1) People who are only here to troll, mock, etc., are free to say whatever they want. Their comments will always be approved. The only circumstance under which I might delete one of those comments would be if they contained potentially libelous or otherwise illegal content, but that holds true for anyone’s post. And anyway, I’m not a lawyer, so what the hell do I know.
2) People who are here to explain why the whole endeavor is doomed, evil, unwise, etc., are similarly free to say whatever they want. Their comments will always be approved.
3) People whom I see as a potential ally in the promotion of liberty face onerous restrictions. Essentially, you are not permitted to engage anyone from 1) or 2) above. If you find yourself itching to reply to something you see as demanding a smackdown, take a walk around the block. Do not succumb to the temptation. If you do, your comment will be deleted. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a direct fisking or a veiled response, straightforward or sarcastic, confrontational or conciliatory. It has no place here. Additionally, general attacks on “the enemy”, however you see it (”leftists”, “socialists”, “moochers”, etc.), are also not permitted.
I have endeavored to be consistent in my application of this policy, and I will continue to do so.
There’s a method to my highly arbitrary fascism. Regarding 1) and 2) above, I just don’t care. As to 3), for good or ill, you people reflect on me, and on lovers of freedom in general. And when you engage in comment policy violating behavior, what you are saying is that freedom is primarily a debate club position. You’d rather just rehash the same old arguments for the millionth time than work towards actually developing ways to advance freedom.
I am stipulating that you are right to favor freedom and independence. But you think you are showing the world that you favor them by repeatedly arguing your case while things fall apart around you. You aren’t. You’re demonstrating that the actual loss of freedom is less important to you than the opportunity to type another essay, or to call names.
I’m trying to train you. If you can’t keep your eye on the goal because someone is saying something stupid somewhere, you won’t be of much use in the fight ahead.
Who am I to be such a hardass? Honestly, I’m nobody. I’m a smart guy, but I’ve got no particular skills when it comes to this sort of fight. But I know that in looking back on the time that I’ve spent engaging in random running battles with cranks online, I don’t think that time was well spent. I’m not speaking of discussions with people I know personally, or people I respect; those have paid great dividends. But the eternal internet flame war has just been a monstrous deadweight loss when judged by the proper standard of actual liberty achieved, instead of by the usual standard of vaguely satisfying snarkiness.
Okay, I’ve said my piece. I will be updating some links and information pertaining to the comment policy. From this point forward, I’ll be leaving moderation on to keep me from being put in the position of needing to delete comments after they’ve already been published. Furthermore, I’ll be deleting offending comments without explanation. You’re smart enough to figure it out. If you’re concerned that your essay will be lost, save it locally first.
ALL ABOARD THE AYN RANDWAGON –
GOING GALT
In the past week or so, one cannot turn on the TV or open a newspaper without hearing of Ayn Rand and her seminal work Atlas Shrugged.
High profile ‘news comedians’ Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher, amongst others, have referred to Ms. Rand at length in just the past few days. The Wall Street Journal has run ran several op/ed pieces and there is an abundance of letters to the editor. Rush Limbaugh – he, of twenty million listeners and considerable conservative clout, is urging people to buy it and educate themselves. And they are.
Atlas Shrugged is selling at a rate of knots and faster than any time since it was first published in 1957. The influential Economist reports that sales of the book have risen sharply since Obama’s election surging every time he announces another spending plan. Colbert dead pans that ‘things have gotten so bad Americans are actually reading’.
The Randroids who call her a prophet are right. And there is a reason.
For those of you who have not yet thumbed through the over 1000 page tome that is Atlas, the premise is thus: it tells the story of the United States economy crumbling under the weight of a government that dotes on interventions and regulations. In the meantime, Washington responds by blaming the free market and greed. Rand wrote about an out of control government siphoning off the profits of the rich. Sound familiar?
In the novel all the successful business people go on a strike and retreat to a hideaway in Colorado named Galt’s Gulch after the hero John Galt. He describes the strike as ‘stopping the motor of the world’ with the withdrawal of ‘men of mind’ to demonstrate that to do so would cause economic and societal collapse.
The current economic crises both here in the US and globally along with runaway government do not just happen by themselves.
Why did the government, who allowed, no, encouraged Freddie Mac and Fannie May to go on a crusade to promote ‘affordable housing’? Banks were forced, literally, to give loans to unqualified home buyers. Look where that has got us. There is obviously a lot of blame to go around. This includes former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, who was a proponent of Rand’s objectivist philosophy in the 50’s and 60’s. Perhaps he wasn’t paying attention in class.
Ms Rand’s work should be required reading matter for all members of elected bodies and every political appointee. With each week and with every bailout and spending plan, our politicians are committing the very acts of economic lunacy that Atlas Shrugged parodied in the 1950’s.
The Library of Congress, Book of the Month Club and The Economist has all found that it is the second-most influential book in their lives. Naturally, the Bible comes first.
The moral is simply this: politicians invariably respond to crises – that, in most cases, they themselves created by spawning new government laws and regulations. This, then creates more havoc and poverty which insanely leads our leaders to create more programs to solve this and the downward spiral repeats itself until productive elements of the economy collapse due to high taxes and other government burdens imposed under the guise of ‘fairness’, ‘equality’ by the do-gooders who govern us.
Obama’s current economic strategy and those of most other nations is taken straight from the Atlas Shrugged playbook; the more incompetent you are the more handouts you will get. How many more billions are going to be flung at the very people who got us into this mess in the first place? Every bailout is sold as a ‘need to calm the markets’. That’s not exactly what the Dow Jones seems to show having lost 25% of its value since Obama took office. Speaking of money and when the day of reckoning comes when those who are productive are supplanted by what she calls the ‘moochers’ and looters’ Ayn Rand summed it up thus:
“Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming self sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed”.
Atlas Shrugged celebrates the entrepreneur, the risk taker and those who cultivate and create wealth. Of course, Ms Rand has her critics with some complaining that she was particularly dispassionate, too simplistic and not nuanced enough for their tastes. Maybe.
Yet the warning sounds that resonate from Atlas Shrugged are louder today more than ever: when making a profit, wealth ingenuity and creativity are denigrated in society, they start to disappear — leaving everyone the poorer.
One great scene occurs towards the end when the American economy has finally been rendered comatose by those very people who oversaw it in Washington DC.; those great economic minds who have never run a business in their lives. So with the economy completely tanking, no tax revenue as businesses go bust either by taxation and regulation or entrepreneurs simply walking away because there is no point, desperation sets in. The politicians come to John Galt, the heroic businessman who has resisted and fought against the government’s control, meddling and theft and beg him to help them get the economy back on track. The following discussion is eerily prophetic:
Galt: “You want me to be Economic Dictator?”
Mr. Thompson: “Yes!”
“And you’ll obey any order I give?”
“Implicitly!”
“Then start by abolishing all income taxes.”
“Oh no!” screamed Mr. Thompson, leaping to his feet. “We couldn’t do that . . . How would we pay government employees?”
“Fire your government employees.”
“Oh, no!”
If we want genuine economic stimulus – one not based purely on spending for pig odor research and the tinpot museum in South Carolina or the Kennedy family (who surely have enough under the mattress), then what about the radical idea of abolishing income tax?
Mr Obama in DC, Mr Brown in Britain and Mr Rudd in Australia, to name a few, want to do the opposite in the interests of ‘fairness’.
The President of the Atlas Society, an organization dedicated to promoting the ideals of Ayn Rand said “the older the book gets, the more timely its message.” He goes on to say there are plans to make “Atlas Shrugged” into a major motion picture — it is the only classic novel of recent decades not to be made into a movie. “We don’t need to make a movie out of the book,” Mr. Kelley jokes. “We are living it right now.”
Indeed.
Wall Street editorial member and columnist, National Review contributing editor as well as numerous other positions such as fellow at the Heritage Foundation and President of the Club for Growth, Stephen Moore wrote recently that, when he worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, they used to label any new hire who had not read Atlas Shrugged a “virgin”.
If you haven’t read it, it’s time to lose your virginity.
To All,
I am a culprit in using my itchy typing fingers against trolls and like creatures from the dark abyss. I apologize to John for making more work for him, because I didn’t follow the rules.
They’re just my rules, not the rules. But I guess that means on my site they’re the rules.
Everyone here should chill out, and do some of the things in your life that are more worthwhile than debating. Things like help me come up with ideas!
HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS
This site appears promising. Got here by way of Instalanche.
Already gone Galt and willing to barter ideas. Go, go, go Johnny go.
John, You have got it right. Let the uneducated (have not read Rand or have read just her fiction, or have read it all and “don’t” get it) have they’re say. But only answer the people who are committed to unbiased, intellectual discourse. I’m so glad I found this site. And, your obvious exception to people who are civil, but have not studied enough is a great idea. Thanks