This morning I was thinking about a scene from "Independence Day." An office clerk is busily filing important papers as the alien ship hangs motionless over the city, blocking the sun. The countdown ends, the ship opens up, the green destruction-ray comes down and blows the clerk, the important papers, the file cabinet, the building, in fact ALL the buildings, to shards. Around us, people go on as if nothing out of the ordinary was up. I don't think I was EVER THAT oblivious.
Unfortunately, without a large cash infusion there's no way to possibly "shrug" on a large scale. The logistics of such an operation are dismal.
You already have the cash, you just have to get better at keeping it, which means getting better at exchanging it. Suppose you had an electronic wallet the size of a cell phone, with which you could privately exchange electronic representations of money with another wallet? Some Africans are today exchanging cell phone minutes as money. Now picture Americans exchanging claims on gold coins. You don't need the magic Gulch valley camouflage screen if you keep the secret stuff hidden inside an electronic box.
Shrugging on a unit scale is doable, no question. It would take thousands of people to begin to compel change, and many people living paycheck-to-paycheck cannot make the move. Nearly everyone needs to have some point of intersection with society-at-large to make their livings. That undermines the entire operation, since the whole point is abandoning society at large.
"Except we have no Galt's Gulch refuge."
ReplyDeleteThat sounds familiar.
Longbow
Fight or surrender, either way, we die. So fight, and take as many of them with us as we can.
ReplyDeleteThis morning I was thinking about a scene from "Independence Day." An office clerk is busily filing important papers as the alien ship hangs motionless over the city, blocking the sun. The countdown ends, the ship opens up, the green destruction-ray comes down and blows the clerk, the important papers, the file cabinet, the building, in fact ALL the buildings, to shards.
ReplyDeleteAround us, people go on as if nothing out of the ordinary was up.
I don't think I was EVER THAT oblivious.
We don't have a Galt's Gulch because we don't have a Galt.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, without a large cash infusion there's no way to possibly "shrug" on a large scale. The logistics of such an operation are dismal.
But - if success is our desire, there isn't a better option. I'll be writing a blog post on this soon.
Unfortunately, without a large cash infusion there's no way to possibly "shrug" on a large scale. The logistics of such an operation are dismal.
ReplyDeleteYou already have the cash, you just have to get better at keeping it, which means getting better at exchanging it. Suppose you had an electronic wallet the size of a cell phone, with which you could privately exchange electronic representations of money with another wallet? Some Africans are today exchanging cell phone minutes as money. Now picture Americans exchanging claims on gold coins. You don't need the magic Gulch valley camouflage screen if you keep the secret stuff hidden inside an electronic box.
I've shrugged.
ReplyDeleteShrugging on a unit scale is doable, no question. It would take thousands of people to begin to compel change, and many people living paycheck-to-paycheck cannot make the move. Nearly everyone needs to have some point of intersection with society-at-large to make their livings. That undermines the entire operation, since the whole point is abandoning society at large.
ReplyDelete