| | We used to joke about Objectivist island ideas, as they were much more popular even ten years ago. The imaginary island goes something like this:
1000 Objectivists move to an island. Mostly these are the poor Objectivists who claim to have shrugged before they ever accomplished anything. They are the ones who don't mind leaving their life behind because there was nothing to leave behind. They go there imagining all of the luxuries of the modern world, from wall-mart, to Amazon. They expect to work in the field of software, but they'll settle for janitorial work. They don't care much, because they're sure the island will quickly become the most advanced nation on the planet.
Everyone shows up, and realizes they not only have no food, but nobody knows the first thing about farming. They all assumed someone else would take care of that sort of thing so they could focus on the world of ideas!
They begin to starve. They try to order some food online, but nobody delivers to Objectivist Island. Who would have imagined it would be so hard to get food on a remote island? Everyone is so hungry.
There's only one Objectivist woman on the island. The 999 males each claim to be her John Galt, and spend days debating with her over whether it would be morally permissible for her to not sleep with them. When she firmly says no, they stomp off complaining that she's not really Dagny Taggart after all, and who let such a whim-worshipper onto their island? They think they beat her in the argument and it was just petty of her not to admit it. And to top it off, they're feeling weak from hunger!
The killing starts over a minor disagreement on the nature of concept formation. When a few of the saner people decide they have to arrest the killer, debate begins over whether anarcho-capitalism would work and whether if the killer decides to opt-out of the system, whether anyone can actually punish him. The killer sneaks away while the debate continues. Nobody ever notices.
The group starts splintering along ideological lines. Each breaks off in an attempt to make their own utopian nation. The splinter groups re-splinter as people find new areas of disagreement. Soon almost everyone has excommunicated everyone else, and they refuse to speak to the others for fear of sanctioning evil. The starvation continues. The skinny ones start dying off.
Widespread violence begins when each person decides that everyone else is irrational, and you can't deal with irrational men through persuasion. They fight for every scrap of food. The few people who are still on speaking terms debate whether the others have actually forfeited their rights by abdicating reason. When they can't agree, they splinter as well, infuriated by the irrationality of the others. Everyone is so very hungry!
Cannibalism soon breaks out. Crazed Objectivists run naked through the woods mumbling "Emergency situations! It's a life boat scenario! I can do anything I want!".
Finally the rest of the world finds out the horror of Objectivist Island. It had only been three weeks, and the ground is littered with corpses. A few survivors are picked up and taken away from the nightmare world. When asked if they had anything to share about the experience, each says "Well....I guess I was wrong. Objectivism just doesn't work in practice".
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