Saturday, November 5, 2011

Where is John Galt?

With all of the bellyaching from the Occupy movements, Hollywood stars (!) and national Democrats about income inequality, "fat cats" and the "obscene" profits made by corporations, is it time that a John Galt steps up and says what needs to be said?

As many of you know, John Galt is a character in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. Galt is an industrialist/philosopher who basically had had enough with the assault on human independence, productivity and excessive government. He convinced a group of fellow "traders" to go on strike and leave the welfare state (and its creators and consumers) to its own destruction. If you haven't read Atlas Shrugged, now is the time...

Galt made an address to the nation (after seizing the network in which the President was about to make a speech) and outlined the connection between the destructive moral beliefs of those consumers (mystical and material) of the welfare state and the loss of reason and human endeavor. When one group complains about the "greed" of another group, they impose their moral beliefs with an eye towards invoking guilt. That group wants something for nothing and the Galts of the world are having none of it.

The "beliefs" of the Occupy movements across the country are steeped in "gimme" morality and outright laziness. Why should any producers support these spoiled consumers? If the protests had been peaceful and expressed with some semblance of a coherent message, more people may ask themselves the same types of questions (Remember, at first, there was a subtle message against bank bailouts and excessive government support of the private sector). That message is long gone and has become a hodge-podge of whining about paying for their college (get a job!), socialism/communism (never worked) and outright anarchism (will NEVER work).

If these "takers" in our society (who have a healthy dose of personal entitlement) continue to rail against the producers, will the producers one day become so fed up that they will say "enough is enough" and stop providing them with the material goods they clamor for while at the same time disparaging the manner in which they are produced (or profited from)? Unlikely, but at some point, those who produce will not sanction anymore screaming and wailing from those spoiled consumers who dare not work to make society better but would rather simply scream and wail until someone listens to their screams and wails.

How will these "protests" against capitalism and free markets end? No one knows, but based on the level of violence we're seeing now, it probably won't end well. These supposed "peace and equality"-loving people are smashing windows, sexually assaulting minors, defecating on public property and embracing anti-liberty forces. To what end?

Once you read Atlas Shrugged, you will know "Who is John Galt?", but maybe we should start asking: "Where is John Galt?"