Is America ready to go Galt and doesn't know it?
Posted by coaldigger 9 years, 2 months ago to Politics
I spend a lot of time lately contemplating “natural laws”. The evolution of mankind occurred by and under the influence of things that are and that he cannot control over time. The leaning tower of Pisa is not defying the law of gravity, but succumbing to it gradually despite the efforts of Italian engineers and we know who will win in the long run. The pyramids have lasted far longer than other man-made structures because the use gravity instead of oppose it.
It is possible to organize society in many ways, most of which have resulted in chaos because they only work by the use of outside force. Statist systems rely on force to command individuals but even those that benefit the most eventually come to the conclusion that they are dissatisfied with the coercion and corruption that thrives as an unintended consequence. Systems based on individual rights and freedom comply with natural laws and outlast those organizing philosophies based on the collective.
The flaw in systems based on freedom was clearly identified at its birth by one of the founding fathers of the most successful government in the history of mankind. Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to a pair of priests in Passy who he knew during his time there, he said “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” The degree of success achieved by the American people has been in direct proportion to their virtue and this is a natural law as well. This virtue is not religious but the actions of individuals acting in their own long-term interest while accepting that all others must have the right to do likewise.
I see us failing not because of any intellectual shift to the right or left but due to inattention to the law of virtue. Lying to achieve public office, cronyism, looting, seeking unearned rewards, coercion of others for personal gain and shirking personal responsibilities are not virtuous behaviors and a vast majority of America has become addicted to these traits.
We were never perfect. Franklin saw that but felt that the rewards of striving to maintain a life of freedom would inspire an effort to be a people of virtue. I see the current “voter revolt” to be an unconscious rejection of the mess that has been made but without the presence of a virtuous leader they are saying we don’t really know what we want but we know that we don’t want the political class that brought us to this result. Be it Sanders or Trump, neither is more of the same. This may seem like a dangerous reaction but is probably better than more of the same. All we need is a Galt.
It is possible to organize society in many ways, most of which have resulted in chaos because they only work by the use of outside force. Statist systems rely on force to command individuals but even those that benefit the most eventually come to the conclusion that they are dissatisfied with the coercion and corruption that thrives as an unintended consequence. Systems based on individual rights and freedom comply with natural laws and outlast those organizing philosophies based on the collective.
The flaw in systems based on freedom was clearly identified at its birth by one of the founding fathers of the most successful government in the history of mankind. Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to a pair of priests in Passy who he knew during his time there, he said “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” The degree of success achieved by the American people has been in direct proportion to their virtue and this is a natural law as well. This virtue is not religious but the actions of individuals acting in their own long-term interest while accepting that all others must have the right to do likewise.
I see us failing not because of any intellectual shift to the right or left but due to inattention to the law of virtue. Lying to achieve public office, cronyism, looting, seeking unearned rewards, coercion of others for personal gain and shirking personal responsibilities are not virtuous behaviors and a vast majority of America has become addicted to these traits.
We were never perfect. Franklin saw that but felt that the rewards of striving to maintain a life of freedom would inspire an effort to be a people of virtue. I see the current “voter revolt” to be an unconscious rejection of the mess that has been made but without the presence of a virtuous leader they are saying we don’t really know what we want but we know that we don’t want the political class that brought us to this result. Be it Sanders or Trump, neither is more of the same. This may seem like a dangerous reaction but is probably better than more of the same. All we need is a Galt.
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The use of "pilot" as the one needed also gives me a twitch. Trail-blazer/Trail-breaker/Trail-buster absolutely, but again some to control our path (which is what a pilot does) not so much.
Donald Trump could be Midas. But I'm not at all sure he knows how.
It is not the end of the world. It is just the beginning. And a correct, reality-based philosophy is the essential ingredient. It is the catalyst. The reactants are already in place.
to go Galt and revise this nation's trajectory. . the "democracy"
has turned into a vote-yourself-a-free-ride nation. -- j
.
It is not a new idea.
We have writing and counting because of clay tokens representing debts. That system went back maybe to 6000 BCE or earlier. Before that, there was no such thing as "five" but only one-one-one-one-one. And it took 4000 years for that system of tokens to become cuneiform. Meanwhile, cities were invented. Debt is the seed of civilization. Silver as money came thousands of years later. Another two thousand and the first gold coins were struck.
A totally free market in money is an intellectual challenge to the imagination.
I find Sanders incredibly naive, thinking that he can transfer righteous anger to a willing and supportive Congress, to enact rules to establish a socialist state. Sanders believes in a class-based, immobile society made up of an aristocracy and subject victims, with only a powerful central authority having the ability to correct the wrongs he sees. Crony capitalism has done much to create such division, but unlike pre-EU European societal structure, it can be corrected without resorting to radical restructuring.
Trump, whom I originally took an instant dislike to based on his obnoxious public persona, turned out to be more insightful than his outrageous behavior. The best interview of Trump I found was by the Wall Street Journal, which managed to pose hard questions without the downright stupid, sensationalist style now in vogue. He provided a perspective that what was needed was to extract the instruments of power from corrupt banking, corporate, and political elements, without transferring those powers to Federal government hands. The best way, in his view, is to take action to limit the power to control by government fiat, and return the right and opportunity to succeed to an upwardly mobile society. He admittedly refuses to provide much detail about the mechanisms he intends to use, except to say that executive action, isolated from legislative concurrence and judicial approval is specifically not the tool he favors.
I'm still a Rand Paul fan, and disappointed his message didn't inspire more people. I appreciate Kasich's experience and achievements, but he seems too willing to accept the defunct political environment as-is. Cruz is incredibly knowledgeable, but there are elements to his persona I find unsettling upon close inspection. Rubio is entirely too slick, and seems the alternative to Bush for the GOP bureaucracy. Am I a Trump fan? Hardly, but I'm more comfortable with the idea of a Trump Presidency than either Sanders or Clinton.
"Barbarians. Mystics. Bread and Circuses. /
Save your candles. /
The Dark Ages are coming."
45 years later ... here we are... Are you aware of the power outages in New York City in 1965 and then in 1977? Right out of Atlas Shrugged ... and then 25 years later in 2003 ... Read here in the Gulch about every train wreck. It is confirmation bias, explained, all to well, unfortunately by Reason editor Virginia Postrel in her book, The Future and Its Enemies.
After Y2K, I stopped expecting the end of the world. After Postrel's book, I stopped wanting it.
Most of her essays require a greater intellect or more of a concentrated effort that I have to get all there is to obtain from them. Nevertheless I have them in paperbacks and have read them. I also read The Objective Standard, opinions on the ARI website and view videos of lectures by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins.
I do not conclude that our society is going to completely fail and not recover. Freedom and Liberty are consistent with the laws of nature and a system based on reason will prevail over the long run. It may not take a full Galt to effect the change. The masses follow a leader that attracts them even if that leader is taking them somewhere they don't want to go. Most people do not act in their own best interest but are compulsively driven to fads, emotions and peer pressure. When a great number of people are unhappy with their status quo, they are susceptible to go where a charismatic leader takes them.
The question I proposed is are there signs that we are at a tipping point and is there anyone, not yet identified that can seize the controls to a better society. The founding fathers gave us a free roadmap that guided us to good places when we followed it so it is not necessary to reinvent the map, just to find a pilot.
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