John Galt is right.
Aug. 26th, 2026 07:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cz_unitAtlas Shrugged is a shit novel overall, the concept that rich people would actually make the world better is a joke beyond measure. And yeah Rand sucked the cock of Capitalism to the point where one is left to wonder who will unclog the toilets in Galt's Gulch.
Still, there is a good message in there, one that I guess she got from living under Stalin:
Never give sanction, comfort, or your abilities to people who wish to destroy you.
Basically "cooperate with people who cooperate with you, defect on people who defect on you. But it goes a bit deeper, don't play the game with pepople who would destroy you.
And that's... an interesting take. I wonder in Nazi Germany how many people worked to forward the goals of the Reich because "politics should not get in the way of their investments" or "a job is a job". They got to enjoy authbahns, vacations, all sorts of little things provided by the damn evil state, and as the war wore on they got to experience things like "living with a roof over their head" courtesy of that same state.
Don't give sanction, comfort, or your abilities to people who wish to destroy you.
Do your job, do your duty, it's not your fault, you were just a tiny cog in the machine. Yep, and you were a part of the machine. You are a part of the machine.
They say now that you should never invest based on "politics", that your investments and economic well being should not involve the political views of your employer or peers. That it's not a values thing to stay alive, thrive, profit.
I disagree. I think one's work and where one invests is the highest possible expression of one's true values. What they would call in business "operating" values. Complanies put out "values" statements all the time, they are on the web site, it's in the employment packet, pile of words.
The thing to look at is what are the operating values. What are the measures of success? Too often it is simple: Profit at all costs. And if they grind you up, fuck you over, abandon your family it's an example of their true "operating values" at work.
There is a line that always stuck with me. It's set at a ballroom reception of rich people when one of the heroes (a degenerate playboy) asks the moral and upstanding businessman "Who is the gulitiest person in the room". The implication is that it's the greedy and shifty railroad owner.
"No Mr Rearden, he is not the guiltiest."
Truth was it was the moral businessman who contributes to the system and makes all of the evil possible. Evil can't survive on its own; any society built on evil will degenerate into everyone back stabbing each other to death, climbing on a pile of corpses to get to the top of.... well a pile of corpses.
Evil needs good to prosper. Good people are the source of energy, inspiration, the lifeblood of the world. And when good people work with good people amazing things happen. But evil endures by screwing over good people, taking their productivity and destroying it as fuel to spread more evil.
Look at the US: We are now in the process of destroying everything that is good so a bunch of religious grifters can buy more yachts. Destroying companies so billionaires can get yet more "money". Fucking people with health care so shareholders can extract max value. Any company that tries to do things right is "not profitable enough" and is bought out to "extract maximum sharehodler value". Which means enshittfication with profit taking all the way for.... what? Making the world better? Educating people? Or putting another counter in some rich person's already huge pile?
So I sit on the train and look at the people trying to make a difference, trying to do their jobs while more and more of the looters and rotters "join" the government and get paid to be incompetent.
The problem isn't bad money (people, values, etc) drives out the good. It's that good stays around with bad because good believes it will get better if they just "work a little harder" How many people stick around on X thinking they can "make it better?" How many people stay with a Church that's raping kids because if they leave it will just "get worse"?
How many people stay in the government thinking "Well if I leave a less moral person will take my place" not realizing that the less moral DEPEND ON THEIR STAYING AND ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING THEY CAN THEN MINE FOR "VALUE"?
"Who is the guiltiest person in the room?"
This is why I have quit every job in my life that has gone "evil". Sometimes people wonder about that, why did CZ leave xxx when he could have stayed and doubled his salary?
Because I would have been supporting evil.
This is why I have moved a lifetime's worth of retirement savings from US investments to ones in the EU and Australia (and now Canada). Why is CZ forgoing all of these GREAT RETURNS?
And this is why CZ has completely halted any assistance for and cooperating with the Federal Government. No more advice on catching "bad" people, no more lunches, no more assistance for those still working there.
Who is the guiltiest person in the room? It's the good person who permits evil to exist. Who tries to work with it, appease it, say the words "Well it's not a deal-breaker"
Now comes the final question: Do I quit my job and just check out completely? Well, I do good work for good people that makes the world a better place. Always have tried to do that. But what if I am not? And if I still am, at what point is it corrupted to the point where I just need to....
walk away?
Who is the guiltiest person in the room?
Still, there is a good message in there, one that I guess she got from living under Stalin:
Never give sanction, comfort, or your abilities to people who wish to destroy you.
Basically "cooperate with people who cooperate with you, defect on people who defect on you. But it goes a bit deeper, don't play the game with pepople who would destroy you.
And that's... an interesting take. I wonder in Nazi Germany how many people worked to forward the goals of the Reich because "politics should not get in the way of their investments" or "a job is a job". They got to enjoy authbahns, vacations, all sorts of little things provided by the damn evil state, and as the war wore on they got to experience things like "living with a roof over their head" courtesy of that same state.
Don't give sanction, comfort, or your abilities to people who wish to destroy you.
Do your job, do your duty, it's not your fault, you were just a tiny cog in the machine. Yep, and you were a part of the machine. You are a part of the machine.
They say now that you should never invest based on "politics", that your investments and economic well being should not involve the political views of your employer or peers. That it's not a values thing to stay alive, thrive, profit.
I disagree. I think one's work and where one invests is the highest possible expression of one's true values. What they would call in business "operating" values. Complanies put out "values" statements all the time, they are on the web site, it's in the employment packet, pile of words.
The thing to look at is what are the operating values. What are the measures of success? Too often it is simple: Profit at all costs. And if they grind you up, fuck you over, abandon your family it's an example of their true "operating values" at work.
There is a line that always stuck with me. It's set at a ballroom reception of rich people when one of the heroes (a degenerate playboy) asks the moral and upstanding businessman "Who is the gulitiest person in the room". The implication is that it's the greedy and shifty railroad owner.
"No Mr Rearden, he is not the guiltiest."
Truth was it was the moral businessman who contributes to the system and makes all of the evil possible. Evil can't survive on its own; any society built on evil will degenerate into everyone back stabbing each other to death, climbing on a pile of corpses to get to the top of.... well a pile of corpses.
Evil needs good to prosper. Good people are the source of energy, inspiration, the lifeblood of the world. And when good people work with good people amazing things happen. But evil endures by screwing over good people, taking their productivity and destroying it as fuel to spread more evil.
Look at the US: We are now in the process of destroying everything that is good so a bunch of religious grifters can buy more yachts. Destroying companies so billionaires can get yet more "money". Fucking people with health care so shareholders can extract max value. Any company that tries to do things right is "not profitable enough" and is bought out to "extract maximum sharehodler value". Which means enshittfication with profit taking all the way for.... what? Making the world better? Educating people? Or putting another counter in some rich person's already huge pile?
So I sit on the train and look at the people trying to make a difference, trying to do their jobs while more and more of the looters and rotters "join" the government and get paid to be incompetent.
The problem isn't bad money (people, values, etc) drives out the good. It's that good stays around with bad because good believes it will get better if they just "work a little harder" How many people stick around on X thinking they can "make it better?" How many people stay with a Church that's raping kids because if they leave it will just "get worse"?
How many people stay in the government thinking "Well if I leave a less moral person will take my place" not realizing that the less moral DEPEND ON THEIR STAYING AND ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING THEY CAN THEN MINE FOR "VALUE"?
"Who is the guiltiest person in the room?"
This is why I have quit every job in my life that has gone "evil". Sometimes people wonder about that, why did CZ leave xxx when he could have stayed and doubled his salary?
Because I would have been supporting evil.
This is why I have moved a lifetime's worth of retirement savings from US investments to ones in the EU and Australia (and now Canada). Why is CZ forgoing all of these GREAT RETURNS?
And this is why CZ has completely halted any assistance for and cooperating with the Federal Government. No more advice on catching "bad" people, no more lunches, no more assistance for those still working there.
Who is the guiltiest person in the room? It's the good person who permits evil to exist. Who tries to work with it, appease it, say the words "Well it's not a deal-breaker"
Now comes the final question: Do I quit my job and just check out completely? Well, I do good work for good people that makes the world a better place. Always have tried to do that. But what if I am not? And if I still am, at what point is it corrupted to the point where I just need to....
walk away?
Who is the guiltiest person in the room?
Well Dolly's dead....
Aug. 26th, 2026 07:28 amcz_unitAnd there goes another light in the world. Damn we really are living in the ultimate crap-sack universe. Maybe that's the point, as we get older we see how shit the world really is and don't fear deth because well how bad could THAT be and to be honest who really gives a fuck?
*shrug*
So yeah I think we should fire death. He's doing a completely shitty job and I am NOT impressed. I don't fear death, I am simply annoyed with him and his performance.
Enough said. I forgot my glasses this morning so am typing blind.
*shrug*
So yeah I think we should fire death. He's doing a completely shitty job and I am NOT impressed. I don't fear death, I am simply annoyed with him and his performance.
Enough said. I forgot my glasses this morning so am typing blind.
August 21, 2026
Aug. 22nd, 2026 12:49 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
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… sorry. My sad brain year continues.
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Beautiful week at the beach
Aug. 21st, 2026 09:02 amcz_unit*Ah* Friday at the Beach. It's been a beautiful week here in Perdido Key, we go home tomorrow, and it's been... nice after a few years of not coming.
Basically we've been coming down since... oh 1993 I guess when I met Alex and we were dating. Her parents would rent a nice condo in a medium rise place on the beach and we'd go out every year. I started flying kites down here in 1994 or so and we have come back pretty much every year.
The deal was interesting: Nelson would rent 3 places one for him and Belva, one for Alex and I and one for Alex's sister and her husband. We'd be responsible for food over the week, travel, and whatnot and the whole family would get together once a year.
With a few exceptions (when our kids were young, when hurricanes destroyed the Gulf, etc) we'd come back under that agreement. Alex's mom died about 3 years ago and everyone stopped coming.
Well, this year I got a set of three rooms. One for Alex and I, one for Nelson, and one for the kids. Same deal except I am paying for the rooms now. And off season (school started this week for FL people) the rates are good and even better the beach and restaurants are not crowded.
Been enjoying it. Saturday to Saturday stay so there is 2 days of travel and 6 days of just enjoying the beach. This year the winds were *good* so I have been doing kite flying pretty much every day. And ya know, after 30 years of it I'm pretty good. The small 5 stack Micron kites are perfect in this wind but the 5 stack Adrenaline kits were just too much. Even broke a string and that's 300 pound stuff. In a strong wind it's enough to pull me off the ground or across the beach....
And the food has been delicious. The kids like to eat Waffle house slop, but for me I try to only put good seafood in my body this week. And I'm eating a lot, but to be honest I can't get this kind of seafood at home so I'll just enjoy then go back to losing weight when I get back. The shrimp is delicious, the Po Boys are tasty, blackened fish is incredible, and Lulu's and Zeke's top the list with the shrimp basket a bit behind but totally good. Tonight we'll go to the Oyster Bar which has always been the best.
It's been a couple of years, I've vacationed around the world, but this is a nice place to come back to. Yes Florida is totally fucked in 50 ways and I would never move here, but it is nice to just rent a beach chair and look at the waves all day.
Need to do this again. Eventually I will be too old to make it happen, in which case I'll pass the torch to Dylan or Mel or someone. And they can come with their families or friends, or who knows what.
Because I will always be here. And the memories I have let go to the sea will always be here. Yes, I do visit them, and it's nice to say hello but they stay here. The sea keeps them safe from me....
Basically we've been coming down since... oh 1993 I guess when I met Alex and we were dating. Her parents would rent a nice condo in a medium rise place on the beach and we'd go out every year. I started flying kites down here in 1994 or so and we have come back pretty much every year.
The deal was interesting: Nelson would rent 3 places one for him and Belva, one for Alex and I and one for Alex's sister and her husband. We'd be responsible for food over the week, travel, and whatnot and the whole family would get together once a year.
With a few exceptions (when our kids were young, when hurricanes destroyed the Gulf, etc) we'd come back under that agreement. Alex's mom died about 3 years ago and everyone stopped coming.
Well, this year I got a set of three rooms. One for Alex and I, one for Nelson, and one for the kids. Same deal except I am paying for the rooms now. And off season (school started this week for FL people) the rates are good and even better the beach and restaurants are not crowded.
Been enjoying it. Saturday to Saturday stay so there is 2 days of travel and 6 days of just enjoying the beach. This year the winds were *good* so I have been doing kite flying pretty much every day. And ya know, after 30 years of it I'm pretty good. The small 5 stack Micron kites are perfect in this wind but the 5 stack Adrenaline kits were just too much. Even broke a string and that's 300 pound stuff. In a strong wind it's enough to pull me off the ground or across the beach....
And the food has been delicious. The kids like to eat Waffle house slop, but for me I try to only put good seafood in my body this week. And I'm eating a lot, but to be honest I can't get this kind of seafood at home so I'll just enjoy then go back to losing weight when I get back. The shrimp is delicious, the Po Boys are tasty, blackened fish is incredible, and Lulu's and Zeke's top the list with the shrimp basket a bit behind but totally good. Tonight we'll go to the Oyster Bar which has always been the best.
It's been a couple of years, I've vacationed around the world, but this is a nice place to come back to. Yes Florida is totally fucked in 50 ways and I would never move here, but it is nice to just rent a beach chair and look at the waves all day.
Need to do this again. Eventually I will be too old to make it happen, in which case I'll pass the torch to Dylan or Mel or someone. And they can come with their families or friends, or who knows what.
Because I will always be here. And the memories I have let go to the sea will always be here. Yes, I do visit them, and it's nice to say hello but they stay here. The sea keeps them safe from me....
