How Many Bricklayers Did Galt Invite to the Gulch?
Galt went around inviting famous artists, noted business leaders to the Guch, but once there, who built their houses? Who paved their streets, dug their sewer lines?
This isn't a class warfare argument; the building of a house, for example, not only takes a skilled architect, but also skilled craftsmen and industrious laborers.
If the criterion for admission is a belief in "trading value for value", surely Galt should and would have invited "ordinary" workers to the Gulch as well as luminaries like Wyatt and Danagger?
Such people exist lower down on the ladder; people who believe in trading value for value, but lack the creative ability to invent a new motor or miraculous metal. People who didn't inherit an already successful railroad or copper mines, but would be able to get a day's worth of coal or copper dug in a day's worth of hours for a day's worth of pay. Maybe they lack the ambition to go through the headache of running a company when they get more satisfaction from digging coal out of the ground. Maybe they lack the self discipline necessary to see their visions to reality, but are still able and still believe in trading value for value.
What Utopians always underestimate in their rhetoric (no disparagement of Ms Rand intended) is the example America set before them. People's abilities and worth are not necessarily evidenced by their position in life. All the creative brilliance in the world will not get a brick wall built. A brick wall built without knowledge and skill won't stand, but the most creative and brilliantly designed wall will never exist without someone to lay it up brick by brick. Someone whose creative skill may be shrouded by prejudice toward his position in life.
There may not be a place in the Gulch for someone like me. But that would be Galt's loss.
This isn't a class warfare argument; the building of a house, for example, not only takes a skilled architect, but also skilled craftsmen and industrious laborers.
If the criterion for admission is a belief in "trading value for value", surely Galt should and would have invited "ordinary" workers to the Gulch as well as luminaries like Wyatt and Danagger?
Such people exist lower down on the ladder; people who believe in trading value for value, but lack the creative ability to invent a new motor or miraculous metal. People who didn't inherit an already successful railroad or copper mines, but would be able to get a day's worth of coal or copper dug in a day's worth of hours for a day's worth of pay. Maybe they lack the ambition to go through the headache of running a company when they get more satisfaction from digging coal out of the ground. Maybe they lack the self discipline necessary to see their visions to reality, but are still able and still believe in trading value for value.
What Utopians always underestimate in their rhetoric (no disparagement of Ms Rand intended) is the example America set before them. People's abilities and worth are not necessarily evidenced by their position in life. All the creative brilliance in the world will not get a brick wall built. A brick wall built without knowledge and skill won't stand, but the most creative and brilliantly designed wall will never exist without someone to lay it up brick by brick. Someone whose creative skill may be shrouded by prejudice toward his position in life.
There may not be a place in the Gulch for someone like me. But that would be Galt's loss.
Previous comments...
One of the most touching scenes I ever read in any book was the scene between Mike and Roark when he tells Roark that he (Mike) once had a son... who died. As I recall, on hearing that, Roark touched Mike's shoulder.
I'm sure it affected me because my dad was an electrician and someone whose work could always be trusted. The Gulch would have been filled with Mike's. There work would have been all the more necessary because of the Galts.
Chin up!
Are you seeking a pass into heaven for those who earn hell?
I walk among you. As a machinist I see people every day who have one foot out the door when the quitting bell rings, while others do not turn off their machines until said time.
What is an honest wage, what is a full day's worth of work and what is the value of a skill??
What are you worth? Who decides?
Every slave knows that a free man owns himself.
Who owns you?
thanks.
Additionally, many of the exceptional and creative people were good at the physical aspects of their work as well. Examples include Dagny doing maintenance on her cabin and planning to build a narrow gauge rail line at the property. Also Rearden sprining to action when the fire starts in the factory. He was leading the charge in rescue and putting out the fire. He knew the physical aspects of the job, but found his time better rewarded in the office on most days.
Also at the beginning of the book, the employee who comes to Dagny and wants to resign wasn't a "top" creative person... he was just a guy working hard and on his way up. Galt found him and took him away early.
I believe not only did he, but those he invited also brought some of his own people in. Also, remember Midas had bought this valley a good time before as a private retreat. We can't necessarily assume everything was built from scratch. Also too, none of those invited would shirk from a little "honest labor".
Finally, Galt in his address exhorted those who sympathized with his cause to set up similar communities - rich, poor, industrialist or worker. What was necessary was alignment of ideals, not restriction of class.
So yes, there would be a place for you in "Galt's gulch". My question is, would you take it?
Atlas Shrugged did this a little with Cherryl, James Taggart's wife. She was store clerk, who admired industry (i.e. getting things done). She has a crisis when she realizes he has a sick need for her to look up to him as a man above her class. Her thinking of him as a human being and peer drives him crazy. He needs his ego stroked constantly. In despair she turns to people doling out charity. They don't give a damn b/c a) she's not financially poor and b) her circumstances don't lend themselves to letting charitable people sanctimoniously pat themselves on the back for being morally superior. Dealing with two people on the same night who want to use someone who's hurting to stroke their own ego is more than she can bear.
She was a would-be working class gulch resident that the story dug into.
Sorta like "you know who".
There was a man who used to live in Homestead, Florida, who would have been a perfect example. He was very likable but he did things his own way. That included his very famous home--Coral Castle.
Read Coral Castle Construction. A Kindle (electronic) version is available on Amazon for less than 10 bucks. (Sorry, there are very few printed copies left. Good luck if you can find one.)
It's a state of mind and being not a physical location.
I used to make a good living but now have reduced my income down to the minimum that we need to survive because I don't to support the parasitic psychopaths any longer with my hard work.
It has been a hugh sacrifice and it may not even make a difference but I can sleep at night and you have to start somewhere. Right?
If you understand Rand, you would know that the virtue lies in productive achievement according to one's ability.
Hiraghm, I'd invite you to dive deep into Rand's work and leave the wikipedia off the reading list.
Let's take a deep breath, and do some introspective analysis here.
Don't we cherish reason, above all else?
And...isn't Hiraghm simply applying reason to the logistics of actually building the Atlantis, as shown, in the novel?
Ayn Rand could have resolved this with more detail, but she didn't. It is, therefore, rational for us to subjectively 'flesh' out the missing details...just as the OP has done.
His opinion has a much weight as mine, or yours, since Ayn Rand left that to our imagination. We can disagree with his conclusion...but should support his right to state his case, especially since he has answered every post with arguably rational examples.
To do any less, would be the poster child for hypocrisy.
I submit that this is one of the better threads that we have seen, and I am glad for the original post!
"Someone whose creative skill may be shrouded by prejudice toward his position in life. "
maybe better would be:
"Someone whose creative skill may be shrouded by *his own* prejudice toward his position in life. "
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