Galt's Gulch

What would you like to see in the Gulch?

Posted by jmlesniewski 12 years, 5 months ago to The Gulch: General
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Content? Types of users? Etc?

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  • Posted by LetsShrug 12 years, 5 months ago
    I would like some ideas on how to introduce, discuss, engage, and educate those around us who have absolutely no interest in or have any clue about anything political. (I'm tempted to start handing out copies of Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree with a note that says: "This is a story about the government...and you're the tree.") I'm at a loss here people.
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    • Posted by Eudaimonia 12 years, 5 months ago
      It's funny you should bring that book up.
      A friend of mine handed it to me, said it was one of his favorite books, and waited while I read it.
      When I was done and I had handed the book back to him, he asked me what I had thought.
      He was *shocked* when I answered: "Stupid f*cking tree."
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      • Posted by LetsShrug 12 years, 5 months ago
        Hmmm that makes me think...maybe I should wait for a comment like that and then say...."Ah..yeaaah,...YOU'RE the tree!!!" However, too many people don't think like us or realize the tree is a stupid F@#$. At any rate... I STILL don't have any better ideas that would help me with my dilemma. :)
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    • Posted by $ jmlesniewski 12 years, 5 months ago
      I think the key is not to start with politics, but the application of philosophy to their lives. The politics will come later.
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      • Posted by LetsShrug 12 years, 5 months ago
        I fear a philosophy type of an approach would be even more foreign to them than a political conversation....although I attempted to bring up a bit of both in our last conversation. Maybe my real problem with this is that we have very little time for conversations and I'm wishing for some sort of fast path to get them clued in. With all the stresses in our lives and our crazy schedules when we managed to carve out time to get together it's supposed to be "fun" time and I'm being seen as such a downer (not that that bothers me), but I'm getting nowhere. There is no short cut through a journey worth taking. Maybe I'll just get that last sentence printed on a t-shirt and hope they ask what that's supposed to mean. Wow..I have just reached a new level of desperate. lol
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    • Posted by XenokRoy 12 years, 5 months ago
      This is a strange source that may give you ideas if you have not read it. Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. While I disagree with everything he stood for, some of his ideas on how to share and influence others are quite good. Another book with interesting ideas is a "Switch" which again uses the concepts of how to change and motivate people in the wrong ways. The biggest problem is that our greatest strength, knowledge of the individual, gives us enough respect for the individual to allow them to think as they will and not how we want them to think. It almost feels wrong to attempt to persuade them, and particularly feels wrong to use some of the tactics the liberals have used, but there are some sound ideas in those books.
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      • Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 12 years, 5 months ago
        Good morning XenoRoy,

        I have read that piece of treachery(Rules for Radicals). There are some very effective tactics in it but people of honor and adherence to truth will find many unpalatable. That being said, sometimes we must fight fire with fire.
        Regards,
        O.A.
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  • Posted by CatieM 12 years, 5 months ago
    Articles are great, but I would like to have more real discussion. Getting in arguments over articles that are dumb to start with isn't really stimulating.

    From reading the book, I envisioned a place where accomplishments are shared and praised, objects are looked at as what they could be, and the process that would create objects.

    .
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  • Posted by XenokRoy 12 years, 5 months ago
    I would love to see, and would pay money for, a library of current events articles that we could use when talking with others around us to argue why this event or condition would be better if we practiced small government and capitalist principles.

    Ayn Rand wrote such essays on a variety of topics. Articles consolidated on a single site with talking points and full descriptions behind them would help me to talk to my friends who are collectivists with better success. That I would love to have and would pay for.
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    • Posted by $ jmlesniewski 12 years, 5 months ago
      Maybe there could be a current events category wherein we discuss the relevance of current events?
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      • Posted by XenokRoy 12 years, 5 months ago
        Sure, but not exactly what I was thinking of.

        For example:
        What are the Neo-Conservitive Arguments for big military and the objective arguments against them?

        What arguments can you offer for the poor to be cared for through voluntary service rather than robbery and entitlement?

        Many of these types of arguments can be found in Ayn Rands Books, Particularly in those that are a collection of her Essays like The virtues of selfishness and Capitalism:The forgotten ideal. The thing that would be great is to have a place that provided updates to many of these essays with current information and examples. Like for instance in Capitalism the forgotten ideal the example of GE for anti-trust and why it hurt rather than help the public is awesome and great examples. It would be even better to have examples in the last 10 years, discussed with the same level of detial to help us show people why the views we have on the economy are accurate with current laws, suits and results.

        Hopefully this adds some clarity to my thinking here.
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        • Posted by CatieM 12 years, 5 months ago
          I just had a thought and it seems to be close-ish to what you had previously stated.

          Why don't we have the ability to "chain" or "link" posts together.

          For instance, Obama's tirade about objectivism being for adolescence. 2-3 posts were submitted covering that article and then jmlesniewski provided one article that gave a rebuttal to what was said in those 2-3 previously posted articles.

          Maybe just a button on the Create Post page that says link to previous post? Then option for or against. And whoever originally posted the article can confirm the linking before it goes in effect?
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        • Posted by $ jmlesniewski 12 years, 5 months ago
          There is a philosophy section, so any such questions and discussion of said articles could be started there,

          The rights to all those Rand articles become to the Ayn Rand Estate. There's no way the rights are going to be transferred here to start a database.
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  • Posted by khalling 12 years, 5 months ago
    Think Tank Sessions-give members complex problems to solve -cuz we did so well with Let's Shrug's problem :) Maybe Games -I'd like different ways to earn Mulligans.
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    • Posted by LetsShrug 12 years, 5 months ago
      ha ha ha :) I haven't given up. I will find a way some how. (I can't be the only one with this problem.)
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      • Posted by khalling 12 years, 5 months ago
        I am thinking back on my introduction to Ayn Rand. I was a crazy lib at Iowa and met this boy who was a CRAZY objectivist. he was always up for a discussion...we all did the Obama 3rd debate zingers and chuckled at our own wit. he remained calm and remarkably resilient. he finally snagged me via architecture. We both loved Frank Lloyd Wright houses. That's how he got me to read Fountainhead. 27 years later....you can check out my husband's blog-there's lots of beginning discussions about Rand and the world we live in-just search on the site:
        www.hallingblog.com
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  • Posted by WesleyMooch 12 years, 5 months ago
    Proper zoomed-in display for us warm prune juice and Geritol chaser users (you know -- the bulk of the Atlas fan base) would be an improvement: http://i47.tinypic.com/14pv7r.jpg

    I can understand (but not condone) ASP's kicking the less bottom-line-crucial seeing and hearing impaired base to the curb, but you really ought to think harder about your bread and butter.
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    • Posted by CatieM 12 years, 5 months ago
      I can't believe that was unliked. I brought you back up for your humor. The view ability makes me cringe a bit. Not to fit with the norm, but I like the forums that are outlined. Subject type then following top threads below. I am organization freak though.
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