How Many Bricklayers Did Galt Invite to the Gulch?
Galt went around inviting famous artists, noted business leaders to the Guch, but once there, who built their houses? Who paved their streets, dug their sewer lines?
This isn't a class warfare argument; the building of a house, for example, not only takes a skilled architect, but also skilled craftsmen and industrious laborers.
If the criterion for admission is a belief in "trading value for value", surely Galt should and would have invited "ordinary" workers to the Gulch as well as luminaries like Wyatt and Danagger?
Such people exist lower down on the ladder; people who believe in trading value for value, but lack the creative ability to invent a new motor or miraculous metal. People who didn't inherit an already successful railroad or copper mines, but would be able to get a day's worth of coal or copper dug in a day's worth of hours for a day's worth of pay. Maybe they lack the ambition to go through the headache of running a company when they get more satisfaction from digging coal out of the ground. Maybe they lack the self discipline necessary to see their visions to reality, but are still able and still believe in trading value for value.
What Utopians always underestimate in their rhetoric (no disparagement of Ms Rand intended) is the example America set before them. People's abilities and worth are not necessarily evidenced by their position in life. All the creative brilliance in the world will not get a brick wall built. A brick wall built without knowledge and skill won't stand, but the most creative and brilliantly designed wall will never exist without someone to lay it up brick by brick. Someone whose creative skill may be shrouded by prejudice toward his position in life.
There may not be a place in the Gulch for someone like me. But that would be Galt's loss.
This isn't a class warfare argument; the building of a house, for example, not only takes a skilled architect, but also skilled craftsmen and industrious laborers.
If the criterion for admission is a belief in "trading value for value", surely Galt should and would have invited "ordinary" workers to the Gulch as well as luminaries like Wyatt and Danagger?
Such people exist lower down on the ladder; people who believe in trading value for value, but lack the creative ability to invent a new motor or miraculous metal. People who didn't inherit an already successful railroad or copper mines, but would be able to get a day's worth of coal or copper dug in a day's worth of hours for a day's worth of pay. Maybe they lack the ambition to go through the headache of running a company when they get more satisfaction from digging coal out of the ground. Maybe they lack the self discipline necessary to see their visions to reality, but are still able and still believe in trading value for value.
What Utopians always underestimate in their rhetoric (no disparagement of Ms Rand intended) is the example America set before them. People's abilities and worth are not necessarily evidenced by their position in life. All the creative brilliance in the world will not get a brick wall built. A brick wall built without knowledge and skill won't stand, but the most creative and brilliantly designed wall will never exist without someone to lay it up brick by brick. Someone whose creative skill may be shrouded by prejudice toward his position in life.
There may not be a place in the Gulch for someone like me. But that would be Galt's loss.
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But back to a novel and artistic license.
Rand appreciated skill at any level, for example the short-order cook at a roadside diner (who turned out to be Hugh Akston).
One of the Galt's Gulch residents whom Dagny met was a truck driver -- but, he said, he didn't intend to remain one. "Position in life" is rarely predetermined.
Contrary to your claim, a professional engineer can often build an usable house, but a construction worker rarely can adequately perform engineering functions.
Are you seeking a pass into heaven for those who earn hell?
That last lines expresses why you fail to understand us. Your point of view is that Galt would owe his existence and the existence of the valley to your always capable hands - what you miss is that nobody has a right to place that burden on any other person.
For example, BO is certain that nobody will have healthcare without his intervention - the truth is that the vast majority of people were doing just fine before BO and Nancy P screwed things up beyond all possible workability.
The collectivist in chief keeps trying to fundamentally transform our once great nation into a socialist wet dream, but with each step he takes, more and more discover just what Rand was writing about - and know that the final crash is one day closer.
My take on the thread is that iit's a whole bunch of different people coming into it, not believing the awful reality of it, and trying to explain, thinking that the OP had asked, and continues to ask, real questions about which he/she desires real, true answers. Give it the respect it deserves. [is there an emoticon for tonque-in-cheek?]
How about "I'm just a child and haven't developed any skills yet. Would I be invited to Atlantis?"
I cannot believe this post got anywhere. Do babies get to go to heaven if they haven't accepted Jesus as their personal savior?
How many times did Howard Roark fail to win commissions in The Fountainhead? He failed in his business, had to close his office and take a job drilling in a quarry.
In Atlas Shrugged, Rand describes Rearden's struggle to invent his metal as taking 10 years with countless failures along the way, and his own staff holding unsaid the statement "it can't be done".
But her artistic credo was not to glorify failure by describing it in detail, and passing it off as the normal state of mankind. Who wants to read a story about someone who gave up trying to invent a superior metal alloy? If nothing has been accomplished, why write about it?
I understand what you're saying about showing her protagonists fail a lot more, but that kind of thing is in her work, too. It is in the background, so maybe we're just arguing about style instead of attitude.
I do agree that among the world outside of objectionist reasoning, building the village without the help of scabs would be impossible. The rules, zoning, inspections, permits and all the rest of collectivist society are setup to make it impossible to do anything without those that bind the hands of those who seek to achieve, excel and prosper.
WE can build it with tested, proven objectivists, just as I did my home. And we'll offer no comfort to those who remain outside.
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