Monday, June 26, 2006

Best, but far from ideal

OK, clearly, I'm not disciplined enough to keep a blog of full-fledged stories going. Then again, I do, have a fulltime job (that requires way more than 40 hours a week), and a family (to which I'm grateful for continuing to put up with my bullshit).
So, I've decided to flog some of my random thoughts (as I originally intended) out there, and see what develops.

Here's one that has been stewing on the backburner (now brace yourself, as you'll undoubtedly recognize the decaying smell of heresy): the unbridled capitalism, much like the lofty ideal of communism, or any other "pure" political system doesn't work. It doesn't work for the same reasons, too. It's the people who are the clogs of this beautifully conceived (and in fairness, best-executed) system. And people tend to fall short of the ideal. Even the best among us. Rand however, makes no provisions for such developments. Her heroes never stumble, her villains are barely human, and the weather forecasters are always right. Her heroes' austere adherence to The Ideal is inspiring alright. But it's the inspiration, whose ugly cousin used to move a son to betray his father in pursuit of the collectivist ideal. Surely, not what she had in mind.

Specifically, Rand assumes that it is the unadulterated pursuit of his/her creative expression that moves the Capitalist. And those who're hounding the money without realizing its essence will fall away on their own, taken care by the inevitably just hand of the free commerce. The reality however, can be seen on the daily news. The nauseating, Kozlowski-style excesses, Lay / Skillings claimed ignorance while bloating fat with money siphoned away from the consumers, and the list goes on and on. "The fact that the list goes on and on, is the proof that the system works! They lied, stole, cheated, pledged allegiance to Marx's ghost, and they got what they deserved!" a true Randian would say. But that's as naïve as to say that there are no crooks in the society. All the crooks are behind the bars. No, the truth of it is - a good number, perhaps even the majority of those who propel our society on its rightful pursuit of wealth, and "self-making" are not seeking the nirvana of self-realization, but a much more prosaic goal - the security and freedom that only large amounts of money can afford. Not all! Luckily, and thankfully, not all.
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This is a somewhat uncharacteristic thought for me, since I'm generally a very enthusiastic supporter of Rand. But as I think of a society that would be based strictly on Rand's principles of laissez-fair capitalism and Natural Law, I don't see a place that would be much more desirable than the quagmire of communism or the tyranny of a benevolent dictator.

Tell me how I'm (hopefully) wrong.