Life Imitates Atlas Shrugged...Again
The first time I read Atlas Shrugged, I almost thought I was reading a news report about current events. From that moment, continuing on long after I discovered Galt's Gulch, I have put forth the speculation that the modern dem/prog/lib movement has at least some of its roots in A.S. It almost seems like they're using it as their playbook, but in all of their elite arrogance they think they can produce a different outcome.
Liz Peek of foxnews.com presented one of many takes on last night's Dem debate, and one of the quotes from her comments really drove the point home for me:
'Few Democrats talk about growing the country’s wealth and income; rather, their focus is on how to carve up the wealth and income we already have. As de Blasio has so frequently said, “There’s plenty of money in the country, it’s just in the wrong hands.” '
As I read that, all I could hear is the part of Francisco D'Anconia's speech at James Taggart's wedding where he says this:
“If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose–because it contains all the others–the fact that they were the people who created the phrase ‘to make money.’
For me, Atlas Shrugged was a life-changing event. I could have been one of the people John Galt was talking to at the end of his speech, one of those who knows something is wrong but can't quite quantify it sufficiently. A.S. did for me what he hoped his speech would do for them.
Liz Peek of foxnews.com presented one of many takes on last night's Dem debate, and one of the quotes from her comments really drove the point home for me:
'Few Democrats talk about growing the country’s wealth and income; rather, their focus is on how to carve up the wealth and income we already have. As de Blasio has so frequently said, “There’s plenty of money in the country, it’s just in the wrong hands.” '
As I read that, all I could hear is the part of Francisco D'Anconia's speech at James Taggart's wedding where he says this:
“If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose–because it contains all the others–the fact that they were the people who created the phrase ‘to make money.’
For me, Atlas Shrugged was a life-changing event. I could have been one of the people John Galt was talking to at the end of his speech, one of those who knows something is wrong but can't quite quantify it sufficiently. A.S. did for me what he hoped his speech would do for them.
Biden is an aging has been. The rest of them except for Sanders are dead in the water and will never get the nomination. I have a feeling its going to be Sanders vs Trump in 2020.
My advice to all liberty-loving people is to be sure you do what you can to LEARN self-defense moves along with how to care for and shoot a gun. We WILL need it if they EVER come to power again. Especially if it's sooner rather than later. They WILL punish us for voting against them.
Other characters, like the doctor who wrote “ The Metaphysical Contradictions of the Universe“ did openly deny reality and talked a lot about how objective reality did not exist.
Yes, wealth "can be created", but must only be created by effort, else it is not wealth and either not exist or remain a natural resource.
Today I say, 'What happened?'
What really gets me: These people think you can STEAL prosperity from others and have it yourself!
No! You can only steal the "useless" portion. The Result. Because the "useful" portion (the character that created it) is what we should cherish... And it is what will be destroyed...
Because once they take from you, enough flesh, your will to go on is simply diminished.
And that is the beginning of the Strike! When the good people simply go away and leave you to vote for someone elses belongings!
I am afraid today, that means stopping paying tzxes on a mass scale. Impeach Trump and that might actually happen.
I understand the impracticality of directly resisting collectivism, and the power of ideas. I do think that ,by and large , humans are basicallyanimals in that they try to get whatever they can. Being ruled by emotions seems to be learned at a VERY early age
AR did see some acceptance of her character Ragnar in the book. Personally I didn’t see much usefulness in what he did, except perhaps to prevent the looters from actually benefiting from their looting
Ragnar was controversial among the heroes. The looters hated him for beating them at their own game; the heroes disapproved because they didn't think it was worth the risk to him. In the plot his accomplishment was to accelerate the decline, which was the aim of the whole fictional "strike", but his actions and success at them were among the least plausible of the romanticized story.
Reason takes work; the lack of reason is easy.
But once the producers went on strike, the tax revenues from them (like Rearden, etc), would drop a LOT.
I think the best we can do today is to fight like hell against ANY increase in taxes, and try to reduce them as a first priority. What money the leftists dont get is less money they can use to enslave us further.
People do oppose tax increases. If they didn't the taxes would be much higher.
That was the conflict among the heroes of the novel -- those who sought to bring down the whole system versus those who did not want to surrender what they had in the conviction that they could still succeed while carrying the miserable parasites. At some point it is not worth it.
Part of the resolution of the heroes' conflict was the recognition and acceptance of the moral principle -- Dagny, and especially Hank Rearden, had been willing on principle to be beasts of burden when they should not have been, well beyond the point at which it was "practical". That was the "self-defeating" you saw.
But the purpose of the plot was not to advocate quitting, let alone striking, in a still semi-capitalist mixed economy of the US, but to show in fiction the role of the mind in human life and society -- and what happens when it is withdrawn. It shows how reason and individualism make success possible, and what happens when they are prohibited. The "strike" was a fictional, artificial acceleration of a natural reaction to the looters punishment, and was formulated the way it was in the novel to explicitly show the role of the mind.
I didnt take it the way you are portraying. I could see full well that I was just feeding the beast that was consuming me. I was left with getting what I could out of the system until the point where I dont need to work anymore and can let the system crash on its own. I voted for Trump to gain a few more years before the collecivists finally take over and bring on the final sinking of the ship- just as portrayed quite accurately in AS. Democracy is a terrible thing, right up there with dictatorship.
In a true democracy, if majority really rules, then if 55% of the people believe that murder should not be illegal, then we could all--literally--get away with murder. If 55% of the people believed we should be required to eat broccoli every night, then it would be illegal to eat green beans instead of broccoli on Sundays.
Ignorance isn't bliss; it's damn dangerous.
Income tax is Slavery!
I have two ways to reduce the amount I "contirbute" to my own destruction, however.
1) Reduce my expenses and buy as little as possible. That means I dont need to MAKE as much money, and have that taxed. Americans buy way too much "stuff" anyway.
2) Avoid purchases that have sales taxes
3) To the extent possible, go on STRIKE as in AS.
4) Move the hell out of the USA
Once one has amassed enough to live on for the rest of your life, it’s time to go on strike and move to a more desirable place.
In the case of systemwide collectivism, there really is no escape. Basically a person cannot live under a system where more and more of what they are allowed to produce is simply taken away. One has to hope that the system will collapse quickly and just go away, and about the only way I can see that happening today is a straight up collapse. Without changing basic philosophical ideas, another version of collectivism would simply spring up again.
This whole process will take way longer than I will live, given that the collectivists will just use their powers to stretch the rubber band ...
That said, I think that it is very self defeating to feed the beast. I try any way I can to reduce the amount of money that flows to the collectivist system without directly meeting the wrath of the powers that be.
Thats why I say that the default position of human is NOT to think, and it takes work and discipline TO use ones mind. Thats why AS failed in its attempt to change the world, and I think that the only way that people can be made to wake up and even consider thinking as a way to live more effectively is to let them see that NOT thinking produces plain disaster- and they have to feel it personally as described in AS in what you would call fictional form.
But Americans are indeed going to experience the collapse noted in AS, just as Venezuelans are experiencing it now.
1) The Gulch was hidden from infiltration and attacks from outsiders.
2) Gulchers were by and large financially independent.
3) The Gulch grew slowly as it could entice people who had specific skills, and allow them time to offer services that the other gulchers needed.
4) Isolation from collectivist military forces was key.
5) Immigration was totally controlled
In todays world, its definitely harder to get something started. It would need to be relatively isolated and away from people who would interfere with it. That eliminates essentially anywhere in the USA. For gulches of like 50 people or less, I am sure there are a lot of isolated places in south america that could qualify, for example.
You were one of the people he was talking to, i.e., who Ayn Rand was talking to when she wrote the novel. That is why she wrote it that way.
From what I've heard, that has created a schism within the Sierra Club, about half believing that. Talk about being anti-mind....
The Sierra Club is one of the wealthiest pressure group lobbies in the country. Yes they argue internally about primitivism as an ideal -- along with the Wilderness Society and may others. To see what these organizations have been doing, read Ron Arnold's Trashing the Economy, 2nd ed. It was written in the 1990s, but captures the essence of what these organizations are doing.
Analysis of Greepeace's business model & philosophy
Connolly, Connolly, Soon, Moore, Connolly, Dec 2018
Report fully paid for by the above authors.
Reading AS in my early 20s went right over my head for the most part and has been becoming more and more relevant the longer I live. As Rianman states, AS needs to be digested and comprehended in a much deeper forum just to keep the meaning out of the weeds at first reading.
And if I ever got into a position of enough power to determine school curricula, the one and only non-negotiable requirement for graduating high school would be an entire semester of Atlas Shrugged.
I would treat the class as a book club; the entire class would read it, and there would be discussions about characters and events. Students would be told that they must argue a character's position, even if they believed the complete opposite. I would do everything I could to force the snowflakes to think about the actions of the characters, and the reactions of others, of society, of the government, etc.
Alas, that's just another of my pipe dreams.
Ayn Rand argued that the American sense of life was much better than the intellectuals. Intellectual influence depends on appealing to the best in people with rational explanations, not trying to convert the worst to rationality. But a better sense of life cannot last indefinitely when it only undermined by the professional intellectuals who do most of the writing,speaking and teaching.
I am amazed at Sanders. I do think he is an evil person at his core, and its aurprising he could get as much traction as he has. I think if they put Sanders up against Trump, Sanders will go down in flames, but eventually we WILL have socialism here, just like Venezuela. I will be dead and buried before that happens, however.
I love cats and I note that the mother cat completely takes care of the kittens from birth Until one day she just stops and pushes the kitten away and forces it grow up and take care of itself
Today’s leftists just tried to recreate family socialism- and they are getting away with it. The only solution I see is fir the producers to just STOP letting them get away with it. It may just take a strike as AR OUTLINED IN AS to stop this leftist nonsense