Do you think the world will miss the conservatives who carry out their plans of "going Galt"?

[ck4829]

Poll question: Do you think the world will miss the conservatives who carry out their plans of "going Galt"?

Dr. Helen has put up a video about 'Going John Galt' on PJTV, in which she interviews three people who claim to be Going Galt. (To see the relevant bit, follow the link, click the arrow to the right of the blue segment bar just below the video, and click on 'People Who Are Going John Galt'.) What's odd is that the people Dr. Helen interviews don't really seem to understand what 'Going Galt' means. Two of the people Dr. Helen interviews are trying to reduce their taxable income, and the third is trying to "follow Ayn Rand's morality as much as I can, and spread her philosophy as far as I can."

That's not what Rand meant by Going Galt at all. In Atlas Shrugged, John Galt decides to withdraw his creative and productive efforts from society. He is going on strike, and he convinces other creative, productive people to follow him. Here's what happens when someone Goes Galt in Rand's novel:

"He's quit! Gone! Gone like all the others! Left his mills, his bank accounts, his property, everything! Just vanished! Took some clothing and whatever he had in the safe in his apartment -- they found a safe left open in his bedroom, open and empty -- that's all! No word, no note, no explanation! They called me from Washington, but it's all over town! The news, I mean, the story! They can't keep it quiet! They've tried to, but...Nobody knows how it got out, but it went through the mills like one of those furnace break-outs, the word that he'd gone, and then...before anyone could stop it, a whole bunch of them vanished! The superintendent, the chief metallurgist, the chief engineer, Rearden's secretary, even the bastards! Deserting us, in spite of all the penalties we've set up! He's quit and the rest are quitting and those mills are just left there, standing still! Do you understand what that means?"

Rearden and his associates will not be paying a lot of taxes now that they've left. But that's not the point. Withdrawing their creative efforts is. In Rand's novel, it is they who keep the mills running, and without them, everything grinds to a halt and the world is plunged into crisis.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_03/017261.php

[gratuitous]

1. Yeah, I think the symbolism of the action escapes them

Of course, trying to tease out a real-world application for the demented meanderings of Randian "thought" is a dicey business, at best. But simply reducing one's taxable income to less than $250,000 so as to avoid paying an extra 3% (horrors) on the income above that figure hardly qualifies as "going Galt." It does qualify as a pissy little temper tantrum by a bunch of whiny ass titty babies.

And as a Dilbert cartoon series made so devastatingly clear, it's not much help when some people put in extra effort or extra time on a project. The dimwits who are "threatening" society with a John Galt-style withdrawal are not exactly the indispensable men and women who keep the engine of American society running along. These people seem to suffer from delusions of adequacy.

[tomg]

2. Miss them? Rand is such a load

of shit. I remember reading her when I was 14 and thinking that she was great. That phase lasted about a week. Jesus, I wish she had "gone Gault" before I wasted a week of my life.

[Lilith Velkor]

3. They pulled that shit in Argentina, and the workers took over the factories

http://www.thetake.org/

Of course, they (as in "captains of industry") went to the trouble of taking over the government first in that case. Problem was, they looted the treasury so thoroughly that the cops weren't getting paid, and thus were not inclined to gun them all down, like they would here.

on edit: The conservatives' delusions of creativity is doubly laughable, in this context.

[Political Heretic]

4. I went Galt and look what happened to the economy!

Sorry everybody. :hide:

[KamaAina]

5. Desperately!

Once they "go Galt", who's going to trash our financial markets, plunder our resources, ruin our environment, and reduce us to virtual servitude?

:sarcasm:

[TexasObserver]

6. It's one of the stupidest plot lines ever written, and written so badly.

Ayn Rand is like Ann Coulter and Peggy Noonan having a baby, and that baby was raised by wolves and Rush Limbaugh, and then took the name Ayn Rand.

[DCKit]

7. No Republic produces anything I use or need.

At best, they are the middlemen who profit from trade on the backs of those who produce.

Two months until cooperatives and farmers markets would spring up all over the country.

[readmoreoften]

8. What "creative" function do Madoff and Cramer provide for society?

I think the creative people are the engineers, writers, programmers, teachers, doctors, architects, construction workers, fashion designers, hair stylists, cooks, graphic designers, film makers, digital editors and colorists, game developers, scholars, actors, theatrical lighting designers, industrial designers, landscapers, labor strategists and ALL OTHER problem solvers of the world.

Not the back room dealers, the gamblers, the thugs, the crooks, the market manipulators, the game players, the union busters, the bosses, the landlords, the executive producers. I wish they'd take their "creativity" out of the world.

[Ikonoklast]

9. Each and every time in the history of Man on this planet

when the absolutely 'irreplaceable' person in any type of organization, political, religious, industry, dies...

He gets replaced.



Same thing would happen if all those self-important idiots 'went Galt'. No one would even notice they were missing.

Hell, in many instances, things just may run smoother.

Having a megalomaniac in charge of your organization is sometimes terminal. You're better off without 'em.

[sendero]

10. Exactly..

...there is no bigger self-important douchebag than the typical libertarian.