Freedom of Philadelphia

Both Merlyworm and I have done many posts here regarding the slippage of our world into the Randian (is that a word? If not it should be) world of Atlas Shrugged. So many that I’ve created a category for it now and will start moving posts into it! I’m calling what’s going on the “Atlas Effect“.

Over the last couple of years we’ve seen the world start shifting radically towards the bleak future describe by Rand. Lately people have been saying “Who is John Galt” in relation to the wealth redistrubition efforts of our Media sanctified and elected President Obama. With a stimulus bill designed to primarily spread government money around to those recipients that it deems most worthy i.e. government itself.  There have been mass protests called “Tea Partys in multiple cities decrying the spending of our childrens inheritance. Oh what’s that you say? You haven’t heard about it on your local media? Of course not, you can not tell the emperor he has no clothes! Do a google search “Philadelphia Tea Party Inquirer“ and you’ll find nothing in Philadelphia’s largest newspaper about it. Ironically the 3rd link listed is one talking about how the owner of the cities 2 largest newspapers filed for bankruptcy! We’re told that the stimulus plan and the coming tax hikes on the rich are for the benefit of the middle class and for the poor. What’s that Vice President Biden, it’s our duty to be patriotic and pay more taxes?  When people start talking like that, when they use words like “fair for everyone” and “equalization of wealth” it’s a sign of the “Atlas Effect”.

We’ve seen people start to discuss whether or not it’s worth it to work so hard and make what they make. So imagine if you’re a small business owner. You’ve worked hard to build a clientele and it’s paying off for you now. You’re income is starting to rise above that 250k a year line. What do you do? Do you expand, hire some more people and build on your clientele or do you pull back and make less? Sure you could make more money but is it worth being classified as “rich” and falling into an excessive tax bracket? Of course it isn’t, you’d end up working even more just to bring home as much as you did below that line so you don’t hire those few more workers, you don’t expand you product line. You go Galt. Going Galt hurts the government by hurting it’s ability to rake in tax revenues. Unfortunately, it has the collateral damage effect of really hurting the economy. Another sign of the “Atlas Effect“.

We also need to remember that this is not just an American problem. We live in a global economy and an ever shrinking world. The “Atlas Effect” just doesn’t show up here in America. Rand wrote about things that would happen in other countries. An integral part of her book was how Venezuela’s nationalization of the copper mines and Mexico’s nationalization of an American built railroad effected situations here. Well guess what folks, Venezuela has nationalized energy production, steel plants, cement plants, telecommunication companies and just today nationalized a rice processing plant owned by American company Cargill. Cargill operates 13 plants in Venezuela (well I guess 12 now), when Chavez turns his eye towards the other plants don’t you think that might have an effect on Cargill here? Perhaps the loss of that plant causes them to rethink opening a new feed mill in Arizona while they recoup those losses? Once again, the “Atlas Effect” in action.

When you look at all that’s going on through a larger scope, looking at all the pieces as they are falling in place you have to be worried. Events unfold every day here in America and throughout the world that are practically cribbed right from Rands book and if you read it, you realize there was no happy ending in it. Have we started to slide down this slope too fast? Are we too far gone to avoid the ending? I don’t know. I like to think that the country that survived the Great Depression, that basically saved the world 3 times (WWI, WWII, and the cold war) will not be brought down so easily. It does make me all wonder though, if this much of her story is coming to pass then who and where is John Galt now?

As I said in a recent post, I’ve been hit with a bit of writers block, so postings have been quiet. Doesn’t mean I’m not checking in here or staying on top of the news. Case in point, there was a post Merlyworm wrote awhile ago about “Books everyone should read“. Recently we’ve had someone comment on that. Here’s the comment (copied exactly as he left it, no changes to spelling, grammar, or ignorance):

On July 3rd, 2007, shawn said:

So I’ve read atlas shrugged, and as a semi-liberal, which is kind of like saying I don’t much give a shit who’s in office as long as it isn’t George W. Bush, I find this book to be one of the most well-written, and though-provoking books to date. If anything, it shows how conservatives will in the end lead this country to ruin by not seeing how their traditionlistic views are destroying our country, the times are changing, money is corrupting, the only people we have in office are greedy millionaires who seem to think money gives them some kind of endowed authority over others. Want to bash on liberals? Well how’s about we take a look at your “conservative” friends. George Bush: led a war against Iraq because of so-called WMD’s that your “intelligence” said were there. In fact, this war was nothing more than him trying to finish something his father counldn’t complete in his own time. Then there is Cheney: the new, and only member of the 4th branch of government, his super-secret branch that is part executive, part legislative, all bullshit. Anyway, seeing as Atlas shrugged is in fact the most influential book in the US behind the bible, I would assume that liberals and conservatives both enjoy it. So to summarize, your stnace is ridiculous and conservatives will be the downfall of society. Thanks for your time

Now “Shawn” here didn’t leave an email or a place to contact him, so I’m going to respond to him in this post.

Dear Shawn,
Thanks ever so much for reading my page and responding to Merly’s post. While there are things he and I disagree on, our love for Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” is one of the things we definitely agree on! First let me respond to your comments by telling you that perhaps you suffer from BDS and you might want to get that checked out. I’d really advise that you do it soon, because if Comrade Hillary wins the election you might have a very long line to wait in with socialized health care before you can get some meds. Secondly, as to your trite “Bush lied” line of bs. Allow me to point you in the direction of this piece by Horowitz. I’ll save you some time from reading it by quoting, perhaps, the most pertinent piece as it relates to your “Bush lied about WMD’s” talking point.

The Authorization for the Use of Force bill – passed by majorities of both parties in both Houses – is the legal basis for the president’s war, which Democrats have since betrayed along with the troops they sent to the battlefield. The Authorization bill begins with 23 “whereas” clauses justifying the war. Contrary to Gore and the Democratic critics of the Bush administration, only two of these clauses refer to stockpiles of WMDs. On the other hand, twelve of the reasons for going to war refer to UN resolutions violated by Saddam Hussein.

Even if these indisputable facts were not staring Gore in the face, the destruction of WMDs could not have been the “first rationale” for the war in Iraq for this simple reason. On the very eve of the war, the president gave Iraq an option to avoid a conflict with American forces. On March 17, two days before the invasion, Bush issued an eleventh-hour ultimatum to Saddam: leave the country or face war. In other words, if Saddam had agreed to leave Iraq, there would have been no American invasion. It is one of the most revealing features of the Democrats’ crusade against George Bush that they blame the war on him instead of Saddam.

Shawn, please go read the rest of the article. Horowitz is a super intelligent dude so there might be some big words there so feel free to ask an adult to be there with you or perhaps have a dictionary there for anything you don’t understand.

Now let’s talk about you total misunderstand of “Atlas Shrugged”. You seem to assume that the main characters of the book are:

If anything, it shows how conservatives will in the end lead this country to ruin by not seeing how their traditionlistic views are destroying our country, the times are changing, money is corrupting, the only people we have in office are greedy millionaires who seem to think money gives them some kind of endowed authority over others.

However, you miss the point of Rand here completely. Really what she was saying is that any form of government or societal intervention that was used to supersede an inventors or intellectual thinkers right to ideas and the profit from them was not only morally wrong but bad for the world. She compared these socialists to “looters”. Imagine Shawn, if you will, that you were the creator of the new I-phone and wanted to sell it for 500.00 a pop because it was so damn spiffy. Now imagine that a bunch of bleeding heart socialistic ninja type liberals decided that it “just isn’t fair” for only those people with 500 dollars to get one and they ordered you to sell them at 19.99. You would be outraged! The sweat of your hard work, all the time you spent designing and testing the phone to make it the best would now be given away below cost! In Rand’s world you would be among the “thinkers” and all those people forcing you to sell your product at that low price would be “looters” and “moochers”. Now you might think that she’s wrong, that you should make the phone so cheap that you never make a profit off of it. However, let’s be realistic, that’s not a way for any business to run. You wouldn’t be able to pay your workers, pay your suppliers, in effect you would be out of business before everyone got a phone. Denying a large majority of people the chance to even earn one.
Rand is talking about how socialism can and will be the doom of society, she goes on to attempt to prove (I’ll leave whether or not she proves it be up to each reader), that the one thing free market capitalism shows is that it can produce is wealth. Rand wasn’t trying to show that being a “millionaire gave some endowed authority”, rather if you read the book well you would realize that one of the leading “antagonists” is James Taggart who is from a wealthy family! In fact, you will notice that as the “thinkers” disappear they go to a place where they aren’t living in opulent mansions with tons of servants. In fact they are living in obscurity in “Galt’s Gulch”. For more info on all the details from Atlas Shrugged go look here. Shawn, I really think you need to step away from connotations such as “Democrat” and “Republican” and read the book again with a more open mind. Please bear in mind, Rand wrote this in a time way before the animosity that now exists between the left and the right and is speaking more to the potential stagnation and horrors of socialism. Thanks for stopping by and please, feel free to comment or email me at freedomofphiladelphia at gmail dot com.

Ayn Rand wrote about “looters” in Atlas Shrugged. In it she decried the attempts of people to “loot” the hard work of others. It, to me seemed to be, a direct shot at socialism. The stealing of your intellectual hard work or hard physical labor.The old Soviet Union was big on socialism, they had it for decades, however it crumbled under it’s own weight of abuse, corruption, and it’s struggles against capitalism. Hugo Chavez down in Venezuela is working on his own brand of socialism right now, going so far as to nationalize several industries, in effect looting the hard work of the companies who built them. Well now, it seems Hillary Clinton is all about socialist speak.

We Are All in It Together, Clinton Says
Tuesday May 29, 12:11 pm ET
By Holly Ramer, Associated Press Writer

Clinton: Shared Prosperity Should Replace ‘On Your Own’ Society MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined a broad economic vision Tuesday, saying it’s time to replace an “on your own” society with one based on shared responsibility and prosperity.

So my 1st question is, “what’s wrong with an on your own society?” What’s wrong with having to work for what you get, and having the level of work you put into something determine your reward? Why should someone who worked hard to get through college, works hard at a job to make it a prosperous career, or someone who came up with their own innovative idea/company be responsible for others doing well? Hillary goes on to say:

I prefer a ‘we’re all in it together’ society,” she said. “I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can promote the great American tradition of opportunity for all and special privileges for none.”

That means pairing growth with fairness, she said, to ensure that the middle-class succeeds in the global economy, not just corporate CEOs.

So now who will determine what’s “fair”, can you say “worker council” or “government work committee”? See what Hillary is really talking about here is a world where a select few enlightened minds will determine what is best for all, and the government will then set about regulating, controlling, and subsidizing “for the common good”. Think I’m overreacting?

“Fairness doesn’t just happen. It requires the right government policies.”

That’s from the same speech. This is a typical secular progressive type thought. The government should “nurture” people and be “responsible” for how people perform/exist. People like Hillary want the government or society to be the end all be all of personal development. It garners attention from more weak willed people who are unwilling to look at themselves in the mirror and assign any personal blame or responsibility for what is wrong in their lives. It’s not “my” fault I don’t have a good job, it’s the “governments” fault. It’s not “my” fault that I’ve broken laws, it’s “society’s” fault. When you boil it down to the very basics it’s a fundamental difference between the right and the left. The left wants the government to provide the fish and the right wants to teach you how to fish on your own. This type of thinking comes right out of the mouths of people like Lakoff and Soros and not only is pervasive in our school systems but is now coming out of the mouths of presidential candidates. It shouldn’t surprise anyone though, ever since FDR the government has been providing more and more to the American populace (not efficiently mind you) and making more and more people reliant, not on themselves, but on the government. What’s next? Bread and circuses?

Anyone who has read “Atlas Shrugged” *edited 6-5 by Logan, screwed up the name folks, thanks to the reader who pointed it out*, by Ayn Rand knows that line. Merlyworm called it one of his favorite books and it ranked just below the Bible on the list of influential books. It’s a book that almost ever conservative will list among their favorits and one that liberals are afraid of people reading. Well the more things happen in this world the more I’m thinking of Rand as a prophet.

Look here are what’s going on in South America. It’s right out of the book. Chavez has “nationalized” the oil companies i.e. looted them from the companies that spent billions getting them to that point. Now he’s threatening the banks and steel producers, unless the give huge discounts to companies in Venezuela. In Atlas Shrugs it was the copper mines.

“Private banks have to give priority to financing the industrial sectors of Venezuela at low cost,” Chavez said. “If banks don’t agree with this, it’s better that they go, that they turn over the banks to me, that we nationalize them and get all the banks to work for the development of the country and not to speculate and produce huge profits.”

It’s right out of the book. Almost prophetic. Where is our John Galt to put an end to it all?

Here are 3 books everyone should read. Especially liberals. Often, I seriously think that the reason people are liberal is because they are either misinformed or just plain stupid. (The goes for the general population. The reason politicians are liberal is either because they use their liberalness to buy votes, or they are insane.)

1. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

A survey in 1991 by the Library of Congress found “Atlas Shrugged” to be the second most influential book in the United States after the bible. Seriously. Look it up. Its a fictional tale about a fictional time, but the values and statements made in the book are very real. Take this speech made by one of the characters in the book about the phrase ‘money is the root of all evil.’ The last statement pretty much sums it up:

Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns–or dollars. Take your choice–there is no other–and your time is running out.

Everyone needs to read this book. This is what made me conservative, and is a very good book to tell just how liberal someone is. You can tell by their reaction to the book.

BTW, Who is John Galt?

2. Bias by Bernard Goldberg

Mr. Goldberg is no right-winger. He’s a liberal, but not one of those crazy ones. One day he realized something was wrong in the media, and lost his job at CBS news because he crossed ‘The Dan.’ A must read if you want to try and understand just why and how the media is so liberally twisted. Really, all of his books are very good, but this is the one you really should read as a ‘right-wing hate monger.’

3. State of Fear by Michael Crichton

Want to begin to understand the environmental movement? This book is the primer for it. Like ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ its fiction, but in this book there’s real science behind the story. It was a fun read, and I learned some interesting things about how silly the ‘global warming’ nuts are. Read it and learn something about the left.

Thats all I can think of right now. Feel free to reply with other suggestions. I’m always looking for good books to read.

-Merlyworm