Time to "Go Galt"?
I liked Don Watkins' post on the topic, particularly this part of Ayn Rand's answer:
One does not yet have to break relationships with society. But what one must do is break relationships with the culture: Withdraw your sanction from those people, groups, schools, or theories that preach the ideas that are destroying you. In Atlas Shrugged I describe the sanction of the victim–when the good people help their own destroyers–and show in how many ways men are guilty of it, through generosity or ignorance. Anyone serious about saving the world today must first discard the dominant philosophy of the culture. Stand on your own as much as if you moved to a separate valley, like in Atlas Shrugged. Check your premises; define your convictions rationally. Do not take anything on faith; do not believe that your elders know what they’re doing, because they don’t. That’s the sense in which Atlas Shrugged is applicable to our period.And incidentally, I'm with Don in not liking how the phrase is being used today. (Indeed I'm sad that our intellectual independence is so slight that we have to resurrect phrases like "Going Galt" and "Tea Parties" completely out of context, rather than identifying today's problems and issues -- and then addressing them squarely and head on.)
posted by Amit Ghate at 5:54 PM
2 Comments:
I agree that Don Watkins' article was a good commentary on the issue of "Going Galt". While some see it strictly in terms of an economic protest - which it certainly is in part - I believe that it is actually more of a rallying cry for all self-reliant people who wish to defend their personal autonomy, individual rights and freedom, against the onslaught of socialistic controls currently being imposed by power-hungry leaders.
There are many ways to attack this problem, and Don identifies a number of approaches. The withdrawing of the sanction of the victum is extremely important, as is the identification and articulation of the issues one opposes. To accomplish the latter, the Tea Party protests can be an effective venue to demonstrate how a large segment of the populace is becoming an organized force of opposition. Another action which can deliver a similar, but more pointed message to the politicians and the public at large, is the Atlas Shrugged Books-to-Politicians Campaign that I am sponsoring at the web site go-galt.org. Take a look, and then contribute your voice in another way, to the battle for liberty.
Regards,
--
C. Jeffery Small
I think that actions and words (i.e. tea parties, "going Galt")that draw attention to problems we face are to be welcomed. True, the intellectual rigor of a full-blown Objectivist philosophy with a selfish-ego based ethics is not there....but to dismiss these initial efforts would be wrong. Many individuals, at this point, need the "milk" of self-reliance which hopefully will lead to the "meat" of a thoroughly developed philosophy with a correct ethical base.
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