I remember a few years back after the company I worked for had come up with yet another scheme to remove some benefits and increase hours but present it in a way that was so confusing the average employee got lost trying to figure it out, I spent some time explaining what they were doing in layman's terms to several of my coworkers. More than a few didn't believe me because they couldn't wrap their minds around the numbers. I admit I didn't work with a bunch of brain surgeons so I expected that but after a couple of weeks when they finally saw what was happening one Woman in particular came up and questioned why if I could figure out management's obscure and vague explanation and see what would happen was I wasting my time driving a forklift around.
I simply said "Who is John Galt?"
It wasn't until the first part of the movies came out that she even understood what I meant by that but before I walked away from that job I did have the satisfaction of her stopping by to say she finally got it.
It's not that I am a big Ayn Rand fan. Personally I don't agree with some of her moral messages and I always found it humorous that she would condemn communism and accurately predict it's eventual ruination of our civilization while championing one of it's chief vehicles. She took a problem that she could see quite plainly developing decades before others could and over simplified it. Honestly though I think she simply under-estimated the number of Dagny-like hold outs, those who were capable but also couldn't walk away either. To many of them the trade off was still worth it. She also totally under estimated American ideology and bastions such as the Constitution that decreased the decline enough that many producers were caught like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot. Most importantly however she under estimated how powerful and all knowing the State would become and the alluring holding power of White guilt.
There is no Galt's Gulch because there is nowhere the government cannot find you these days so there is nowhere for potential Galt's to go.
However her prophesies are still coming true. Government is literally making their own Galt's every day using programs such as Affirmative Action, Hiring quotas, etc. which by pass ability for the perceived need of another. Government is also allowing our infra-structure to crumble while they complain about funds and take on initiatives they have no business getting into.
I will use the Highway department of my Own state here as an example. Ever since they failed to convince the citizens to vote them a special tax it has been nothing but whining about money. Yet they still place 100K plus solar powered signs on the roads telling people to buckle up or hang up their phones while driving. There have been no cuts to bloated positions, no removal of high maintenance items with little payout nor attempts to fix the problem in anyway except to threaten the public with reduced road maintenance and snow removal.
Ayn Rand's prophecy was pretty much on track from the government and liberal socialist side of things. Why I can just hear every word the Golfer in Chief speaks like it's coming from Head of State Thompson or Miegs right out of her decades old novel. What Ayn got wrong was just who John Galt would be and how that persona would manifest itself. I submit that there are literally millions of Galts out there and growing.
The only real problem is there is no gulch for us to hide away in we have to settle for small bolt holes that stay under the radar so to speak.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
OK I still haven't read it but I found a free audio version on Internet Archive that is broken into many small downloads so I will see if I can start listening.
ReplyDeleteIf I get to the city, I will look for a book, I am usually disappointed by movies.
I meant to read it a long time ago but just forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder.
Sf - I know all of us prepper types like to read and I am no different but even I had to take a break or two from reading the entire novel. Se rambles quite a bit in some areas and obviously assumed the military would degenerate in man power along with the economy hence pirates running around unchecked.
DeleteStill it's worth a read if you get the chance.
PP another great post. Its not just the government who is bloated. One of my former employers went from over staffed in Commissary to a staff of 4 doing all the work back to being over staffed. How?? the V.P. left before Chap 11 filing and then came back when new owners bought the Co., and the CEO changed to a buddy of his.
ReplyDeleteRob - I have noticed the bloat increases as the company is protected or financed one way or another by the government too. The company I worked for was almost totally dependent on government contracts.
DeleteI state that same phrase almost every day. Stop taking my money to give to others that aren't working for it! Us few who do work (or have worked in the past) & contribute should not have to give to & support those who don't!
ReplyDeleteSunnybrook - If you read or listen to the book ... skip by Galt's 'speech' (the one where he takes over the airwaves for what must have been an hour) after the first few minutes (or pages). He just says the same thing over & over. His message could have been stated in a paragraph or 2 just as, if not more, effectively. I like people who get to the point as quick & efficiently as possible. Too many words from some pontificator, just makes me blank out. Otherwise I loved the book!
DFW - Absolutely. I would even take it as far as to say that politicians cannot make contracts with public money. Government should be cash and carry only. If it was that would stop a lot of the paying for others problem.
DeletePreppy, a really good post on the topic, one I've often toyed with writing about. I think you did it quite successfully, too.
ReplyDeleteWell said, and I agree wholeheartedly, especially your last two paragraphs.
Thank you RP. That's some high praise right there. Seriously.
Deletewell - i guess i'll jump in and be the naysayer. that book is about as boring as can be and should have been 1500 pages shorter!!! for me, a real snooze job! the movies - even worse!!! and can i be honest - i DON'T LIKE ayn rand. don't like her upbringing, background nor her politics - she was one wierdo to say the least! good post tho PP!
ReplyDeleteyour friend,
kymber
kymber - I don't disagree with you except that I did find her social and economic parts very enlightening in many ways and the fact that she was able to come so close in calling a few things lends her much credit. I don't agree with many of her ideals though either.
DeleteThat being said I thought the first part of the movie series was pretty good. The second was bad imo and the third was somewhere in the middle but due to a lot of omissions prolly closer to the second.
I'll split the difference. Don't care for her moral/religious values at all (a bit remarkable, since she fled a country where atheism was enshrined. Parts of the book are incredibly long and boring. That said, some of her characterizations (I wish Hank Reardon and Francisco de Ancona were real people) were well written indeed. And her depiction of a society slowly breaking down economically is, in the environment, almost spot on.
DeleteAnd good analysis Preppy - we'll have to fit into the bolt holes under the radar.
bah humbug to both of you even tho i really appreciate both of your opinions. maybe it's because i am canadian that my reaction to a lot of this stuff (A. Huxley, Orwell et al and crew) is whatever?...i have read it all. but being canadian and all, i think good future-predicting books are more like m. atwood's "the handmaid's tale". you know i love you both!
DeleteI#ll have to look this up but maybe read the "abridged" version!
DeleteKymber - I am curious (because I have never read it) what your opinion was of The Handmaid's Tale (never read the book, only recall there was a movie. Is it more positive in nature, or just better written? If I was looking for something a little less "grim" than Rand I might go with Alas, Babylon, which was overall pretty positive. (Interestingly, Rand also wrote a book about writing which was pretty good. She talks a lot about anchoring things in the concrete, which is probably why she spends pages and pages with descriptions).
DeleteLhiats, TB
TB - first off, atwood is a much better writer in that you can just get sucked in to her description of a future, dystopian world - you can see it, imagine it and breathe it. it was written in the mid-80's and she was influenced and had read other futuristic novels and sci-fi and what-have-you. but i think that her approach to the topic, especially in this novel, is that she takes the concept of a nuclear war and then sets the scene using what would still be applicable and useable after such an event rather than forecasting mind-numbing drugs or aliens or robots, etc. does this even make any sense? i feel i am doing her an incredible injustice in my description. it is a book that, after getting to know you a bit and reading through your blog, that i think that you would appreciate. it's not everyone's cup of tea because the protagonist is a female....but there is also much in it about breaking down all men and women into castes and classes. i found it very believable and could picture it in my mind while reading it.
DeleteThat makes sense Kymber. In a way it mirrors Atlas Shrugged - it was written in the 1950s and so reflects that frame of mind and extrapolates a collapse from that point of view which for lots of people is as distant as the middle ages. In a way Alas Babylon does the same thing that you describe and extrapolates along realistic pathways for what could happen. I might ask The Ravishing Mrs. TB if it is something she has read, as it sounds like it might be - she has been reading more along this sort of lines of late.
DeleteInterestingly enough, two of the best post collapse sorts of books - really three - in my book are all written by Andre Norton, a sci fi writer who wrote the from the 50's to the 2000's. They are all older books - No Night Without Stars, Daybreak AD 2150 and Dark Piper, but they certainly portray a possible societal break down and what it would look like.
Did you ever see Children of Men? It sounds more like what you are discussing.
"The only real problem is there is no gulch for us to hide away in we have to settle for small bolt holes that stay under the radar so to speak."
ReplyDeleteYep. I say enjoy the ride down.
And I'd just rent the movie. She obviously had diarrhea of the word processor when she wrote that book.
Matt - While I was not impressed with the movies at least they did get the point across somewhat. I am amazed at the numbers of people out there who don't read or won't read I guess I should say.
DeleteJohn Galt for president 2016.
ReplyDeleteI need the bumper sticker.
Heh. I have seen en. Not sure where you can get one though.
Deletehttp://www.cafepress.com/+john-galt-for-president+gifts
DeleteI always thought I was missing out on something because I have not ready any of the books or saw any of the movies. but after reading the comments, I guess not.
ReplyDeleteAs for our country sending so much $$$ overseas to countries who hate us, just think what we could do for our own people if we stopped.is a practice every administration does, and goes all the way down to the local government levels, for instance cities spending $$ to upgrade sports areanas, but cutting back on public safety or infrastructure... The priorites of this country are really screwed.
JuGM - No doubt about that. Of course they sell those sports arenas as saying they bring in some huge made up amount of money. People need to be less gullible I think too and stop buying into what the governments and those with money are shoveling.
DeleteOne of her better books was We the Living.
ReplyDelete