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FReeper Book Club: Atlas Shrugged, The Moratorium on Brains
A Publius Essay | 9 May 2009 | Publius

Posted on 05/09/2009 7:41:37 AM PDT by Publius

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To: mick

Mick, I always enjoy reading your posts.

The only other alternative I can think of for a “restart” is from Asimov’s Foundation where they shorten an oncoming dark age from 30k years to a few thousand (I forget the actual #). They do this by enscribing all knowledge in a giant encyclopedia, as well as by seeding an alternate civilization on the other side of the galaxy. This other civilization acts as a capsule to safeguard all human knowledge.

The cause of the dark ages isn’t Randian looting persay (but I should re-read it to be sure) but is tied to corruption and an bureaucracy imploding under its own weight.


81 posted on 05/16/2009 2:35:41 PM PDT by BamaGirl (If I give Obama 76 cents will he stop clamoring for change?)
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To: BamaGirl
Thank you, BamaGirl.

Interesting observation about the randian looters not being the direct cause of the collapse in Asimov's book. I've read a little Asimov’s Sci Fi and his Annotated Paradise Lost. Prolific writer. Smart guy. But I don't know the book you reference

But if we don't go crazy and actually physically destroy the accumulated capital of our civilization I don't think we need a Asimov type capsule containing all our knowledge to restart our society.

Today I just don't see the level of decadence and hopelessness present in the America of Atlas Shrugged. As I've said before I know plenty of men and women as tough and smart as our ancestors...but crippled by a monstrous dead hand of corruption and bureaucracy ( as you put it from Asimov's book )

And the poison the seeps into every crevice of our culture is the Fiat Money. I know I am starting to sound like a one tune band, but I believe this. All I know is that the immorality of having men create our money out of thin air, at their will, has given the national government such immense power over this society that nothing, not laws, not new leaders, can give us back our independence from their tyranny. We must destroy this beast. Or one by one every State in the Union will fall into insolvency. And the final pin to fall will be the Federal Gov. itself.

And I am afraid to say that you in California seem to be destined to be the first to reap the whirlwind. Kind of like a trial run through the Hurricane. Looks like you will get to try out some ideas before the rest of us after the vote on Tuesday for The Day After The Collapse. Good luck, FRiend.

82 posted on 05/17/2009 8:19:52 PM PDT by mick (Central Banker Capitalism is NOT Free Enterprise)
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To: mick

Yeah I know what you mean about the Fiat Money. The Anconia speech about how money is really a valuation of man’s productivity really hit it home for me. If we could actually find an alternate currency that only us producers use amongst ourselves it would be a way to avoid this poison you speak of.

Now I finally understand why there are such strict laws about not allowing other legal tender in the U.S. And also why FDR confiscated everyone’s gold in the 1930s. Once the government controls money, they control how a man can measure his own worth. How scary.

Yeah thanks for the good wishes about being in CA. We’ll need it... The one good thing about it is that maybe finally the libs here will get “mugged” by their own stupid policies and finally wisen up.


83 posted on 05/17/2009 10:49:49 PM PDT by BamaGirl (If I give Obama 76 cents will he stop clamoring for change?)
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To: whodathunkit

Ah, but stealing is not always stealing. The enemy in Robin Hood was the government. It used its power to take what it did not deserve. When the government is the thief, there is no redress. One can either throw up one’s hands, or take back what was stolen in the first place. Robin of Loxley was a landowner whose lands were stolen by the Sheriff, with the monarch’s approval. Robin used similarly disenfranchised men as his troops. I call it justice.


84 posted on 05/19/2009 8:07:22 PM PDT by sig226 (1/21/13 . . . He's not my president . . . Impeach Obama . . . whatever)
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To: Publius
It's not actually so terrible as you think. Given modern machinery, a car can be made surprisingly on the cheap. This depends on the use of one of two methods of economy.

Method one is to use robotics and computer controlled systems to maximize efficiency.

Method two is to manufacture a simpler product. This would not sell, or be allowed to be sold, in the first world. But if the first world went to hell, you could build a Model T with the technology that existed at the beginning of the 20th century. Given the things we've learned since then, you could actually build a very nice Model T, which would be safer and more reliable than the original. The cost of this plant wouldn't be prohibitive, especially if competition was limited.

What's the capital? I doubt it would be gold. Gold has a value only in societies that can afford it. Food and shelter would be the most obvious barter commodities, but I expect a system of money would spring up on it's own. The system of credits and debits to granaries goes back to Mesopotamia, which also began the use of coins and fixed the value of precious metals. It is in the nature of human beings to crave value. Something would become the currency of the realm.

85 posted on 05/19/2009 8:33:28 PM PDT by sig226 (1/21/13 . . . He's not my president . . . Impeach Obama . . . whatever)
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To: sig226
Ah, but stealing is not always stealing.

I understand what you're saying and if I were to sit on a jury at Robin Hoods trial, I would invoke jury nullification and not convict him. That is one of the reasons that we have trial by jury here. It's not saying that he wasn't stealing, it is nullifying the law against stealing because of extenuating circumstances in a particular instance.

Justice, well yes, but partial at best. Complete justice would have restored to him his land, wealth and reputation.

86 posted on 05/19/2009 9:14:44 PM PDT by whodathunkit (Shrugging as I leave for the Gulch)
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To: whodathunkit

You wouldn’t be on that jury. The trial would be arranged by the same people who stole the land. There wouldn’t be any justice through the courts because they were controlled by thieves.

That’s what I took away from Robin Hood.


87 posted on 05/20/2009 4:58:41 AM PDT by sig226 (1/21/13 . . . He's not my president . . . Impeach Obama . . . whatever)
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To: whodathunkit

tagline change


88 posted on 08/14/2009 2:32:39 PM PDT by r-q-tek86 ("A building has integrity just like a man. And just as seldom." - Ayn Rand)
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To: r-q-tek86
Part II, Chapter VIII: By Our Love
89 posted on 08/14/2009 6:04:37 PM PDT by r-q-tek86 ("A building has integrity just like a man. And just as seldom." - Ayn Rand)
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To: Publius
By amazing coincidence, the passengers in the first class section of the Comet include a professor of sociology who teaches collectivism, a journalist supporting the use of compulsion because his feelings dictate, a schoolteacher who has corrupted the minds of innocents, a newspaper publisher who believes in fascism, and a businessman who received his big break from the Equalization of Opportunity Bill. This is just a short sample of the long list of miscreants Rand lists as passengers on this Train of Fools. As the train enters the tunnel, the last living vision of its passengers is of Wyatt’s Torch.

This week's events in Congress brought this scene to mind once again, and todays push through on the vote...well...which miscreants are the republican elite?

90 posted on 09/27/2013 1:59:39 PM PDT by EBH ( Freeman: A person not in slavery or serfdom.)
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