Friday, December 1, 2017

rand survives


RAND SURVIVES
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note: As usual, all my loving minions who donated and bought through my Amazon links have been extra generous.  Novembers numbers were $170 donations, $175 Amazon commissions and $10 in Kindle book sales, a total of $355!! :)
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note: ran across this as a recommendation.  A bit low power and a bit low life span, but perhaps for the price? http://amzn.to/2i9ZXB3 ( a index card size PV panel charging a 100 lumen LED.  About four hours of light.  $8 AFTER shipping )
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We just talked about Ayn Rand.  Libertarian superwoman and one of the original ball busting husband testicle pickling conflicted princesses.  While philosophically questionable her trilogy of fiction, written with the conviction of a religious fanatic and fueled by truckloads of cigarettes chain smoked to fuel her fire, will never be equaled or even approached.  Like Nietzche or Kafka, greatness dwelled alongside pathologies.  So, now that I’ve plied her memory with sweet gifts, time for the bad news.  She WAS bat crap crazy.  Alongside freedom from any outside help was a big heaping serving of pure raw selfishness. 

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But that is part of the discussion today.  As much as her rugged individualism concept was highly flawed ( we evolved from chimp groups and besides learning to wipe our asses haven‘t progressed much past that ), I’m not sure she was so far off with her defense of selfishness.  I mean, sure, hearing her and her prodigy Gordon Gecko wax eloquently on being a total dingusbag is a bit disconcerting as raw truth is rarely very palatable.  As scampering chattering chimps we listen far closer to the tribe dialog than our own internal one, meaning the truth is not our truth but the group truth.  True dat, homey. 

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We are selfish pigs.  We wallow in that reality.  We just don’t like hearing about it, as usually that wallowing pig has a large amount of lipstick applied to its snout so as to look at itself admiringly in the mirror.  Truth, as in the cold reality rather than the Group Think, is unpalatable and harsh.  Rand made a virtue of selfishness, as her book of that theme reflects, but at its core she didn’t understand the whole point of the thing other than to validate her heroic individuals aspiring to new levels of individualism and self serving acts ( as I said, if nothing else is agreeable to you about Rand, at least she philosophically pried us away from our developing Hive Mind.  Heinlein was another one that helped, and in a far less high brow way ).

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Selfishness is a survival mechanism.  Not because we are JUST individually selfish but because in times of danger by outsiders we pull together as a group and act selfish en masse.  THAT is the difference between Rand’s bizarre-world Every Worthy Man Is An Island anti-communism and the reality of our tribe-centric social order.  I look at individual selfishness as I do individual violence.  It is our default mode ( okay, the males default mode, that the most butch FemiNazi armpit hair weaving carpet licker cannot duplicate because of a little thing called hormones and genetics ).

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Most males, not castrated in the current Matriarchy, are little more than violent chimps waiting for the time to go all Clint Eastwood on some poor bastard.  Which is why bars are a rather dangerous place to hang your hat.  The gals are waiting for the king stud and the guys are waiting for an excuse to kick anyone’s ass on any pretext.  Hey, why not?  He’s got enough alcohol in him to dull most of the pain ( to say nothing of diminishing any rationality filters ).  Default mode is violence, and being genetically predisposed towards joining groups for violence, the individual mode of operation is practice and perfection.

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Sports and hunting and hobbies and similar activities bond the group to maximize combat effectiveness.  Simmering violence ( even avoiding violence is useful, as its suppression boosts the effect when the rage is finally released ) is the mode allowing instant aggressiveness at any time.  You never know when the tribe next door decides to 4 am ambush your sleeping ass.  Selfishness is similar.  Practice it non-stop all day long until suddenly you need to direct it to a potential enemy, as a group.

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So, with violence or selfishness, everyone is our enemy.  Until another group of outsiders threatens your group and you all rally together ( selfishness in females comes in handily in directing the violence of the men ) to vanquish the threat ( or seize the prize ).  You can plainly see this in families with multiple boys.   They fight incessantly with one another, until it is time to turn on someone threatening one of themselves.  Then they go back to pummeling each other ).  There is no doubt about the virtue of selfishness.  You just need to tie it in with group dynamics.

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Writing about Rand the other day didn’t bring this to mind, though.  It was a e-book by Keith Taylor ( not great, but good.  And good is pretty darn rare in the Post-Apocalypse writers stable ), the one with North Korea attacking us.  Which just festered in my mind and sat in my gut nauseatingly.  The guy had his fathers secluded cabin to go to and almost did, yet turned around to go back to his small town and help those there.  You really were rooting for him to disappear and leave all those losers behind, and when he had an attack of conscience and returned, it seemed off.  

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Returning to the town wasn’t weird.  Who the hell wants to be a hermit, even if you do pick up a hottie on way who you saved ( you never want to be stuck with a gal if she doesn’t have a support hen network to lean on.  Her infighting and drama will turn on you )?  All but the most introverted need some kind of social interaction for optimum mental stability.  Then it hit me.  The reason the plot was so unrealistic was that the town packed up and headed to the nearby deep water port where friendly nations were sending a flotilla to pick up refugees.  WHAT?!

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We have nations standing by to assist us if we are down and helpless?  Bull spit.  Everyone would be dog piling on us trying to get their pound of flesh.  Remember that little thing called selfishness?  You only help your ally if it might help you, and you sucker punch the bastard if it benefits yourself.  And in the case of the US, global bully ( now that we can’t afford to bribe compliance and favorable trade arrangements, we just rely on force ) now helpless, how many folks would give enough of a crap to render aid?  A few ships of food to pretend to care, I can see.  Perhaps they are afraid we recover and seek vengeance.  But taking a butt metric ton of refugees?  I’d assume most would rather cooperate to vanquish us.  We are certainly only “indispensable” as far as we can police the sea lanes.  And it is getting hard to do that while busy hitting the ships we are supposed to be protecting.

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Being selfish is a survival mechanism.  For everyone.  Charity is self serving.  Aid outside the context of selfishness is fantasy.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2hRfl5r )
 

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37 comments:

  1. Yes Charity is self serving on any level beyond a single individual to another- BUT Actually I can see picking up a bunch of refugees (on ships only though - long voyage will eliminate the most useless at no cost). Why? cheap "indentured" labor. AKA near slaves. Just like the US uses the mexican illegal immigrants and europe is trying to use the muslim refugees. The limit is of course, how much work you have to be done - or crime or war you need to have waged to keep your own population in line. AKA 'the foreign legion'.
    Humans can be resources for those in charge if they can keep control over the humans, and the poor without any local knowledge or ties are the easiest to use that way. The issue with islam in europe is a fight between the inherited islam mullahs control vs the local european elite control over the poor muslim refugees.
    The lesson though is still the same - Never let yourself be a refugee, Charity *might* exist but it is never enough to be in your best interests, and is certain to come with strings once you are firmly on the hook. I was just re-reading Micheal Z Williams 'Freehold' book and it shows that even the most liberty loving near Randian utopia would have hidden strings for the refugee... I do recommend the book if you like Ayn Rand - Williams wrights a lighter work and more entertaining than rand. https://smile.amazon.com/Freehold-Second-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00HW1TV6O/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1512151642&sr=1-1&keywords=freehold+by+michael+z.+williamson


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    1. Logistics when you have nearly free energy (a requirement for most science fiction) is a lot different than the logistics when you don't. A point against the nearly free energy is made in later books of the freehold series when that energy is used to build bombs etc by terrorists/freedom fighters.
      Energy availability is EVERYTHING- and in fiction it is assumed in many ways- Science fiction especially. Space travel is too slow and expensive without it.

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    2. Over ten years, so I don't remember details. I can't remember what his fantasy energy source was-the main reason I can't stand sci-fi any more. But you are correct, I should have kept the Free Energy assumption in mind.

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    3. Because, in reality all energy ever created has been done for cheap or free. Us monkeys can't predict what might be possible

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    4. Near Free energy starting with fire to cook our food. And we never got past the free part. Fracking Oil isn't free. WE burn a lot of conventional fuel to process it ( got to keep the fleet moving ). Which means it can't ever be a solution. We are moving backwards energy wise, not towards a glorious sci-fi future.

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    5. Yep. Only controlled Fusion or Zero Point energy can possibly bring about the formerly forecast science fiction futures. And the most likely (fusion) is still 15 years out, just like it has been for the past 50+ years. Hey maybe during the coming dark ages some one will get it figured out.

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    6. When you start growing corn in the frozen north for fuel ( at least Brazil has sugar so their program isn't so retarded ), you are so far from fusion it should have any sane person crapping themselves from laughter.

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    7. Hey now! my growing corn here on the frozen plains doesn't mean fusion is a joke - just a forlorn hope. You gotta have at least a sliver of hope.

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    8. The problem is it's a SICK joke at this point. Am I the only one that equates the Fracking Oil with Nazi Germany liquefying coal? We are moving back instead of forward. The hope is, you're the last one in the stew pot. :)

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  2. Regarding Ayn Rand: For all her talk of self-sufficiency/anti-government, etc. didn't she end up relying on Social Security for her source of income?

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    1. Hmm, I had never read that-but then, I find most sources of info on her restricted. I wouldn't be surprised "I earned it, I paid into it" is the mantra.

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    2. If I remember correctly, I believe that her reasoning was that the government was, in effect, a thief for taking Social Security taxes from her without her consent. If they were a thief, she reasoned, then it was not morally objectionable to demand restitution for what was stolen from a free person without their consent.

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    3. Not that she is wrong, but still a bit convoluted getting around a moral stance. You'd figure with her loyalties and perhaps paid talks...perhaps her Boy Toys took all her money.

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  3. First, about that refugees thing, high added-value people like engineers and doctors are in in short supply anywhere, they will find a new home anywhere on this planet. Iraq has been bled dry from this kind of people very early on (talkin' about 1990 / 1991), and they were subsequently high-priority targets for kidnapping and racket, causing more of them to flee.

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  4. I wrote a Rand Rant at 3 AM but scrapped it because it was not good, not even saved it. The thing I wanted to add to the previous post is that Rand is what I call "Sci-Fi with deeper meaning". Rand is actually 1930's-style Sci-Fi, with Flash Gordonesque wonder weapons. Or that Galt Wonder Tommorrowland wouldn't have been an option. (Much less so in the Fountainhead, though).

    I say that because the authors who write like this usually come from a spiritual community like the Jewish / liberal jewish (Asimov, Lem etc.) or have had a spiritual experience (Lovecraft, Vonnegut). In contrast, we can look at Heinlein or Bradbury who are more captivated by the tools themselves than their implications (You might want to counter that on Bradbury, but it is mainly Gear Porn).

    So Rand embraces Capitalism as a new religion, or a new creed, like she would have done with communism. "Everything is better with communism" is the basis for her "everything is better with capitalism" views, in the end capitalism is somewhat like the Jedi Force that gives John Galt his Godlike invention of free electricy.

    US capitalists are on the contrary obsessed with the cool gadgets and the objects in themselves, making them fetishists (Uncle Scrooge is a gold fetishist, for instance) and thus less akin to venture beyond that.

    For this, Rand is more "Russian" or "Jewish-Russian" than "American".

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    1. I do tend to forget her origins insofar as her influences other than communism. 30's style sci-fi. I think you've contributed more to this article than I did. Damn, ya gotta love having minions!

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    2. Glad to be of use , oh Glorious Leader with the Manes that never Wanes.

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  5. The Problem with Ayn Rand Survivalism is that it refuses to acknowledge that the collapse / SHTF is a devolution. Like so many INTJs, they are high added-value people who function well in complex environments, which are well suited to their complex minds.

    In "Atlas Shrugged", Ayn Rand invents a fairy tale country of a secluded, high complexity place, which is essentially INTJ nirvana. Ayn Rand witnessed the dumbing down of Russia between 1914 and the moment she left for the high complexity world of the USA. The main character in Atlas Shrugged even devloved herself to tending a garden (the horror !) before being saved by one of her intelligent-charimsatic-porn-fantasy male protagonists. Fifty Shades of Rearden Steel.

    But collapse is a setting where the objects have increased importance, and the world is more immediate. Intellectuals don't last that long, they're displaced by decisive individuals who can harness a community and lead it through hardship. Ayn Rand hates communities or even families (Hank Rearden's family is a living nightmare even though it appears functional and harmonious on the outside - the modern wife is as accurately described as you'll ever get in litterature)

    In the end, Rand couldn't get a family around her and ended miserably alone. This is why the Yuppie Survivalists plans of having super-secluded bunkers or some sooper sekret hideout-with-good-land-and-a-creek is not going to work.

    The closest you can get to this is by having a latifundia system that harnesses thousands of slaves / peasants. But INTJs typically don't run these kind of places, rather ESTJ and ESFJ types with extended families. For more detail, look into the MBTI types of your local town council. They are already in a resilient survival setup.

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    1. "Fifty Shades of Rearden Steel". Ha! Topical and witty.

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  6. Actually, the antagonists in Ayn Rand books are these ESxJ personalities, and they are very well described as such.

    These types are not the most able to understand technology or complex systems, but they don't want to, since they manage humans instead. Most of the lines that these antagonists say are actually propaganda lines to convince humans to become their slaves (by submitting to "the greater good" or something.

    The ESxJ's job is also to provide the expertise of INTJs to get things running, especially if the world is technological. An ESxJ with INTJs has more power. the INTJ sees that and thinks that since he's critical in making the whole thing run (in Ayn Rand the ESxJs are pictured as idiots) and hates to obey the ESxJ, but the ESxJ has the paycheck...

    (Which is the point that Ayn Rand dreams to counter with her Wonder Tech Money...)

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  7. I see it going down as follows. The moment the bottom falls out, the minorities will instantly loot, pillage, and kill off the white liberal city dwellers (I know, no loss there right?) and suffer from no associated skin tone based guilt in doing so (not being a racist, just a realist). But the minorities will perish soon afterwards, being so completely dependent on government and city structure (when was the last time you came across a black family while camping or backpacking?). I agree that whites will revert back to violence, but it will be the few surviving rural whites that do so. But ultimately, only the most hardy and self sufficient whites will survive the type of collapse that you speak of.

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  8. Isn't that the way of collapses? All the marginal types die off and the toughest survive. Cleanse the gene pool. Sucks for the purged. But I suppose a needed counterpoint to the generations of spoiled stewing in luxury.

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  9. Yes, I’m guilty of stating the obvious at times, but sometimes it just feels good to get it out :D

    Those that purchased land way out off the beaten path will have much better odds of survival. I was going to attempt to predict how many in this country would survive, but it would be a complete guess (less than 1 million perhaps?). The elites already have fortified underground cities to go to, maybe even factories to kick things off again upon resurfacing?

    The survivors will likely look a lot like the Humongous tribe in the road warrior. Now there’s something to look forward to 😲 😀

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  10. "bars are a rather dangerous place to hang your hat." Wiser words have not been said. You are getting extremely good. Another good piece of well written and rational thought. Keep it up.

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    1. The last bar I was in was in Korea, and that was our hangout. After that, even if I had continued drinking I never had the desire to go to another. Just like the movies-the last crowded theatre was the re-release of Star Wars. That was enough excitement from crowds for the rest of my life. I figured I pushed things as it was. Can't imagine what crowds anywhere would be like.

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    2. Speaking of such army Hangouts in Korea...I have a plaque from "Duffy's Tavern" for all the time serving as a regular.A place just outside Camp Humphrey's

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    3. 99.999% of my time there is memory swiped. I don't know how you can remember that stuff :) Course, I do need most of my processing power for End Of World trivia.

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    4. The plaque was awarded for drinking a liter mug of OB beer in 4.8 seconds lol. That and I still have that plaque lol...

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  11. Sometimes stating the obvious is the least welcome conversation topic. For survivors, you could go with the global average of 99.?% die-off, but I think we will suffer a higher rate than most ( along with western Europe? ).

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  12. "Everyone would be dog piling on us..."
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    Good point, that I hadn't considered before.
    Like the bar fight between the shit talkin drunk that thinks he's a bad ass and the not-yet-drunk dood that IS a badass. After the drunk is knocked the fuck out on the floor everyone else comes over and gets a few kicks in just because. Hey, maybe your low level rib kick will knock his wallet across the floor and it's payday for you! heh

    Yeah, when china sends that fleet of rockets across the pacific knocking the US to it's knees russia comes in from the east, and all those muslim sleepers awake. A 3 way free for all and then things start to get REALLY inneresting, open house for all the people US politicians have raped worldwide. The great culling.

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    1. The scenario sounds entirely possible but don't you think the missiles are too dangerous? I know, I'm nit picking. Not just shipping containers at each target, but also much shorter range than ICBM's from coastal huggers. No warning, no trajectory to reveal country of origin. Muslim sleepers first ( they won't do too much good bombing radioactive rubble ) to get us so frazzled we don't know whether to crap or go blind, then nuke attack. Occupation? Could go either way. Is it worth the guerrilla warfare, getting in the middle of civil and race wars?

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    2. I disagree in that with the US not consuming oil there should be enough for other countries to use their Oil Slaves. Not Meat Slaves. I think our country could be ignored and that would help the most ( from their viewpoint ). Think of it as Escape From New York. Leave the inmates to die or not, on their own.

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  13. https://www.amazon.com/Matthew-Bracken/e/B00350B7EU/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_5?qid=1512192766&sr=1-5

    Heads up - Matt is putting his kindle books up for free in the coming week. If I'm reading it right one book a day from Sunday 3rd December to Friday 8th December

    Enemies Foreign & Domestic is a good read then the trilogy descends somewhat but for free what are you whinging about? OK you could whine about your lost time but the 3nd & 3rd books are still good reads, just not as good as the first.

    Prior warning - it's militia porn

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    1. Thanks for the heads up. You can try for free and then see if they are Paper Book Worthy. I think they are as I re-read them. The trilogy is best if read together. I've been waiting to buy his newest one in paper. He's that good I'll gamble the money. Hell, I can't read Stephen King any more ( once you get a co-author it's all over but the crying ), I need to spend the big bucks on others now ( I'm down to about one book purchase a month now, given my budget-so, that should tell you how I value this Bracken's talents ).

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  14. Bracken is easy enough to read, and it's not just gearporn. There are some big ideas for badguys that can be countered with "avoid crowds". The Las Vegas shooting into a crowd causing trampling panic/death is the first scene of Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

    I hope that some real publisher issues an acidfree-archival boxed set, eventually. Microfiche would be okay, too.

    pdxr13

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  15. Get all the books and read them to your 5 year olds. Improve your dramatic skills and speaking voice.

    Kindle v.1 has audio-out and text2speech if you can't.

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    1. I hadn't thought of the parallels between the first book and the LV shooting. The difference being the lack of egress.
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      Really? You want to read to your five year old the male rape scene?

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