Posted on 07/30/2012 5:45:37 AM PDT by Kaslin
Where is a man who can save us? A man of virtue and action who can rebuild our economy and culture? We must find a true-to-life John Galt.
I think America’s best shot at economic recovery and restoring constitutional freedom is to nurture men and women who emulate the virtues of John Galt, a hero in Ayn Rand’s magnum opus novel, Atlas Shrugged. Galt is a man of unparalleled virtue, intelligence and action in a fictional U.S. economy that is eerily identical to the present-day U.S. economy.
Galt is an American inventor who lives and breathes his philosophy: “I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” What Galt means is that he will earn happiness through his virtues of: “…rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness, pride.”
In Atlas Shrugged, college professors, state scientists and government bureaucrats advocate “shared sacrifice” which is code for theft, lust and brute force. In the novel, most American citizens choose short-term pleasure and a false sense of security over the truth, enabling the government to turn against productive entrepreneurs.
The government annihilates private property rights and passes regulations like the “Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule” that outlaw basic competition and free trade. The scientific community becomes a branch of the government (much like today’s situation with Obamacare, the HHA, the EPA and socialized green tech). And Americans who once drove cars are soon driving covered wagons.
The U.S., as depicted in Atlas, is similar to today’s reality where Americans are increasingly falling for the government’s anti-wealth mantra. Pew reports as of July 16 that: “By two-to-one (44% to 22%), the public says that raising taxes on incomes above $250,000 would help the economy rather than hurt it...[even among Americans who identify themselves as ‘Republicans,’ only a minority of] 41% say this would hurt the economy…”
And, like the government stooges in Atlas, our President is telling Americans that he will make business owners pay more taxes and this will somehow create jobs. Obama recently pitched his plan at a July 13 campaign stop in Roanoke, VA: “If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. … If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that! Somebody else made that happen!”
What Obama failed to mention is that entrepreneurial Americans will not stick around and pay the highest effective corporate income tax rate in the world (a federal/state integrated rate of 39.2 percent). The U.S. government is even threatening foreign banks that allow wealthy Americans respite from our high tax rates. Beginning in 2012, “Foreign banks that once offered secrecy will have to report on their U.S. clients or else face 30% fines on their U.S. investments…” reports TIME Magazine.
Well, self-made entrepreneurs are packing up and saying, “See ya, Uncle Sam!” Think billionaire co-founder of Facebook Inc., Eduardo Saverin who renounced his U.S. citizenship in May to become a resident of Singapore. And Saverin is not alone. TIME reports that a record numbers of American citizens (1,788 individuals in 2011) are relinquishing their U.S. citizenship.
In Atlas, entrepreneurs flee to Galt’s Gulch—an isolated community where “men of the mind” go on “strike” and refuse to use their talents to advance socialism. Let’s prevent our country from heading toward this scenario—where we lose our best and brightest, as well as our freedom.
So what does America need to do in order to attract and retain the ‘John Galt’ types who will save her economy and culture? Here are my suggestions:
1.) Take Galt’s advice and “…start by abolishing all income taxes.”
2.) Stop devaluing the U.S. dollar. Rand describes an economy that is much like ours: “The wads of worthless paper money were growing heavier in the pockets of the nation, but there was less and less for that money to buy. …the printing presses of the government were running a race with starvation, and losing.” Galt tells the government, “…there are no funds behind your blank check.”
3.) Never believe force will inspire entrepreneurs to innovate. Galt tells government bureaucrats that an entrepreneur under force will “become a robot.”
4.) Let entrepreneurs produce. Consider adding Rand’s phrase to the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production and trade…”
5.) Live the philosophy of thinkers like Rand, Aristotle, Aquinas, Madison, Hamilton, Thoreau and Locke. We cannot simply etch profound ideas into D.C. monuments and then forget about them.
6.) Eliminate all anti-business rules. As Galt’s sweetheart and entrepreneur Dagny Taggart counsels: “Start decontrolling. ...Start lifting taxes and removing controls.”
Next week, I will continue this discussion. Meanwhile, I encourage you to read Atlas Shrugged.
If a modern-day John Galt is out there, if you know who he is and what he’s doing, he’s not doing it right, is he?
I don’t know but I hope he contacts me soon.
Thou art the man.
If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.
"A man who has a vision is not able to use the power of it until after he has performed the vision on earth for the people to see" -- Black Elk, Lakota shaman
Live the philosophy just like Ayn Rand who like the rest of us contemptible parasites took Social Security.
Although the book is well worth the time it takes to read (I’ve read it twice now).... if you just can’t find the time, the movie is a good substitute. It will take 3 movies to tell the whole story. Movie 1 has been out a while, and is showing on Netflix now. Movie 2 is supposed to be released October 2012
he’s not doing it right, is he?
************************************
The lights are still on ... we haven’t seen order 10-289 sent down from Obummer yet (although it’s close) ... Who is John Galt? you are John Galt , I am John Galt ...
JG is running the Tea Party.
If that's his thing, whatever. My goal is to live for others, following the examples of Christ, of St. Francis, of St. Maximilian Kolbe, of St. Teresa of Calcutta. Some days I don't do very well at laying down my life or taking up my cross, but that's the goal.
If the economic solid waste impacts the sociological rotating blades, I have no intention of "going Galt." I will "go St. Francis," and give everything away, first.
How about an actual person, such as Davy Crockett or William B. Travis, who have inspired Texans for generations?
A fictional “action hero:” simply can’t generate the same devotion.
The last guy who tried to give the Federal Reserve a run, literally, for it’s money is sitting in a jail cell. Convicted of counterfeiting an “alternate” currency that never claimed to be “Federal” money.
—Where is a man who can save us? A man of virtue and action who can rebuild our economy and culture? We must find a true-to-life John Galt. —
If one has read the book, they will know when John Galt made himself known to the general public. We are not there yet. We will get there.
But I doubt there is a John Galt.
When the going gets tough, John Galt whines and runs away to hide. Is that the kind of hero you want?
The problem is, as Ayn Rand stated in her non-fiction books and in Atlas shrugged, that the dominant moral code in the country is based on Altruism; a code that holds that man has no right to exist for his own sake and must serve others to justify his existence. Ayn Rand has proven it beyond doubt in her books. You see it everywhere in TV shows, news commentary, schools, books and newspapers, in politicians speeches and in government programs. It is taught every Sunday in churches all across the land especially, although in a different form. The fundamental premise is exactly the same as that of socialism and Marxism and of the Nazis and every malevolent dictator who has ever lived. It is drummed into us from our earliest memories in children’s shows and Sunday school. And don’t get me started on college campuses. What chance does someone who wants to put into practice John Galt’s philosophy have to get elected in that environment when even most conservatives, including the vast majority of the TEA party, have bought into the lethal premise of Altruism? None. Barack Obama is the logical product of that philosophy and even his staunchest enemies accept his basic moral premises. It will all have to come crashing down just as it did in Atlas Shrugged. Hopefully there will be plenty of john Galts around to rebuild it under a different code. The one the country was originally founded on which is the fictional John Gault’s philosophy.
Why go after Social Security recipients? They did pay into the system not like other welfare recipients.
Why shouldn’t she take it. She paid into it, or was forced to. Why shouldn’t she recover every penny she could? She was entitled to take it precisely because she was against it in the first place.
I’ve been kvetching about this for some time now. Nobody wants to go galt.
The person you need to step up is YOU. Do you produce wealth? Do you surrender it to the government on demand? Then you are funding America’s destruction.
You can whine all you please online, grumble through your keyboard about America’s decline, but if you are paying your taxes, your actions speak louder.
The Founders had careers too. They had families to support. Bills to pay. They put everything on the line.
If the government were faced with a legal tax revolt — the productive taxpayers suddenly going unproductive in order to deprive the government of taxes — the government would surrender promptly and beg for mercy.
Instead, you want to keep voting and hoping for relief that never comes. It’s 2012, you SEE what’s inevitably coming, and still you do nothing that makes any difference.
And don’t crow about your guns. If you surrender your money you’ll surrender your guns, when the demand comes. Even if you didn’t, they’d just wait until you went to work (to pay your taxes) and then they’d go in and take your guns. And your precious keyboard too.
“My goal is to live for others”
Then why don’t you vote for President Obama?
I get what you are saying on an intellectual level, but altruism is part of human nature. We are built to work with each other. We are made for each other. We are social creatures. The key is to balance altruism with individualism. Rand’s philosophy does not allow for this simple reality, and that’s why Objectivism never works in the real world.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.