Is the book "Atlas Shrugged" being played out in real time?

[Missouri_Mike]

Never mind the board handle I've used on here for years. I've never even read the book or seen the movie, but I think I understand the significance of what the author meant to convey. The term "getting galted" is being used to describe what's taking place today: A refusal of the "providers" to furnish a globalist, collectivist, or Maxrist regime the materials it needs, "in an effort to "stop the motor of the world" and bring about the collapse of the bureaucratic society."

John Galt - Wikipedia

In other words, John Galt was the man who organized the withdrawal of all the men in society who have the money and who have the knowledge of how to run a successful business. Men who refused to cooperate with a collectivst form of government. This left only the inept government to keep the country’s economy going.

This seems to be what's occurring right now. It's no secret that the current crop of Democrats are the most left-leaning Marxists this country has ever seen. They are no friend of business, industry, and capitalism. They are enacting business-unfriendly regulations, harsh environmental policies, raising taxes, and apparently those corporations are pushing back. The pushback is being seen in shortages, high prices and disruptions in the supply lines which ultimately, President Biden will be held responsible for. This has led to a country run not as a Democracy but as an ineptocracy. That is defined as a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

Apparently Rand predicted this, and President Trump understood this too. But this time, there are millions of John Galts.

It’s a great book. Did you should pick it up?

 

[Stryder50]

Why? The op said he never read the book or saw the movie. I gotta say, Rand is pretty turgid stuff. Jmo she took it too far in comparing the 60s liberals to Stalin, esp considering she lived off of social benefits, but she did have a point. and it is still played out as progressives do want to "even things out" So, I can see the relevance. But not the bump.

Actually, the book was written about 1957, and the bump was for tie-in to this thread I started yesterday;
Is Elon Musk the 21st Century version of John Galt?

 

[Rigby5]

I expected flak from the left. They seem to hate the concept that book portrayed. And if anything validates that concept, it would be how much you hate it.

Now tell me this: Who is responsible for the rise in gasoline prices? If it isn't Joe Biden, then who and why?

The books by Ayn Rand are entertaining, but impossible to take seriously.

Atlas Shrugged​

{...

In an environment of worsening economic conditions, Dagny Taggart, vice president in charge of operations, works to repair Taggart Transcontinental’s crumbling Rio Norte Line to service Colorado, the last booming industrial area in the country. Her efforts are hampered by the fact that many of the country’s most talented entrepreneurs are retiring and disappearing. The railroad’s crisis worsens when the Mexican government nationalizes Taggart’s San Sebastian Line. The line had been built to service Francisco d’Anconia’s copper mills, but the mills turn out to be worthless. Francisco had been a successful industrialist, and Dagny’s lover, but has become a worthless playboy. To solve the railroad’s financial problems, Dagny’s brother Jim uses political influence to pass legislation that destroys Taggart’s only competition in Colorado. Dagny must fix the Rio Norte Line immediately and plans to use Rearden Metal, a new alloy created by Hank Rearden. When confronted about the San Sebastian mines, Francisco tells Dagny he is deliberately destroying d’Anconia Copper. Later he appears at Rearden’s anniversary party and, meeting him for the first time, urges Rearden to reject the freeloaders who live off of him.

The State Science Institute issues a denunciation of Rearden metal, and Taggart’s stock crashes. Dagny decides to start her own company to rebuild the line, and it is a huge success. Dagny and Rearden become lovers. Together they discover a motor in an abandoned factory that runs on static electricity, and they seek the inventor. The government passes new legislation that cripples industry in Colorado. Ellis Wyatt, an oil industrialist, suddenly disappears after setting fire to his wells. Dagny is forced to cut trains, and the situation worsens. Soon, more industrialists disappear. Dagny believes there is a destroyer at work, taking men away when they are most needed. Francisco visits Rearden and asks him why he remains in business under such repressive conditions. When a fire breaks out and they work together to put it out, Francisco understands Rearden’s love for his mills.

Rearden goes on trial for breaking one of the new laws, but refuses to participate in the proceedings, telling the judges they can coerce him by force but he won’t help them to convict him. Unwilling to be seen as thugs, they let him go. Economic dictator Wesley Mouch needs Rearden’s cooperation for a new set of socialist laws, and Jim needs economic favors that will keep his ailing railroad running after the collapse of Colorado. Jim appeals to Rearden’s wife Lillian, who wants to destroy her husband. She tells him Rearden and Dagny are having an affair, and he uses this information in a trade. The new set of laws, Directive 10-289, is irrational and repressive. It includes a ruling that requires all patents to be signed over to the government. Rearden is blackmailed into signing over his metal to protect Dagny’s reputation.

Dagny quits over the new directive and retreats to a mountain lodge. When she learns of a massive accident at the Taggart Tunnel, she returns to her job. She receives a letter from the scientist she had hired to help rebuild the motor, and fears he will be the next target of the destroyer. In an attempt to stop him from disappearing, she follows him in an airplane and crashes in the mountains. When she wakes up, she finds herself in a remote valley where all the retired industrialists are living. They are on strike, calling it a strike of the mind. There, she meets John Galt, who turns out to be both the destroyer and the man who built the motor. She falls in love with him, but she cannot give up her railroad, and she leaves the valley. When she returns to work, she finds that the government has nationalized the railroad industry. Government leaders want her to make a speech reassuring the public about the new laws. She refuses until Lillian comes to blackmail her. On the air, she proudly announces her affair with Rearden and reveals that he has been blackmailed. She warns the country about its repressive government.

With the economy on the verge of collapse, Francisco destroys the rest of his holdings and disappears. The politicians no longer even pretend to work for the public good. Their vast network of influence peddling creates worse chaos, as crops rot waiting for freight trains that are diverted for personal favors. In an attempt to gain control of Francisco’s mills, the government stages a riot at Rearden Steel. But the steelworkers organize and fight back, led by Francisco, who has been working undercover at the mills. Francisco saves Rearden’s life, then convinces him to join the strike.

Just as the head of state prepares to give a speech on the economic situation, John Galt takes over the airwaves and delivers a lengthy address to the country, laying out the terms of the strike he has organized. In desperation, the government seeks Galt to make him their economic dictator. Dagny inadvertently leads them to him, and they take him prisoner. But Galt refuses to help them, even after he is tortured. Finally, Dagny and the strikers rescue him in an armed confrontation with guards. They return to the valley, where Dagny finally joins the strike. Soon, the country’s collapse is complete and the strikers prepare to return.
...}

 

[Rigby5]

Anyone who knows history, knows that Ayn Rand grew up under Stalinism, not communism, and Stalin was not only an ultra capitalist, but a paranoid sociopath who could not stand any competition or threat.
Centralized autocracies are pure capitalism, because they are profit motivated.
Real communism would always be decentralized and under worker control.

 

[Indeependent]

Anyone who knows history, knows that Ayn Rand grew up under Stalinism, not communism, and Stalin was not only an ultra capitalist, but a paranoid sociopath who could not stand any competition or threat.
Centralized autocracies are pure capitalism, because they are profit motivated.
Real communism would always be decentralized and under worker control.

Neo-Cons masturbated to Atlas Shrugged when GW Bush was in office.

 

[HenryBHough]

Did anyone notice whether Musk has also purchased an island?

 

[Rigby5]

If that's all you got from her writings, it's you who is as shallow and immature as they come.

The problem is that her writing was totally unreal.
There are no people like that, no government like that, and no place that.
It was an ultra good guy vs ultra bad guy fairy tale.
And clearly she had absolutely no understanding of underlying principles at all.
I sympathize with her having to grow up under Stalinism, but Stalinism is totally capitalist and anti-communist.

 

[Rigby5]

Actually, the book was written about 1957, and the bump was for tie-in to this thread I started yesterday;
Is Elon Musk the 21st Century version of John Galt?

Funny thing is that in 1957, the US was a paranoid police state, totally controlled by propaganda, witch hunts, and evil imperialist colonialism all over the world.
For example, in Korea we backed the corrupt who had collaborated with the Japanese, and brought back Syngman Rhee, who had been kicked out of office for massive theft.
He then proceeded to murder tens of thousands of Korean workers he considered too left.
He single handedly started the Korean War.

 

[BackAgain]

The inflation is the fault of the Fed and Wall Street banksters, who think that you can cure the hangover by staying drunk forever.

Excellent line.

 

[Indeependent]

If that's all you got from her writings, it's you who is as shallow and immature as they come.

Rand was a self-centered piece of shit.
You should watch her YouTube videos; you will vomit.

 

[Oddball]

The problem is that her writing was totally unreal.
There are no people like that, no government like that, and no place that.
It was an ultra good guy vs ultra bad guy fairy tale.
And clearly she had absolutely no understanding of underlying principles at all.
I sympathize with her having to grow up under Stalinism, but Stalinism is totally capitalist and anti-communist.

The protagonists are totally two dimensional....They sucked.

The antagonists are all in congress and running major media outlets....Had the mindset of the collectivist looters and violent goons nailed.

Rand's short stories and essays are far better reading than her doorstops masquerading as novels.

 

[Rigby5]

Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal were entertaining in "The Fountainhead".
But it was a romcom, not at all realistic.

 

[Oddball]

Who can argue with this?

 

[Stryder50]

Did anyone notice whether Musk has also purchased an island?

I think you might be referring to what this article is mentioning;

Anger after Indonesia offers Elon Musk Papuan island for SpaceX launchpad​

This article is more than 1 year old
(As per common bias in most reporting, that lead off is misleading. Insert "some" in front of "Biak island residents" for more accuracy.)
Biak island residents say SpaceX launchpad would devastate island’s ecology and displace people from their homes
...
Papuans whose island has been offered up as a potential launch site for Elon Musk’s SpaceX project have told the billionaire Tesla chief his company is not welcome on their land, and its presence would devastate their island’s ecosystem and drive people from their homes.

Musk was offered use of part of the small island of Biak in Papua by Indonesian president Joko Widodo in December.

An Indonesian government representative told the Guardian this week the planned spaceport was being developed in consultation with the Papuan government and local communities, and that Biak’s development as a “Space Island” would “bring positive economic impacts” for islanders.

But Papuans on Biak are fiercely opposed, arguing a space launchpad will drive deforestation, increase Indonesian military presence, and threaten their future on the island. A tribal chief on the island, Manfun Sroyer, said he feared Papuans will be forced from their homes.

“This spaceport will cost us our traditional hunting grounds, damaging the nature our way of life depends on. But, if we protest, we’ll be arrested immediately.”

Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, also aims to develop a large rocket launch site on Biak island by 2024.

“In 2002, Russians wanted our land for satellite launches. We protested and many were arrested and interrogated… now they’ve brought it back, and this harassment and intimidation is still going on,” Manfun Sroyer said.
...

Anger after Indonesia offers Elon Musk Papuan island for SpaceX launchpad

Biak island residents say SpaceX launchpad would devastate island’s ecology and displace people from their homes

www.theguardian.com

 

[Stryder50]

Actually, the book was written about 1957, and the bump was for tie-in to this thread I started yesterday;
Is Elon Musk the 21st Century version of John Galt?

I may have mis-spoken or gave the wrong impression here.
There was a lengthy period of writing involved and the book published/copyrighted in 1957.
...
Rand began the first draft of the novel on September 2, 1946.[12] She initially thought it would be easy to write and completed quickly, but as she considered the complexity of the philosophical issues she wanted to address, she realized it would take longer.[13] After ending a contract to write screenplays for Hal Wallis and finishing her obligations for the film adaptation of The Fountainhead, Rand worked full-time on the novel that she tentatively titled The Strike. By the summer of 1950, she had written 18 chapters;[14] by September 1951, she had written 21 chapters and was working on the last of the novel's three sections.[15]

As Rand completed new chapters, she read them to a circle of young admirers who had begun gathering at her home to discuss philosophy. This group included Nathaniel Branden, his wife Barbara Branden, Barbara's cousin Leonard Peikoff, and economist Alan Greenspan.[16] Progress on the novel slowed considerably in 1953, when Rand began working on Galt's lengthy radio address. She spent more than two years completing the speech, finishing it on October 13, 1955.[17] The remaining chapters proceeded more quickly, and by November 1956 Rand was ready to submit the almost-completed manuscript to publishers.
...

Atlas Shrugged - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Rigby5]

Who can argue with this?

Everyone can argue with that.
John Galt is not at all real, nor is any imagined perpetual motion machine or free energy.
While there are corporations who would suppress anything that reduced their profit, the whole point is that socialism would prevent that.
It is the capitalists who are profit motivated and dangerous, not the representatives of a real republic.
So Ayn Rand has it all completely backwards, where capitalist industry is the threat, and socialist industry provides for the people instead.

 

[Stryder50]

Who can argue with this?

One could say the above is the condensed version.
Here's the link to the full text version from the book;

John Galt’s Speech from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”​

John Galt’s Speech from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”

For twelve years, you have been asking: Who is John Galt? This is John Galt speaking. I am the man who loves his life. I am the man who does not sacrifice his love or his values. I am the man who h…

amberandchaos.net

 

[HenryBHough]

To emulate Galt one must first determine what is "enough". Then work to achieve that. Then put down the tools. Amazing how tradesmen ("tradepersons" if that give you an erection) have largely figured that out.

Tried to hire an electrician or a plumber lately?

You wen to to college and got indoctrinated. Acquired no skills. Learned to look down on those who work with their hands.

Now you need those hands but more and more them have their "enough". They don't need you.

For that simple reason those who can find a tradesman (fuck off if you don't like that term) will pay dearly for services. Won't be long before that individual will find "enough" and kick back and let you drown in your own shit.

Is it not possible that Musk has found his "enough"?

 

[bendog]

One could say the above is the condensed version.
Here's the link to the full text version from the book;

John Galt’s Speech from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”​

John Galt’s Speech from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”

For twelve years, you have been asking: Who is John Galt? This is John Galt speaking. I am the man who loves his life. I am the man who does not sacrifice his love or his values. I am the man who h…

amberandchaos.net

I don't mean to diss Rand's philosophy at all. When I had to read her books in the early 70s .... well, she was all about her ideology. And Less novelist.

I have no idea what Musk's goal is. I doubt the twitter thing works out for him though.

 

[Stryder50]

Of course I did.. It's juvenile. Nobody takes it seriously after HS.

Nobody who takes Karl Marx seriously that is. Marx is even more juvenile and unreal fantasy, yet most of the Leftists see him and his work as their salvation.