Going Galt
Ayn Rand wrote a novel Atlas Shrugged that at one time was considered one of the most important books in America, second only to the bible. For any who are unfamiliar, it is a philosophical work depicting the end days of a fascist America. Government, business, and academia have merged into one. A parasitic organism feeding off of the country’s constantly decreasing number of productive citizens with the obvious result being an ever declining standard of living for the entirety of the society. The number of productive citizens constantly decreasing is a result of a phenomenon that has become known as “Going Galt”. Galt referring to a character by the name of John Galt who was the first person to walk away from the collapsing society and create a new society based upon truly free market ideals. Galt slowly recruits other productive members of society to join him in his new society reducing the number of productive members of the collapsing society.
What did Rand get right? The same acceleration of the decline of her fictional world is evident in what I believe is the decline of the American empire happening right now. The coordination of the different institutions government, corporations, and academia with the assistance of a fourth, the news media, is more and more apparent each passing day. America’s being overtaken by a mob. A mob of angry victims from every minority group bound together by a collectivist mindset with its greatest desire to oust the creators of the freest country on earth.
Where did she go wrong? To begin on a light note, if Rand could have foreseen the computer technology that controls so much of the infrastructure of the bureaucracy of the United States, I’m sure she would have instead written Ragner Danneskjöld the pirate as a computer hacker, ransoming benefits packages from essential government services.
A more serious mistake I see in her predictive work, and it could be my own ignorance, but I’m seeing no business titans that could measure up to the character of Hank Reardon, Rand’s fictional leading man whose innovations in metallurgy are unprecedented or the character of Ken Dannager the fictional independent coal operator of Rand’s masterpiece who defies the regulations in able to supply Reardon with the coal he needs. The main characters having built their companies from the ground up or continuing to build upon a family business resist giving up and allowing all they have created to be taken away by the leeches. They hang on to the point they are sanctioning the victim and sacrificing themselves to the parasitic demands of others.
It seems all of the business leaders we hear about from the media are a part of the fascist state. It could be that it is news media disinformation by design or it could be that the reality is there are no independent businessmen concerned more about the integrity of their work over the bottom line. As possible exceptions, Elon Musk comes to mind as an innovator in space technology. Musk promotes an image of rebellion against authority and has taken action and made statements in this vein. Don Blankenship, the real life CEO of Massey Energy Company, was the first CEO ever convicted of violating mine safety regulations that are set and monitored by the Fed.
I think where Rand went wrong is assuming that integrity and pride would be a principles that would maintain their value through the evolution of the corporate environment. What we have are corporations full of individuals who value profit highest no matter the cost or how great the compromise of principle.
Don’t get me wrong, I still believe there are plenty of smalltime entrepreneurs, innovators, and inventors out there that could provide platforms on which to build the new and separate society. A society with no theft called taxation but usage fees in their place. A society with no fiat currency, that operates on barter, crypto, and gold. A society with no jails where bad actors are housed and cared for but where they are ostracized for minor infractions and outcast for most others. My only concern is: “who will build the roads?”