Tag: 3:1

November 23, 2022 – Atlas Shrugged 3:1

November 23, 2022 /

Surprise! It is a short week so I am doing Atlas Shrugged on Wednesday this week. I may or may not be working on the site during this period, but we both deserve a rest. I want to wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving. Don’t forget to be thankful, not just making turkey.

I didn’t fully get what was going on at the end of the last chapter. I even re-read some of it to try and follow but I couldn’t. Apparently, Dabny was flying a plane and it turns out following another plane. I got the part where she was flying but I missed that she was following someone else. As it turns out, John Galt was flying with Quentin Daniels. In the course of flying, she ends up crashing the plane.

The reason that she crashed was that this particular valley is covered by some sort of mirage. This is the same mirage that protects Galt’s Gulch from being seen from the air. If you haven’t read the book, Galt’s Gulch is where all of the industrialists have gone to check out from society.

This was a mistake. While the industrialists are keeping an eye on her, their modus operandi is that this move is free will. It will happen when the person is ready and not without prompting. So, Dabny has not made the full commitment but gets a preview for what is possible.

When John Galt declares that he is going to stop the motor of the world, he does. He takes his revolutionary invention of a motor that derives electricity from static and declares that this world will never have it. He did however perfect his invention to power the community of Galt’s Gulch.

Every single industrialist that left the previous world has taken residence here and has assumed a menial role in society such as grocer, farmer, plumber, handyman, etc. This is really the means to an end because whatever their true passions are are pursued for the benefit of themselves only. They work a small amount or as much as necessary but the rest of the time is leisure time.

“I swear by my life that I will never live my life for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for me”. This is the one pledge to enter or join life in Galt’s Gulch. I find it ironic that I am reading this book at this time. Maybe if I would have read the book earlier, I would have seen the parallels earlier but for some reason the time is now.

The very concept of social justice is the manifestation of what this book is trying so hard to combat. From Wikipedia “Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society”. There is something in me that just rails against the premise. Didn’t we tell ourselves in grade school that this was the land of opportunity or anything is possible? Social justice exactly contradicts this idea.

You cannot attain your vision because so and so has more power or this or that and/or the color of you skin prevents success. We must take from others to equalize this injustice. An acceptance of the principal of social justice is a denial of self-sufficiency. And that is against my grain.

Before this is taken completely out of context, I am not for poverty, racism or even inequality. I do have compassion and understand that these subjects are complicated. I do feel that these issues are largely self-inflicted. But, I reject the argument that these problems are my fault or the fact that I am a member of a socioeconomic group by your labels or how or where I was born. I am just as resistant to my stereotyping as social justice warriors are purporting that my group is labelling theirs.

End Your Programming Routine: I am a strong proponent to the concept of giving a poor man one million dollars versus making a successful man penniless. Success is always about mindset and not the assets. Sure, it is easier to make money starting with some money, but still not impossible. The answer will never be taking things in the name of equality whether it is money or respect. If it is not earned, it wont be valued and if it is not valued, it wont be kept.

August 6, 2021 – 1984 3:1

August 6, 2021 /

This chapter was kind of interesting. It is about Winston’s preliminary stint in Jail. I say that because there has been no sort of adjudication or sentencing. There is a parade of minor characters throughout the book that suddenly appear as well but we have no indication of Julia’s disposition.

I would also say that there is a bit of foreshadowing into Winston’s future. With the extreme, no holds barred violence I suspect that his future is going to be pretty nasty.

We continue to see the same themes built upon in the recent chapters. Winston had made his choices and has accepted his fate to some degree. I think that we have all had those moments where we have done something that has a consequence that we really didn’t want to suffer. When caught, we have already accepted that there will be a degree of pain or discomfort but we knew it was coming.

Seeing is Believing- Remember back in 2:8 when I said that it was hard to believe that Obrien lived as a high party member but was also a high level traitor? There is an old saying that “If it looks to good to be true, then it probably is” is pretty applicable. It appears that Obrien was playing Winston so that he would eventually reach a point of no return, which he did.

No Regrets- I think that Winston is understandably worried about his future. I suspect it is the fear of the unknown like how long is this going to take and how much pain am I going to have to endure. Once the truth is internalized and accepted, I am talking about human freedom here, then I don’t think that it really matters about going back to the old life even as good as it was at the end. So said another way, Winston has no desire to not accept the punishment understanding that there is no hope or freedom in his prior way.

I know that today’s concepts are a little cliché. But, I think put into context of the story, they make sense at this point in the analysis. Also, there isn’t a lot more to take out of the revolving door of character in, gets roughed up, character leaves. It just re-enforces that this is really happening and it seems to happen to most people.

End Your Programming Routine: We are about to see what happens when someone fights the system using the rules of the system. Just like I talked about on Tuesday with the five monkeys, this is a no win situation. I am not sure if I would have done anything different than Winston did. Here I am writing about these kinds of things routinely and in a public way. Who knows, maybe some day they will come for me?