Will Wilkinson, channeling yerz trooly, directs my attention to an hilarious eruption of righteous . . . blawging. In general I think it safe to say that people who display no outward indications of appreciating the distinction between business income, profit, salary, and taxable income are not, whatever their claims to the contrary, occupying the lofty brackets that Obama proposes we liquidate or nationalize or blast into space or whatever as we make the final transformation into the People's Republic. Quoted therein:
“We have to find a way out where we can make just what we need to just under the line so we can benefit from Obama’s tax plan,” she added. “Why kill yourself working if you’re going to give it all away to people who aren’t working as hard?”There is, I admit, a certain demented logic entailed in plotting to join the impecunious masses seeking to soak the rich so as to benefit from their Bolshevism. It's like Lenin said, you find the person who will, uh, you know what I'm trying to say.
On a more Weberian note, it appears that the Protestant Work Ethic is in immoderate decline among the double-ply bourgeoisie of this great nation. Yeah, why kill yourself working? I'm a fan of permanent disability myself, methodologically, even if the paperwork's a bitch. Let me state straight up that I do not believe these people actually exist, but if they did, they'd be a credit to morons everywhere.
Wilkinson accurately outlines the flaws in the Galt comparison based on his having, evidently, actually read the book. Would it be impolite of me to note that in addition to lacking a certain fidelity to the text-as-written, these people are making a handbook out of a work of turgid speculative fiction in which the oft-repeated symbolic trope, its rosy-fingered dawn, its wine-dark sea, is the lit cigarette--yes, man's mastery of fire as represented by a carcinogenic drug that doesn't even get you high. It also has holograph projectors and sound weapons and I am reasonably certain I saw Doc Seldon lurking around one of the party scenes at Hank Reardon's house, trying to sell his lush of a wife on a new-age religion called psychohistory. Ayn Rand wrote an entire book about railroads without once mentioning The Pacific Railway Act, whereby the eeeevil government gave railroad companies millions and millions of acres of land. Trying to construct a coherent personal economic ideology out of a Rand novel is as realistic, likely, and sane as trying to set up a street gang using The Outsiders as your manual.
25 comments:
Our gang just uses The Outsiders when we're picking our gang names.
Of course, what the new tax plan does is increase economic output, since America's most productive members now need to work (i-250000)*.02% harder to maintain their old lifestyle (where i=taxable income).
OK, how about a coherent personal economic ideology as something along the lines of "Fuck you parasites, I'm going to the farm."
On the bright side, I've never before seen so many links to the same Bob the Angry Flower cartoon.
driftglass' take on the Randites from a couple of years back. Good stuff.
Of course one wouldn't base a street gang on The Outsiders! Sheesh! The Warriors would make a much better template.
Don't fuck with the Wongs!
The idea that the people writing / commenting on blog consider themselves the 'productive' ones among us is nauseatingly funny. And survivalist fantasies (which, really, is just pseudo-obscured rape fantasy, isn't it?) always come into it. Whatever, soi-disant 'libertarians' make horrible party guests.
And the comments sections of these things just seem to get better the more links you follow: http://pursuingholiness.com/2009/03/going-john-galt/
Inappropriate, Mr. Smithee. We all remember what fate befell the charismatic Cyrus. The tenements rang with the hopeful strains of "Caaan yooo diiig it?", before the slimy little white sociopath shot him for shits and giggles. Myself, I'm a provisional member of The Orphans....
I am the walrus.
Rand was from Russia, so she didn't know much about America. Come to think of it, she didn't know much about anything. She thought science was awesome, but she didn't know much of that either. Full disclosure: I'm not masochistic enough to have actually read anything she wrote, I'm simply repeating defamatory statements made by people I consider trustworthy. For people that actually put some thought into depriving Leviathan of their complicity, see The Seasteading Institute.
which, really, is just pseudo-obscured rape fantasy, isn't it?
You have offended my prudish dignity. I assure you my survivalist fantasies are rooted in pure misanthropy, as portrayed in the Fallout Shelters comic from The Big Book of Losers.
Oh, IOZ, this post is like Christmas! Anyway, back to heroic sex for me.
And survivalist fantasies (which, really, is just pseudo-obscured rape fantasy, isn't it?) always come into it.
the internets! full of insightful people, since always
Rand was from Russia, so she didn't know much about America. Come to think of it, she didn't know much about anything. She thought science was awesome, but she didn't know much of that either. Full disclosure: I'm not masochistic enough to have actually read anything she wrote, I'm simply repeating defamatory statements made by people I consider trustworthy. For people that actually put some thought into depriving Leviathan of their complicity, see The Seasteading Institute.
so, the point you are trying to convey - you are exactly like Rand except you are lazier. not a big fan of taking Rand's work very seriously...but im less of a fan of people running their mouths just bc
The wine dark sea was but nothing to her blood red nail polish....It was a stark and dormy night and so on....
Full disclosure: I'm not masochistic enough to have actually read anything she wrote, I'm simply repeating defamatory statements made by people I consider trustworthy.
LOL. Good satire of Ioz, TGGP. That was a satire of Ioz, wasn't it?
Poor Ioz. He hates Rand because she was anti drug. Even if she wasn't against drug use Ioz wouldn't be able to understand her because his mind is un peu gone from drugs. That's why she was against them. Life is a circle.
IOZ just doesn't understand me! Only REAL MEN can understand me! Plus he...he's a...a drugie! Yeah, that's it! He's a dirty hippie druggie! Not a pure white capitalist like John! Oh! Take me away, John! Ravish me like only a true pure white objectivist can!!!
Whoah.
That floating head shit is for real.
Gotta git me some of what that dude is smokin'.
Yeah.
The "problem" with Ayn Rand was that she was anti-drug.
That's definitely it.
Dear Iozians:
A while back I was arguing with someone here (Mr. Fundamental?) about whether Obama represented No Change Whatsoever, and i brought up the point that millions of unemployed people would soon be eligible for Medicare, under the Obama stimulus bill.
Guess I was wrong.
Heh.
her other big problem was the fact that philosophical fiction is about as measly a genre as you can find. one character knows the Truth, one woman is hot and just smart enough to Get him, and fuck everyone else. she seems to write in an endlessly self-correcting universe, where the virtuous are rewarded and the craven are punished for their misdeeds.
if you have doubts about this explanation for why Rand sucks, read "the virtue of selfishness", her foray into actual philosophy. yikes.
"which, really, is just pseudo-obscured rape fantasy, isn't it?"
sometimes a desire to watch others crumble and die is just a desire to watch others crumble and die.
Rand was from Russia, so she didn't know much about America. Come to think of it, she didn't know much about anything.
I say that not as someone who has read her books, but as someone who actually had the misfortune of attemtpting to engage her in a conversation about economics (specifically, Randian vs. real-world), on roughly the freshman level.
Not only did she not get it, but she also didn't even understand it; my using words like "externalities" and "exogenous" resulted in nothing more than a blank stare.
So, I guess it is not at all surprising that her biggest fans are more people who just don't get it and have a problem with the real world. People, that is, who think that "going Galt" means leaving lousy tips and playing more golf.
Never buy a utopia from someone who is proud to admit that they know nothing about human psychology.
Not only did she not get it, but she also didn't even understand it; my using words like "externalities" and "exogenous" resulted in nothing more than a blank stare.
so, its like "rent-seeking" with every progressive economist?
Oh fuck IOZ, where were you with this three years ago when I was trying to bed a Randroid? You could have saved me a year of misery, blueballs and mind-torture that was talking to her and trying to read that shitty, shitty book. I hope she's being not-raped in Hell right now.
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