Posted on 03/28/2009 7:39:14 AM PDT by Publius
Ping! The thread has been posted.
Earlier threads:
Our First Freeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Theme
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Chain
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Top and the Bottom
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Immovable Movers
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Climax of the d’Anconias
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Non-Commercial
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Exploiters and the Exploited
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The John Galt Line
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Sacred and the Profane
FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, Wyatt’s Torch
You do an excellent job of excerpting this story and comparing the events in Atlas Shrugged to our, real world, current events.
I think about this book so often when I look at what is going on in Washington, especially the demonization of business and the ‘Greedy” CEOs.
Thank you for taking the time to do this.
I have been enjoying these threads since you started the project
The Von Mises Institute has it online in PDF format.
It was written principally for post grad political science types, so its not simple in it language. It more clearly defines all the “isms” as they apply to the difference between government and the State.
Do not let the title frighten you, it is NOT about “black helicopters” or anything at all of that nature.
Hit the link and read just of few of the endorsements by critical thinkers of that time.
The book nails Oh-bummer cleanly.
Wesley Mouch = Barak Obama
Exce3llent write up. Impressive.
“We first hear the expression “the sanction of the victim”. This is to become one of the main themes of the book. It might be premature to ask how this relates to today’s world, but it might not be a bad idea to start cataloging incidents that fit this concept.”
Removing tax exemptions from people who make “too much money” is an example, I think.
Take a look at the Amazon sales rankings for the two editions of Atlas Shrugged. People are getting the the parallels.
The use of crisis situations for power hungry politicians to grab power (Cloward-Piven Strategy of Orchestrated Crisis) is disturbing in the book and even more disturbing to watch actually happening. The US government may soon have the power to seize financial institutions if they are deemed to be at risk of failure and could threaten the economy. I predict that the next to be targeted by the government looters will be insurance companies, health care providers, the auto industry, food production/distribution and transportation. The problem is (in AS and with the US leftists) is that their policies caused the crisis situations in the first place, they blamed the industrial “victims” or their misguided or purposeful policies, and then used the crisis for their own benefit. And only a small percentage of the population questions the obvious lies.
Thanks for the Ping!
I’m posting Alexis de Tocqueville’s work today on another thread.
This new administration, as bad as it is, may be spurring a new revolution in political study.
Exactly right...my opinion is that BHO will target doctors and other health care providers with his “cap on compensation” due to the “health care emergency”.
I own a small manufacturing company which was located in Camden NJ. We have been plagued by graffiti on our building painted there by the local gang bangers. It is a growing problem in Camden. I've repainted my building two times but after each repaint the boys go artistic once again. I finally gave up because the police would not do anything about it and business is bad and I could no longer afford it.
Enter the City government. The City passed an ordinance to require companies occupying graffiti stained buildings to clean it up at their own expense. I was visited by an armed inspector and issued a ticket to paint my building. I went to city hall and talked to the director and tried to explain to her that without proper police enforcement the only result would be a waste of money on my part and the graffiti would return. She just said the laws the law and they were cracking down in an attempt to clean up the city. Cracking down on the businesses not the punks doing it one should note.I refused again and was issued a second ticket for non compliance with the first order.
Now it just so happens that the mercantile license was coming due ( talk about looters having the power over a productive enterprise! ). Well, the city refused to issue my company the license unless I painted my building. I refused again. This time the armed inspector came back with a "suit' who explained to me that if my license were to expire they would close my building and not allow me to operate. I decided that it wasn't worth the expense and signed an agreement to paint my building and was issued my license. Going out the door after my capitulation the head honcho woman said to me,"Now don't you feel better that you are contributing to the clean up of Camden". True story.
I fired the three neighborhood kids working part time, took my skilled people and moved the business out of Camden last fall. The building is empty and covered with graffiti.
A round of applause for you, Sir. _You_ are John Galt !
And in the final analysis that is the paramount evil of collectivism....you are faced with the hobbesian choice of either going down in flames for the "right" and taking your family and employees with you, or trying to survive. I do business in Ukraine and I can tell you that the compromises people in the old USSR had to make just to feed their kids is unbelievable to an American. The beauty of free market capitalism is that average people like me can prosper and maintain dignity. The first thing you lose in collectivism is dignity. And telling yourself you had no choice never makes it easier. I tell myself I ran away to fight another day. Maybe. Or maybe I just wanted to survive and save my ass.
Good for you!
Voting with your feet is never anyone’s first choice, but sometimes it is a survival skill.
Don’t be so hard on yourself.
John Galt, novelist, colonial promoter (b at Irvine, Scot 2 May 1779; d at Greenock, Scot 11 Apr 1839). While struggling to survive as a man of letters, Galt became involved with Canadian affairs, first as agent for those claiming losses in the WAR OF 1812, and subsequently (1824) as secretary of the board of directors of the CANADA CO.
He came to Upper Canada on several occasions, remaining 1826-29 as company superintendent and founding the town of GUELPH in 1827; the town of Galt (now CAMBRIDGE) was named after him. He had continual conflict with the directors and was eventually recalled and spent his last years in impoverished ill health. Galt's best-known fiction deals mainly with Scottish life, and his writings, except for his Autobiography (1833) and Literary Life (1834), show only a limited influence of his Canadian involvements. Two of his novels embody his idea of emigrants best suited to the US (Lawrie Todd, 1830) and Canada (Bogle Corbet, 1831).
The town of Galt, Ontario has been combined with some other municipalities to form Cambridge, Ontario. However, I believe there still is a shopping center called the "John Galt Mall".
Not to mix Rand novels, but my first employer told me "We all start out thinking we are Howard Roark, and we all end up realizing we are Peter Keating." I wanted to kick his ass. Now, 25 years later, trying to find that next project so I can still pay my employees, I realize that he was right.
I’m going to take the easy question. Currently, so-called
“green energy” requires subsidies in order to be “profitable.”
In a way, we’re not currently living this particular chapter. We’ve been living this chapter for several years now.
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