"Francisco, what's the most depraved type of human being?"
"The man without a purpose."
- Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged
The tragedy of our
existence is that the world is what we see before us. We have quit,
if we ever really did, asking why and have accepted it as the hand
dealt to us. Fearful of making the wrong decision we instead choose
to blame a force beyond our individual ability to overcome. We glibly
attribute the failures of the world to frailties inbred in human
nature, hiding from our own responsibility. A responsibility that
rests with the individual not the collective, for in reality the
collective is nothing more than an opiate for the misery that comes
from a lack of purpose. It is an illusion that allows the individual
to avoid the maddening and frightening details of life and become the
cog that never has to ask why. It allows one to throw their hands up
and ask "Who is John Galt?".
We have built a world of interconnections that strips away
individuality and individual responsibility, replacing it with a system
which is erroneously heralded for the greater good of the collective.
The individual is ridiculed and
belittled as a relic of a bygone era, a vulgar testament to greed and
avarice which threatens the whole. We have accepted the false notion
that the financial crisis we face today is the proof of the failure of
free market principles, when in reality our financial system is
anything but free market in nature. The free market has been entwined
in a fatal embrace with government for so long that one can hardly see
where one begins and the other ends. Industry leaders move in and out
of government posts with regularity and ease. Politicians are seen as
gatekeepers to the free market, choosing the winners and losers and
extinguishing the purifying fire of failure. Competence and ability
have been weeded out with ruthless abandon, protecting only those with
connections to the political system. When we do not allow failure to
be rewarded with destruction how can we expect anything but more
failure? The idea that government and collectivism can save us is the
antithesis of what we see laid out before us today.
People are
searching for a messiah that cannot come from the failures of socialism
or communism, but must instead come from the success or failure of each
individual. The discovery of a purpose and the burning desire to see
that goal transformed into reality is the engine for the betterment of
the world. The constant purging of failure clears the way for those
with the combination of vision and ability to move forward.
We must fight the urge to protect failed ideas, for to
reward failed ideas is the height of immorality and irresponsibility.
Incompetent people, who have sought the easy path in a market
controlled and operated by a parasitic political class, are using fear
to drive people to the acceptance of this immoral and irresponsible
protectionism. Vision, ability, and drive are in short supply, all to
often overwhelmed by a glut of resignation and hope. Hope is an
emotion for people who suffer from the scourge of weakness and a lack
of ability. Hope is nothing more than vision without ability to
execute. People invested in products they did not understand in the
hopes of unrealistic gains. Gains not from investment in hard work or
the creation of industry, but in the creation of mountains of paper and
debt. Politicians want us to accept the immoral transfer of wealth
from future generations to prop up a rigged market that has proven
itself incapable because it suits their needs, not because it is in the
best interest of the greater good they claim to serve. The same
people who claim these bank bailouts are necessary to protect the
people are very ones benefiting the most from the bailout. They have
failed in every possible way, lacking any purpose other than the
accumulation of money without the production of value in exchange. Now
we are told that we must protect them to protect the market and the
welfare of the people, which is nothing more than the foolishness of
fools.
But perhaps it is already to late to put an end to
this terrifying conflagration which we now face. Is the world so
corrupt and overrun by the weeds of collectivism as to render useless
the drive and vision of the individual? It could be that the best
course of action is the protection of our individual resources to await
the collapse the idiots have engineered. Social order among a
collective is such a delicate and fragile thing, always in danger of
being shattered by failure when failure is not allowed. It breeds an
environment where the delivery of the individual's basic needs is in
the hands of government bureaucrats. In the end, such a government
must develop a police state infrastructure to protect against a failure
to provide those needs. Which is where we find ourselves today, as the
United States slides down that very horrible path. We now have a
political system where legislators vote on legislation that they have
not even had the chance to read, let alone contemplate or debate.
Legislators who ignore the will of the people, making decisions based
entirely upon the fearful predictions espoused by market participants,
who claim they are too big to fail without apocalyptic consequences.
Of course, they have grown so big in an environment where they control
the government manipulation of a market that was supposed to be free
and open. I have come to the sad conclusion that our country is
likely too far gone to be saved by the individualism that fueled its
creation, there is no longer a strong enough belief in those
principles to allow a republic to operate. We are a nation that is
looking for a messiah to provide for us rather than looking to
ourselves for that salvation. The incompetent attack the successful
through market manipulation rather than real unfettered competition,
which undermines the health of the republic.
The time has come where investment must be in the
instruments of production of the necessities of individual survival
with the goal of weathering the coming storm. A storm which could of
rip the very fabric of this republic to shreds. I will not allow fear
to be an excuse for my own failure. I will not allow hope to idle me
from action to provide for my own well being.
