"Starving The Monkeys" book review. If you're an Ayn Rand fan...

Travis McGee | January 30, 2010 | Tom Baugh

[Eccl 10:2]

The Left will immediately trash the book, its author, and its fans as racist - sight unseen, words unread.

Whatever point the author is trying to make, he could have used a better metaphore.

PR nightmare.

[Squantos]

Bttt

[Travis McGee]

CW2 Ping

I'm pinging the CW2 list to this book review, because the author is advocating a form of guerrilla civil war, the strategy being the deliberate withholding of the productive output of society's non-parasites. Author Tom Baugh sees the same impending financial and social meltdown that many of us are predicting. His contribution is to suggest that we help to kick the rotting edifice over sooner rather than later. If the "monkey collective" manages to suck the last ounce of liberty and freedom from our country, there may not be enough of a foundation left for rebuilding. Baugh is advocating sort of a "capital strike" against the growing socialist collective. It's a pretty radical book, and many readers will not enjoy some of his positions. I had trouble with some myself. But the book is a welcome edition to any freedom-lover's shelf. I strongly recommend it. If nothing else, it will force you to critically examine some of your own ideas.

[Travis McGee]

If you think the author gives one damn about what the left might do to trash his book, you really have no concept of what the book is about.

The author takes a dirty sharp stick and jams it deep into the left’s eyeblls on every page. He really doesn’t care what the monkey collective thinks.

[silverleaf]

on the wish list!

[Nowhere Man]

Bookmark Bump

[Travis McGee]

From the author’s website, “Monkey, Defined.”

In the context of this book, a monkey is defined as a person that chooses to collectively seize, by unearned means, the property, material or intellectual, temporal or spiritual, of its rightful owner. The means employed may be fiat, guilt, force, theft, fraud, subterfuge, or anything other than a willing and negotiated exchange of value.

In our modern world, each person is given the opportunity to make a conscious choice whether to be monkeys or men.

Conspicuously absent from this definition is race, birth, gender, heritage, cultural influences, or any factor other than that singular deliberate decision.

But men choose to live their lives upon their own merit. It is this very spirit of independence of thought and action that makes men the prey of the monkey collective.

As such, monkeys abandon their claim to the rights of men.

But monkeys could just as easily choose not to, and become men themselves.

http://www.starvingthemonkeys.com/MonkeyDefined.html

[wally_bert]

Damn the collective and all the collectivists....

[DuncanWaring]

Who wrote the actual review? You or Baugh?

[Travis McGee]

I wrote it. It’s Baugh’s book, my review.

[wastoute]

The dude just put into a book what most of us here at freereupblic have been saying for the last year. The guy is probably a freeper and most of his ideas probably come from right here. Which is OK by me.

[chrisser]

Thanks for the review.

I just bought the book - received it last week. My wife is about half way through and I’ll be reading it after.

[Squantos]

I have discussed many times here at FR the concepts of ‘Starve the Beast” and “Leaderless Resistance”. .....

[Travis McGee]

That’s what it’s about. But be warned, the author swings his axe freely. No ox goes ungored.

[Travis McGee]

I don’t think he’s a freeper, but he does share many (not all!) of our usual beliefs.

Folks won’t agree with all of this books, and that is FOR SURE.

But it is extremely well written and thought provoking.

[Ronbo1948]

I hope we don’t hit rock bottom as a fictional USA did in ATLAS SHRUGGED. I think we can purge the collectivist parasites from most important institutions of American life by simply limiting the federal government to its constitutional role and giving the right to vote to only those who can pass a simple high school level Civics examination in ENGLISH.

[TimSkalaBim]

"Whether this strategy will be taken up by enough producers to have an effect on the collective remains to be seen..."

lol, it won't.

[ctdonath2]

Quite.

We’re producers. We produce. It’s what we do. To not produce is to not be who we are.

Maybe we can change what we produce to something not taxable, but part of why we produce is to provide for our own, and to “starve the monkeys” requires providing less for our own first.

...and that’s how we’re controlled: we produce to provide, and to not produce is to FIRST neglect our dependents. The system will hardly notice one stopped producer, but that person WILL suffer the consequences of stopping.

[Sender]

I have a rare Saturday when I am not working and when I have no real obligations, and it’s cold and rainy outside. I might have to re-read EFAD.