Libertarian ‘Utopia’ Styled After Ayn Rand Book Spectacularly Falls Apart Almost Immediately

[TheCount]

And to be Randian is should have been undisclosed and invite only for people who had really turned their back on the western 'system'. Not a retirement village.

It's way more profitable to fleece old rich people.

 

[idiom]

It's way more profitable to fleece old rich people.

Those who went Galt turned up empty handed. They burnt their enterprises to the ground and turned their back on everything they had built to sustain the leeches. This whole project was nothing of the sort.

 

[TheCount]

Those who went Galt turned up empty handed. They burnt their enterprises to the ground and turned their back on everything they had built to sustain the leeches.

They were raptured to Randian heaven by their messiah, where they will live in objectivist utopia whilst avoiding the tribulations of the mere mortals back on Earth.

 

[Lucille]

Yuk yuk yuk. Isn't The Count just so hysterical.

Wendy McElroy: Aftermath of the GGC Firestorm
http://www.thedailybell.com/exclusi...Wendy-McElroy-Aftermath-of-the-GGC-Firestorm/

Daily Bell: What have been some of the outcomes of that editorial?

Wendy McElroy: It set off a firestorm, and I address that in another answer. One salutary outcome: The publicity seems to have cut off the funding of GGC from new buyers or investors. Four people have told me they had been on the verge of writing a check before seeing my article. They thanked me – one thanked me profusely – for hoisting a red flag. It is important to remember that the buyers are often average people who invest their life's savings in a dream of retirement. When that dream bursts, the consequences can be catastrophic. One couple has broken up and no longer speak to each other. One man now lives in his car with his partner and a young child. Saddest of all is a wonderful woman who died last week; I believe the stress of GGC hastened her demise. I should interject right now that Brad and I are fine on all fronts. But this has been a financial blow; it has been an emotional blow as well.

The best result of the Daily Bell editorial? Until the words were spoken aloud, there could be no healing, no progress toward a solution.
[...]
Daily Bell: Some of the response was harsh, indeed. What about the reactions of those who seemed to take pleasure in the difficulties because it is a problem being experienced in the libertarian community? Were you surprised at the anti-libertarian backlash in the feedback and the press?

Wendy McElroy: Yes, I was, and I should not have been. One of the indications to myself that I'd run out of perspective on GGC was that I was surprised at the viciousness of leftist posters toward me. After all, I'm a human being who has done them no harm. But I had no business being taken aback. I've dealt with gender feminists for years; they literally despise and sometimes go to great lengths to harm women who disagree with them. Heretics are hated more than infidels. In my youth, I spent quite a bit of time around Marxists whom I believe would not have hesitated to line people like me up against a wall and shoot them. And, then, there are the global warming zealots whose idea of communication is a death threat. I don't know whether defending a house-of-cards ideology turns people vicious or merely attracts the already vicious.
[...]
Daily Bell: Can you summarize the cites the article received away from The Daily Bell? It attracted considerable attention. Why do you think the article received such wide play?

Wendy McElroy: The most balanced coverage to date was in the popular independent 'zine Vice, which cleaved closely to the facts without editorializing. By the way, the National Post is supposed to have a story on GGC this weekend or shortly thereafter. And the main figures in the GGC saga have been interviewed for an upcoming article in Newsweek.

There are various reasons for the stir.

One is because the name Galt's Gulch raises the specter of Ayn Rand whom many liberals are eager to bash. They point to GGC as a sign that her capitalist ideology is drek and her followers are fools. This is evident from the headlines used by liberal sources. For example, Salon declared, "Ayn Rand's capitalist paradise lost: The inside story of a libertarian scam." The Gawker stated, "Ayn Rand's Capitalist Paradise Is Now a Greedy Land-Grabbing Shitstorm." Addicting Info announced, "Libertarian 'Utopia' Styled After Ayn Rand Book Spectacularly Falls Apart Almost Immediately." The Daily Kos was more restrained with the headline, "Galt's Gulch Chile: The Libertarian Oasis." But the opening sentence belied the restraint, "The Real Manly Men (and even more Manly Women) of Libertarian Genius decided a couple years ago to flee the socialist Hellhole of the United States and create Galt's Gulch..." I could go on and on citing liberal coverage, especially if blogs are included.
[...]
Daily Bell: Why do you think there's so much anger, much of it ignorant, regarding libertarianism? The hostility was striking. Why do so many people seem to have trouble with libertarian approaches generally?

Wendy McElroy: I believe the rise in the level of hostility is due to the increased popularity of libertarianism. We are now perceived as a real political threat. One of my favorite quotes from Mahatma Gandhi is, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Right now libertarianism is in fighting stage, the one that comes before winning.

 

[willwash]

Those who went Galt turned up empty handed

Except for the big pot o' gold Ragnar Danneskjold had waiting for them all at the Gulch!

 

[Tod]

Trying to set up something like this in a foreign country with a foreign language and foreign laws and foreign customs makes it that much more difficult to accomplish. At least here in the States most people are relatively familiar with how things work and what sorts of laws they have to deal with.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Geeze, what did they expect, a frickin' miracle. So AN example of Ayn's solution didn't work out as hoped, does that invalidate her problem observations and analyses?

I'm not an objectivist, but I can clearly recognize that this place was nothing like Galt's Gulch. They couldn't own the property because of the presence of a tree? No, this was all scam from the moment the properties were vested. There never was an objectivist society here in the first place to even try and live or die. It was just a pyramid scheme with Objectivist language glued on to the exterior.

Now I am not an Objectivist, but the above written events say absolutely nothing about the success or failure of a potential objectivist society, it just describes the effects of a scammer, scamming a bunch of objectivists.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

http://www.vice.com/read/atlas-mugged-922-v21n10

ATLAS MUGGED: HOW A LIBERTARIAN PARADISE IN CHILE FELL APART

 

[TheCount]

I'm not an objectivist, but I can clearly recognize that this place was nothing like Galt's Gulch.

Yes.

For one, the people buying in were (mostly) consumers, not producers. They were (mostly) retired, had quite a lot of money by Chilean standards, and thought they could just roll in there and build their version of America in a foreign country. Absolutely nothing in common with Galt's Gulch.

 

[Lucille]

Man, this guy...

http://wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.6678

I said I would make a statement about the highly controversial Jeff Berwick video that emerged over the Labor Day weekend. (For original source on the controversy, click here: Mark Nestmann "Passport Scammer Exposed in Secret Video" on Lew Rockwell. Original video source, click here.) I was prompted to write this post by several queries from friends...and some of them from friends who have more than a passing interest in the matter. I do not have a great deal to say but, what there is, I will state simply, and take no pleasure in doing so.

I don't know anything that is not already public about the Mexican passport business conducted by Jeff because my involvement with him was 1) as a private investor in Galt's Gulch Chile where I expected to move, and 2) a political commentator on his site the Dollar Vigilante from 2013 - 2014. I had/have no connection to his business ventures and so I had/have no inside knowledge. Sorry. I know there was legal trouble with the issuance of fraudulent passports in Paraguay which led to arrest of an agent there, who is/was said to be working for Jeff, among others. In short, the woman was arrested for running a scam. (This item provides links to the original news sources, which may require Google translate.)

My husband and I lost a lot of money on Galt's Gulch Chile. Whether or not the dream of community can be recovered...people are still working on it (believe it or not) but Jeff isn't involved. One friend asked if I had requested a refund from Jeff. Yes, I did. No, he didn't.

Several months ago, I asked Jeff to remove my name from the Dollar Vigilante site, except for the political commentaries I'd published there. He paid me a flat fee for them and that's a contract. Moreover, I'm not much into altering documents, sites, etc. in the quest of revisionism. My reason for backing away from TDV was not connected to passports. Jeff had publicly announced his intention to run for public office under the umbrella of the Libertarian Party of Canada and I didn't want to associate with a site that might serve as a trumpet for an aspiring politician...even if the campaign was a publicity stunt. I told Jeff as much and I might well have written for the site again once the election madness had passed.

I understand many people have lost money on the Mexican passport packages, which sold for $25,000 each and promised to deliver a passport in record time -- a record time that could not reflect a legal process. (Here is a commentary people should read before considering the 'purchase' of a "second passport.")

This is a sad situation, at best. I am pleased to be out of the 'drama zone' and I happily return to polishing my new book.

 

[Keith and stuff]

Pretty silly stuff. America is the closest thing to America. Then Canada. Then Mexico. Then some island with lots of English speakers. If you are looking for no state income tax, no general sales tax, and no property taxes on property you own, you can find that in the isolated bush of Alaska or very rural New Hampshire. If you want a large liberty community, Manchester, NH is your best bet. If you want a few acres with very low property taxes to grow all of your own food, check out rural Alabama.

The truth is, what people were looking for in South America is generally already here, in the US. On the other hand, if people were trying to escape the US government, South America won't help. Seek China or Russia for that.

 

[Traditionalist]

Yeah moving to the third & second world isn't really the best strategy for any political movement. Vermont & New Hampshire seem like much more tempting places for any Anarchist or Libertarian of any variety to migrate.

 

[Ronin Truth]

Rand was anti libertarian.

 

[angelatc]

The Libertarian movement has always had this fringe element - people who existed just for the purpose of trying to cash in. It is sometimes hard to tell the difference between them, people with good hearts but bad ideas, and people who are making an honest living off spreading the message. Sigh.

 

[Lucille]

Update:

Hi all:

I was hoping not to revisit this unpleasant subject but I have received an email that offers two corrections to my post of yesterday. The first 'correction' is not one I take seriously. It is that Brad and I are not "investors" in GGC but merely people who contracted re: land. Technically, the word "investor" may be inaccurate because I know there were different levels of people who bought in: buyers, investors, founders, etc. But I use the word "investor" -- then and now -- in a casual non-legal sense, and I describe all of us GGCers by that label. Certainly, we invested our emotions and hopes in the community. Hell, we were willing to invest our futures, with some people planning to raise small children there. But, to be absolutely clear, in case it matters to someone, we never expected a return on the orchards, etc., as did those who can technically call themselves investors.

I take the second correction seriously without necessarily agreeing with it. Namely, the Paraguay passport agent who was arrested in 2014 is said to be not guilty of fraud but, instead, to be the victim of a set-up. I offered some links to local news sources in the original post and I offer another link here, which has good general advice to those with the fortitude to still be interested in second passports. I am pleased to let the subject drop like a rock right now.

Brad and I have a private phrase we repeat to each other whenever outside drama or bad news threatens to distract us -- "not our problem." If the lady is falsely accused, then I'm sorry to hear it. If she is guilty of defrauding people, then I'm sorry to hear it. But, most of all..."not our problem." In fairness, however, I report a voice in defense of the lady as well as the news stories on her arrest.

 

[Ronin Truth]

A) I recall no "utopian libertarian" guarantees, in 'Atlas Shrugged'.

B) It's a frickin' novel. DUH!

 

[kfarnan]

Latin America looks a lot more appealing.

 

[kfarnan]

The U.S. gov has no jurisdiction in latin america.

 

[TheTexan]

The U.S. gov has no jurisdiction in latin america.

The US gov has jurisdiction everywhere, the world belongs to us.

For the most part.

 

[Keith and stuff]

The U.S. gov has no jurisdiction in latin america.

This claim makes more sense than what some Seasteaders say. Still, it doesn't hold up. The US has lots of agreements with Latin American countries. The reality is that all of Latin America is controlled by the U.S. government to the extent that the U.S. government wants to control it.