Tuesday, November 6, 2012

I love Ayn Rand

Did I ever confess here that I am a HUGE fan of Ayn Rand? Well, if not, here's my confession. She was one of the most lucid and insightful minds in the philosophical realm. Like Thomas Sowell, she always seemed capable of reducing an apparently complex situation to its basic elements, and therefore, to its truths.

"If a businessman makes a mistake, he suffers the consequences. If a bureaucrat makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences." - Ayn Rand.

Damned straight.

If you've never read her non-fiction works, do it! Do it NOW!

"Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal"

"Philosophy: Who Needs It?"

Both exceptional books. And they are both on Kindle for under $10.00 each. No excuses.

 



9 comments:

  1. Which one has the map to Galt's gulch?

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    1. You forget: Galt's Gulch was reserved for the SUPERcapable Capitalists; the rest of us will have to wait for The Collapse Of Everything (a.k.a. the Cloward-Piven Strategy) to finish failing before the Exalted Objectivists will come out to piece back together whatever THEY decide is worth keeping.

      And I say this as a decades-long devotee of Ayn Rand's Objectivism; but it wasn't until the apparent failure of the Tea Party to show up at this election (apparently they'd already "gone Galt") that it finally occurred to me that the Dagny Taggarts and the Hank Reardens were perfectly willing to abandon all of the people who had put their faith, and their labors, into their Capitalist hands: Such is the nature of Rand's Selfish Objectivity, that when Push comes to Shove, there is no Loyalty To The Troops to be found anywhere....

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    2. I can understand how you mad you are right now. I am, too. But I don't blame the Tea Party. I do believe they showed up. I think we all underestimated the deviousness and deceit of the other side.

      I know the guy who started it, Mark Meckler, personally and his parents, too, and they are STILL here and STILL fighting. No one went anywhere. The votes just "went" somewhere.

      Check the links in the comment thread here.

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    3. Besides, come one...Atlas Shrugged was a sort of economic/philosophic fairy tale. She was writing for EFFECT. To illustrate her point.

      In a TRUE Galt's Gulch situation, every SUPER capable capitalist needs thousands and thousands of people to support him. Have you ever watched Milton Friedman's video on the making of a pencil????

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    4. I could be wrong, Buttercup – and thanks for replying – but "Galt's Gulch" was strictly a Subsistence Operation, producing Just Enough For Survival (until the Revanchism), and funded, you'll recall, by a pirate who "stole back" everything those Atlases had had confiscated by the Evil Empire (or something to that effect). You don't need "thousands and thousands of people" to support only your own survival.

      And, Friedman and Ticonderoga notwithstanding, I CAN make a pencil; I can't mass-produce them by myself, but I have the knowledge, skills, and tools to make actual pencils, with either graphite-filled clay cores, or actual lead. Mass production requires Capital, which I don't have, and which Selfish Objectivists in Survival Mode don't need. I WILL survive (I hunt and fish too); how many Laborers, who may be quite skilled in stripping and skiving wood and mixing graphite with clay will survive when 20th Century Pencils falls apart after John Galt leaves?

      And please note that I was only responding, originally, to the "map to Galt's Gulch" comment, and my response is still valid: Loyal Followers are Not Welcome in the Land Of The Idealist (of either Political Persuasion). I'm not arguing about Principles or Ideology (I haven't commented on other threads where the "whole concept" was under discussion, largely because I agree with you and most of your commenters; I'm just pointing out that Philosophy has an annoying tendency to not line up with Reality.

      I'm not even "blaming the tea party", for anything other than believing they were a bigger Force To Be Reckoned With than they turned out to be; I thought it was rather odd that Romney couldn't get as many votes as McCain, until I read about the 99+% turnout for Obama in the Philadelphia districts that the Republican Polling Judges were thrown out of, and Electronic Voting Machines that mysteriously converted votes for Romney into votes for Obama (I live in Illinois, and spent most of my misbegotten life in Chicago).

      What I'm suggesting is that Economic Collapse is both assured, and will be required, before the US of A can be salvaged; and the Atlases will keep themselves safe until the World Is Ready For Them, and the rest of us will necessarily die, because Galt's Gulch can't possibly hold all of us.

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    5. Philosophy doesn't perfectly align with reality, because none of us are truly interested in living to the stringent requirements that any particular philosophy requires. I don't think that's the point. Philosophy gives a ballpark, if you will...and IDEA of what we should be striving for, not necessarily what we will achieve. But to know we will fall short doesn't mean we shouldn't have a demanding philosophy. That's what the left does. They point at us when we fall short and see that as proof that we are either hypocrites or that our philosophy should be abandoned because it isn't achievable.

      Personally, I believe there is NO WAY IN HELL that the Republican turnout was below McCain in 08. We are being lied to, but we've taken the lies for so long now, it's just one more FU to the voters. They hardly try to hide it anymore. Who's going to challenge them? Boehner??? If you've spent your life in Chicago, you know all about dirty politics and cheating.

      I believe we will have an economic collapse, but I don't think it portends good things. I think it will being chaos and turmoil, and the excuse for a MASSIVE government movement that will end in the complete loss of our constitutional rights. End. Of. Story.

      When societies collapse, they rarely just jumped right back up better than ever. They slide into obscurity or tyranny for a very long time before they have even the slightest chance of reestablishing a framework for freedom again. If ever.

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    6. Boehner might have had something to do with the acceptance of the Low Republican Voter Turnout – if not the actual Low Turnout itself – because a stronger showing by the Tea Party in the House might well have cost him the Speakership (recall that Boehner led the charge to have Newt Gingrich removed from the Speakership). Allen West lost in Florida, and Alan Grayson got re-elected; corruption for the sake of power isn't limited to one party, y'know….

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    7. corruption for the sake of power isn't limited to one party, y'know…

      I completely agree. In fact, I don't know a single Tea Party leader who doesn't recognize that. That is a large part of why the Tea Party rose from the grassroots movement to national prominence so fast - MANY people recognized that there was no party left uncorrupted. The decision was to take over the Republican party from within.

      I'm not sure it is working.

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    8. Well, then, take heart: Given that Karl Rove is half of what is wrong with the Republican Party (the Establicans – including Boehner – are the other half), any new Tea Party candidate who finds him/herself at odds with the Rovians need only point out to his/her would-be constituents that "Hey, these Big Guns who are fighting me don't WANT to win – based on their track record."

      What worries me is that the Tea Partiers knew that the down-ticket races were the most important (because they had to take over the GOP from the ground up); but, apparently, the Establicans knew it too, given how many "down-ticket" Tea Partiers got their asses handed to them. (I mean, really: The whole state of Utah went Republican EXCEPT for Mia Love? And here in Lake County Illinois the only Republican who won was the one from the new 14th District, which USED to be Joe Walsh's 8th District, until it got redrawn to put him squarely amidst all of the Leftist Exurbs around Chicago.)

      At least I've resolved myself to being in the Permanent Minority (your entry about the Thieves, including Obamaphone Beeyotch, was sufficiently in line with my thinking that I didn't reply; however, if you want a little slavish adoration I'll be happy to comply, heh heh); I moved my investments into Government Bonds and Securities (like Fannie and Freddie), because the Stock Market will nosedive in 2013 with the Taxmageddon, and will dive again in 2014 as Obamacare takes full effect, but the Federal Institutions will stay "solvent" as long as they keep getting Dollars shoveled at them … and, although everybody on the Rightside is looking ahead to 2016, I see a great future for Fiscal Conservativism in the 2014 election.…

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