This is a rally cry! An outcry against the injustice of our 'lifelong welfare state'.
The gov't, in their misguided effort to help people with irresponsible welfare programs..have only created a new under-class. I've met too many recipients who were lost in a fog of dependency..not realising their own abilities. It is a predictable outcome to bureaucratic Washington. Give me the world of "Hank Reardon' mindset. That is free market capitalism!.
The current administration and the NLRB thugs and other heavy handed government departments are making this 54 year old story a reality. Obama is destroying the US as it was envisioned and making it into another euro-failure, mediocre place. People now think anything they "want" or "need" is somehow a "right" to be provided at otthers' expense. I think it is too late, and Atlas is shrugging.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
Ayn Rand is the most retarded author ever, and Atlas Shrugged her worst book. This scene is a pathetic straw man argument; In a real life trial this preening cockend would be laughed at and tossed in jail, and nobody would be impressed with him.
@lettucemonster : I have addressed judges in this manner, with satisfactory results. Ayn Rand's philosophy is right on. Real-life experience, proved to myself--and everybody in the courtroom.
The battle is NOT between the rich and the poor. It is between the producers and the parasites.
The parasites will do anything to confuse this point. We are told it is the rich who are the enemy, and that the less "fortunate" are entitled to unearned rewards. This technique was used by criminals and looters throughout history. They use short sighted greed to turn a society against itself. That enables them to skim off the wealth of the true producers until there is nothing left - for anyone.
@KDanagger You are 100% correct, the producers are the honest hard working capitalists while the looters are the entitlement recipients as well as the corportists.
Shouldn't have left out the part after the crowd burst into applause, where Reardon reels round in astonishment and sees exultant and desperate faces, people crying openly. Rand was masterful, she knew exactly how to build up a scene to a climax.
Reardon's great rhetoric was one of numerous highlights in the book. I put them up there with Shakespeare.
The popular media and Hollywood are full of collectivists who routinely sell their mothers for a couple dollars each. No dignity, no self-respect, no confidence among their numbers, with the possible exception of Thomas Sowell.
@buzzclick500 No - the popular media and Hollywood both create entertainment products for profit. They also both realize that their products influence the public, and so design them in such a way as to forward their own interests. It is simply the case that at the moment journalists and movie makers consider it "moral" to advocate for a centralized, neo-socialist society. In cases where this neo-socialist statism threatens their wealth or freedom, however, they change their tune very quickly.
@DrCruel : Neither the popular media nor Hollywood, as entrepreneurial units, possesses any positive morals, and both these entities have their own methods for weeding out the people who do. Even their products which pretend to show "decent morality", like "Meet John Doe" and "It's a Wonderful life", have as their central message that rottenness and corruption are forces that cannot be stifled, dismissed or eliminated. Their "happy endings" are total shams.
@buzzclick500 It's better than that. "Rottenness and corruption" are ceaselessly associated with targets that are out of favor with Hollywood. Before the Obama presidency, and especially during the presidency of Bush, evil US government officials were a favorite theme. We don't see as much of that recently, but evil corporations are still popular. Socialists and liberals, of course, are invariably good guys.
The hypocrisy of fabulously wealthy people saying this is not lost on me.
The fundamental problem of capitalism is that starting and running a business does not qualify someone to be an effective counter-terrorist or killer. If people put their efforts instead into sedition and the means of enslaving others, they will have an advantage in violent confrontations. When given a choice between slavery and extinction, people will usually choose slavery - or at least enough will to make the sacrifice of those that wont irrelevant.
@DrCruel "I know not what course others may choose, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" --Patrick Henry. Motto of the state of New Hampshire: "Live free, or die."
@DrCruel : Anyone whom the self-qualified "intellectual" media slanders and condemns universally must have had quite a few good qualities. I know next to nothing about Josef Stalin, but for some reason, I like him. Maybe it's just because the popular media hates him. I don't hate the media; it's just another business.
@buzzclick500 "Uncle" Joe Stalin knew how to deal with a Hank Rearden. He simply killed the man, in as brutal and public a manner as possible, as an example to the others. If a new. brilliant idea was discovered, he used his thugs to steal it. Mass thievery, murder and misery were the trademarks of his domestic policy.
Stalin proved that looting was an effective strategy for managing a society. Gorbachev proved that civil rights and common decency have no place in such a society.
That's the difference: Capitalists require a voluntary market. The communists require stupid, weak victims. When the victims outnumber the producers of goods and services, it indicates a communist society which will eventually eat itself to death.
@buzzclick500 Don't be so harsh on the victims. Piracy is a very effective and profitable practice under the right circumstances, and very difficult and expensive to stop. Standing up to the Bolsheviks under Stalin took a very brave (or foolhardy) person.
But yes. Like all parasitic organisms, socialists invariably suck their hosts dry. Piracy must always end, in the same way wildfires do, when what sustains it is either denied or entirely used up.
@DrCruel : I should have put "victim" in quotes. There are no victims, only volunteers. What happened in Russia was really none of America's business, and we're suffering because of our interference. We have a nice situation here, and wisdom is our protection.
@DrCruel : Capitalism is all about agreement between all involved parties. The thing called communism must be done in secret, because it is nothing more than intellectually-justified theft. Veiled threats, subterfuge, sabotage, intimidation, manipulation, demoralization, these are the resources of the communist "mind" and method. Capitalism is the normal, healthy state of things, whereas communism is social and political cancer.
@buzzclick500 Capitalism is a method for facilitating the financing of technological improvements to society. Communism is a means by which those who have not taken part in such activities can seize the wealth of those who have.
If capitalists are motivated by profit, then so are communists. They may be different in their methodology, but in motives they are essentially the same.
Can you imagine what it's like to step into a courtroom these days, knowing what I've learned in the last ten years, and addressing the judge as one of the members of my public servant staff? It sure takes the fear out of it--on MY side, anyway. Rock on, America. Rock on.
The advantage of free market systems is to convert the efforts of "winners" into productive activity that can benefit everyone. Thus the government is meant to protect the Henry Ford types from the Napoleon types.
The problem is, that neither capitalists nor Marxist thug chieftains can run a modern economy efficiently. Likewise, managerial guilds (like the AFT, ABA or AMA) have become very adept at promoting the interests of their respective factions - at the cost of everyone else.
@DrCruel : These "guilds", as you so accurately describe them, will turn to dust like John Galt's machine does when the door to his laboratory was opened without his permission. Capitalists will always be in charge because they are addicted to helping their fellow man, in the REAL sense of the word "helping"--not as a cover word for enslaving us. Anyone can steal my "machine", but if they don't know what it runs on, all they have is a pile of useless, inert parts. The FUEL is the secret.
@buzzclick500 It's not so much that capitalists are addicted to altruism as they are the sort of people who find practical solutions to problems, if only to make a profit from them. Certainly capitalists have to be allowed to live, and even make some profit from their efforts, but allowing a free market system to flourish is antithetical to the slave-based economics of the new managerial class.
Persoanlly, I think Peikoff's "Ominous Parallels" and Burnham's "Suicide of the West" get it right.
There is a combined total of about 1,000 people in America who know the difference between Capitalism and communism. That's actually pretty sad in a nation of several millions of people, and very telling.
Rats steal under the pressure of knowing that they need to eat. Humans steal under the invented justification that "they've got more than they need anyway." The rats are better morally than we are. At least, they're better than communists. Big changes coming to America. Big changes.
@buzzclick500 Rats do not steal from grain stares that have no grain in them. If there is only a little grain, those who depend on it for survival are very keen to fight the rats, and pickings are still lean. But if there is overwhelming abundance, a combination of poor oversight and easy pickings ensures that rat populations soar.
The problem is mathematical, and based on cycles out of sync. That is, one is eventually faced with a huge rat population and dwindling supplies of food.
The problem for "capitalists" or merchants and men-of-ideas is that they tend not to be violent or rapacious - they simply want to engage in science or trade and grow rich from their own efforts. Such individuals tend not to invest much time or effort in defending their wealth, let alone trying to steal the ideas and wealth of others, and thus tend to fall prey to those who do (call them "lions"). Then there are people who exclusively come up with reasons to steal ("hyenas" or Leftists, say).
@DrCruel : We're agreeing on this situation much more than we're dis-agreeing--we're like the two outer strands of the double helix. For my part, John Galt's speech(fictional though it--and he, is)has influenced ME to go "on strike" and keep my talents on hold for the time being, until, as you so well put it, our own communists die out. Could be six months, could be twenty more years.
Carniverous predators evolve and arise at a point when the consumption of other animals becomes more cost effective than the consumption of plants. Marxism purports to justify predatory behavior towards those who amass wealth; the difference between a pack of wild dogs and a gang of Marxists is that the barking of the dogs is less annoying.
Ethics have nothing to do with it. It was never meant to. Marxism is a con - and a most lucrative one at that.
@DrCruel : Like the hyenas taking out the younger, weaker and older members of the lion family--and crunching on their bones. I love the nature channel when it shows a lion catching a hyena and dispatching it instantly, then tossing the carcass aside and strolling leisurely back to the pride.
@buzzclick500 The problem being, that however heroic Ayn Rand wants to cast business people as, the fact is that the best metaphor for their role is as herbivores. "Capitalists" are peaceful, spending their time turing worthless commodities (grass) into something of value (more herbivores). The problem is that the amassed meat represents an easily stolen means of value
As businessmen prosper, the wealth they amass becomes an increasingly inviting target. Thus the rise of Marxist "carnivores".
@DrCruel : I don't think Thomas Edison was much of a "herbivore"--he invented the electric chair, and electrocuted an elephant in order to demonstrate its effectiveness. I would not be quick to mess with someone like that. ;]
@buzzclick500 Actually, Edison was indeed more of a "lion" - he exploited his established reputation as an electricity entrepreneur to steal the inventions of others, and to try to create a monopoly in the electricity industry (see his clashes with Westinghouse). I would say Tesla, the pioneer of alternating current, who died penniless as others grew rich on his ideas, is more of the sort I am talking about.
Mind, Edison had his "hyenas" too - which were another sort again.
@DrCruel : ...And Edison's idea for the motion-picture projector was stolen by Hollywood's people, and taken to California in order to distance themselves from patent violation suits. Tesla's home nation had different patent laws than ours, which is one reason our Constitution was set up the way it was. It's obvious that you've studied this subject in-depth.
@DrCruel : It's roots are in the story about Abel and Cain. Capitalists go about their business, and the communists can't stand that, and look for ways to take us down. Road runner and coyote, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, Marshall Dillon and his constant line of antagonists, Henry Ford and the union, etc.
@buzzclick500 I disagree. Lions do not hunt and kill gazelles because they envy them. Hyenas do not steal the kills of lions out of avarice. It is simply that these animals have evolved to exploit and take advantage of the hard work and savings of others.
Communists do not envy capitalists. They prey on them. In the old "hard-core" version of communism, wherein all capitalists were simply slaughtered, the result is a drastic drop in food supply and a subsequent, massive communist die-off.
@DrCruel : Lions hunt gazelles for food. Hyenas steal from lions because they(and it's really weird to me)possess little in the way of active hunting skills or equipment--they're vultures in mammalian form. You're right about the Capitalist/communist scenario: communists don't know the source of their food when they're looking right at it. They're cancer in human social form.
@buzzclick500 I've got more respect for the intelligence of Leftists. They frequently are very well aware of the actual situation, but will creatively lie, cheat and steal to get at the wealth of others.
I'll go with the cancer reference. What I won't agree with is Ayn Rand's idealistic view - it's not a "moral" issue, but rather one of eco-cultural evolution. Aristotle sort of hints at it when he talks about the six forms of government - three good, three bad - and their cyclical nature.
@buzzclick500 The problem for capitalism is that the prosperity it enables attracts predators. This tendency only increases in relation to the level of prosperity.
@DrCruel : True again. It's no co-incidence that wealthy Capitalists live apart from the lesser-performing and poorer elements of society. It's just wise to do so.
@DrCruel : "To him to whom much has been given, much will be required." So, you see, this is no strange or unusual condition, but a part of the natural order of things. "The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer." Perfectly true, natural and unalterable. When people try to dispute these basic truths, they lose, because they're trying to refute and deny Nature.
@buzzclick500 Modern, "sensible" Leftists have learned that it is not enough to simply seize the means of production in order to ensure a life of leisure for Leftist elites. They must also somehow convince the merchants to accept the status of permanent, sinful peasants. In order to compensate for their "sin" of abundant productivity, they must turn over an ever-increasing proportion of that productivity over to their Left-wing overlords.
In this sense, Marxism is a modern form of feudalism.
@DrCruel Perhaps is shows how close to Marxist ideology we've drifted, but life in America today bears strong resemblance to feudal society. We live on property that is ours in name only (We pay tribute - property taxes, and the ruling class can seize it on a whim using eminent domain.) Our lives are ruled by Dukes and Lords protecting their fiefdoms (bureaucrats and their agencies), and they disguise their abuses behind a veneer of legal ceremony. Bureau logos even look like heraldric crests.
@gergenheimer You are reproducing the argument James Burnham made back in 1943 in his "Managerial Revolution", where he speculated that the government of the future would be neither capitalist or socialist, but managerial in form. That is, the new ruling class would be made up of professional managers, who would not do any actual wealth creation themselves but rather would instead manage the production and wealth of others.
@DrCruel : A Capitalist government keeps quiet while its people produce wealth, because it's to that government's benefit to do so on the grounds that part of that wealth goes to a healthy flow of tax money. A communist government suppresses incentive and production and adds insult to injury by inventing programs on which to spend tax money which diminishes constantly because of the suppression of healthy enterprise--the process is one of the definitions of evil.
@DrCruel : Aah, but the American government was never intended to manage, but to SERVE. That's what's fouling us up--Americans across-the-board haven't figured that out yet.
Dear HayenMill...Thank you so much for uploading excerpts from the audiobook and flavoring it with the visual companions. It gives us all a little something extra as we listen to it. I have shared both part 1 and 2 of Rearden's trial on my facebook wall because I want to get the wisdom out there to as many people (who have not read the book) as possible. Thanks to people like you, I can! :)
If only it were possible to pull this guy out of Atlas Shrugged and place him into the real world. We could use men of such conviction to the right principles.
@SculptedThoughts : Oh, when life opens up that little golden combination lock to one's personality, you might be fairly surprised at what can happen. ;]
@SculptedThoughts : They're here, and as nature ensures, they're very rare. Napoleon, Henry Ford, Keith Richards and Hugh Hefner, to name a few. They're known as "winners."
@mechmusician : Ask the judge, "When did this particular law become effective, and why?" Then listen for some small object to hit the floor; you should be able to hear it quite clearly. ;]
My brother in freedom, this is a fine video and you have the understand of truth, history and humanity and the down to earth ability to explain it to anyone with reasonable intelligence. You also have the faith that people will stop their partisan hate long enough to open their minds and listen. I am losing that hope... So many have been steeped in the delusional promises of socialism; not realizing that socialism will insure the unasailable empowerment of the elite ruling class they hate.
In a free market the greatest good of others is the result but not the goal. In communism, the greatest good of others is the goal but not the result.
@mustang607 : In communism, the goal is to kill the boss, rape his wife and daughter, take all the money they can carry, then explain endlessly why they were forced by "moral reasons" to do it. Their 50 years of fun in America is drawing to a close; the roller coaster is returning to the platform.
@mustang607 : That explains why communists love the ongoing processes of policies and procedures, while the Capitalist outlook is to "get this thing done, and move on to the next project!" ;]
@Potts132 : After reading the communist manifesto, I'm reasonably sure what the communists want, but without doing the necessary work to get it. Take a good look, if you will, at the root meanings of the words "Capitalism" and "Communism"; it might shock you.
@Potts132 : Those aren't the root words; you need to go all the way back to the Latin. Language is a process of distillation, like drops of whiskey(or wodka)working its way down through charcoal until it becomes the desired product. Good grief, I believe I'm conversing with one of the smartest people in Russia. You don't express yourself like a communist--you're curious about things.
@buzzclick500 Well I am in Canada, but I am Russian. Thank you by the way (: I am not closed minded, I like to learn and try to understand the point of view of others. I am always willing to change my mind if I can be proven wrong. And my apologies but I am unsure of the similar root words between the two. I was sure it was Capital and Commune, enlighten me?
@Potts132 : The word "capital" means "of, or at, the head." The word "commune" means "to gather together" What article of clothing do we wear on our heads? That's right--a CAP. How do hippies live? In a COMMUNE. Since President Kennedy was murdered, our neighborhoods have been referred to as "commune-ities" It's a very subtle process, but observable by interested people. No, you're not closed-minded. The Internet is attracting more and more aware and balanced people as time moves forward.
This is a rally cry! An outcry against the injustice of our 'lifelong welfare state'.
The gov't, in their misguided effort to help people with irresponsible welfare programs..have only created a new under-class. I've met too many recipients who were lost in a fog of dependency..not realising their own abilities. It is a predictable outcome to bureaucratic Washington. Give me the world of "Hank Reardon' mindset. That is free market capitalism!.
MrGchiasson 2 months ago
Let Atlas Shrug!
57thcory 3 months ago
Hank Rearden, more than John Galt or Howard Roark, is the perfect human being. If I could find one Hank Rearden alive today, I'd kiss his feet.
IHeartDenver 6 months ago
The current administration and the NLRB thugs and other heavy handed government departments are making this 54 year old story a reality. Obama is destroying the US as it was envisioned and making it into another euro-failure, mediocre place. People now think anything they "want" or "need" is somehow a "right" to be provided at otthers' expense. I think it is too late, and Atlas is shrugging.
tjAvatarici 8 months ago 3
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Ayn Rand is the most retarded author ever, and Atlas Shrugged her worst book. This scene is a pathetic straw man argument; In a real life trial this preening cockend would be laughed at and tossed in jail, and nobody would be impressed with him.
lettucemonster 9 months ago
@lettucemonster : I have addressed judges in this manner, with satisfactory results. Ayn Rand's philosophy is right on. Real-life experience, proved to myself--and everybody in the courtroom.
buzzclick500 9 months ago
@buzzclick500 I'm calling bullshit on this.
lettucemonster 9 months ago
@lettucemonster : That is your privilege, prerogative and option.
buzzclick500 9 months ago
Comment removed
GruntTGH 10 months ago
The battle is NOT between the rich and the poor. It is between the producers and the parasites.
The parasites will do anything to confuse this point. We are told it is the rich who are the enemy, and that the less "fortunate" are entitled to unearned rewards. This technique was used by criminals and looters throughout history. They use short sighted greed to turn a society against itself. That enables them to skim off the wealth of the true producers until there is nothing left - for anyone.
KDanagger 10 months ago 22
@KDanagger You are 100% correct, the producers are the honest hard working capitalists while the looters are the entitlement recipients as well as the corportists.
Atlasshrugging18 2 weeks ago
Is the question in today's world 'Who is John Galt?', or should it be 'Where is Hank Rearden?'
joshwood47 1 year ago 7
Shouldn't have left out the part after the crowd burst into applause, where Reardon reels round in astonishment and sees exultant and desperate faces, people crying openly. Rand was masterful, she knew exactly how to build up a scene to a climax.
Reardon's great rhetoric was one of numerous highlights in the book. I put them up there with Shakespeare.
madmax8903 1 year ago 5
The popular media and Hollywood are full of collectivists who routinely sell their mothers for a couple dollars each. No dignity, no self-respect, no confidence among their numbers, with the possible exception of Thomas Sowell.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 No - the popular media and Hollywood both create entertainment products for profit. They also both realize that their products influence the public, and so design them in such a way as to forward their own interests. It is simply the case that at the moment journalists and movie makers consider it "moral" to advocate for a centralized, neo-socialist society. In cases where this neo-socialist statism threatens their wealth or freedom, however, they change their tune very quickly.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : Neither the popular media nor Hollywood, as entrepreneurial units, possesses any positive morals, and both these entities have their own methods for weeding out the people who do. Even their products which pretend to show "decent morality", like "Meet John Doe" and "It's a Wonderful life", have as their central message that rottenness and corruption are forces that cannot be stifled, dismissed or eliminated. Their "happy endings" are total shams.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 It's better than that. "Rottenness and corruption" are ceaselessly associated with targets that are out of favor with Hollywood. Before the Obama presidency, and especially during the presidency of Bush, evil US government officials were a favorite theme. We don't see as much of that recently, but evil corporations are still popular. Socialists and liberals, of course, are invariably good guys.
The hypocrisy of fabulously wealthy people saying this is not lost on me.
DrCruel 1 year ago 2
The fundamental problem of capitalism is that starting and running a business does not qualify someone to be an effective counter-terrorist or killer. If people put their efforts instead into sedition and the means of enslaving others, they will have an advantage in violent confrontations. When given a choice between slavery and extinction, people will usually choose slavery - or at least enough will to make the sacrifice of those that wont irrelevant.
This is the lesson of Stalinist fascism.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel "I know not what course others may choose, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" --Patrick Henry. Motto of the state of New Hampshire: "Live free, or die."
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic."
"To solve the problem, kill the man. No man, no problem." -Josef Stalin
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : Anyone whom the self-qualified "intellectual" media slanders and condemns universally must have had quite a few good qualities. I know next to nothing about Josef Stalin, but for some reason, I like him. Maybe it's just because the popular media hates him. I don't hate the media; it's just another business.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 "Uncle" Joe Stalin knew how to deal with a Hank Rearden. He simply killed the man, in as brutal and public a manner as possible, as an example to the others. If a new. brilliant idea was discovered, he used his thugs to steal it. Mass thievery, murder and misery were the trademarks of his domestic policy.
Stalin proved that looting was an effective strategy for managing a society. Gorbachev proved that civil rights and common decency have no place in such a society.
DrCruel 1 year ago
That's the difference: Capitalists require a voluntary market. The communists require stupid, weak victims. When the victims outnumber the producers of goods and services, it indicates a communist society which will eventually eat itself to death.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 Don't be so harsh on the victims. Piracy is a very effective and profitable practice under the right circumstances, and very difficult and expensive to stop. Standing up to the Bolsheviks under Stalin took a very brave (or foolhardy) person.
But yes. Like all parasitic organisms, socialists invariably suck their hosts dry. Piracy must always end, in the same way wildfires do, when what sustains it is either denied or entirely used up.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : I should have put "victim" in quotes. There are no victims, only volunteers. What happened in Russia was really none of America's business, and we're suffering because of our interference. We have a nice situation here, and wisdom is our protection.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@DrCruel : Capitalism is all about agreement between all involved parties. The thing called communism must be done in secret, because it is nothing more than intellectually-justified theft. Veiled threats, subterfuge, sabotage, intimidation, manipulation, demoralization, these are the resources of the communist "mind" and method. Capitalism is the normal, healthy state of things, whereas communism is social and political cancer.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 Capitalism is a method for facilitating the financing of technological improvements to society. Communism is a means by which those who have not taken part in such activities can seize the wealth of those who have.
If capitalists are motivated by profit, then so are communists. They may be different in their methodology, but in motives they are essentially the same.
DrCruel 1 year ago
Can you imagine what it's like to step into a courtroom these days, knowing what I've learned in the last ten years, and addressing the judge as one of the members of my public servant staff? It sure takes the fear out of it--on MY side, anyway. Rock on, America. Rock on.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
The advantage of free market systems is to convert the efforts of "winners" into productive activity that can benefit everyone. Thus the government is meant to protect the Henry Ford types from the Napoleon types.
The problem is, that neither capitalists nor Marxist thug chieftains can run a modern economy efficiently. Likewise, managerial guilds (like the AFT, ABA or AMA) have become very adept at promoting the interests of their respective factions - at the cost of everyone else.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : These "guilds", as you so accurately describe them, will turn to dust like John Galt's machine does when the door to his laboratory was opened without his permission. Capitalists will always be in charge because they are addicted to helping their fellow man, in the REAL sense of the word "helping"--not as a cover word for enslaving us. Anyone can steal my "machine", but if they don't know what it runs on, all they have is a pile of useless, inert parts. The FUEL is the secret.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 It's not so much that capitalists are addicted to altruism as they are the sort of people who find practical solutions to problems, if only to make a profit from them. Certainly capitalists have to be allowed to live, and even make some profit from their efforts, but allowing a free market system to flourish is antithetical to the slave-based economics of the new managerial class.
Persoanlly, I think Peikoff's "Ominous Parallels" and Burnham's "Suicide of the West" get it right.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : When it comes to financial reading, I stay with Benjamin Franklin and John Kenneth Galbraith.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
There is a combined total of about 1,000 people in America who know the difference between Capitalism and communism. That's actually pretty sad in a nation of several millions of people, and very telling.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
Rats steal under the pressure of knowing that they need to eat. Humans steal under the invented justification that "they've got more than they need anyway." The rats are better morally than we are. At least, they're better than communists. Big changes coming to America. Big changes.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 Rats do not steal from grain stares that have no grain in them. If there is only a little grain, those who depend on it for survival are very keen to fight the rats, and pickings are still lean. But if there is overwhelming abundance, a combination of poor oversight and easy pickings ensures that rat populations soar.
The problem is mathematical, and based on cycles out of sync. That is, one is eventually faced with a huge rat population and dwindling supplies of food.
DrCruel 1 year ago
The problem for "capitalists" or merchants and men-of-ideas is that they tend not to be violent or rapacious - they simply want to engage in science or trade and grow rich from their own efforts. Such individuals tend not to invest much time or effort in defending their wealth, let alone trying to steal the ideas and wealth of others, and thus tend to fall prey to those who do (call them "lions"). Then there are people who exclusively come up with reasons to steal ("hyenas" or Leftists, say).
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : We're agreeing on this situation much more than we're dis-agreeing--we're like the two outer strands of the double helix. For my part, John Galt's speech(fictional though it--and he, is)has influenced ME to go "on strike" and keep my talents on hold for the time being, until, as you so well put it, our own communists die out. Could be six months, could be twenty more years.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
Carniverous predators evolve and arise at a point when the consumption of other animals becomes more cost effective than the consumption of plants. Marxism purports to justify predatory behavior towards those who amass wealth; the difference between a pack of wild dogs and a gang of Marxists is that the barking of the dogs is less annoying.
Ethics have nothing to do with it. It was never meant to. Marxism is a con - and a most lucrative one at that.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : Like the hyenas taking out the younger, weaker and older members of the lion family--and crunching on their bones. I love the nature channel when it shows a lion catching a hyena and dispatching it instantly, then tossing the carcass aside and strolling leisurely back to the pride.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 The problem being, that however heroic Ayn Rand wants to cast business people as, the fact is that the best metaphor for their role is as herbivores. "Capitalists" are peaceful, spending their time turing worthless commodities (grass) into something of value (more herbivores). The problem is that the amassed meat represents an easily stolen means of value
As businessmen prosper, the wealth they amass becomes an increasingly inviting target. Thus the rise of Marxist "carnivores".
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : I don't think Thomas Edison was much of a "herbivore"--he invented the electric chair, and electrocuted an elephant in order to demonstrate its effectiveness. I would not be quick to mess with someone like that. ;]
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 Actually, Edison was indeed more of a "lion" - he exploited his established reputation as an electricity entrepreneur to steal the inventions of others, and to try to create a monopoly in the electricity industry (see his clashes with Westinghouse). I would say Tesla, the pioneer of alternating current, who died penniless as others grew rich on his ideas, is more of the sort I am talking about.
Mind, Edison had his "hyenas" too - which were another sort again.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : ...And Edison's idea for the motion-picture projector was stolen by Hollywood's people, and taken to California in order to distance themselves from patent violation suits. Tesla's home nation had different patent laws than ours, which is one reason our Constitution was set up the way it was. It's obvious that you've studied this subject in-depth.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@DrCruel : And the radio technology battles between Armstrong and Deforest....
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 More like Armstrong and Sarnoff, but yeah.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : Yes. ;]
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@DrCruel : It's roots are in the story about Abel and Cain. Capitalists go about their business, and the communists can't stand that, and look for ways to take us down. Road runner and coyote, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, Marshall Dillon and his constant line of antagonists, Henry Ford and the union, etc.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 I disagree. Lions do not hunt and kill gazelles because they envy them. Hyenas do not steal the kills of lions out of avarice. It is simply that these animals have evolved to exploit and take advantage of the hard work and savings of others.
Communists do not envy capitalists. They prey on them. In the old "hard-core" version of communism, wherein all capitalists were simply slaughtered, the result is a drastic drop in food supply and a subsequent, massive communist die-off.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : Lions hunt gazelles for food. Hyenas steal from lions because they(and it's really weird to me)possess little in the way of active hunting skills or equipment--they're vultures in mammalian form. You're right about the Capitalist/communist scenario: communists don't know the source of their food when they're looking right at it. They're cancer in human social form.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 I've got more respect for the intelligence of Leftists. They frequently are very well aware of the actual situation, but will creatively lie, cheat and steal to get at the wealth of others.
I'll go with the cancer reference. What I won't agree with is Ayn Rand's idealistic view - it's not a "moral" issue, but rather one of eco-cultural evolution. Aristotle sort of hints at it when he talks about the six forms of government - three good, three bad - and their cyclical nature.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : I don't consider lying, cheating and stealing to be positive creative activities.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 The problem for capitalism is that the prosperity it enables attracts predators. This tendency only increases in relation to the level of prosperity.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : True again. It's no co-incidence that wealthy Capitalists live apart from the lesser-performing and poorer elements of society. It's just wise to do so.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@DrCruel : "To him to whom much has been given, much will be required." So, you see, this is no strange or unusual condition, but a part of the natural order of things. "The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer." Perfectly true, natural and unalterable. When people try to dispute these basic truths, they lose, because they're trying to refute and deny Nature.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 Modern, "sensible" Leftists have learned that it is not enough to simply seize the means of production in order to ensure a life of leisure for Leftist elites. They must also somehow convince the merchants to accept the status of permanent, sinful peasants. In order to compensate for their "sin" of abundant productivity, they must turn over an ever-increasing proportion of that productivity over to their Left-wing overlords.
In this sense, Marxism is a modern form of feudalism.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel Perhaps is shows how close to Marxist ideology we've drifted, but life in America today bears strong resemblance to feudal society. We live on property that is ours in name only (We pay tribute - property taxes, and the ruling class can seize it on a whim using eminent domain.) Our lives are ruled by Dukes and Lords protecting their fiefdoms (bureaucrats and their agencies), and they disguise their abuses behind a veneer of legal ceremony. Bureau logos even look like heraldric crests.
gergenheimer 1 year ago
@gergenheimer You are reproducing the argument James Burnham made back in 1943 in his "Managerial Revolution", where he speculated that the government of the future would be neither capitalist or socialist, but managerial in form. That is, the new ruling class would be made up of professional managers, who would not do any actual wealth creation themselves but rather would instead manage the production and wealth of others.
I suggest you look it up.
DrCruel 1 year ago
@DrCruel : A Capitalist government keeps quiet while its people produce wealth, because it's to that government's benefit to do so on the grounds that part of that wealth goes to a healthy flow of tax money. A communist government suppresses incentive and production and adds insult to injury by inventing programs on which to spend tax money which diminishes constantly because of the suppression of healthy enterprise--the process is one of the definitions of evil.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@DrCruel : Aah, but the American government was never intended to manage, but to SERVE. That's what's fouling us up--Americans across-the-board haven't figured that out yet.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
Dear HayenMill...Thank you so much for uploading excerpts from the audiobook and flavoring it with the visual companions. It gives us all a little something extra as we listen to it. I have shared both part 1 and 2 of Rearden's trial on my facebook wall because I want to get the wisdom out there to as many people (who have not read the book) as possible. Thanks to people like you, I can! :)
fowlerbookcritic 1 year ago
"If this is evil, make the most of it."
"If this be treason, make the most of it!" Patrick Henry
sonrouge 1 year ago
If only it were possible to pull this guy out of Atlas Shrugged and place him into the real world. We could use men of such conviction to the right principles.
SculptedThoughts 1 year ago 44
@SculptedThoughts : Oh, when life opens up that little golden combination lock to one's personality, you might be fairly surprised at what can happen. ;]
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@SculptedThoughts : They're here, and as nature ensures, they're very rare. Napoleon, Henry Ford, Keith Richards and Hugh Hefner, to name a few. They're known as "winners."
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 Champions.
SculptedThoughts 1 year ago
@SculptedThoughts : And by recognizing them as such, you place yourself in the same class with them. ;]
buzzclick500 1 year ago
Thanx for uploading! Favorite book of all time!
81AmericanGirl 2 years ago
If I am ever in this position and slapped with a fine, I will force them to collect it while armed with guns pointed at my brain.
mechmusician 2 years ago
@mechmusician : Ask the judge, "When did this particular law become effective, and why?" Then listen for some small object to hit the floor; you should be able to hear it quite clearly. ;]
buzzclick500 1 year ago
My brother in freedom, this is a fine video and you have the understand of truth, history and humanity and the down to earth ability to explain it to anyone with reasonable intelligence. You also have the faith that people will stop their partisan hate long enough to open their minds and listen. I am losing that hope... So many have been steeped in the delusional promises of socialism; not realizing that socialism will insure the unasailable empowerment of the elite ruling class they hate.
SovereignBlade 2 years ago
In a free market the greatest good of others is the result but not the goal. In communism, the greatest good of others is the goal but not the result.
mustang607 2 years ago 56
@mustang607 : In communism, the goal is to kill the boss, rape his wife and daughter, take all the money they can carry, then explain endlessly why they were forced by "moral reasons" to do it. Their 50 years of fun in America is drawing to a close; the roller coaster is returning to the platform.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@mustang607 : That explains why communists love the ongoing processes of policies and procedures, while the Capitalist outlook is to "get this thing done, and move on to the next project!" ;]
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 Why don't you ask a Communist what we want? You take a free market Capitalist word on what a Communist wants, redundant I would say
Potts132 1 year ago
@Potts132 : After reading the communist manifesto, I'm reasonably sure what the communists want, but without doing the necessary work to get it. Take a good look, if you will, at the root meanings of the words "Capitalism" and "Communism"; it might shock you.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 Capital and Commune. I don't under stand
Potts132 1 year ago
@Potts132 : Those aren't the root words; you need to go all the way back to the Latin. Language is a process of distillation, like drops of whiskey(or wodka)working its way down through charcoal until it becomes the desired product. Good grief, I believe I'm conversing with one of the smartest people in Russia. You don't express yourself like a communist--you're curious about things.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 Well I am in Canada, but I am Russian. Thank you by the way (: I am not closed minded, I like to learn and try to understand the point of view of others. I am always willing to change my mind if I can be proven wrong. And my apologies but I am unsure of the similar root words between the two. I was sure it was Capital and Commune, enlighten me?
Potts132 1 year ago
@Potts132 : The word "capital" means "of, or at, the head." The word "commune" means "to gather together" What article of clothing do we wear on our heads? That's right--a CAP. How do hippies live? In a COMMUNE. Since President Kennedy was murdered, our neighborhoods have been referred to as "commune-ities" It's a very subtle process, but observable by interested people. No, you're not closed-minded. The Internet is attracting more and more aware and balanced people as time moves forward.
buzzclick500 1 year ago
@buzzclick500 Oh I see. And thank you. I have been always congratulated for my open mindedness (:
Potts132 1 year ago
5/5
insanity54 2 years ago