Atlas Was Robbed

Today is the last day of the year (I wrote this at the end of 2018). I started to watch "Atlas Shrugged" on a lark.  Folks often mistake young libertarians for liberals. Looking at NETFLICKS promotions this morning I realized, someone there is very so! They offer the Cheesy, updated, modern version of 'Atlas Shrugged.' I've tried to read it over and over again but it is a cheesy story with a cheesy plot & a misleading message. It is poorly written, unresearched. Worse the story is offensive to any understanding of reality, causality and not in a good way. This was like watching a Superman versus Bizarroman flick.

The Trouble with Atlas Shrugged.

The story starts with people demanding work. The headlines ask, "who cares about the inventories", while noting gasoline shortages. It shows images of black people striking for a Job. It has people saying "there is plenty of oil in the ground." It sounds like a Donald Trump campaign commercial. Trouble is, these are management decisions. She blames common folks for the responsibilities of her heros in management.

False Causality

The logical error that Ayn Rand committed was that of ascribing false causality to the dysfunction of reality. In the world of Atlas shrugged nobody works & that is the fault of,... drum roll ... workers. Management is somehow not responsible for their own decisions. She sees the pirates as heros while calling those workers looters.

Actual History

And the plot lines act like we still have competitive rail lines. In real life Passenger rail were looted & abandoned to airlines, bus lines & freight rail years ago, by the entrepeneurs. Those remaining  were given to the State via bankruptcy courts. Mexico is promoting jobs not nationalizing rail. She describes a world of Monopolists & pirates, & then makes them heros.

Trump thinks he's John Galt

None of this was new. But what I found fascinating was the Pirate Motiffe.  As depicted the line "who is John Galt" was a recruitment call to managers & elites to desert their posts & work for John Galt & join his war.

The Book talks about allies of John Galt making war on US Shipping. It became obvious to me that she was advocating privateering. Anything goes capitalism is pirate capitalism, given a thin veneer of respectability by relabeling private warfare, private government of public assets and theft as legal privateering.

It also occured to me that the owners strike was really a lock out. Especially after rereading the end. Scientists don't lie about the safety of "rearden metal", but con artists do. Years ago I wanted to write a parallel story where the safety testers were the heros & rearden metal full of plutonium & radioactive metals. In bizaaroland exec's & managers sabotaging their own business, are heros.

Trump thinks he is John Galt. He doesn't need "gubbornment" so he can just "shut it down" to get his way. To his thinking it should be run for, by & of oligarchs. He loves the Russian model!

Galts Gulch is Panama or Cyprus banks.  Treason is just business. After all it is our own fault we don't live in a libertarian paradise like Somalia.

Ayn Rand was advocating thieves rules.

This was written 1/1/2019, for some reason when I updated it, it changed the date.