Posted on 11/18/2012 5:36:57 AM PST by 1rudeboy
Atlas Shrugged is an excellent fictional homage the the "Men of the Mind."
Excellent!
Nice article.
In my experience talking with Marxists I have found that they think (wrongly) wealth is like energy, it cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. (They would never say it this way, having taken no science.)
In this world view, if someone has wealth, they must have gotten it from others. Those others are the workers.
They tend to argue that they should be able to hire the “thinkers” at a “fair” wage to design the computer and the plant. That fair wage may even be slightly higher than the workers wage, but not appreciably higher, and that the thinkers would just happily fill their role in society. Voila - Utopia!
They totally drop the concept of risk, reward, incentive and human nature. In fact they want to change human nature to achieve their socialist goal. They will go so far as to kill you if you don’t want to play in their happy little utopia.
Did Marx not recognize the value of intellectual labor?
Yes, Lefties all seem to assume the world is a zero sum game. It’s really a pathetically stupid worldview since it cannot account for why we live better than cavemen.
I don't remember whether he thought it was intellectual capital that led to property-ownership, or if he separated the two.
Bump for ponderance after church.
Excellent post, well worth the read. Bumping back to the top.
One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell Him that they were done with Him.
The scientist walked up to God and said, “God, we’ve decided that we no longer need you. We’re to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don’t you just go on and get lost.”
God listened very patiently and kindly to the man and after the scientist was done talking, God said, “Very well, how about this, let’s say we have a man making contest.” To which the scientist replied, “OK, great!”
But God added, “Now, we’re going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam.”
The scientist said, “Sure, no problem” and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt.
God just looked at him and said, “No, no, no. You go get your own dirt!”
Both pure socialism and capitalism are unpleasant extremes and has never existed. A well balanced system is between it, but it has to be much closer to capitalism. Think of 1950s America as close to ideal.
They downplay the role of thinking, while telling us their “brilliant” thoughts. If thinking is so trivial, one wonders why we should even listen to, much less accept their theories. Such people should be shushed as soon as they say, “I think....”.
Maybe they only say this stuff and hope to make workers believe it. It is their only path, with their mediocre minds, to rule over those who have been given superior intellect.Look to where they want complete fairness, you see where they feel inferior.
The true source of wealth is the unfettered human mind. When this is joined to a political system that encourages new ideas you get an economy that is capable of extensive and prolonged growth.
Why is this so strongly discouraged by multiple political forms? IMHO, no established politician in any political form likes instability. It scares them beyond belief. A read of history since the American Revolution shows an unending list of boggy men that are violent threats to the established order. I don't think that I have to enumerate the worse examples of the 20th Century.
“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.’ No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity- to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted, or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words ‘to make money’ hold the essence of human morality.” ~ Francisco’s “Money Speech” from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Christianity was not a “trap”. In fact it freed many people. Anytime someone talks about “dark ages” I refer them to what the whole of Europe was like BEFORE Christianity took over. THOSE are the dark ages. Savages in huts without any real accomplishment. Rome was the only base of learning but no savages really changed until Rome fell and Christianity had taken hold.
*****The mind was trapped in an Aristotelian/Christian trap*****
Jesus’ words prove that you are dead wrong.
Matthew 25:14-30
King James Version (KJV)
14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Liberals also view almost all commercial transactions as coerced. That the seller is in some way cheating the buyer. What they don’t understand is that there is a differential in how buyers & sellers value a product, and that when trade occurs, both sides benefit and overall wealth increases.
I don’t understand this mentality. It’s exactly like saying both being cancer free and having cancer are unpleasant extremes so what is better is a mix of some healthy tissue and some cancer.
Socialism is evil and it is demonstrably so. It violates man’s rights. It is metaphysically wrong. It is wrong in its view of reality and man’s nature. There is no such thing as a proper mixture of good and evil.
The world has never seen a system of Laissez faire capitalism put into practice. The closest anyone has ever come was America at its founding and we see the results in the wealth created. But even from the first it was a mixed system and included glaring contradictions such as slavery. Yet despite the flaws it produced undreamed of wealth.
The World has never seen a system of pure Socialism either. The closest anyone has come is probably in North Korea and we see the results. Still it is a mixture of capitalism and socialism as the secret police can’t catch every illegal trade of goods that goes on since people’s will to live is so strong that they will risk death in an internment camp to raise an illegal head of cabbage and trade it with their fellows.
America had a brilliant start and could have moved more and more towards a system of laissez faire or towards Socialism. For a brief shining time we did after the Civil War but then In the late nineteenth century we took a turn. The cancer of Socialism is well advanced now and we see the results.
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