was again shocked at how downright prophetic they were! Was Ayn Rand a secular prophet? And those who made her novel into three movies?
My question is not “Who is John Galt?” but “WHERE is John Galt when we need him so badly now!?”
Marc V. Ridenour
On the one hand she saw and wrote about what was already happening and extrapolated, one the other hand there are many who cannot see it even when it is in front of their face.
I like to think I am in the middle of that range- I seem not to be able to foresee the future but do not deny evidence.
Yes, the study of Rand's ideas is well worthwhile.
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."
- Cicero , 55 BC
The message is in character (IMO) but there is no evidence that Cicero said that.
From
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_b...
I found good discussion including this
----------------
The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free Meals and Food Stamps ever, to 46 million people.
Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us "Please Do Not Feed the Animals." Their stated reason for the policy is because "The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will learn not to take care of themselves."
-- J Carlton, Calgary
---------------
Back to Rome- the army was run as what we would a profit center, that is conquest, plunder and tribute, there was no assistance to foreign lands.
Which part of the wisdom should we take her to task on?
Later, some emperors put on 'bread and circuses' but that was internal, I saw a ref to aqueducts in Spain, but who paid? and Spain was ruled by Rome anyway.
Again, the context is to the shift of the Roman mindset and virtue (who Rand saw in Cicero being "an old Roman") from being republican (small r) to embracing the "decaying" democratic form (buying votes) which of course led to the institutional need for a "Caesar" and ultimately, the rule of tyrants and dictators going forward.
Remember, it was Caldwell's main premise that Rome was at it's zenith under the republic led first by Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus who was a farmer but also who also exemplified the virtues of the "Citizen" soldier and statesman (of which he was both). This, as opposed to the "professional or ruling elite that became the slow poison of the Republic and its virtues, very similar to the Washington "Beltway" mentality..
Again, this is a direct parallel to the period (written about by Caldwell) where many of us believe we are at today. For these reasons her message is a timeless warning to future generations to heed the signs of this form of societal collapse from within. Her perspective being similar in many ways to Ayn Rand. They each just approached these underlying ills from a different perspectives.
Obama wants a disarmed public so he can get away with whatever he wants, and the people have no alternatives.
Indeed, yes. But not someone magically inspired. Rather, a brilliant mind extrapolating a future based on information at hand. But what is even more brilliant is that contained within the story is the solution to the future dread. No other writer has been able to accomplish that with the underlying brilliance of her laser beam brain.
the two contrast books AS and DA were both written within the context of the times.. and the foresight of both was remarkably accurate. Caldwells's Picked Guards is a mirror image of what ObeyMe is trying to create.and her depiction of the military is more accurate than I ever dreamed could happen in real life.
I've just finished The Earth Is The Lords and some of her books are getting hard to find and when you do expensive. She was not well loved in the circles of left wing dominated glitterati and literatti.
To me that was a major selling point.
President Obama has embraced the "loser" mentality hopping to turn all of us into losers like his constituency!
We need a Galt's Gulch now more than ever!
Aloha,
iSank
AS 1 was like that for me, but AS2 and AS3 had things that dumped me out of the story. In AS3, the cars had regular pickup trucks with Colorado license plates, and the gulch houses had commercial refrigerators and fancy furniture. If Atlantis was so hidden and hard to find, how would they get all that stuff there in the first place, and who would actually put Colorado license plates on the vehicles ?? Made no sense to me.
The messages often times are quite subtle however the net effect is the successful "brainwashing" of an entire nation. You can check this out for yourself! Why do you think that Atlas had to be done on a shoestring and without the blessings of the Cabal in power within the industry?
For what its worth!