Wednesday, 12 August 2009

• Atlas Shrugged

  Its been a long time, again, with me not posting.  To be honest, its hard for me to work up the time to post.  Again, there is no lack of ideas running through my head; on the contrary, my mind has been unusually engaged as of late.

  
  I’ve been listening to the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.  There are many, MANY facets of her philosophy that I take exception with.  I find her cold and calculating and utterly devoid of any compassion, and her heroic characters lack a moral quality that I believe in.  From the perspective of this novel, truth and reason are the highest virtues, while pure concentrated intellectual innovation and the constant struggle to succeed and to accumulate all you can follows closely behind.  It is pure intellect, pure goal oriented materialism at its best.  Morality is based on a code of ‘do what is right,’ however her definition of ‘right’ is somewhat abstract, and tends to fall under subordination to the task in and of itself.  In a nutshell: the straightest, most direct path to achieving as much as you can throughout your life, leaving your actions and the empire of what you have built in competitive, and compassionless way as the tome of your heroic struggle is the life of a virtuous person.

  
  So, obviously as a Christian I disagree with many of her philosophical premises, but that does not mean that in reading her truth cannot be gleaned.  In reading (or listening) to this story, I am reminded of the world in its present state.  There are entire generations of families out there who ride on the coattails of others, who loot and mooch what is not theirs under the complaint of fairness.  It never occurs to them that they should be responsible for their own lives and well being, and they always assume that those who succeed and those who create the business and finance the moving and the shaking…will always do so.  Instead of becoming self sufficient, instead of changing their lives to fit their income, or working out their problems, people have lost the ability to make decisions, to fail, but more importantly…to be held accountable for their own actions.  There are several reoccurring complaints that those with the ‘pale eyes’:

  
  1. Its not my fault.  More often than not, the first defense a person has is shifting the blame of failure.  Failure so paralyzes people that they are unable to accept it in their own lives.  We are so afraid of it that we never let our children fail.  The games that they play never have any losers, and when its all said and done…everyone gets ice cream and soda.  We don’t want our kids to fail, but in not allowing them the chance to, and the opportunity to experience the phrase ‘I failed,’ ‘I lost,’ or ‘I’m just not good enough,’  keeps them from being able to deal with the very real times that they do fail, lose, or aren’t good enough.  Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good your self esteem is, success isn’t quantified in abstracts like that.

  
  2. Its not fair!  Fairness is relative. Whilst many people view with covetous hearts the things that others have that they do not isn’t fair, the premise that a person who doesn’t have gets the right to take it from them because of that reason, also doesn’t seem fair to me.  This is the age of “what’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is mine.” Fairness has become the new virtue; and laws are being put in place to regulate fairness. 

  
  3. Its our social  responsibility!  James Taggert builds a failure of a railroad to Mexico, not because it will increase his productivity…but because it is his social responsibility.  The Mexicans hadn’t been blessed with what he had, They needed his benevolence to live, to thrive…they needed him.  How often do we hear this argument?  We need to create laws to help minorities and those who are poor…so that they aren’t taken advantage of!  In essence that means, “These people are stupid and they’ll just run around and get into trouble unless we, the ruling class, do something about it.  After all, Black people can’t be successful without US giving them the opportunity. After all, look at the blessing that the Clinton Administration bestowed upon poor people with their mandates to Fannie Mae on approving sub-prime mortgages to people, regardless of their financial fidelity and based solely on their ethnicity.  That really helped, didn’t it?

  
  4. Its an unforeseeable problem!  People make base decisions under the premise that everything will go according to plan.  People budget their lives, not taking into account “the what ifs.” It is a 100% probability that sometime in your life you will run into a crisis.  If you have not prepared for that time, if you have not saved up a ‘war chest,’ if you haven’t allowed yourself to think about the future…then you’re passing the blame.  The details of a problem are always unforeseeable, however knowing that one will always be heading your way should keep you on your toes.

  
  5. Its about the Human element.  While I don’t disagree that compassion is needed in this world (this is one of the many departures I take from Rand) I believe that we tend to stress feeling over reality too much in today’s world.  In not allowing ourselves to objectively look at a problem (like healthcare) and instead put ourselves in the subjectivity of emotion, we make poor decisions, and are unable to create a viable, sustainable system.  EVERYTHING has a cost, and the cost isn’t just money.  The cost, an increase of the size of the Federal Government, and the willing ‘pussification’ of the State legislature to this administrations wishes is one.  The loss of individual freedom is another.  The integrity of our financial system is a third.  These are costs that have interest rates that don’t draw just your money…but more importantly draw little by little…what it means to be human.

  
  All of these are punctuated by one simple cause:  We are being lied to.

  
  It all starts with the premise that Humanity is nothing more than an evolved animal.  There is nothing special about us, there are no inherent values, no overarching morality, no true right or wrong.  Every constant is inconsistent chance, and this existence is merely the outcome of one possible chain of mutations, both physically and socially.  Standards on Good and Evil, Beauty and Justice are all completely subjective because, after all, nothing really is true.  It’s all an illusion. Because of this, we simply exist to exist; purposeless, and without motivation, other than our own comfort and pleasure.  Because of this, the highest values are placed upon our feelings and on subjective fairness.  We create our own relativistic subjective morality at this point, rejecting anything that might make us ‘feel bad.’ Nothing is sacred, nothing is wrong, nothing is vulgar…unless it is the feeling that these things exist.  Diversity is embraced…so long as all parties agree with each other.  Anything that rejects this premise, or embraces the idea of absolutes or external truth is purified not by valid and civil discussion or debate, but by violent and complete destruction of any credibility and dismissal of any ideas. Despite the obvious paradox of saying "I include all perspectives...except with yours because you disagree with me," these people allow themselves to ignore the obvious irrationality under the flag of creating that social conscience of tolerance and subjective goodness. 

  
  But here is the main nasty thing: These ideas are being sold to people…not from those who believe it, but from those who wish to use it to control those who buy it.  It is a system where everyone is ran by the few.  It is a system where the Government CONTROLS life.  When the Government can tell you where to go to the Doctor, what type of car you can buy; When people depend on the GOVERNMENT to create jobs, to TAKE CARE of them…then the Government becomes a benefactor…and there are always strings attached.  The Federal Government should have limited powers: to make it easier for intrastate trade and travel, to perform diplomacy abroad, and to protect our boarders.  It is setup to uphold the Constitution of the United States as the primary source of law, and all laws passed should reflect the interpretation of Freedom found there…not the interpretation of subjective freedom from failure that this bloated and disgusting failure of a congress and administration portray today.  The Government is taking money it doesn’t have, and has not earned, and is giving it to people as a down payment on their freedoms.  It is spending to placate the masses, while perpetuating their fear and cashing in on it…and it is doing so to gain power for themselves. 

  We are slowly becoming a society where opinion takes the place of truth, and perception takes the place of purpose. We live in a time when a person can destroy another's crediability by simply calling them a bigot or a racist.  There doesn't have to be proof of the fact...merely that the term was used, and anything they have to say can be immediately rejected.  Individual freedoms and RESPONSIBLITIES are being absorbed...so that those who have not can demand to take from those who have, whether they earn it or not.  Karl Marx would be pleased.

  An example, if you will?  I'll give you two.

  
  President Obama Accused the ‘Republican Party’ of fabricating the anger at these Town Hall Meetings regarding healthcare.  First off:  Aren’t Republicans still entitled to their opinion?  Why is it that when someone disagrees with these people, it’s fabricated…but when they disagree with other people, it’s grassroots?  People need to wake up to the reality that they’re being bought and sold by this administration, and that the issue is NOT healthcare…but it is “How much power can the Federal Government absorb before we say NO!” But you accuse someone of being a 'republican' and insensitive, and you ask them, "how could you be against people getting the help they need?" And you've effectively deflected the issue.  The person who asks that has no good answer to the Conservative's reservations about 'public option' health care, NOW the debate is on the motivation of the Conservative, and their greed, their stingyness, their discompassionate view on life.  With those questions...a liberal never has to actually answer...they just smear and run.

  Why did the Government have to bail out GM?  Couldn't the manufactuerer fail?  Sure, jobs would have been lost...but not permanently.  The company would have been auctioned off and absorbed by the market, to be reborn in some different form.  But we couldn't have that, could we?  We couldn't allow bad management to be punished?  No...we allowed the UNIONS, the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, and CANADA to purchase GM.  Wouldn't it have been FAIR to let GM fail?  But no...with every favor that the Government doles out, one more freedom is overwritten with a caviat...and one more percentage point of this Countries soul is written "I own you...love Uncle Sam."

  So, what if...just say, everyone who produces, everyone who owns a business, everyone who works for a living...ceased to do it for 6 months?  What would happen if the Government placed so many regulations on business that those who own the business shut them down, packed up their toys and let this miserable excuse of a government burn itself out?

  Seriously...go read Atlas Shrugged.

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