Ask the Gulch!

I know that older leaders of such groups from the highest levels have admitted the recruitment tools and racist theories they sell to young people are downplayed and even disavowed by some. I know that many of them have had the personal integrity of protecting some younger ones from the savagery of others as well. I acquiesce that their Separatist views have really been the Policies in place for some cultures since the beginning of time. Nelson Mandela, now deceased, spent his entire life battling Apartheid in South Africa.

Welcome to the Gulch Danny.

Roger Waters' "The Wall," made with Pink Floyd in 1979 and made into a movie, album, concert experience and performance art includes the Neo Authoritarian "Hammers" symbolism and "black shirt and jack boot" theme that Skin Heads and Aryan Nation groups have adopted in recruiting young people into their Exclusionary Ideologies.

I am at a loss trying to define Ayn Rand's Objectivist Premise and how it relates to what I know. The Socialist Experiment set in my home State of Wisconsin and the 20th Century Motor Corporation, the Directive 10 289 that nationalized the Experiment in the end, and the eventualities of John Galt's Collective in "stopping the motor of the world" and the Functionaries that tried to break him and everyone else are disturbing images. It reminds me of my experience with an Holocaust Survivor who was in Auschwitz and other Camps as a German Citizen with the "wrong beliefs." He had a speaking engagement at the local high school and we went there to finalize it when some kid saw him and, knowing who he was, said, "Heil Hitler!" and saluted the Nazi way as he came in. It was an awkward moment. But I will never forget his blue eyes when he replied to a question of whether Totalitarianism of that magnitude could really return. He replied, "Never think it cannot return."

It reminds me of how the story, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" was adapted into the "Blade Runner" in 1982 and how the 2006 movie, "Children of Men" replied to the physicality of the flying police cruisers and Advertisement placement in LA of 2019 and 2020's. The 30 year difference in real time made a difference. The update of "Atlas Shrugged" and prequels of "Star Trek" and others using very different "vehicles" to reconcile their Timelines with real time AND the dynamic story lines is very interesting. If they were merely stories cast in stone they would not be discussed here.

Welcome Danny.

First, the interface takes some getting used to. It is important to work through the menus just to be familiar with what is available. Just reading and replying is pretty easy. Contributing new content of your own is a bit more involved. Basically, Step 1 is to compose your post and Step 2 is to place it in a Category. But we may need a Tutorial here. At least I could have used one.

As for content, Noam Chomsky is not recognized as an expert here. His left wing politics cancel out anything he said about linguistics. The same problem applies to Karl Popper, just for instance. He was an impassioned champion of the open society, but his theory of epistemology condemns him for most of the readers here.

Third, I do not know who went through and gave "thumbs down" to all of your Introduction posts. I gave them all "thumbs up" again. I have advocated against the "thumbs down" option. It is too easily abused.

It is nice of you to use your real name. Not many people here do that. The nome-de-guerre has a romantic cachet. I usually go by Mercury or some variant. On Objectivism Online, I am Hermes. See my review of "Ma Kiley" under Books: even telegraphers had handles or call signs.

Interestingly, you do not need a license to fly. I mean SOMEONE in the cockpit has to have some kind of certification for whatever is going on, but that does not have to be the person in the pilot's seat. Half of my 100 hours are solo and I never completed the FAA private pilot's certification. Just to say, flying without a license is all right here in The Gulch. It's private property.

I did not know about the "Tsar Bomb." More correctly, I remember the event, but did not know that it had an official designation. (It has several apparently, according to Wikipedia.) I do not know if you were being literal or figurative, but it was not at all capable of threatening life on Earth.
"The Tsar Bomba was a three-stage Teller–Ulam design hydrogen bomb with a yield of 50 to 58 megatons of TNT (210 to 240 PJ).[5] This is equivalent to about 1,350–1,570 times the combined power of the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki,[6] 10 times the combined power of all the conventional explosives used in World War II, or one quarter of the estimated yield of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, and 10% of the combined yield of all nuclear tests to date. " -- Wikipedia.

Then, also, I did not and do not perceive the Cuban Missile Crisis as the brink of war.

Be that as it may, welcome, again, to the Gulch. I do encourage you to read Ayn Rand's non-fiction. If you can read Chomsky's linguistics, you will have no problem with "The Virtue of Selfishness" or "Introduction to the Objectivist Epistemology."

In the context of "Atlas Shrugged," the dystopian future, near or distant, seems to have paralleled "The Hunger Games" and its Sequel in its subtle physicality of using the Railroad System as a vehicle in both a metaphorical and literal sense. I have not read "The Hunger Games" books, though.

Now, how do I work this thing?

Again, Noam Chomsky's Linguistic background at MIT as Professor Emeritus at age 85 makes him a real asset and very articulate in defining the Roles of Media (Manufacturing Consent, 1988) and Power over the entire course of recorded time. Although Ayn Rand is not around, she "speaks" across the years from a very unique and interesting Premise.

I repost Noam Chomsky every chance I can get and most of the ephemeral stuff I write or repost is sentimental and dissociated from the zeitgeist (spirit of the times) that prevails. The electronic Media has washed out the information gathered by personally being Present face to face with someone in real time and space. I use some of it but I am frustrated and defeated by its anonymity.

It is the unpopularity and indifferent dismissive responses to Ayn Rand by most people that makes her Premise interesting. I personally cannot agree to everything presented, but that is the whole idea of an Argument; not to agree but to understand.

Ayn Rand's parents had a business taken by the Bolsheviks "for the common and greater good" so you can imagine when she finally arrived in the United States during the 1920's Boom it was an impression of contrasting ideologies. "Atlas Shrugged" was the epitome of what she believed in when she wrote it between the 1940's and 1950's. The Director of "The Godfather" series had top actors ready to make it into a movie but Ayn Rand would not give up control of Production for the characters and he stated the Movie could ONLY be made after her death. That is my understanding.

My father and another veteran of the second World War that was stationed aboard the Enterprise (the Carrier NOT the Starship) told me many horrendous stories. They were farm boys from Wisconsin taken as a Radio Man and Gunner aboard the recently decommissioned Carrier (2012) that at one time was the ONLY Carrier in the Fleet after the Hornet was destroyed. Amazing stories of amazing times. Still, they did not live to see and hear what we do.

The latter half of the 20th century in Wisconsin was perceived as a child. In 1962, I was six or seven months old when the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred and the Soviets detonated the largest nuclear device ever, the Tsar Bomb, almost annihilating the World. How could I have known or understood that? i could not. We have this in Common here.

Forgive me. I opened a "Moocher Account" for free and I don't know what thread of discussion I am intruding upon here. It is like a deaf and blind person has entered a room and is attempting Communication. I am certain everyone can see and hear this but in what Context I do not know.

It seems the 20th century has been forgotten on some levels and only remembered in the same way someone would remember it by exploring their grandparent's basement or attic. So many profound experiences have been simply shelved in archives of redundant memory systems to allow the influx of Technology and other potentialities of the 21st century to take over currency. I am concerned.

The Introduction to Ayn Rand's book, "Atlas Shrugged" came several years ago when I was looking for Scholarships and there was an Essay Contest by the Ayn Rand Institute for $10k. So I read the book, which is quite long, and attempted to formulate an Essay. I'm still working on it, but I wonder whom had won the Essay contest and what were they looking for specifically. The movies themselves, of course, do not do justice to the Premise of the book, but are adequate for some.

Welcome to The Gulch, Danny.

I look forward to your comments.

Eudaimonia (Rick)

Hi Danny, welcome to the Gulch, Glad you made it! Don't forget to watch the final day of filming (for us Producers Only), Friday 2/14. It has been a hoot.
Learned a lot about the movie making business. Chat with other producers as they are filming live.
Hope to see you there or here in the Gulch.
Bill

I told my brother and a long time family friend whom is like an older brother to me once that I did not believe in Capitalism OR Socialism OR Anarchism. The friend admitted it is "survival of the fittest" and my brother was simply livid with contempt for what I had just stated. He is not alone. That is certain. The Plutocracy at Present is like "the Borg" in assimilating everyone and everything to service higher Classes, I feel, to use a "Star Trek" metaphor. There is an emergent Class Warfare driving much of what we see and hear. ANY President really becomes a Scapegoat for a System of Functionaries that have dominion. And the ONLY System of Government NOT tried yet in recorded history is World Government and the Universally unpopular but practical Benevolent Dictatorship. That is all. Plenty of words to bring down plenty of trouble upon me from every quarter