Today's RANT: Beware the Utopians, They'll Kill Us All

Fred Douglass · #1 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 07:33 AM

Oh Lordy, Where's Ayn When We Need Her? In yestiddy's Wall Street Journal (1/9/09------p. W11), in a column entitled "De Gustibus", Stephen Moore recounts the critical points made by Ayn Rand in her great novel "Atlas Shrugged". I am sure one of you compootah geniuses could source it up and (legally?) reprint it here.

My wonderful and wondrous father said that the reason Ayn Rand was so loathed and reviled by American liberals was that she---a refugee from Stalinist Russia-----was able to subtly, yet forcefully point out the irrefutable similarities between socialism (and its more extreme offspring, communism) and western liberal philosophy and action.

The problem with liberal egg-heads is that they (seemingly) never have gotten their hands dirty, and/or tried to preserve the fruits of their own honest labor. Sure, societal "glue"---in the form of helping the less fortunate and able---is critical to defusing riots, class warfare and other lamentable eruptions of envy. But when charity becomes systematized and an industry unto itself (especially when run by the gummint) THEN you get the runaway train. Big government, wouldn't you agree, is composed of a myriad of myopic little fiefdoms and it never meshes well or efficiently. It ALWAYS trends toward "mandatory this and mandatory that" as its efforts to control individual liberty breed more contempt and rebelliousness. Money today is freedom. Period. So-o-o-o, guess what the gummint does? Right! Aside from robbing us and bribing us with our own money---how 'bout those seatbelt laws?

The trouble with utopians is that they ALWAYS concoct "solutions" which go against human nature. When anything or anyone goes against human nature, it/they must acquire means to quell disagreement----all the way up to, and including, permanently "silencing" critics and rebels. If you wonder why liberals LIE all the time (look at the foo keen media!), it's because if they DIDN'T lie---and actually spelled out exactly what their aims and methods of achieving them were-----normal folks would HANG 'EM ALL. Lordy knows, there's still enuff trees.

Caveat socialistas!

A pitchforks in every closet!

Chow-dah!

mdmull · #2 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 07:39 AM

You bring the pitchforks, I'll bring the torches

392cobra · #3 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred Douglass

If you wonder why liberals LIE all the time (look at the foo keen media!), it's because if they DIDN'T lie---and actually spelled out exactly what their aims and methods of achieving them were-----normal folks would HANG 'EM ALL. Lordy knows, there's still enuff trees.Caveat socialistas!

A pitchforks in every closet!
Chow-dah!

FREDDIE FOR PRESIDENT !

Bobcat · #4 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 08:33 AM

Freddie .... Ayn Rand`s book should be a must read for everyone .... all 1100 pages . Re-read it this past summer .... the parallels to our current direction are scary as hell ! The "best" part is that she was a first hand participant/observer in the failed experiment in Russia .... and therefore knows what she was talking about .
FYI ... she has written more books that are well worth reading , and there is also an Ayn Rand Institute . Two books that come to mind are : The New Left : The Anti-Industrial Revolution and Capitalism and The Unknown Ideal ... and all her books are still in print .
Pitchforks in every closest ?? Absolutely ... and add a few shotguns and ammo !!

Bob

427 S/O · #5 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 09:01 AM

The sad thing, MOST will do nothing until it's in their front yard!, then all he_ _ will break loose. I hope MOST will never let it get that far........

Fred Douglass · #6 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 09:18 AM

There's my cabinet! Ar-ar-ar.

Krikeys, just when I was starting to read more politcal thrillahs (like Vince Flynn's stuff)....along comes Bob with more required readin'!!!

I just worry aboot what the three-year-olds and yet-to-be-born Americans will be facing when they're our age........Egads! Mortgaging our future with deficits doesn't seem like the wisest course.

Carrion,

Fred Douglass · #7 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 09:37 AM

....and one I had all my students read was "ANTHEM" 96 pages of counter-(lefty)- revolutionary wicked-pissah vicarious thrills!!!!

Go Bruins!

Bobcat · #8 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 10:34 AM

Here is a direct quote from Atlas Shrugged ..., Ayn Rand ..."Just as man can`t exist without his body , so no rights can exist without the right to translate one`s rights into reality - to think , to work and to keep the results - which means the right of property . The doctrine that " human rights" are superior to property rights simply means that some human beings have the right to make property out of others , since the competent have nothing to gain from the incompetent, it means the right of the incompetent to own their betters and to use them as productive cattle . "
Yes , I`m picking one part , but to me , this sound familiar .... like exactly what`s happening today ???
As she pointed out in her book , the way to bring this to a halt is for the productive to stop being productive . I had a friend of mine who turned down a promotion and a raise because his taxes would have gone up so much , he would actually take home less than before the raise .
Who is John Galt ?? He is a/her symbol of all the productive people who actually make things work and produce .
Freddie ... congratulations on having the students read Anthem .... hopefully , it made some of them think ... which is all too rare today .

Bob

Wes Tausend · #9 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred Douglass

Oh Lordy, Where's Ayn When We Need Her? In yestiddy's Wall Street Journal (1/9/09------p. W11), in a column entitled "De Gustibus", Stephen Moore recounts the critical points made by Ayn Rand in her great novel "Atlas Shrugged". I am sure one of you compootah geniuses could source it up and (legally?) reprint it here.

Yeh. Can't imagine paying for someones opinion when we can read all kinds of opinions free here.

What a great material for a winter rant post, Fred.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred Douglass

My wonderful and wondrous father said that the reason Ayn Rand was so loathed and reviled by American liberals was that she---a refugee from Stalinist Russia-----was able to subtly, yet forcefully point out the irrefutable similarities between socialism (and its more extreme offspring, communism) and western liberal philosophy and action.

I think socialism derived from the limbic region of brain development. As an example, cold blooded reptiles (not much limbic region) don't as a rule, care for their young whereas warm blooded mammals do. Nothing like warm boobs(er, mammaries), eh? Well this eventually transcribed into taking care of more than offspring. Now humans, like wolves, have a pack mentality. It remains to be seen whether this is an improvement in sustaining the development of life.

Here is a cool link on differing forms of government. Russia was(is?) a few wealthy elite in charge of many. Don't know whether that qualifies as a pure socialist state. It seems familiar though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred Douglass

The problem with liberal egg-heads is that they (seemingly) never have gotten their hands dirty, and/or tried to preserve the fruits of their own honest labor. Sure, societal "glue"---in the form of helping the less fortunate and able---is critical to defusing riots, class warfare and other lamentable eruptions of envy. But when charity becomes systematized and an industry unto itself (especially when run by the gummint) THEN you get the runaway train. Big government, wouldn't you agree, is composed of a myriad of myopic little fiefdoms and it never meshes well or efficiently. It ALWAYS trends toward "mandatory this and mandatory that" as its efforts to control individual liberty breed more contempt and rebelliousness. Money today is freedom. Period. So-o-o-o, guess what the gummint does? Right! Aside from robbing us and bribing us with our own money---how 'bout those seatbelt laws?

"The problem with liberal egg-heads is" progressives tend to be socialist as opposed to .....conservatives preserving the dog-eat-dog world?

"...helping the less fortunate and able---is critical to defusing riots..."
"...Big government, wouldn't you agree, is composed of a myriad of myopic little fiefdoms... "
"...It ALWAYS trends toward "mandatory this and mandatory that" as its efforts to control individual liberty... "

Sounds like all government democracies ...but not all governments.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred Douglass

The trouble with utopians is that they ALWAYS concoct "solutions" which go against human nature. When anything or anyone goes against human nature, it/they must acquire means to quell disagreement----all the way up to, and including, permanently "silencing" critics and rebels. If you wonder why liberals LIE all the time (look at the foo keen media!), it's because if they DIDN'T lie---and actually spelled out exactly what their aims and methods of achieving them were-----normal folks would HANG 'EM ALL. Lordy knows, there's still enuff trees.

Caveat socialistas!

A pitchforks in every closet!

Chow-dah!

"The trouble with utopians is that they ALWAYS concoct "solutions" which go against human nature..."

Human nature both wants something for nothing ...but doesn't want to give anything away.
Now which is it, really?

It's the boat rowing scene again.

If the boat is too socialist, everybody gets the same amount of hardtack whether they row or not. After a while there is no rowing incentive and the boat about stops in the doldrum. For the boat owner and management calling cadence, this is slim pickins. They absolutely depend on somebody rowing. Really ...the whole boatload depends on it.

Then there is the other scenario. The capitalist boat. The owner and management start their efficiency quest. They give the rowers less and less share of hardtack as days go on. It works. They slap each other on the back and stroke each others ego's on how smart they are. Well that's why they're in charge, eh? After a while there is no rowing incentive and the boat about stops in the doldrum. For the boat owner and management calling cadence, this is slim pickins. They absolutely depend on somebody rowing. Really ...the whole boatload depends on it.

Somewhere, in between, it just keeps on working.
Maybe there is a utopia.

"A pitchforks in every closet!"Yeah, man!!

I don't have a pitchfork and a torch is too conspicuous.
So I'm off on my quest to root out the economic evil that has befallen our dear country.
Instead of a torch, I plan to carry a Mini-Mag Lite in my rear hip pocket.
The pocket outline alone should give folks pause as to what I might do.

Sure, it's not like carrying a full size Mag Lite, like cops who can beat a perp over the head with them.
But I may be able to tap adversaries into submission.
I'm hoping not to have to use it.

God, this winter is getting long.

Wes

...

Wes Tausend · #10 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 02:01 PM

...

Rats. I'm called to work. I think they want me to row.

Just as well anyway. My wife says if I left on a quest, I would lose my keys, get stranded and freeze my ears and b@lls.

Wes

...

bomelia · #11 (**permalink**) 01-11-2009, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred Douglass

There's my cabinet! Ar-ar-ar.

Krikeys, just when I was starting to read more politcal thrillahs (like Vince Flynn's stuff)....along comes Bob with more required readin'!!!

I just worry aboot what the three-year-olds and yet-to-be-born Americans will be facing when they're our age........Egads! Mortgaging our future with deficits doesn't seem like the wisest course.

Carrion,

I am deeply offended that I did not get a nomination for Sec of Defense in Prez Freddies' cabinet.

Mike

Ron61 · #12 (**permalink**) 01-11-2009, 05:56 AM

Freddie,

At the rate things are going there may not be any world left for our two and three year olds to worry about. Things are so far out of control now all over the world that the tax and spend method just isn't going to work. I fear that we will son become a 3rd world country if some people now in power aren't stopped.

Ron

Fred Douglass · #13 (**permalink**) 01-11-2009, 08:17 AM

Moikie........OF COURSE you're SEC-DEF!!! You just hadn't signed onto the Rant yet....

Ronnie: you may well be right---certainly hope not. Hawaii actually inspired me to start painting again!!!!!!

Chin up. all!

Ron61 · #14 (**permalink**) 01-11-2009, 08:53 AM

Freddie,

It is great to hear that you are painting again. I talk to a woman that now lives in St. Clairsville, Ohio every day and she used to live in Los Angles. She was a professional artist and won a a lot of things with her paintings. She still does some but her hands are getting to where she has a hard time holding the brushes. I have a huge painting of me and two of my Poms that I have lost that she did before she ever saw me and it is really good. I can't draw a straight line with a ruler and really admire anyone who can paint, play music, or any of the other artistic type things.

Ron

Fred Douglass · #15 (**permalink**) 01-11-2009, 09:22 AM

..I'll get sistah Janie to photo, scan and post the painting I did of my ship-----DD 705. I hope yaw compootah can open it! All this "dark-art" compootah stuff leaves me in orbit!

Ar, etc.

Ron61 · #16 (**permalink**) 01-11-2009, 09:40 AM

That would be great. And if she posts it we can see it. Anything in a JPG format can be seen easily. Looking forward to seeing your ship.

Ron