The Time Has Come For Atlas To Shrug
"I am calling on business owners, large and small, across Puerto Rico to close their doors for 24 hours on September 2, 2014. The date is known as Atlas Shrugged Day, in honor of the date repeatedly mentioned in the Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged. In the book, one by one, men of industry, the movers and the shakers of the world, simply disappeared. They quit, closed their businesses, and walked away, driving the economy, already destroyed by over regulation and union madness, into even bigger disarray."
hey look, Euda-someone else is honoring the day along with us!
hey look, Euda-someone else is honoring the day along with us!
Broken, injured, slow, scattered, I am almost everything Ayn Rand did not admire. A JFK Democrat who believes in free speech (including for Republicans), free press (Including for FOX News), freedom of religion (Including for Christian fundamentalists), freedom of expression (including for the Tea Party Movement), and equal rights (including for white males). I am none of the above (well, part white and definitely male).
My business consists of a few customers rarely seen. I barely earn enough for my lunch.
My "business" will be closed and I'll say why as well. It's the most I can do though I would never be invited to Galt's Gulch (nor am I owed a place).
Keep speaking up, each of you, about what you believe in. DO find a way to make the day public. DO consider the consequences (CHOOSE what you do, don't just go along and then be surprised by the results - Ayn did not teach blind following or careless planning).
In my old job, telling them I was taking the day off for that reason would have brought me up for review, and I was and am still too cowardly to risk that. But now I run my own business (ethics can be very expensive), and it's my choice.
Choose.
I thank you for the orientation.
Working on getting it further...
Why wouldn't I?
But the party slid socialist.
Those that left the party essentially left it in the hands of the socialist and made all of the present troubles possible.
As much as I understand the idea behind Galt's Gulch, the idea is also abhorrent to me because it means abandoning civilization to those whom we essentially disagree with. I feel the same way with my party. They've gone of the rails. I haven't. I still vote and speak up for freedom as I mentioned above. You'd be surprised how often just because of that I get told I am NOT a Democrat by fellow Democrats.
compared with today's Democrats!!! -- j
And I've seen conservatives carrying the banner for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and equality far better than my party of late.
Naw...you're all a bunch of racist bigoted white guys...right? Sure - I can tell - it says so right here in my manual of Democratic Socialism.
Seriously - you folks help me stay a little less despairing knowing I'm not the only one noticing these things and posting them. I should keep my eyes out and do some posting as well.
Keep speaking up, all. I'm grateful for it.
of us, especially for fine folks like you!!! -- j
Being in the gulch does not necessarily take wealth. It takes moral fiber, integrity, and courage to stand up for ones beliefs; The ability to look at something without coloring the facts, or hiding from reality, but in its bare, naked truth, to not only recognize that A=A, but feel it instinctively in your soul of souls.
You may look in a mirror - and see a broken, scattered wreck of a human, but in your writing, you show the courage of Danneskjöld, the depth of thought of Galt, and the fighting against the status quo of my hero, Dagny...
NEVER sell yourself short, for in so doing, you let the looters - the ones who would steal your soul and then sell it back to you on their terms - and the moochers who would guilt you into giving up everything you have to make them fat and lazy, win... Only if you do that, would you then affirm what you said. And I think, as a business owner and someone who has the courage to speak their mind honestly you could never do that.
I'll tell you, it's been tough teaching in the public schools. I went because that's where I was needed, deliberately picking some of the toughest districts I could find. I loved it. I hated it. The kids and most of the parents were a blessing. The ANGRY parents were a blessing - they just wanted to help their kids.
It was the staff and administration that was depressing.
Boy, do I have stories, I'll share them as time goes.
Now I teach private courses for parents on how to help their children become "gifted" (silly term, that, when you can get there deliberately) without all the pressure. We have such potential and the public schools never let me apply what I knew and was able to do with my own daughter (eight, reading at high school level now and LOVES reading).
Being your own boss is such a pleasure. I'm learning and I'm listening. Thank you for the encouraging words, like a hand held out to pull myself up. Pulling myself up...
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/ac...
Actually it can, as long as it has access to a printing press (or its electronic equivalent) and willing lenders (such as the Fed).
It can be very dangerous speaking out as you have and as so many here have. If you are a public figure with an audience, sometimes that can work to your benefit. Keep up the good fight!
Carpe diem,
O.A.
http://rationalreview.news-digests.com/a...
So, how about Producer's Day on September 2nd? If producer's wish to take the day off, good for them...
Just to be clear, I am not trying to incite riots or other dangers from a mass movement of blind devotion, chanting, rain dances, or whatever... I as an individual (a leader of only 1 = me) am humbly throwing out the suggestion to all other honored individuals, who have the free will to choose whatever they wish...
Stay thirsty my friends...
The problem with relying on the media for new is, if they don't report if, it didn't happen. So, there needs to be a way to make it more obvious to the public.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTwV3vG7...
That being said, I can't stand the argument that that says "I'm a misunderstood genius who could be producing amazing value as a business leader, but I'm so mad about politics that I feel morally compelled to deny the looters the fruits of my genius and to fight for what's right by staying home and watch cable news commentary tell me how everything's going to the devil. "
In AS, this goes to an extreme for illustrative purposes to show how badly this could get out of hand. I strongly agree with this message. History backs it up.
I have not built an amazing business, but I watch people around me do a better job bringing people together and serving customers better and building something amazing.
How lame it would be for me to say I _could_ build an amazing business if only it weren't for the policies I personally disagree with, which must be the result of looters. I too don't agree with most gov't spending and intrusiveness, and I'm not blaming my failures on that. I used to think it was some liberals who could cry you a river of excuses as to why they can't get things done. Some supposed supporters of objectivism take it to a new level based on an interpretation of AS that I strongly reject.
I don't think striking will help, but of course people should do what they like.
My main problem with striking is that producing stuff sucessfully is so hard; when I hear someone is *not* producing to make a political point, I immediately question if that was the reason. People find all kinds of reasons *not* to work. Some people really will not work for a good political reason; I'm just talking about how it looks. If you're not doing to win support for the cause, then this argument doesn't matter.
A second problem is I believe the main impetus for socialism in the near future will be that automation is causing rising return on capital and falling prices of labor. This makes the "rich get richer", which leads to socialist approaches. A strike IMHO could just underscore this fact about capital vs labor and hasten the socialism. I don't have a solution to this problem, but I hope smart economists are thinking of one.
By changed how you produce, do you mean that you would enjoy and are capable of producing large amounts of wealth but choose to subsist b/c of the policy issues you mention in your previous post?
and then it seems to make sense for a while, and then I lose the trail of bread crumbs again.
Some "supposed supporters of objectivism" take it to a new level..." take what? objectivism?
I'm totally lost. hunh?
This is *not* the same as just doing what you want to do. I'm obviously for that. If you want to take a few part time projects here and there, just enough to provide for you, it should be a free country to do that. If you want to try to build a business empire, that's your right. Living deliberately, doing what you want, is important fundamentally, and it has the consequence of creating an environment where people are free to serve one another by creating amazing things.
That part about me personally is pointless, since it adds nothing to know whether one person is foolish and/or biased for personal reasons.
ya think?
I disagree. I might decide to change how I frame my arguments with you, since I think you are the only one on the site convinced we are in an expansion
And did you just say you don't think laissez faire policies had anything to do with the industrialization of the US? I must be misunderstanding something.
..."
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/ac...
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/ac...