What Happened When Some Libertarians Went Off to Build Ayn Rand's Vision of Paradise

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/books/what-happened-when-some-libertarians-went-build-ayn-rands-vision-paradise

The theme of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, according to Ms. Rand herself, is “what happens to the world when the Prime Movers go on strike.” The prime movers are corporate executives – “the motor of the world” – and Rand imagines what would happen if they all just went away. To Rand this is nothing less than “a picture of the world with its motor cut off.”

Ouch. Paging Dr. Freud.

In Rand’s novel the great, throbbing “motor of the world” (it’s made of executives, remember?) retreats to an Atlantis-like idyll known as “Galt’s Gulch.” Without their ingenuity and drive the nation descends into chaos, leading many long pages later to their triumphant return and anointment as leaders of a new libertarian order.

Which gets us to the fraud charges now swirling around a venture called “Galt’s Gulch of Chile.” Its website is currently down, but it’s still being promoted as a real-world retreat for the world’s movers and shakers. “Yes, you read that right,” the organizer chirps cheerily. “Those who become one of GGC’s Founders will be paid back … within three years of the consummation of their Founders Club participation (please contact GGC for the fine print and T&Cs).”

In what should be an unsurprising outcome, it didn’t turn out very well. That news comes (via Metafilter and Gawker) from a blogger named Wendy McElroy, who writes that she bought some property in Galt’s Gulch with her husband and then learned that it never had legal rights to the property in the first place. A visit to Chile revealed that many of the area’s local vendors had also been defrauded by the Galtians.

As Gawker’s headline puts it, “ Ayn Rand's Capitalist Paradise Is Now a Greedy Land-Grabbing Shitstorm.”

[GoneOffShore]

1. I like the 'Greedy Land-grabbing Shitstorm' line -

Describes liebertarians to a T.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. And that's even before the genetic engineering and the monsters in the diving helmets

[Volaris]

38. How did I know there was a Rapture joke imminent...

[randome]

3. Three Libertarians walk into a bar.

You have to figure out the rest on your own.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[TlalocW]

25. They're served tainted alcohol because there are no regulations.

They die.

TlalocW

[Demeter]

4. It was inevitable

The only thing that modern executives have perfected is the financial swindle.

Edison and Ford were skilled inventors. Dimon and Blankfein are graduates of Fagin's School or Pick-Pocketry.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Oh, come ON. Edison was a TOTAL thug.

Look up the history of the American film industry. There are two reasons why it got situated in Southern California- one, lots of sunshine, and two, to be as far away as possible from Edison's cinematic goon squads, who were well known for beating the crap out of proprietors AND patrons of any non-authorized venue which was using their 'proprietary' idea, namely the motion picture.

Ford? Yeah, apart from the racism and anti-semitism, a swell cat.

[caraher]

7. Sure, but they at least brought something else to the tables

They were inventors and horrible human beings. The banksters today are just horrible human beings.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. Comparing two different things, though.

There are people inventing amazing things today, too.

It's just those amazing things being invented do NOT include credit default swaps and mortgage backed securities.

[hifiguy]

32. The first time I heard the term "financial engineering"

a profound chill ran through my entire body. If that term doesn't scare the fertilizer out of any thoughtful human being there is nothing that will.

[Warren DeMontague]

40. really, what could go wrong?

If we design something we know is going to collapse-- and then design something else that will make us billions when it inevitably DOES?

no, seriously, what could go wrong?

[Ikonoklast]

20. Ford had no problem sending Engine Charlie and his goon squad to beat union members.

Ford was a real piece of shit.

[Warren DeMontague]

41. yeah, that too was a very popular "business model" back then.

[world wide wally]

22. Tesla was light years advanced of Edison (pardon the pun), but Edison had the big money backing

[CaptainTruth]

50. I've never seen Ford's cat. Is it like Schrodinger's?

[Turbineguy]

6. Ayn Rand just took

Marxism and turned it upside down. Yes became No. The problem is that Marxism did not fail because it was a bad idea, it failed because it went against human nature. And so it is with her philosophy.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Shakespeare knew that 400 years ago.

[hifiguy]

33. Eeyup. The Marxian analysis of capitalism is absolutely correct.

The Marxian prescriptions about what should replace it are just as wrong.

Democratic socialism is the only sane way. No dictatorship of the proletariat or dictatorship of the plutocracy.

[Enthusiast]

9. A Greedy Land-Grabbing Shitstorm. Imagine that.

They were just living up to Ayn Rand's values.

[Jerry442]

53. Isn't a greedy land-grabbing shitstorm the libertarian Paradise? NT

[tblue37]

10. Wanna bet those "libertarians" now demand that such swindlers be regulated and punished? nt

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

11. Here's a hint. If you're known for being 'a blogger', you're not one of the world's

'movers and shakers'. You're one of the peasants the plutocracy would be moving away to hide from. The real 'movers and shakers' don't need some scam artists to set up their gated communities. They can simply buy up however many thousands of acres they want, build whatever they want, all on their own.

[joshcryer]

12. Sounds about right.

This is some Russian-mafia-style Putin-state crap, here. Pull people in, convince them that they're on the correct side of history, manipulate them, have them side with them, and spend loads of money buying what is essentially garbage.

Libertarians never cease to amaze me.

[PeaceNikki]

13. I'll just drop this here...

[Nay]

14. OMG! I love this! nt

[PeaceNikki]

16. great timing, I literally saw this tweet minutes before i saw thread.

[ctsnowman]

15. lol thanks for the post.

[FSogol]

17. Synonyms for Libertarian: rube, fool, mark, sucker, sap, ass, dimwit....

[hifiguy]

34. Republican Greedhead who wants to legally smoke dope

and watch porn is still the best nutshell description of Libertarians.

[tanyev]

18. Except every organization I've ever worked at rolls along just fine when the CEO goes on vacation.

The problems crop up when too many competent worker bees are out for illness/vacation/training, etc.

[n2doc]

19. Read this review

http://io9.com/with-part-iii-atlas-shrugged-becomes-an-awesome-harleq-1634197514

John Galt shows Dagny around his incredible world of happy white people (except for Francisco D'Anconia, the copper magnate) where everybody pays for everything using special gold coins with giant dollar signs engraved on them. You want a croissant from the happy croissant seller? Give her a piece of gold. The "gold coin" economy is made possible partly by a pirate named Ragnar, who goes around raiding shipping vessels to "take back" what the government has stolen from the hard-working wealthy people.

John Galt's community is full of technological miracles, all of which are the work of a single inventor. There's a magical holographic forcefield that hides his "gulch" from outsiders (which took out Dagny's plane engine when she got too close). Galt has invented an engine that takes energy from the atmosphere and turns it into electricity, with zero cost — it could power the entire West Coast of the U.S., but Galt is keeping it for himself because he hates government regulation. A neuroscientist who came to live with Galt has invented a super-futuristic medical tricorder which can scan Dagny's entire body for injuries in a second — he could invent this miracle device (smaller than an iPad) overnight because he had "no red tape" to deal with. (In addition to being a neuroscientist, he's apparently also an electronics genius and programmer, who has the means to manufacture tiny components by himself.)

In this world, all inventions are the work of a single inventor, and as soon as you take the government out of the individual's way, you can instantly have a Star Trek future.

I guess they forgot that part of the book.....

[Ikonoklast]

21. It only works if you suspend the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

And all common sense.


Every king, emperor, dictator, captain of industry, inventor, genius this world ever produced, all have or will die one day.


And yet...the world just keeps on turning.




"The graveyards of the world are full of indispensable men."

[Jerry442]

31. Imagine the flood of innovative hi-tech soon to come out of Somalia. NT

[Dont call me Shirley]

42. And that's supposed to be great writing?

[world wide wally]

23. I ask Libertarians to show me one person who gave up a million dollar a year job to mow lawns

because they were pissed about the taxes they had to pay on the million.

Just ONE

[phantom power]

24. I like to ask: "know anybody who turned down a raise to avoid a higher tax bracket?"

Yeah, me neither.

[ladyVet]

37. I came close once.

There was one job where the company was giving a range on the proposed pay raise (annual cost of living). I sat and figured out that anything towards the higher end was going to put me in a higher bracket, and thus end up giving me less money.

I mentioned this to several people, whose response was "But, we'll have more money in our check." Um. Nope. Higher tax bracket means more money coming out of the check, thus not good. Well, we'll get a bigger refund. Maybe, maybe not. Who knows what the tax forms will look like. I'd rather have my money in my pocket every week, rather than wait for a big tax windfall.

In the end, we got a raise towards the lower end, I made more money every two weeks, and was a very happy person. Who had to listen to people moaning because they "got cheated" out of more money.

Le sigh.

[rickford66]

44. It's the increment that gets taxed higher, not everything.

You'd still have to get more money.

[phantom power]

26. Actually, they don't return. They stay in Galt's Gulch.

That's how the book ends.

[Tansy_Gold]

51. Dagny, Rearden, and Galt return

To have a good look at the destruction they've wrought.

That's how the book ends, because Rand didn't have any clue how her handful of people were going to rebuild anything.

She never wrote a sequel; all she cared about was the destruction, not the rebuilding.

[SoapBox]

27. Makes me think of the Star Trek episode...

Where the crazy man leads his little group to Eden...and everything is toxic.

[Ratty]

28. The problem with Libertarian enclaves is they're leeches

They rely on the social structures of other nations to survive. Their goods come to them via public roads and railroads. The food and drugs they buy are safe thanks to the USDA and FDA or other government equivalents. Their employees are likely educated in public schools and universities. They fly to and from their paradise safely thanks to the FAA. The internet they rely on daily was created by DARPA, the web at CERN. In so many ways they benefit from the services other people pay taxes for.

[Octafish]

29. Bohemian Grove to Paraguay

Same shitstorm. Different stormfront.

[Art_from_Ark]

48. Do I see Ronald Reagan and Tricky Dick in that picture?

And who is the person standing?

[Octafish]

49. Harvey Hancock at 1967 Bohemian Grove with Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Glenn Seaborg.

Low resolution photograph of Harvey Hancock standing and speaking to a group of Bohemian Club members at the Owl's Nest camp of the Bohemian Grove over breakfast on July 23, 1967. In attendance: Preston Hotchkis, California Governor Ronald W. Reagan, Former US Vice President Richard M. Nixon, Glenn Seaborg, Jack Sparks, (unidentified individual), (unidentified individual), and Edwin Pauley. Photo courtesy of Edward W. Carter.

Source
http://imglib.lbl.gov/ImgLib/COLLECTIONS/BERKELEY-LAB/SEABORG-ARCHIVE/index/96B05411.html Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories Image Library -- Collection Collection BERKELEY-LAB/SEABORG-ARCHIVE. "Breakfast at Owls Nest Camp, Bohemian Grove, July 23, 1967"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Harvey_Hancock_at_Bohemian_Grove_1967.jpeg

An amazing photograph.

[Initech]

30. Three Ayn Rand fans walk into a bar.

The bar was closed for pesticide treatment, thanks to lack of government regulations. The end.

[TrollBuster9090]

35. Michael Moore proved that the wealthy would probably STARVE to death if they had their own community

because they don't know how to do anything PRACTICAL.

In his old TV show 'The Awful Truth' he had a segment where he stood on a street corner and asked regular people questions about how to fix or operate trivial things. For example, one of the questions was "What do you do when the toilet won't flush?" He then stood outside a top investment bank and asked wealthy people the same questions.

In response to the question "what do you do when the toilet won't flush?" regular people always answered "jiggle the handle." The wealthy inevitably answered "I don't know...call the plumber."

[rickford66]

45. Great show.

He asked the head of IBM to format a floppy disc. I don't remember if he did. He also asked the head of FORD to change his oil and they guy took him home and showed Moore how he always changed his own oil. There are some exceptions to every rule.

[joeybee12]

36. I feel sorry for the locals who were taken...

Not so much for the Randians who decided to buy and move and give it a try.

[treestar]

39. That's a good article

and a good analysis of Ayn Rand.

[sulphurdunn]

43. Ryand's great intellectual

and psychological failure was in her a prior assumption that greedy, narcissistic sociopaths are indispensable people when actually they are evolutionary dead ends, have finally become a threat to the survival of the species and must be neutralized if the rest of us are to survive.

[grahamhgreen]

46. Now that's libertarianism in action!

[Uncle Joe]

47. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, xchrom.

[DirkGently]

52. Greedy schmucks treated greedily & schmuckily?

Imagine that.