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USNGunner
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#21

Who is John Galt?

DrMaddVibe wrote:

😂 Right?

delta1
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#22

good thing the people who helped the pilgrims in their struggles to survive in the new world were not like John Galt...

rfenst
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#23

Who is John Galt?

frankj1
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#24

correct

izonfire
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#25

On to the bonus round...

frankj1
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#26

Dude, where's my car?

izonfire
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#27

Dude, where's my car?

frankj1 wrote:

Dude.
I’ll help you find your car after I help rfenst find himself...

izonfire
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#28

Dude, where's my car?

frankj1 wrote:

Dude.
I’ll help you find your car after I help rfenst find himself...
______

Please listen Frank.
I hate to repeat myself...

Edited by user 6 years ago | Reason: Not specified

steve02
Aficionado

6 years ago

#29

I admire their optimism, but if we've learned anything it is that palestinians can't be trusted.

MACS wrote:

Agreed

DrMaddVibe
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#30

Who is John Galt?

rfenst wrote:

Robert, Robert, Robert...next time we meet up I'll give you a copy. The book's climatic emphasis is melted down to his detailed speech where he finally tips his hand to the world.

John Galt’s Speech from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957) (mini-version excerpted by Daryl J. Sroufe)
Backdrop: Government has taken over the economy, moved it toward heavy regulation and socialism, and adopted a moral code of self-sacrifice. John Galt, whose name has been talked about the entire novel, but people don’t know who he is, has gotten all the big entrepreneurs in society together and they have gone “on strike” and have all disappeared to a new community.

For twelve years you've been asking "Who is John Galt?" This is John Galt speaking. I'm the man who's taken away your victims and thus destroyed your world. You've heard it said that this is an age of moral crisis and that Man's sins are destroying the world. But your chief virtue has been sacrifice, and you've demanded more sacrifices at every disaster. You've sacrificed justice to mercy and happiness to duty. So why should you be afraid of the world around you?

Your world is only the product of your sacrifices. While you were dragging the men who made your happiness possible to your sacrificial altars, I beat you to it. I reached them first and told them about the game you were playing and where it would take them. I explained the consequences of your 'brother-love' morality, which they had been too innocently generous to understand. You won't find them now, when you need them more than ever.

We're on strike against your creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. If you want to know how I made them quit, I told them exactly what I'm telling you tonight. I taught them the morality of Reason -- that it was right to pursue one's own happiness as one's principal goal in life. I don't consider the pleasure of others my goal in life, nor do I consider my pleasure the goal of anyone else's life.

I am a trader. I earn what I get in trade for what I produce. I ask for nothing more or nothing less than what I earn. That is justice. I don't force anyone to trade with me; I only trade for mutual benefit. Force is the great evil that has no place in a rational world. One may never force another human to act against his/her judgment. If you deny a man's right to Reason, you must also deny your right to your own judgment. Yet you have allowed your world to be run by means of force, by men who claim that fear and joy are equal incentives, but that fear and force are more practical.

You've allowed such men to occupy positions of power in your world by preaching that all men are evil from the moment they're born. When men believe this, they see nothing wrong in acting in any way they please. The name of this absurdity is 'original sin'. That's impossible. That which is outside the possibility of choice is also outside the province of morality. To call sin that which is outside man's choice is a mockery of justice. To say that men are born with a free will but with a tendency toward evil is ridiculous. If the tendency is one of choice, it doesn't come at birth. If it is not a tendency of choice, then man's will is not free.

And then there's your 'brother-love' morality. Why is it moral to serve others, but not yourself? If enjoyment is a value, why is it moral when experienced by others, but not by you? Why is it immoral to produce something of value and keep it for yourself, when it is moral for others who haven't earned it to accept it? If it's virtuous to give, isn't it then selfish to take?

Your acceptance of the code of selflessness has made you fear the man who has a dollar less than you because it makes you feel that that dollar is rightfully his. You hate the man with a dollar more than you because the dollar he's keeping is rightfully yours. Your code has made it impossible to know when to give and when to grab.

You know that you can't give away everything and starve yourself. You've forced yourselves to live with undeserved, irrational guilt. Is it ever proper to help another man? No, if he demands it as his right or as a duty that you owe him. Yes, if it's your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle. This country wasn't built by men who sought handouts. In its brilliant youth, this country showed the rest of the world what greatness was possible to Man and what happiness is possible on Earth.

Then it began apologizing for its greatness and began giving away its wealth, feeling guilty for having produced more than its neighbors. Twelve years ago, I saw what was wrong with the world and where the battle for Life had to be fought. I saw that the enemy was an inverted morality and that my acceptance of that morality was its only power. I was the first of the men who refused to give up the pursuit of his own happiness in order to serve others.

To those of you who retain some remnant of dignity and the will to live your lives for yourselves, you have the chance to make the same choice. Examine your values and understand that you must choose one side or the other. Any compromise between good and evil only hurts the good and helps the evil.

If you've understood what I've said, stop supporting your destroyers. Don't accept their philosophy. Your destroyers hold you by means of your endurance, your generosity, your innocence, and your love. Don't exhaust yourself to help build the kind of world that you see around you now. In the name of the best within you, don't sacrifice the world to those who will take away your happiness for it.

The world will change when you are ready to pronounce this oath:
I swear by my Life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.

Like all of her works, she was a bit ahead of her time.

teedubbya
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#31

Lol

dstieger
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#32

True. But they elect the most left leaning dufus heads that vote pure pelosi and schumer. 👎

[-(

USNGunner wrote:

Was only because I watched one of the Senate votes last week that I realized (learned?) that Sanders is still the JUNIOR senator from Vermont...not just in terms of terms, but youngest, also.

I thought Leahy died 15 or 20 years ago.

delta1
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#33

America is only a few heartbeats, less than a generation, away from a sea change in political leadership

Brewha
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#34

I love him...not necessarily rooting for all the talking points, but I could listen to him talk forever.
Best energy of them all.

I also love that (it seems) he may be the only candidate that is not indebted to any blood suckers who would use him. Nor does it seem he is in bed with any for his own benefit. Donors are like 18 bucks each and he has the most donors by far. That is so cool. And he's really not an official Democrat. He's not likely to stump for Dems in other states.
He's pretty much unaffiliated, I find that appealing.

Since he would be limited to President and not be King, I trust that he may lead us back to (but limited to) center, maybe a smidge left which I can handle, due to the constraints the other branches would impose on his talking points.

Yet he has managed to work well with GOP senators on stuff like defense/military. He is almost palatable to 2nd amendment purists, Vermont is pretty rural...for a self professed socialist, he manages to find compromise where none of the others can.

That said, I'm still leaning 3rd party in the finals, but I might drop my "unenrolled" status for the Primaries and give The Bern a vote to help right the wrong that Hillary pulled last time.

frankj1 wrote:

All well taken points.

I guess for me he is a bit too accurate, too correctly eye on the ball. So it is an electability thing - Americans don’t like things that make long term sense. They like bold people who are sick of “crap”.

Make that people in stead of Americans.

frankj1
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#35

fwiw, he seems pretty bold, willing to call BS when he sees it.
He seems less timid, perhaps due to his age, as though he isn't playing safe so as to not lose...none of which has any bearing on his political philosophy.
But at least he has said philosophy, agree with it or not, and how many others are as willing to be clear.

Brewha
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#36

True, true.

But for his ideas to be valuable they must be practical. And while I agree with him buy and large - I just don't see it ever happening.

Get the wealthy to pay their fair share?? Hell, the typical right wing lackey can't even fathom the idea of a fair share - out side of "might makes right" that is.

Good luck to us all.

delta1
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#37

yeah....I don't understand why some folks are willing to accept being scorned as second class and run over by the wealthy class, ceding power and authority to them so they can further widen the wealth gap...

USNGunner
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#38

delta1 wrote:

While there is the lucky genes club, most of the folks making money "worked for it". That is the point of the nation.

"Life, Liberty, and The pursuit of happiness..................."

Not "Here's your handout, it's all we got this week. The rich guys quit working when we just took their earnings."

You want to cede power and authority, go socialist. Seriously.

Dudes, all you have to do is look at the countries where it has happened. The only change is "more extreme poverty". It gets worst for most. Except for those in power, they have it better.

I can't fathom how an American can think that's the way. I just don't understand that mentality. Are we truly Rome? I fear we've got to fat and entitled.

I agree a sea change is coming, but I'm afraid it's not going to be a good one. 😣

Edited by user 6 years ago | Reason: Not specified

delta1
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#39

you're missing a key concept of progressive thought...support the average laborer, the daily wage earner, they built this...

the wealthy class have always taken advantage of the power and authority their wealth provides for self-enrichment, and rarely, if ever, treated the working class as something better than a resource to be exploited...

almost all of the rights provided by US law for the average working man were written into law over the objections of the wealthy...

Brewha
Herf-A-Holic

6 years ago

#40

While there is the lucky genes club, most of the folks making money "worked for it". That is the point of the nation.

"Life, Liberty, and The pursuit of happiness..................."

Not "Here's your handout, it's all we got this week. The rich guys quit working when we just took their earnings."

You want to cede power and authority, go socialist. Dudes, all you have to do is look at the countries where it has happened. The only change is "more extreme poverty". It gets worst for most. Except for those in power, they have it better.

I can't fathom how an American can think that's the way. I just don't understand that mentality. Are we truly Rome? I fear we've got to fat and entitled.

I agree a sea change is coming, but I'm afraid it's not going to be a good one. 😣

USNGunner wrote:

Perhaps you think the rapidly growing wealth gap is not real. Perhaps you don’t believe that wages are stagnant or loosing ground do to inflation. Maybe you just think that companies should not pay taxes - or there owner for that matter.

Or maybe the idea of power corrupting is unfathomable.

But my guess would be that you think the world is on the level.

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