We got another Go-Galt guy, this one named Will Spencer, who tells us that "clearly, 'Going Galt' does not mean the same thing to all people. Going Galt is a very individual expression." That's for sure -- we've seen folks Go Galt by leaving lousy tips, by alerting local merchants that they planned to "buy nothing – other than vacations out of the country – until the president exits," by quitting smoking, etc. Or at least talking about doing it.
I had despaired they'd ever get serious about it. Spencer, though, has an impressively meticulous list of tactics, which he has divided into four sections.
It takes awhile to pick up speed. Under "Earn Less Taxable Income," Spencer lists actions I assumed entrepreneurs/hustlers would already have been doing, Galt or no Galt -- "Relocate to a state which charges lower or no income taxes," "Contribute the maximum allowable amount to an IRA," etc. Under "Reduce Expenses and Pay Less Sales Tax," his tips would not be out of place in The Dollar Stretcher -- "Repair and reuse when possible instead of buying replacements," "Buy over the Internet when possible, to avoid sales taxes," etc.
So far so Horatio Alger. Then we get to section three, "Prepare for the Collapse." "Stockpile water, food, and ammunition to prepare for coming shortages" and "Fortify your home to protect your family against looters" are among Spencer's suggestions. A little crazy, but still within the normal conservative spectrum -- after all, even the big-time rightbloggers love to play at disaster preparedness.
But the tide turns in section four, "Civil Disobedience":
This is where things get serious. This isn’t just trying to escape from a corrupt society and let it collapse; many of these steps involve making active decisions and taking risks that could negatively affect your personal liberty. Nonetheless, many people feel that the hope of living in a truly free world is worth the risk.Tremble, tyrants, at what Will Spencer has in store for you:
- Comply with government orders as slowly as possible.
So next time some guy at the DMV fills in his license application with scribbles, then winks at you; or sneakily takes a whole stack of change of address forms from the post office; or takes a government job and, unlike any other civil servant you've ever seen, goofs off -- then you'll know the revolution is afoot. This time for sure!
- Fill out government forms incompletely and illegibly.
- Pay all taxes and fines at the last possible legal moment.
- Make it difficult for the government to enforce all unconstitutional or immoral laws.
- As a juror, exercise your right to nullify unconstitutional or immoral laws.
- Take multiple copies of all printed government forms to increase their costs.
- Take a job with the government, and then don’t do it.
- Boycott government propaganda outlets such as PBS and NPR.
- Get your money invested offshore while it is still safe and legal to do so.
UPDATE. Comments are choice, as usual. Spaghetti Lee nominates further Civil Disobedience tips like "Address all government forms with pseudonyms 'Mike Hunt' and 'Dick Hertz'" and "Inform all government officials that you are rubber and they are glue." hells littlest angel suggests the Galt-goers "get sushi and not pay." And Jeffrey_Kramer has written a stirring Go Galt anthem:
I dreamed I saw John Galt last night
A-watchin' my TV
Says I, “So when's this strike of yours?”
“I'm on it now,” says he.
I said “And how will sitting here
Bring down this tyranny?”
Said John, “I slay the MSM
By watching Hannity!
“O John,” I said, “Our tax will rise,
How will you make a stink?”
“I'll write out all my forms,” John said
“With funny-looking ink.”
“But will you pay this evil tax,
This higher marginal rate?”
“I'll pay it,” John said with a grin,
“But maybe minutes late.”
“But John, what if the Kenyan sends
us all to FEMA camps?”
“I'll slow the trains of death,” said John
“By using two-cent stamps.”
Then I woke up, but still I knew --
I'd take it to the bank --
Whatever came, John would be there
To cry and piss and wank.
If the civil disobedience list kept going, you'd get to "Address all government forms with pseudonyms 'Mike Hunt' and 'Dick Hertz'", "Inform all government officials that you are rubber and they are glue", and "Wear long overcoat and flash all postal workers."
ReplyDeleteAs a juror, exercise your right to nullify unconstitutional or immoral laws.
ReplyDeleteIf you're already "civilly disobeying" you aren't answering jury summons in the first place; if you are silly enough to try to Galt the justice system, the state will bend over backwards to keep your fascist urine out of the jury pool.
Take a job with the government, and then don’t do it.
Been done. You're called Halliburton and Academi (formerly Xe, formerly Blackwater)
So then the ultimate act of Randian rebellion, the one that would really sap the strength of the government leviathan, would be to go on welfare, even though you are able-bodied and don't need the assistance. "I am John Galt, moocher."
ReplyDeleteRevolution is so confusing.
eat my shrugged
ReplyDelete"Take a job with the government, and then don’t do it."
ReplyDeleteOr in other words, lie and steal. Yep, sounds like good old-fashioned conservative morality to me.
Take a job with the government, and then don’t do it.
ReplyDeleteIn true conservative style, this suggestion (like many of the others) is not simply predicated on the notion that government doesn't work. It puts to the fore the central tenet of conservatism: That government SHOULDN'T work.
Conservatives. They love America, but despise its government and most of the people who live there.
The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that this conservative hatred of "big government," especially as it applies to Second Amendment claims, has its roots in the South's loss of the Civil War, and the more recent association of Democrats with civil rights legislation, to include bringing minorities into civil service. Of course, all those complaints were magnified by a black President. For the mouthbreather class, that's insult added to injury.
ReplyDeleteBut, whenever someone bemoans "big government," I always ask, "okay, what's too big about it? What parts of it are clearly out of control?" The invariable answer is, "it just is." That inclines one to the conclusion that it's not the size of the government that's bothersome to them, it's who's running it. Yes, the diehard libertarians want to see the demise of the EPA, particularly, and the privatization of public lands, and OSHA, along with all the minor agencies that have rulemaking authority that might impinge on business, but the typical Repug is happy to rail against such agencies all the while using them to enrich their friends, so even their worst enemies in government aren't going to disappear as long as there's government gravy to be sopped up.
If there's any further proof necessary, the Repugs to a greater degree, and Dems to an almost equal degree, have been okay with an enormous expansion of the national security state and increasingly authoritarian behavior by government--the working definition of a dangerously large government--and with nearly out-of-control spending on same, whether covered by revenues or not.
If these bozos aren't first and foremost addressing that latter aspect of big government (and they aren't--they the first ones to scream that such excesses are "keepin' us safe"), then their arguments are fraudulent and are based solely on sour grapes, and is little more than just whining that they're not the ones running that government.
Make it difficult for the government to enforce all unconstitutional or immoral laws.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Let's let the air out of the tires on all the cop cars.
Take a job with the government and then don't do it. Sounds like the Republicans in Congress. So thats what they have being doing. Going Galt.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Spengler just took Spencer's manifesto to its logical conclusion.
ReplyDeleteNever have I seen such a detailed list of ways to be a cheaper, bigger, and more petty bastard.
ReplyDeleteThe wicked statists must be quakin' in their boots in the face of such powerful passive-aggressiveness.
ReplyDeleteOr get elected to the House Of Representatives.
ReplyDeleteThat's where it starts. In Phase Two, we put saran wrap over the seats of public toilets and hinder the bureaucrats by soaping up their windows.
ReplyDeleteYes. This. More. Please, sir.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering why one would "Comply with government orders as slowly as possible" rather than just ignoring them. It must be because ignoring a lawful request will get you arrested. And seriously, what kind of act of civil disobedience ends in an arrest, am I right?
ReplyDeleteTake multiple copies of all printed government forms to increase their costs.
ReplyDeleteSomeone does not understand how a representative government paid for with taxes works.
They do seem a bit unclear on the concept.
ReplyDeleteIf the water cannons came out, they'd have pressing business elsewhere.
Yeah, he's willing to swipe a few extra pre-printed forms, "to increase their costs" but unwilling to go to prison. Wussy!
ReplyDeleteHe may not understand how printing works.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention, the last several times I've actually needed to fill out a government form, I downloaded it as a PDF and printed it out myself. I'd imagine the few million other people who do that will offset this guy and his ten readers.
ReplyDeleteHis closing paragraph is central to his point:
ReplyDeleteThe corrupt socialist regime under which you live may not collapse in your lifetime, but these steps will help you to retrieve the maximum amount of your freedom from their clutches. In addition, following these “Going Galt” strategies should help to improve your security, lower your stress level, and build your personal self-confidence.
Aw-reet! Self-help for Galtians.
improve your security, lower your stress level, and build your personal self-confidence...
ReplyDeleteI'm always fascinated by libertarian prose. They seem slip from John Galt to Ron Popeil without even noticing.
I was thinking more like Jimmy Johnson selling ExtenZe.
ReplyDeleteOr Marty selling the Shamwow.
ReplyDeleteThis guy's idea of "going Galt" is more lame and pathetic than even Dondero and I didn't think that was possible.
ReplyDeleteSince the original "going Galt" meant that the Masters of the Universe whom Rand imagined were so important to the economic lifeblood of the country would withhold their services until the bad government cried, "uncle!," it kind of left out the truly brain-dead stooges of the right wing, so I can see where there might be a need to address their self-confidence. "Hey, you help, too, by buying ammunition, by being an asshole to public servants, by unnecessarily raising the costs of government. Just try to resist the urge to stick your tongue in the electrical socket to see what electricity tastes like. Trust me, it tastes like SweeTarts®."
ReplyDelete"Take a job with the government and then don't do it."
ReplyDeleteThat's nearly one better than "Government get your hands off Medicare!"
Obviously these Galtists are having difficulty cutting the chord. Someone needs to help them Go Galt. For a fee, I will arrange to have them airdropped on a deserted island that has no government or taxes to speak of. There, they will be free to build their own roads, sewage systems, hospitals, etc... Needless to say there will be an ongoing enforcement fee because within a month these whining idiots will be begging to re-enter civil society.
I dreamed I saw John Galt last night
ReplyDeleteA-watchin' my TV
Says I, “So when's this strike of yours?”
“I'm on it now,” says he.
I said “And how will sitting here
Bring down this tyranny?”
Said John, “I slay the MSM
By watching Hannity!”
“O John,” I said, “Our tax will rise,
How will you make a stink?”
“I'll write out all my forms,” John said
“With funny-looking ink.”
“But will you pay this evil tax,
This higher marginal rate?”
“I'll pay it,” John said with a grin,
“But maybe minutes late.”
“But John, what if the Kenyan sends
us all to FEMA camps?”
“I'll slow the trains of death,” said John
“By using two-cent stamps.”
Then I woke up, but still I knew --
I'd take it to the bank --
Whatever came, John would be there
To cry and piss and wank.
He forgot: Let's go get sushi and not pay!
ReplyDeleteSurely the ultimate act of Randian rebellion is killing one's self to prevent the government misusing one's taxes? And dying penniless and alone to stymie inheritance taxes.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget tying up government phone lines with repeated queries about running refrigerators and Prince Albert in a can.
ReplyDeleteThe SlapCop: Civil disobedience and massive state punishment in just seconds!
ReplyDeleteSpencer's Galtification amounts to variations of, dare I say it, mooching.
ReplyDelete"By George, I believe that this 'slacktivism' stuff may have a thing or two going for it! Now, I believe that I still have some sick time left for this year, and may indulge myself in a Two and a Half Men marathon, just to 'stick it to The Man', as it were."
ReplyDeleteTURN ON, TUNE IN, DROP OUT....man (and don't trust anyone under 45).
ReplyDeleteIt really is a cunning plan...
ReplyDeleteto cover costs of printing/distributing new forms, the government will have to raise taxes; galtians swipe the new forms, and government is forced by the rebels to raise taxes yet again; and so on, until the government is taxing 100% of Everything! Then, the sheeple will wake up to this tyranny of printing expenditures!!!
Some Galtish stuff I wish libertarians would really do:
ReplyDelete- Move to Alaska -- it has the lowest state/local tax burden in the U.S. (Next is South Dakota, that would be good, too.)
- Apply for Social Security Disability just for the fun of it.
- Voluntarily submit your name to be put on the Terrorist Watch List.
- Tell the highway patrol you refuse to blow into any breathalyzer not shaped like a dick.
- Check "white" on the Census form, even if you're not (oh who am I kidding?).
- Wear underwear imprinted with a Glock silhouette for TSA scanners.
- Put emoticons like ;) and :P all over your IRS forms.
- Boycott the Internet -- please.
He'll download the form 200 times and not print it out. That'll show them.
ReplyDeleteI would gladly "go Galt" up in this comment's gulch.
ReplyDeleteTrue Fact: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail was actually written in the margins of swiped government forms.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm gonna burn my uniform!
ReplyDelete"Take a job with the government, and then don’t do it." And then if you get fired, whine that you're being oppressed by the collectivist-moocher state! (I thought that people in government jobs were, in this mindset, all collectivist moochers who do nothing.)
ReplyDeleteWhat strikes me about the list is that it's pretty much what confused, elderly, thrifty, technophobic, and fixed income senior citizens do anyway.
ReplyDeleteComply slowly? Fill in forms illegibly? Pay taxes at the last minute? My husbands parents just dragged him out to get the wheels on their suitcases fixed--we are visiting them for four days, mr. Aimai is sick as a dog, but they have a lifetime warranty to use--
I had no idea this all went under the heading of going galt. Saul alinskey included these behaviors under alte kocher.
"until the bad government cried, 'uncle!'"
ReplyDeleteWasn't it also the sheeple who would cry Uncle, the obese, mouthbreathing, stupid, gullible housewives that Rand despised as much as she despised socialists?
Anarchy for the DMV
ReplyDeleteIs coming sometime and maybe
I take 100 copies of a W-9
Your future dream is a technocrat scheme
Cause I... wanna be... anarchy
How many ways to get what you want
I use the best, I use incompetence
I use Hannity
I use anarchy
Is this the EPA
Or is this the DEA
Or is this my IRA
I thought it was the USA
Or just another country
Another suburban municipality
"Nonetheless, many people feel that the hope of living in a truly free world is worth the risk."
ReplyDelete"...and that is why we call for all revolutionaries to not-listen to NPR. Abjure the behindhand bourgeois complacencies of Robert Siegal-ism. Reject the running-dog apologetics of Nina Totenberg ('Baby Girl Death Mountain'). Strive daily to ignore self-fix-it reactionaries The Car Talk Guys. To passengers, openly sneer at and audibly deride A Prairie Home Companion. Re-program without hesitation all car radio pre-sets to glorious stations playing the greatest hits of the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, and today. Forward the Revolution!"
Take a job with the government, and then don’t do it.
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting for "Going Galt" to become "Going Ron Swanson."
(Incidentally, I find Parks and Recreation to be an impossibly moving depiction of government.)
I was going to suggest that we derisively refer to the waitstaff-stiffers as "going Scrooge" rather than "going Galt," but then I remembered that a lot of right-libertarians actually admire the mean old bastard and won't feel insulted: http://mises.org/daily/573
ReplyDeleteWhat's worse, it's not as funny. At least give me a "take a crap on their lawn" to work with, fella.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you'd think they'd almost *have* to boycott something invented by Al "Is Fat" Gore.
ReplyDeleteThen clearly you are not reading my blog, madam!
ReplyDeleteObviously misunderstood--Dickens intended for the character of Scrooge to be taken as an intrepid freedom-fighter, saving democracy from the iron hand of socialistic fascism one lump of coal at a time (except for that one incident when Cratchit slipped an LSD tab into his cold potato dinner).
ReplyDeleteOr Malignant Bouffant's.
ReplyDeleteIt really is.
ReplyDeleteNo! There is not comparison. Got x-mas babby pics?
ReplyDeleteMost of the opposition to "big government" came after the Civil Rights Act passed, when black people were finally able to get government benefits. Just remember, there is no opposition to "big government" as long as that "big government" only helps white people.
ReplyDeleteI would like to go Galt with this comment.
ReplyDeletePetulance Against The Machine.
ReplyDeleteHow many jury trials deal with "unconstitutional or immoral laws"? And how would you know it, until you are appointed to the jury and begin to hear the proceedings, what the actual law is? You would have to violate your oath in order to even determine that you object to the law. I've only served on two juries - one for a man who committed robbery, and one civil suit where a woman sued her dentist. I can't imagine someone wanting to nullify laws against smash and grab robbery; and civil trials aren't about lawbreaking, they're about who damaged whom.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing this fellow has never served on a jury.
If someone needs to steal government printed forms in order build their self-confidence, they're one sorry, sad SOB.
ReplyDeleteEver feel like you've been cheap arsed?
ReplyDeleteMoar Galtian terror. Withhold your "Good morning" from any government workers.
ReplyDeleteGet the post office people to lick the stamps that you put on letters AND THEN DON'T SEND THEM!!!
Stay up late and eat pizza.
"Take a job with government, and then don't do it."
ReplyDeleteWait...what? You mean there are still "government jobs"?
Immediately and instantly legendary.
ReplyDeleteTake a job with the government, and then don’t do it.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the Ron Swanson method of libertarianism. Get a government job, then do nothing, thereby proving that government is a waste of taxpayers' money.
Doing all these things that involve careful planning and needless busywork is freedom.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy being told that not doing the things I already don't do is the path to utopia.
ReplyDeleteI would say to the Galtians: I have nothing to offer but no blood, no toil, no tears and no sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the least grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of no struggle and of no suffering.
There might be more if government costs go up.
ReplyDeleteApparently Going Galt is ideal for people with lots of time on their hands. As the most productive members of society are known to have.
ReplyDeleteI think Kramer just came up with "Love Me I'm a Liberal" for Randians. :-)
ReplyDeleteNext step: Make sure every envelope you mail with a first class stamp weighs exactly as much as is allowed at that postage rate. Bonus points if you can sneak an extra fraction of a gram past the Postal Czars.
ReplyDeleteThat'll teach the collectivist bastards. I hope their mail trucks' shocks are up to snuff!
Take a job with the government, and then don’t do it.
ReplyDeleteYou mean I've been going all this week and I didn't even know it?
(Seriously, we've had like, 10 calls all day.)
I hate myself for missing the obvious in my own post: GALTE kocher, please.
ReplyDeleteL&I! There's an unlimited supply!
ReplyDeleteThen clearly you are not reading my blog, madam!
ReplyDeleteYou're being unfair to yourself. You're not that big.
Hey! Get your own "... with this comment" comment, you moocher.
ReplyDeleteSpending all day at the DMV arguing over my illegible writing, that's what I call FREEDOM.
ReplyDeleteBut can you turn _on_ your badge?
ReplyDelete"Repair and reuse when possible instead of buying replacements,"
ReplyDelete---I don't know, sounds kind o' tree-huggy to me, could be a mole.
Must...investigate...further.
Whenever they fly, they could go through the TSA checkpoint, then exit the secure area, go through the checkpoint again, exit again, etc. Bonus for carrying and wearing many metal items in many pockets, to ensure maximum re-wanding time.
ReplyDeleteWell, Glenn, this is not as silly as it sounds. imagine you were on a jury in a state with a "three strikes you're out" law and discovered the defendant before you was facing mandatory life in prison without parole for having stolen a loaf of bread from a market or had walked out on a dinner check at a restaurant, because he had been convicted of two previous felonies, (possibly even as minor as described here). Such instances have occurred and do still occur. As a juror, would you vote to convict this man for stealing the bread or walking out on his dinner check--even if you were convinced by the evidence he was guilty? Would this strike you as immoral? If so, you could exercise your right to vote for acquittal. If you could not convince your fellow jurors to your point of view, but you stuck to yours, you would at least at wrought a hung jury, and if you succeeded in convincing your fellow jurors not to permit this abuse of justice, you would been part of a "jury nullification." The principle applies anywhere the mandatory sentences for crimes are grossly disproportionate to the crime, or where the law is being selectively applied to punish a particular subset of the larger population, or, frankly, where you might find the law itself a farce. (Anti-pot laws, anyone?) The jury cannot be compelled to convict even if the evidence is clear the defendant is guilty of the charges, and the members of the jury cannot be gainsaid after the fact. (In cases where a jury convicts where the evidence shows the defendant to be clearly innocent the judge may vacate the verdict; a judge may not vacate an acquittal.)
ReplyDeleteLibertarianism: the only revolution in history to be for the enshrinement of middle class respectability. Anything that might slightly alter the status quo of the modestly well to do must be opposed by the most passive-aggressive means possible.
ReplyDeleteWhat do we want?
No change at all!
When do we want it?
By 5 pm Friday (because my in-laws are coming to visit this weekend)!
A libertarian talking out of his ass? Surely you jest! All these suggestions are perfectly rational responses. For a 7 year old.
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase the old joke,
ReplyDelete"Moshe, why do you read NRO?"
"I'll tell you, Hymie. Here we have nothing. But in NRO, us liberal control the banks, the media, the movies, the music business, and we're all having sex all the time!"
This is a good one Make it difficult for the government to enforce all unconstitutional or immoral laws.
ReplyDeleteAn Occupy supporter!
I LOLed.
ReplyDeleteI'm there too, but for about twelve years. You wouldn't believe how many meetings I've skipped since I got tenure.
ReplyDelete"Stockpile water, food, and ammunition to prepare for coming shortages"
ReplyDeleteand "Fortify your home to protect your family against looters" are among
Spencer's suggestions.
Yes, this is sure to end well.
Your talking about being justice in good conscience. He's talking about being a vandal.
ReplyDeleteI can't see a conservative siding with a poor person to decrease government tyranny- that guilty plea would go down faster that Larry Craig in an airport toilet stall.
ReplyDeleteTurn on the post man, tune in to Hannity, and drop government forms out the DMV office window.
ReplyDeleteOr they could go for the full-body patdown, thereby occupying a jack-booted, happy-handed government employee for a good long time.
ReplyDeleteBut by then the offset printing barons will control the government!
ReplyDeleteMaybe we can call Spencer's effort "Letter from Birmingham Mall."
ReplyDeleteA "Repo Man" reference does fit nicely in this thread.
ReplyDeleteAh, but that would be fucking the capitalists and that, as we all know, is a no-no. They're the real John Galts of this world (well, if John Galt had an eye patch and a parrot).
ReplyDeleteUnless, of course, one took unpaid sick leave to reduce one's income and therefore, one's taxes. Thus starving the beast by starving one's self.
OT
ReplyDeleteFontella Bass, R.I.P.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PppJOrnVtkg
Why do so many people die in December?
Sounds good, but if the Galt mood strikes me, I think I'll just fart on a crowded elevator.
ReplyDeleteI think that's what Glenn Reynolds must have been doing the last ten years, at least.
ReplyDeleteYe bloody Gods on a cream cracker.
ReplyDeleteI suppose somewhere in the list was saying "Merry Christmas" in a confrontational manner to anyone who greets you with "Happy Holidays," and spending at least one hour every night looking up words that SOUND like racial slurs but actually aren't.
You know, to upset the ringleaders of the New World Order. Or somethin'.
except when yo move to a state wo income tax you pay more, out of pocket, since the facilities arent there...
ReplyDeleteWe few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
ReplyDeleteFor he to-day that pays his bus fares in nickels with me
Shall be my brother; be he Romney so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And Republicans in Congress now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That double-parked at the Post Office with us upon Saint Ayn's day.
They're procrastinators.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he means one of those Supreme Court juries.
ReplyDeleteActually, it's pretty much what I do anyway. Fill in forms incorrectly? Check. Take multiple copies of government forms? I have to, since I invariably fill them in wrong the first time. Pay taxes at the last minute? I pay them after the last minute! Boycott PBS? I've already seen the first episode of season 3 of Downton Abbey through, um, another form of communication. Who knew going Galt could be this easy?
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