Where would a present-day Galt's Gulch be?

[flatlander]

Guy’s isn’t the answer obvious? The internet. We are already there. The last ten years or so our philosophy has been spreading like wildfire via the internet and places like this. Very few if any of us are ready to go into hiding so we do our thing here. If you sit back and think about it this is the perfect technology to expand and fuel are ideals. And it’s working. Slower than most of us want but much quicker than pre-internet days. I’m sure if there were a way to take a census of the numbers of Objectivist leaning people in the world today versus pre 1995(?) the numbers would be skyrocketing. This is a direct result of the internet. The thing is we don’t need to go hide in some valley somewhere, we need to use technology such as this to make more and more people aware of us. And I don’t mean that PC type of “awareness” like breast cancer or spotted-owl awareness–I mean the wide scale intellectual advocacy via the internet and mass-media. That is our way to the future.

Great point, EC. In fact if any single event illustrates the power of activism and advocacy on the internet (albeit for ideas drastically opposed to our own), it was Obama’s election.

Obama’s campaign established a cult of personality that gives the appearance of an unstoppable juggernaut. Such an appearance is essential for the continued support of the collectivist herd. The worldwide support that was rallied for Obama is epic in scale. Equally epic is the very disturbing cult of personality and messiah-like worship that went with it. In fact I had to have a few words with some of my staff who would post on Obama boards during work hours. But what struck me as interesting during the campaign were very specific moments that seemed as an oblique targeting of Objectivism.

We all know that conservatism is a dead end road. It leads to cynical pragmatism or to theocracy. I think that Obama’s strategists know it too. I think they see the intellectual activism being carried out by Objectivists and while they knew we did not have the numbers to pose an electoral threat, they recognized that our ideas have power. Obama’s line where he said, “I don’t know when they decided to make a virtue out of selfishness,” was, I think, intended as a shot across our bow.

I don’t think we are flying under the radar any longer. We may still be small in numbers, but we cannot assume that Obama’s people haven’t noticed the activities of Objectivists.

[ctrl_y]

Imagine if, as in Atlas Shrugged, the greatest among us decided they would no longer be sacrificial victims to the various types of collectivism, mysticism and statism that are rampant in today’s world.

If a real-life John Galt were to lead a strike of the world’s prime movers, in the present, what places could work as a modern-day Galt’s Gulch? Would there be one place, one shining Atlantis of reason and capitalism? Or would there be many such places scattered across the globe?

How heavily armed would such a retreat have to be? And would a strike of the men of the mind be likely or even possible?

A giant glass dome at the bottom of the middle of the pacific ocean. It would probably have to be some sort of special reinforced glass to handle the pressure, but you’ve got John Galt to figure that out.

[aaa]

i think EC may just be our John Galt

[volco]

individualism calls for distribution and as.EC pointed out internet does that better than anything.

more concretely to the point, dual citizenship, citizenship, incorporation, or flag of convenience provided by micronations and sovereign nations that remain outside big blocks.

examples are all over the caribean panama uruguay switzerland.

even inside blocks galt’s gulch is found through technicisms

within the USA the marianas abd puerto rico or even delaware are good examples.

within the EU Luxemburg and Andorra,

within China as far as I know, Macau and Hong Kong serve this function - I suppose accompanied by Singapore and non sovereign chinese settlements in SE Asia.

if you want to speculate about undersea domes you should update yourself in that the technology and cost feasability are already there. take a look at the threads at the seasteading insititute forum.

[EC1]

Thanks aaa. I’m just Eric Clayton though.

[Thor]

Such a place may not exist as yet, but can be created.

The tools needed to make it happen are already at our disposal.

By exercising state’s rights, by educating the county sheriffs within the states and by taking an active role – Galt’s Gulch is within reach.

The Founders did some silly things when they ratified the Constitution, but all that can be fixed. Meantime all that need be done is to use what is already at our disposal. The people of New Mexico and Arizona are already making it happen. Watch them. More and more sheriffs and counties are creating alliances and taking back that which rightfully belongs to them and stopping the federalization of their state.

They can do it and they’re doing it – anyone can do it and ought to be doing it.

_ Galt’s Gulch is a big can-do. All that needs to be done is adopt the can-do attitude, educate, motivate – and git-'er-done. It’s ours for the taking. _

I know, it sounds like work, and it is, but no one ever said it was going to be easy.

[lidryn]

Imagine if, as in Atlas Shrugged, the greatest among us decided they would no longer be sacrificial victims to the various types of collectivism, mysticism and statism that are rampant in today’s world.

If a real-life John Galt were to lead a strike of the world’s prime movers, in the present, what places could work as a modern-day Galt’s Gulch? Would there be one place, one shining Atlantis of reason and capitalism? Or would there be many such places scattered across the globe?

How heavily armed would such a retreat have to be? And would a strike of the men of the mind be likely or even possible?

This, I think, is the reason I keep looking at this thread, as it periodically collects new comments: not so long and complex that I can’t untangle it, and not so short as to be dismissed… it’s certainly a perennial topic.

I can see two main topics in the opening post: one, would such a strike be likely or even possible, and two, if so, where and how?

The first is logically prior to the second: I underline this because I think that the contemplation of a free “land” is another matter altogether, and I wouldn’t pursue the argument for a strike with that end in mind.

EC suggests that a solution is right in front of us, and as a venue for a strike I think this (has been? is? will be?) actively considered by those who would protect their interests while remaining productive in some respect - which seemed to be the author’s intent in describing Mulligan’s Valley as a viable, if temporary, community.

My problem with this is that this medium might serve as a “gulch”, if the content were properly secured, but to imagine that this sort of activity could be combined with intellectual advocacy merely invites the compromising of the activity.

So: those that know, do not speak; those that speak, do not know. (Tao Te Ching LVI - well out of context!)

Guy’s isn’t the answer obvious? The internet. We are already there. The last ten years or so our philosophy has been spreading like wildfire via the internet and places like this. Very few if any of us are ready to go into hiding so we do our thing here. If you sit back and think about it this is the perfect technology to expand and fuel are ideals. And it’s working. Slower than most of us want but much quicker than pre-internet days. I’m sure if there were a way to take a census of the numbers of Objectivist leaning people in the world today versus pre 1995(?) the numbers would be skyrocketing. This is a direct result of the internet. The thing is we don’t need to go hide in some valley somewhere, we need to use technology such as this to make more and more people aware of us. And I don’t mean that PC type of “awareness” like breast cancer or spotted-owl awareness–I mean the wide scale intellectual advocacy via the internet and mass-media. That is our way to the future.

And whenever I hear of the merits of the internet and mass media I regret that I am also reminded of Nietzsche’s crack about the abyss gazing back at me. So I look away…

[Thor]

And whenever I hear of the merits of the internet and mass media I regret that I am also reminded of Nietzsche’s crack about the abyss gazing back at me. So I look away…

Why look away?

[EC1]

Well my new forum is listed in my signature if anyone is interested. Please note this forum is for people that are 100% Objectivists. To participate you must agree with everything that is in the official Objectivist corpus including anything Miss Rand wrote on sexuality and relationships. That said the main purpose of the forum will be in the activism forum in which the discussion will center on how to create a Capitalist society of some form in the near future, and not one that only our descendants can enjoy the benefits of.

[dream_weaver]

Ayn Rand’s Capitalist Paradise (Is Now A Greedy, Land-Grabbing Sh!tstorm)

 

Galt’s Gultch, Chile

 

Last year, one group appeared to have succeeded with a settlement in Chile—“a fully self-sustaining community” that would enable individualistic immigrants (with sufficient funds) to fully renounce “the oppression of the over-regulated, over-taxed, war-riddled and welfare-riddled society consuming the world.” They take Bitcoin and everything.

 

A rather negative write-up, and an additional personal note, as it is stated in Latin, caveat emptor.