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Life Imitates Atlas Shrugged...Again

Posted by $ rainman0720 5 years, 10 months ago to Politics
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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.


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  • Posted by bsmith51 5 years, 10 months ago
    The threat to Rand was looters. I wonder what her reaction would be to the large number of those who think that man's proper condition is to live as hunter-gatherers on the plains - no borders - as the Indians lived.
    From what I've heard, that has created a schism within the Sierra Club, about half believing that. Talk about being anti-mind....
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  • Posted by edweaver 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Great pipe dream! If done correctly, it would change the world, in a good way of course.
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  • Posted by Solver 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    In Atlas shrugged the socialists and the people who openly denied objective reality were two different groups. Ayn Rand did not predict that these two groups would combine to form a new even more dangerous philosophy.
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  • Posted by JuliBMe 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    They ARE worse because Atlas Shrugged cannot and does not factor in the abject HATE the left has for WE THE PEOPLE. Donald J. Trump is the vessel for the hate right now. But, it's EVERYONE who disagrees with them and who voted for him that they HATE with a PASSION. You can see it in every little thing they do and say.

    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.
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  • Posted by term2 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    WE never know who will swoop in from unknown parts and steal the nomination. Obama certainly did it in 2008, and Trump did it in 2016. I kind of hope its sanders vs Trump, in that I think Trump would win easily.
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  • Posted by term2 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    This is the 64k question. I would say that AR was aware of a few necessities:

    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.
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  • Posted by term2 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I dont wish to be dead, but on the other hand I really dont want to live in a Venezuelan type socialist and failing society
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  • Posted by term2 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    sorry. I was a little rushed when I wrote that. What I was getting at is that some wild action taken by leftists, such as impeaching Trump after he was duly elected, might get the deplorables to unite and actually stop paying taxes.
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  • Posted by $ 25n56il4 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Explain please. I don't understand your statement 'Impeach Trump and that might actually happen.'
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  • Posted by Owlsrayne 5 years, 10 months ago
    Putting up a dyed-in-the-wool communist candidate like Sanders for the Democrat Party presidential nomination will be sheer suicide for their party. They're all Moochers.
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Tulsi Gabbard was the most googled candidate. Part, I suspect was that she's a relative unknown; part was that she had one of the most well received statements when she made her strong antiwar pitch; and part was males who were thinking "Wow, she's hot!"
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  • Posted by Stormi 5 years, 10 months ago
    The first time I read AS, I said, "Yes, this is how it should be." I was elated someone actually got it. Politicians, who live in million dollar homes behind gates, vote to spend billions of dollar off the backs of the working producers. They manage to find loopholes for themselves. So, they vote for give aways that keep them in power and buy votes. They do not operate under equal trade or what the actual taxpayer wants. The most horrid is how they have used taxpayer funded schools to turn students against capitalism, and into little socialist, that is just obscene.
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  • Posted by term2 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I dont think there was withholding tax back when AS was written. Today, he would be paying payroll taxes and sales taxes, and his landlord would be paying property taxes.
    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.
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  • Posted by Solver 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I suspect even John Galt would be paying taxes unless his pay was so low that the government was giving him money because he seemed to be less productive.
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  • Posted by $ 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Nice to know I'm not the only one having these conversations. When he asked you what your point was, it was obvious he wasn't gonna get--ever--where you wanted him to be.
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 5 years, 10 months ago
    The problem with these people is that they can't seem to understand the idea that wealth can be created. I had a discussion with a liberal once where I asked him if he understood that human society first created the representation of wealth and how to exchange some of it for items of perceived value probably more than 5,000 years ago. He then asked what my point was, and I responded that if wealth could not be created, why is human society so much wealthier than, e.g., ancient Egyptian society, even though there are many more of us today? He just shook his head and walked away, ending the conversation.
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  • Posted by term2 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I have postulated this theory to help me understand why there seems to be a constant and unending pressure to adopt collectivism in one form or another.

    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.
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  • Posted by term2 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I think they already have that. The second amendment was designed to protect US against our own government. Thats why the leftists want to get rid of it.
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  • Posted by term2 5 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It is indeed very difficult to avoid taxation theft. Very difficult. They have figured out how to take it even before you actually are due to pay it.
    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
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