So What To Do?
Most objectivists I have known say we have a long slog of educating people ahead of us and that we can't expect much to improve until this is accomplished. But Ayn Rand herself experienced that most people are very strongly resistant to this kind of education. They belittle and deny it from the beginning tossing out ad hominem and other logical fallacies with abandon.
We also experience a Government that is far far away from what objectivist minarchist legitimate government would be. On the order of 99% of all the regulatory and enforcement agencies writing and enforcing the rules on all of us are not elected or even very directly subject to control by anyone who is. So it is very unlikely that even an objectivist educated reasonably large chunk of the population could change much by voting or even running for political office.
So what is left? Violent revolution? We have said for so long that it isn't "time to shoot the bastards" that it looks to me like we lost the means and most importantly the will for such measures long ago. And we likely missed the window where that would have made much difference as well. However, in the face of a lawless and evil government resistance and even violent resistance seems quite rational.
So what else? Shrugging and just surviving in what happiness can be found with a few like minded people but with much our productive capacity not on offer and not making the world over as wondrously as it could? Being sort of hunkered down and staying smaller than we really are in protest?
Or perhaps swallowing our ideals and anger and just soldiering own thinking that if only that next invention gets done and out there and integrated that perhaps all these persons, ideologies and forces in the way will not ultimately matter?
Or perhaps it is time to build a real Gulch. A country of our own based on sound ethics and politics growing out of those ethics. I am reading with interest about artificial island creation, some as big as Manhattan. An objectivist city-state or eventual chain of them in international waters may be the only way to a fully alive and rational world that we have left.
Thoughts?
We also experience a Government that is far far away from what objectivist minarchist legitimate government would be. On the order of 99% of all the regulatory and enforcement agencies writing and enforcing the rules on all of us are not elected or even very directly subject to control by anyone who is. So it is very unlikely that even an objectivist educated reasonably large chunk of the population could change much by voting or even running for political office.
So what is left? Violent revolution? We have said for so long that it isn't "time to shoot the bastards" that it looks to me like we lost the means and most importantly the will for such measures long ago. And we likely missed the window where that would have made much difference as well. However, in the face of a lawless and evil government resistance and even violent resistance seems quite rational.
So what else? Shrugging and just surviving in what happiness can be found with a few like minded people but with much our productive capacity not on offer and not making the world over as wondrously as it could? Being sort of hunkered down and staying smaller than we really are in protest?
Or perhaps swallowing our ideals and anger and just soldiering own thinking that if only that next invention gets done and out there and integrated that perhaps all these persons, ideologies and forces in the way will not ultimately matter?
Or perhaps it is time to build a real Gulch. A country of our own based on sound ethics and politics growing out of those ethics. I am reading with interest about artificial island creation, some as big as Manhattan. An objectivist city-state or eventual chain of them in international waters may be the only way to a fully alive and rational world that we have left.
Thoughts?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Utopia
However, its founder never raised the necessary
capital and then died in 2012.
The great thing about the New Utopia idea is that
it is about 100 miles from the nearest land
(roughly equidistant from the Cayman Islands and
Honduras) with a
sizable reef only about 20 meters down on which to build.
It is a reasonable concept if we can put together
a critical mass of people from within the Gulch
and have a Midas Mulligan to help get things started.
Perhaps we could ask John Allison, the former ARI
board member and BB&T CEO and now Cato Institute CEO.
He built his bank following Ayn Rand principles, as he explained in a letter to me.
Or am I just an old geezer fantasizing about an old dream?
Jan
That being said, have you ever been to a Libertarian Party platform meeting? and lived to tell the tale? Lordy-lord, it's heaven and hell all rolled into one magnificent, never-ending package. To put it lightly.
Any organizational meetings of a Free Island would put those meetings to shame, unless it was one guy who invited everyone to come live with him and follow his rules. For example, I read rr's post and immediately think "strong leadership? I don't need to be led anywhere! Hire a good city manager, let him hire a staff, and be done with it." [thanks for giving me the example, rr]
That is, how do you organize it and run it? I have a very difficult time supporting a move [movement?] when I don't know what we're going to get when we get there.
I liked the motto in the Gulch. Those that abide by it and all it implies are welcome. Those that don't are not. Just being a relative of someone that holds to it or even married to them is not enough. Without strong ideological basis developing justified laws and practices is not possible.
In cynical experience very few people have the courage to lead. Especially when most would rather throw brickbats than learn what it takes to do so.
Very few hard rules. The chief among the is no initiation of force. Enforcers of laws may use force to bring to justice those that break this basic rule in any of its forms. But that is about it. Laws are come up with by those that seem to be good and teasing out implications of the basic rule. If people think they went overboard they will neither enforce them or convict someone of them in a jury trial.
I think DROs (Dispute Resolution Organizations) and signing up for adjudication by one as part of most contracts are a pretty good idea.
Outside of not breaking the prime rule and its supported derivatives you are free to do whatever you like. That is the short form.
In today's government, the vast majority of our elected officials see their position as a means to their own ends and have manipulated and twisted the system into exactly that. All one has to do is look at the lobbying firms infesting DC to see that our government has ceased being "of the people, for the people" except in facade only. I fear that the only way to get things back to what they should be is a collapse and rebuilding of society - a Constitution 2.0 if you will. Living through those days will not be fun.
to prevent others from knowing what was down there?
we would have to disguise the island as a wasteland
to prevent knowledge of the actual facts.
of course, this is an immense challenge, these days.
another chance for innovation -- and let's leave out
the idea of permanent clouds, ok? maybe if we
could pretend that it was a leper colony? some
smart gulcher will have ideas here -- things go in
and nothing leaves?
but we might want to travel. well, there are those of
us who could pose a strong defense. -- j
In today's visual information age, that kind of secrecy is near impossible for a large group of people with extended families. Organization and planning would have to shift to a secure form of communication. There are also numerous other major hurdles in logistics that would be very hard to keep secure with today's monitoring technology.
Tying together the scattered enclaves of rational thought via The Gulch and other media may be our best hope for this land. We may wind up concentrating geographically, as we are able, and reinforce our local culture. In doing so, we also strengthen the resolve of our philosophy. Meanwhile, we are here.
sounds! I still wish that a really rich person would
buy an island and let me stand guard from midnight
to 6am every other day. stargeezer and I could
swap out. pretty good lookin' place;; they have a pool
hall and a high school of some note!!! -- j
What are the chances of such a one reaching that office? Slim to none. An Objectivist Party might be possible to create except that many an objectivist seems as bent on pulling the splinter out of each other's eyes with great shows of exercising judgment and much rationalization than pulling the beam out of the eye of our country. I would hesitate to try to do it through the Libertarian Party. And in any case 3rd parties in this country are rather systematically kept small and impotent. It is hard to picture either of the major parties going far enough in the right direction. Although I would be delighted if a Rand Paul, even with his flaws, was nominated.
When nearly 50% of the people get their livelihood from the government in one way or another how many do you think will vote on principle to greatly dismantle that same government and recast it in proper terms and proportion?
Is it America? In basic spirit and understanding of its people, is it America? Do the majority of those in their 40s and younger understand and hold as true and important what those of us that are older were taught in high school civics? In what is held most important and sacred is it still America? Or is it something increasingly alien that now inhabits the same land area? Bottom line, is it at all acceptable for rational honest people and if not what to do about it?
Remember that even the Enlightenment took centuries to develop to a point that a country could be founded on such ideas. It's true that we face a multi-lifetime struggle, but our place in that struggle is possibly the most important - to continue our efforts to demonstrate the gains of such a philosophy and to spread the word, in real world terms and real world application.
Many imagine that at the founding, we were actually closer to an Objectivist country - but they forget that the vast majority of the population weren't thinkers, they were doers and achievers willing to let others run their government and make the policy decisions that incrementally led us to where we're at today. Until more of the population is educated to the gains possible in individualism and the works of the rational mind, we're only puffing into the wind.
But there are small efforts that are in work - see the Free State Project.
I proposed a virtual collaborative effort where people of various skills would discuss the details, each area being compartmentalized, just like the Gulch website. Political structure, law, the mechanics of life support, etc., would be discussed by experts in those fields and codified as the constitution and the technical blueprints of the eventual new nation. In order to avoid any Ponzi schemes, there are monetary payments, collections or bonds involved in this project. Instead, based on the individual contribution to the project, electronic ownership certificates can be issued, redeemable for ownership in the new nation when and if it materializes, as the blueprints will be the intellectual property of the people participating in the project. Thus, one can become rich only if we make it work and then we all gain. Even if such nation does not materialize in our lifetime, I still think that the mental exercise is to our benefit. Anyone interested?
I think the logistics of making it happen are the problem, not the people to go there.
Foster & Kimberly probably don't realize it, but they are really Gulchers in their hearts.
John Mahler
stop
making
my
brain
hurt