Posted on 04/16/2011 11:31:56 PM PDT by The Watcher
Freepers... I am the son of a son of immigrants, a working class stiff, who came from a poor family. I've never known wealth and am unlikely to. However, I see the endless refrain to attack freedom to be in your own business, to do as you see fit, and to direct your own fate and your own energies very much in danger.
As one person with many talents, and capabilities I know that are greater than the sum of just hours and hands, it seems to me at days, that it really is time to "go galt", and just withdraw. And on other days, it seems to me that the Mouch types haven't won yet and the future is not set... The country CAN be turned back.
Galt wasn't a protester. He didn't arrange rallies and make big speeches, he did the one thing that could be done, sans violence, to defeat the people who controlled both the laws and the media.
It would be fantastically easier, if we could convince 500 titans of industry to "go galt' with their personal wealth and just let the political left collapse under its own weight of incompetence and impossible to fulfill promises.
What is clear, is that the first step, known as TEA Party, has happened. That is, a mass outpouring of indignation at the stupidity of the looting class and the punishement of success.
In Rand's novel, the public fails to understand, and instead, simply follows like sheep. Perhaps Rand never grasped what American means, and that it means that even if it's a minority, Americans as a whole simply do not fall for the socialists, the redistributionists, the elitists, etc.
It seems to me that FR has become the news and daily exchange for links of data and intel, a smallish coordinator of activism, but it is NOT a platform for serious debate.
Debate what? About "going galt". No, I don't mean to withdraw from society and go on strike, though I suppose somewhere in the future that might actually be an option. Rather, a somewhat more disciplined discussion to do what Galt saw as needing to be done. To unite the people who matter into action to achieve the ends that were required to save the nation from destruction. Rand's story is about starving the regime into collapse. But the whole purpose is not about exacting revenge or collapsing nations... It's about removing from the controls of power, people who have become professional looters of others for political power, and who hold places of influence, who have spread the poison of leftist dogma as the only truth... Poisoning the American soul with dependency and worse.
Would you be interested in a forum to have said debate? And by debate, I don't mean political diatribes, but instead, deadly serious discussion about, and coordination of, durable societal change, from the ground up.
I'll fund the startup of such a forum, but I lack the means to continue it and grow it to national stature or size, it would eventually require support, mostly in commitment and time, and a tireless recruitment effort, to make the movement large enough to do what Galt's team did... change a nation.
I have little illusion that anything I start can become that in and of itself. But one little light can light another, and another, and another.
What say you? Would you be in?
This is not the place to do that. If you’re here, you already know what you think and have your mind made up. Either you’re going to be for the idea, based on what it is, or not. If you’re not for it, me having charming rhetoric isn’t going to change your mind, now is it?
What you’re missing is reading my post. Go back and read it. I’m not trying to stage a mass “off grid” strike or protest. I’m talking about outcomes... discussing the means of, and then implementing, to displace the means by which the left has come to power and prominence.
I mentioned “going galt”, not as a call to abandon society, but instead, become dedicated to saving it, by whatever means that will require. In RAnd’s novel, it WAS leaving and going on strike, depriving the all taking government the means of survival, by giving it nothing to take.
Galt’s objective wasn’t destruction... it was to instead, fundamentally put society back on track. Don’t confuse method with purpose.
I think we need to continue what we’re doing. And Palin said it best yesterday when she argued against the mediocrity of the so-called TP reps in DC.
I don’t believe a passive-aggressive tactic will save the Country. It’ll require industrious activism, and an industrious economy. Entitlements, and self-serving expectations need to be replaced with hard work, pride, and the simple desire to save the wonderful Country for our children if not for ourselves. Perhaps we’re saying the same thing differently.
I vote for aggressive-aggressive. And yes, there was an element of ‘knee-jerk’ in my initial comment.
I don’t believe that needs to be any significant problem. This will not be a ‘free speech’ platform for demagoguery, it will be a moderated, serious debate. Moderation does not imply censorship, it means to impose structure and discipline.
As I’ve said already... I used “going galt” merely as an allusion... A sort of metaphor about having reached the point of taking action... And to actively recruit like minded to accomplish durable national change...
That’s become clear, FRiend.
This is a good discussion to have especially in anticipation of the motion picture series.
I read your post, twice. Who are you planning to punish?
Your scenario seems awfully generic.
If you’ve never known wealth... how can you “go Galt”? What impact do you think it will have? None. Except freeing up jobs for the unemployed.
If you convinced 500 companies to go galt, there will 500 new companies to take over. The world is hungry for work.
“Going Galt” is when you’re fed up working 80 hrs knowing full well 40-50 of those hours will go for the moochers. why the hell should i pay them to screw off? i’ve sat next to people and listened to them complain about not having work and being on welfare... while eating dinner and getting drunk at a local sports bar.
quality
i just won’t do it. and i don’t have to. after decades of 60-100/hr weeks, i’ve socked away enough to last a long while.
not funding them is the only real impact i will have on the progressives desires. of course, if they spend money they don’t have... it’s all pointless.
While I believe conservatives are seriously behind the curve, we are catching up fast IMHO. The placing of an unrepentant marxist in the white hut seems to have set off alarms in the slumbering heartland. The speed with which dumbo and his apparatchiks set the wheels of centralized government spinning was unsettling, even though we knew it was coming. The state machinery has been put in place in one term that will be hard to dismantle. It leads me to believe dumbo never seriously considered a second term. 2012 is not really that far away. 2010 offered some encouraging signs. If 2012 brings similar results, we will know then whether the republic is likely to survive or not.
“I’ll fund the startup of such a forum, but I lack the means to continue it and grow it to national stature or size, it would eventually require support, mostly in commitment and time, and a tireless recruitment effort, to make the movement large enough to do what Galt’s team did... change a nation.
I have little illusion that anything I start can become that in and of itself. But one little light can light another, and another, and another.
What say you? Would you be in?”
You don’t need to ask the question - whatever answer you might get here may not be that meaningful anyway.
My suggestion is this: Start the project, invite people to join in, even on a trial basis, and soon you will get your answer - a real answer.
Galt was, in essence, a TEA Partier...he was one person who did the best with what he had to defeat his enemies.
The problem with getting the 500 Titans of industry to go along with this is that so many of them are actively engaged in crony capitialism...which is faux capitalism and relies on the government.
If it’s any consolation, I’m seeing more and more rank and file dems coming to terms with the fiscal problems we have, and what needs to be done about them. Frankly, that heartens me.
Now...I am way late in going to bed. Nitey nite! ;o)
For people to read your vanity rant and engage you in serious debate, people must be interested in doing so. For them to be interested in doing so, you’re going to have to make your points in a more coherent and interesting fashion.
Learn to write.
Learn to organize your thoughts coherently.
Have something interesting to say.
Epic fail.
You would have to describe that before anyone could tell you if they thought it was a good or workable idea.
I hardly went John Galt, but 20 years ago I did take early retirement from a well paying job in the private sector at age 52. I did it for purely selfish reasons, after working full time since quitting school in the eighth grade, I felt the wife and I deserved to do so, because we could afford to. Wasn’t wealthy, just chose a retirement lifestyle to live within our means, we have never regretted doing so, and would do it again without qualms.
thread might be of interest
1 Year 3 months 26 days 12 hours 14 minutes and 46 seconds
1 Year 3 months 26 days 12 hours 14 minutes and 46 seconds
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