Fred,

... the term "S"ociety knows no bounds at all. It is why it is so often appealed to by individuals speaking for it to borrow an imagined authority for their political opinions.

There is an important lesson in that. To argue for their need to be in control, to tell us what to do, and to take our stuff, the Progressives need to find (in this case, make up) some moral high ground. Hence the creation "S"ociety.  Each of the different "controllers" - be they from religion or politics - do the same thing. They find (or create out of whole cloth) a moral imperative to use to disarm their victims.  "For the Aryan nation and the good of the volk," or "for those according to their need, from those according to their ability", or "the most good for the most people," or "save the desert tortoise and planet earth," or  "to help the poor and needy," etc.

And in each case it is the disarming of the individual as someone having moral worth of his own. "You? Of what importance are you in the face of societies needs, or the survival of planet earth, the starving thousands in poor nations?" They all need to do that before they start reaching into your pocket. Clearly that is why Rand generated such extreme reactions from the far right and left.  

(And remember the extreme reaction Eva(?) had with your rape example?  She was clearly horrified at the way the morality was highlighted so brightly as to be unavoidable - leaving no room to nuance around, or attack with weasely pragmatic responses, or trump with a weaker, made-up moral stance.)

Fred,

Yep!  What they are selling is a handful of nothing wrapped in empty cliches, and what they are getting is your sovereignty.  

"Gimme your money."

"Why, should I give you anything?"

"Because I'm the moral authority - I stand on a moral soap box that is taller than yours.  Your money really belongs to 'S'ociety:  Remember, 'you didn't build it' and 'all property is just theft,' and the only rights are those the majority have enacted for the needy.   I could use straight force, but it's inefficient to have to hire herds and herds of overseers equipped with whips - span of supervision is a bitch, it takes like one supervisor per every 10 to 15 subjects - so instead I just use the moral authority to define anyone who resists my control a criminal - that way you have to enslave yourself to be free ('to serve the greater good' and eliminate 'income inequality,' and save desert tortoises and such).  Now, hand over the money."

Vera,

...that's what we all do each and every day: give in to that moral soapbox

I don't.  I know that moral soapbox is phony.  I only give in to force and only when it is in my self-interest to avoid being jailed.

And what Ayn Rand gave us was a better moral soapbox of our own - rational, moral individualism.
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...individualism goes out the window when taxes are due, regulations need to be followed...

Nope.  People can be forced to pay taxes and obey regulations, but if they understand that the goverment's moral soapbox is phoney and individualism is right, they then have a power they didn't before.  It's true that it will take many to overturn the collectivists, but without a moral foundation there are no numbers great enough.

And even if I'm alone in being forced to pay up, I don't carry any guilt for wanting to keep my own money. It is worth a lot to know that what is mine is mine by right, even if I'm forced to give it up.

Joan of Arc possessed a certain definition of rights, even as she was burned at the stake by the Tribe.

But she was burned at the stake.  It is what the Tribe does, because it can.

The Tribe is the biggest slobbering beast in the Jungle.   Force does what force can.   And yet somehow, Man has dealt with most beasts in the Jungle, even much more powerful beasts.   If not dealt with, at least managed.  Kept at bay.

One more to deal with.   The biggest slobbering beast in the Jungle.    The Tribe.

Some court the beast.  Think they can ride it somewhere.   It will eventually eat them.  

regards,

Fred

I've lived in the cracks and crevices of commerce for years.   I did business all over the world.   Sometimes I made money, sometimes it was a complete cluster fuck.   

Without exception, the instances where things went well were when collaborating with others(and there are alot, I learned, all over the world)who were organized just like me; no employees.   Capable, motivated, self-interested people, working for themselves, collaborating with others.

Without exception, the cluster fucks involved some group effort collection of dead wood, hanging on, winging it.   The clingers to "it's not what you know, it's who you know."   The folks hanging in the cut, riding other's backs, winging it, hoping that life was going to be the endless Thirteenth Grade and would always be graded on the local curve.    Believe me, they absolutely flock to government(currently so desperate to keep the gig flying that they are printing money by endlessly and boundlessly creating debt that will never be paid back..)

The more people understand this boundary condition of life in the Tribe, the better for its intended victims, the worse for its practicing perps. 

It's intended victims do not need to be told this.  There is no 'campaign' involved.    It becomes obvious very early in their career, as long as they open their eyes.

And so, our modern economies of waiting, brought to us by long term tribal trends.

Yellen, the new head of the FED, will fix them.   Any year now.

Take out a dollar bill.   It is your IOU that you accepted for value offered.    It exists in an economic system that you and I trust to maintain the integrity of that IOU.   How would you feel if you accepted that IOU and then found out it was worth only a tiny fraction of the value you offered in return? You would have been swindled in the exchange.

Now, a swindler might do this by lowering the value a lot, all of the sudden,  to just you, or a swindler might do this by doing it a very little bit to as many people as possible; the outcome is the same.   And if you simply waited enough time, alot even to just you.

So track the value of that dollar over the course of the last hundred years.    It is worth more numismically than it is monetarily.   Who swindled the value of the IOU once accepted for value?

There is the only objective evidence you need that a massive tribal swindle of value is occurring on a constant, chronic basis.      So go out into those economies and offer actual value; in return, you will receive an IOU that, if you spend it soon enough, will only swindle you a little bit for your value offered.   And if you are very lucky, you will receive an IOU from someone who actually once created value in the economies in exchange for the IOU they hand to you, as opposed to get close to the secretary printing the Zeros on the never to be repaid bonds(except via future secretaties prining yet more Zeros on bonds...)

They are going to reshuffle away from GDP to something more agregate and inclusive, so that they can report bigger numbers and larger % swings.   Try not to notice.   When and if it ever becomes more percepion advantageous to report numbers that the algebra deprived will find more palatable, expect a new story to unfold.  But for now, the leveraging of the circulation of those Zeros going nowhere and creating nothing needs to be taken advantage of.

regards,

Fred

Vera:

And, you didn't need any campaign, or 'organizing' to move in that direction, did you?   It is a natural and spontaneous response to ... tribal insanity and ugly political trends.

And has been, for long before I was born.

regards,

Fred

Vera:

I did not so much navigate to a response, as I did meander to a response.   I wish I'd been smart enough to navigate at such a young age. 

But I think that meandering is a natural response to tribal insanity.  I think it happens often enough. (At least for the meanderers.)

I don't think it requires an active movement.  It just happens.  Rand's ideas were flavoring, not the cause of my response, and not even a catalyst.   I read her, as an admirer, more as being an accurate observer of human behavior, not an accurate prophet of human behavior or even, the future.  

It doesn't need to happen often, or most often.  It needs to happen often enough-- for those it happens to.

regards,

Fred