The Musings of Scott

Do not ever say that the desire to “do good” by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.
- Ayn Rand

4/15 Atlas Shrugged Releases
Relying heavily on a grassroots following from fans of the book, the independent film Atlas Shrugged releases to selected theaters tomorrow. (Find One Near You). I made it a goal of mine to get through Rand’s version of Atlas Shrugged before I watched the movie. It was lengthy and long winded at points, but it’s also an impressively detailed and elaborate argument for the philosophy of individualism. If you agree with her philosophy you’ll get sucked into the story she uses to illustrate her points, while even those that fundamentally disagree will be forced to think. Like a strategist, she combines an insightful analysis of human behavior coupled with first hand experience of the then “cutting edge” political philosophies (which still rule).

While Ayn Rand is often associated with conservatives, there are simply a lot of misconceptions out there (perhaps from people rabid at the mouth, never having read her books themselves). The truth of the matter is that she believed in individualism, and saw little difference between Democrats and Republicans. If you go through the story you will find a plot line not unlike 1984; another piece written as a terrible caricature of society at the time it’s written, only to seem eerily prophetic many decades later.

The icing on the cake is that High Speed Rail is a political boondoggle dejour. GM now stands for Government Motors. And we already have a national Rail system, Amtrack (Brain child of my boy Nixon!), which perpetually drains billions from our economy without most of us actually using it at all (but Government employees ride free!). The official line from Amtrack is now “the train industry can’t be profitable,” rather than make empty promises of self-sufficiency any more. Definitely sounds like a “company” worth investing billions more in, and to grow jobs with.

In the epic climax of Atlas Shrugged, John Galt (aka Objectivism Jesus) delivers a final goodbye and warning to the American public (the “rabble” as Plato would have put it). During this, he lambastes the two factions of those in political power as the Mystics of Muscle (Democrats) and Spirit (Republicans). Here’s an excerpt:

As products of the split between man’s soul and body, there are two kinds of teachers of the Morality of Death: the mystics of spirit and the mystics of muscle, whom you call the spiritualists and the materialists, those who believe in consciousness without existence and those who believe in existence without consciousness. Both demand the surrender of your mind, one to their revelations, the other to their reflexes. No matter how loudly they posture in the roles of irreconcilable antagonists, their moral codes are alike, and so are their aims: in matter—the enslavement of man’s body, in spirit—the destruction of his mind.

I have witnessed firsthand both sides butcher sciences, art, culture, and philosophies to better push their personal agenda. And I have also witnessed that while their rhetoric is vastly different, the results remain the same. If a Democrat gets elected we remain imperial, paranoid, and crony capitalists reign free. If a Republican gets elected the government (and it’s price tag) still increases, markets get meddled with just as much, and entitlements increase. Both demand your blind faith, and most people out there are more than willing to submit to one or the other comforting thoughtless conformity.

Rand’s loudest message throughout Atlas Shrugged is that your opinions, thoughts, and ideas –not your “rights”– are all you have, and are the only things that can not be taken from you. She saw the human mind as the greatest tool in existence, and it sickened her to see so many people happy to not use their own. To regurgitate someone else’s opinions without injecting one’s own experience and reason was the greatest sin against humanity in her eyes. She also loved the United States with a fiery passion (and a perfect example of what our current immigration system could be robbing us of).

Making arguments like that (pissing off both sides of the political coin) are probably why so much rabid hate for her philosophy still exists. Regardless of your beliefs, Rand will put you in situation after situation, where you are forced to think about scenarios you were always taught to avoid. If you learn nothing else, you should analyze her rhetoric and admire the large argument engineered by a single mind over many years. She brought passion to her philosophy, and it’s hard to not get swept up in it with her. She sheds the vulcan stereotype of one ruled by reason, showing how passionate “cold” intelligence can be.

50 years later and the game sure sounds the same, doesn’t it? How’s it working out for us as a civilization?

Who Is John Galt?

(A heavily abridged taste of his 60 page argument/speech, full version)

For twelve years you’ve been asking “Who is John Galt?” This is John Galt speaking. I’m the man who’s taken away your victims and thus destroyed your world. You’ve heard it said that this is an age of moral crisis and that Man’s sins are destroying the world. But your chief virtue has been sacrifice, and you’ve demanded more sacrifices at every disaster. You’ve sacrificed justice to mercy and happiness to duty. So why should you be afraid of the world around you?

Your world is only the product of your sacrifices. While you were dragging the men who made your happiness possible to your sacrificial altars, I beat you to it. I reached them first and told them about the game you were playing and where it would take them. I explained the consequences of your ‘brother-love’ morality, which they had been too innocently generous to understand. You won’t find them now, when you need them more than ever.

We’re on strike against your creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. If you want to know how I made them quit, I told them exactly what I’m telling you tonight. I taught them the morality of Reason — that it was right to pursue one’s own happiness as one’s principal goal in life. I don’t consider the pleasure of others my goal in life, nor do I consider my pleasure the goal of anyone else’s life.

I am a trader. I earn what I get in trade for what I produce. I ask for nothing more or nothing less than what I earn. That is justice. I don’t force anyone to trade with me; I only trade for mutual benefit. Force is the great evil that has no place in a rational world. One may never force another human to act against his/her judgment. If you deny a man’s right to Reason, you must also deny your right to your own judgment. Yet you have allowed your world to be run by means of force, by men who claim that fear and joy are equal incentives, but that fear and force are more practical.

You’ve allowed such men to occupy positions of power in your world by preaching that all men are evil from the moment they’re born. When men believe this, they see nothing wrong in acting in any way they please. The name of this absurdity is ‘original sin’. That’s impossible. That which is outside the possibility of choice is also outside the province of morality. To call sin that which is outside man’s choice is a mockery of justice. To say that men are born with a free will but with a tendency toward evil is ridiculous. If the tendency is one of choice, it doesn’t come at birth. If it is not a tendency of choice, then man’s will is not free.

And then there’s your ‘brother-love’ morality. Why is it moral to serve others, but not yourself? If enjoyment is a value, why is it moral when experienced by others, but not by you? Why is it immoral to produce something of value and keep it for yourself, when it is moral for others who haven’t earned it to accept it? If it’s virtuous to give, isn’t it then selfish to take?

Your acceptance of the code of selflessness has made you fear the man who has a dollar less than you because it makes you feel that that dollar is rightfully his. You hate the man with a dollar more than you because the dollar he’s keeping is rightfully yours. Your code has made it impossible to know when to give and when to grab.

You know that you can’t give away everything and starve yourself. You’ve forced yourselves to live with undeserved, irrational guilt. Is it ever proper to help another man? No, if he demands it as his right or as a duty that you owe him. Yes, if it’s your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle. This country wasn’t built by men who sought handouts. In its brilliant youth, this country showed the rest of the world what greatness was possible to Man and what happiness is possible on Earth.

Then it began apologizing for its greatness and began giving away its wealth, feeling guilty for having produced more than its neighbors. Twelve years ago, I saw what was wrong with the world and where the battle for Life had to be fought. I saw that the enemy was an inverted morality and that my acceptance of that morality was its only power. I was the first of the men who refused to give up the pursuit of his own happiness in order to serve others.

To those of you who retain some remnant of dignity and the will to live your lives for yourselves, you have the chance to make the same choice. Examine your values and understand that you must choose one side or the other. Any compromise between good and evil only hurts the good and helps the evil.

If you’ve understood what I’ve said, stop supporting your destroyers. Don’t accept their philosophy. Your destroyers hold you by means of your endurance, your generosity, your innocence, and your love. Don’t exhaust yourself to help build the kind of world that you see around you now. In the name of the best within you, don’t sacrifice the world to those who will take away your happiness for it.

Read or listen to the Book, or watch the movie. Above all else, think.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Be Sociable, Share!

•