Taking Things Literally

One of the reasons that most of my writing isn't deliberately set in the science fiction or fantasy genre is that I do hope that the insights that people get from reading my works can be translated into their real lives, rather than being interpreted as "allegorical". I mean, if a hero in a fantasy slays a dragon, sometimes that is just translated into real life as standing up to our fears and conquering our anxiety. But when I say "Go slay a dragon!" I don't mean that. I really do want that tyranny toppled.

Well, that was probably as clear as mud. So I'll try to say it a different way. I once met a man who lived in a hole in the ground, but he wasn't trying to be a Hobbit. He wanted to be like John Galt. And when all the other good little Objectivists heard about it, they laughed. Because to them, Atlas Shrugged was just an allegory.

The truth is that I myself am far less of a hero than I would like to be. I do pay my taxes, local, state and Federal. But I wait for the day when the dream of liberty can become a reality.

In order to bring that about, we need to recognize than none of us is as pure as the man who lived in the hole in the ground. We can't go attacking parents for sending children to public school and teachers for working at public schools, while doing nothing to repeal the school district. One LP officer told people that they should not have children if they are going to send them to public school. But did you know that if the school district and its taxes are not repealed, then home owners would still have to pay taxes to educate non-existent children, and to pay non-existent teachers? Like the Catholic Church in a world where all mankind has died out, according to Ted Sesame in Our Lady of Kaifeng: Courtyard of the Happy Way, the School District will exist even in a world without children.

So instead of telling people not to have children, wouldn't it be better to repeal the taxes? Slay the dragon. Leave the virgins alone.

Yaron Brook, Ayn Rand and the Virtue of Selfishness

Mars, courtesy of  NASA, a government agency

Last night I watched a video of Yaron Brook expounding on Objectivism in Tokyo, It was very interesting to me in a number of ways, which I will discuss in greater detail after you watch the video with me.

One of the things Yaron Brook pointed out is that due to government intervention, we have not had a real technological breakthrough in ages. Yes, there is Silicon Valley and innovations come from there all the time, but the scope of the innovation is very limited, and we still use the same mode of transportation that was developed at the turn of the twentieth century: cars, trains and airplanes. Why haven't we colonized Mars yet?

It is not clear to me that laissez faire would necessarily drive us to colonize Mars. I think we will only do it if we lose all our freedom here on earth. Freedom is not just freedom to innovate. Freedom is also about being allowed to maintain our lifestyle intact. Many people want that much more than they want to go to outer space.

If we do end up colonizing Mars, it is more likely to happen because we will have lost all our freedom here on earth and we will be desperately looking for a way out.

Freedom is a value in its own right. Technological advancement is not the justification for freedom -- nor is it the only thing that freedom is good for.