![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Betrayal of Ayn Rand, or Yeah, You Guys ARE The Looters!
As many people know, Ayn Rand is often taken as the patron saint of Libertarian/right wing economics, such as they are, and a lot of people on that side of the fence often reference her. People like Elon Musk are often pointed to as being examples of Randian heroes.
The thing is? They couldn't be farther from it if they tried.
There's a lot wrong with Rand's philosophy -- I've gone into it in detail more than once. The biggest single flaw is that it assumes the ability of human beings to understand the entirety of their position in the world, so that they can make actual, informed, long-term beneficial choices, and that they can and should have their emotions connected to the logical, beneficial outcomes.
But -- contrary to the Musks and others -- what a Randian hero ISN'T is... a manager, or an investor. This is clear in Atlas Shrugged.
Hank Rearden invented Rearden Metal himself, with long, long hours of experimentation. He built his steel company pretty much from the ground up, with his own direction, working down in the shop as much as anyone. Dagny Taggart learned everything about railroading, from how to fuel a locomotive and run it to how track is laid, personally, and her personal interaction with the men who kept her railroad working gave them a respect for her and her judgment -- because she UNDERSTOOD how their work went, what effort was involved, and how very, very crucial it was to the survival of her business. The mysterious meme-man of the entire novel, John Galt, invented the unique Galt engine entirely on his own.
That is in fact the central CONCEPT of Atlas Shrugged: that the fire of civilization is driven by the brilliant sparks of particularly gifted men and women who catch fire with new ideas, new directions, and through them set others to burning as well with drive to build upon these ideas.
This is, of course, a fallacy -- the Great Man concept of history -- but it's absolutely central to the novel, and AS A STORY CONCEPT, it's perfectly reasonable. And that one concept is, in fact, the single postulate on which everything's built, that individual people do their individual things and they have a right to their individual lives.
But what ISN'T in there is the callous arrogance of a lot of Rand's supposed adherents. Hank Rearden TRIES to take care of his family, and only gives up on that at last when it becomes clear that they aren't willing to give back ANYTHING, not even thanks for his efforts. On the other hand, the "Wet Nurse" -- the young man sent by the government as an overseer and spy -- listens to Rearden, and Rearden tries to help him out of the logical trap his bosses have put him in. In the end the Nurse protects Rearden because Hank was kind to him even though the Nurse's putative job was to betray him.
The callous arrogance is seen elsewhere. Perhaps the greatest single example of this is in Dagny Taggart's brother, Jim, who has never been able to match up to his sister in anything -- but instead of simply accepting that, or of choosing to do things he CAN do, he lives a life of jealous, reflected importance, and when given a chance to run the rail company, demonstrates that this is all just part of a scheme to increase personal profits without either a personal affection for or care for consequences to the railroad, its employees, or the people who make use of it. The one good thing in his life is brought to him by the temporary perception of him as one of the masters of industry, and he loses her when she realizes he's actually a cruel little man.
The general term Galt uses for the "enemy", the people who take the fruits of people's work without a care for the costs and no intention to pay those costs -- and no capacity to produce equally themselves -- is "looter".
And the modern Libertarian icons? They're absolutely the looters, not the Randian heroes.
Elon Musk didn't invent PayPal. He didn't come up with Tesla Motors, nor did he design rockets. All he has done is invest and put his name on things -- and his investment hasn't even always carried the day. Tesla and Spacex have benefited from government grants and loans and other special deals to the tune of over thirty-eight BILLION dollars in the last twenty years -- a very significant part of their actual resources (as opposed to stock valuation, which as we've seen in the last few weeks is utterly volatile).
He's far from the only example, though he is, right now, by far the most prominent and blatant. Musk is still trying to squeeze a 56 billion dollar pay package out of Tesla -- for what? What is it he's supposed to have "produced" that's worth a significant fraction of the company's worth?
Nothing, of course. Less than nothing, in actuality; it is well-known that both Tesla and SpaceX have entire GROUPS of people whose purpose is to "manage" Elon Musk, keep him happy while not allowing him to actually interfere in day to day operations, because he's disruptive. The fate of Twitter shows this in stark detail, since that company had no "Musk Handlers" to keep him from screwing things up.
Speaking of "stark", people have tried to compare him to Tony Stark -- and again, he's almost the opposite. Stark, for all his fictional faults, is a man of technical genius who literally can build new technology "in a cave! out of scraps!". The major successes of his companies ALL have at least some connection to his actual knowledge and skill. He may also be a wiseass playboy, but by god, he's out there earning his pay every day. He's not just going to a board meeting a couple hours a week.
The politicians who pretend to follow Randian principles are, if anything, worse. They're literally living on the public dollar while claiming to be independent. They're willing to yank the supports out from under millions of people because they, personally, don't think the people deserve anything.
All these people? They're the looters, taking the society we've built and doing the best to drain the resources out of it into their own personal hoards. They're the villains, some of them even worse than the Taggarts -- they're the Ellsworth Tooheys, people who fully understand the manipulation and evil they're doing... and enjoying it.
no subject
Not soon, mind you.
no subject
no subject
no subject
A further note
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/elon-musk-thinks-he-is-an-ayn-rand-hero-nope-one-of-her-villains-silicon-valley-thiel-andreessen
Re: A further note
no subject
no subject
no subject
So by default I'm only here and on FB, and occasionally on my own website. But that one I need a webmaster for and can't afford to pay one.
no subject
Musk...he's the perfect example of people earning money but not doing their work.