Tetsubo wrote:
> Sea Wasp wrote:
>> (RE Galt's Gulch and the "heavy lifting work)
>> The people who were willing to do so. People like Eddie Williers
>> (the one truly great injustice of AS was that (at least as of the
>> ending of the book) they hadn't brought him in. Rand never said there
>> was no worth in people who weren't supergenii, and in fact
>> specifically addresses that people like Dagny and Hank Rearden did
>> much of their work expecting to work with such people, and have them
>> benefit from the work, as the world benefits from the presence of
>> those people.
>
>
> It's been my experience that when dealing with supergenii (or just
> plain old people with knowledge and positions) that many are NOT willing
> to get their hands dirty.
The most polymath and capable people I know DO "get their hands
dirty".
That aside, the point is that the people who do the other work are
the ones who are WILLING to work -- to have human transactions,
exchange of value for value -- but who cannot do the work which the
Galts and Dagnys of the world do. Eddie Willers and other honest, good
workers shown in the books, for instance.
The flaw isn't in the idea that there aren't people who could do the
work; the flaw is in assuming people are truly rational, even about
things that involve emotion. This is the same flaw Marxism has and
that almost ANY "here's my solution to all the problems of the world"
approach has. It assumes EVERYONE sees your logic, agrees with you,
and can adjust their emotional and rational reactions to go along with
you.
>>> And how did they plan on keeping out the "riff-raff"?
>>
>>
>>
>> That engine-killing invisibility screen seemed to be a real good
>> start.
>
>
> But that isn't going to stop people on foot. And once one person
> discovers the Gulch and its functioning (possibly functioning...) social
> structure they are going to start heading there... if you build it, they
> will come... and there are a WHOLE lot more people that would want to
> "use" the Gulch than those that would want to join in and help...
You tell them they can't come in. If they initiate force to GET in,
you stop them. How do you stop people from coming into your house
uninvited? You don't let them in. If they try to force their way in,
you may use force back.
Galt's Gulch, or any country founded on its principles, would be a
country founded on voluntary association ON BOTH SIDES. If you won't
provide services/work they need, you have no place in the society.
(Note that Rand clearly considered things like caring for children and
composing music to be "services and work that we need". It was not a
purely mechanistic society she envisioned; entertainment was clearly
something just as im****tant to a healthy society as the ability for
people to eat. In this case, at least, she thought farther ahead than
some people.)
--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/seawasp/
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