Where is John Galt?
They are building a house next door. Everyday, I watch its progress and anticipate its finish, because construction is loud and sometimes seems chaotic. In fact, for most houses, construction is anything but chaotic, and depending on your team, filled with individuals who should take pride in their talents and want to provide the best product possible, given certain constraints, the customer can afford.
Is there a difference between how one goes about building a house and how a house is demolished?
We have been witnessing, over my adult lifetime, the tearing down and dismantling of our society, Constitution, the rule of law, and our children’s’ education. Many of the rights implied and then enumerated by the Constitution have been removed either outright by law or by burdensome regulations. The checks and balances so crucial in preventing tyranny have been eroded over the last seventy years (starting with FDR’s presidency).
The statists have used deception regarding their purpose, ignoring “inconvenient laws,” confusion (distorting definitions of words such as “right,” and double-speak), destruction in scorning the founding principles of this country and passing into law statutes which put in place over-Constitutional organizations and agencies.
Can we re-build our nation using these tactics? After all, they have been very successful tools in the dismantling of our “house.” http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawki...
The reason why we cannot use the same tactics to regain freedom that they used to destroy it, is that construction requires purposeful, logical principled action. Try building a house with a poorly defined definition of length. My foot is not the same length as your foot. Or use faulty tools. However, none of these are necessary in destroying the house. Chaotic swings of a hammer, random blasts, even tiny termites can bring a house down. Thus, we need consistency in our re-build plans. We cannot be for the 2nd Amendment and against the 4th when we think it’s convenient to our safety. We cannot be for The Declaration of Independence and demand a National ID card. Contradictions such as these ensure our ultimate failure and it is why we have lost so much.
Ultimately, it will not be enough to rally forces without shared foundations. “Who Is John Galt?”
When enough individuals are asking that question, and receive the answer, “he stopped the Motor of The World,” we (who have read the book) are all ready to answer why and even how. But, have we thought about where the world will go when the motor has stopped? More importantly, how to keep it from being destroyed again?
“What is the moral stature of those who are afraid to proclaim that they are the champions of freedom? What is the integrity of those who outdo their enemies in smearing, misrepresenting, spitting at, and apologizing for their own ideal? What is the rationality of those who expect to trick people into freedom, cheat them into justice, fool them into progress, con them into preserving their rights, and, while indoctrinating them with statism, put one over on them and let them wake up in a perfect capitalist society some morning?”
You might be surprised to know, Ayn Rand is writing about Conservatives, in the above passage from Capitalism The Unknown Ideal. While those of us who agree our freedoms are being destroyed, can we also agree that Man owns himself?
And, while we’re still working that basic premise out, one can always vote with their feet. It is an eloquent solution: withdrawing financial and moral support. It demonstrates, in a tangible and non-forceful way, the seriousness of the problem. Maybe then you’ll meet John Galt.
Is there a difference between how one goes about building a house and how a house is demolished?
We have been witnessing, over my adult lifetime, the tearing down and dismantling of our society, Constitution, the rule of law, and our children’s’ education. Many of the rights implied and then enumerated by the Constitution have been removed either outright by law or by burdensome regulations. The checks and balances so crucial in preventing tyranny have been eroded over the last seventy years (starting with FDR’s presidency).
The statists have used deception regarding their purpose, ignoring “inconvenient laws,” confusion (distorting definitions of words such as “right,” and double-speak), destruction in scorning the founding principles of this country and passing into law statutes which put in place over-Constitutional organizations and agencies.
Can we re-build our nation using these tactics? After all, they have been very successful tools in the dismantling of our “house.” http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawki...
The reason why we cannot use the same tactics to regain freedom that they used to destroy it, is that construction requires purposeful, logical principled action. Try building a house with a poorly defined definition of length. My foot is not the same length as your foot. Or use faulty tools. However, none of these are necessary in destroying the house. Chaotic swings of a hammer, random blasts, even tiny termites can bring a house down. Thus, we need consistency in our re-build plans. We cannot be for the 2nd Amendment and against the 4th when we think it’s convenient to our safety. We cannot be for The Declaration of Independence and demand a National ID card. Contradictions such as these ensure our ultimate failure and it is why we have lost so much.
Ultimately, it will not be enough to rally forces without shared foundations. “Who Is John Galt?”
When enough individuals are asking that question, and receive the answer, “he stopped the Motor of The World,” we (who have read the book) are all ready to answer why and even how. But, have we thought about where the world will go when the motor has stopped? More importantly, how to keep it from being destroyed again?
“What is the moral stature of those who are afraid to proclaim that they are the champions of freedom? What is the integrity of those who outdo their enemies in smearing, misrepresenting, spitting at, and apologizing for their own ideal? What is the rationality of those who expect to trick people into freedom, cheat them into justice, fool them into progress, con them into preserving their rights, and, while indoctrinating them with statism, put one over on them and let them wake up in a perfect capitalist society some morning?”
You might be surprised to know, Ayn Rand is writing about Conservatives, in the above passage from Capitalism The Unknown Ideal. While those of us who agree our freedoms are being destroyed, can we also agree that Man owns himself?
And, while we’re still working that basic premise out, one can always vote with their feet. It is an eloquent solution: withdrawing financial and moral support. It demonstrates, in a tangible and non-forceful way, the seriousness of the problem. Maybe then you’ll meet John Galt.
