The John Galt Pledge
"I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live
for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
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I take this pledge as a personal Declaration of Independence.
As a sovereign individual, I assert the exclusive right to my life, my
liberty and my property, as guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. As
government is properly instituted to protect my rights, I oppose, and
declare as unconstitutional, all actions taken by government that violate
the very rights it is charged with defending. I support a return to the
principle of individualism upon which this country was founded. And
rejecting any initiation of the use of force as being wholy
inappropriate, I support a society based strictly upon voluntary
association and free trade among its people.
National Service: A Vicious Concept — And Its Antidote
Indentured Servitude
Starting in 1933 with FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps,
progressive Democrats have had a long history of promoting the
idea of "National Service" in this country. Barack Obama
continued that tradition during his campaign with proposals for one
hundred hours of community service in exchange for a $4,000 college
tuition tax credits coupled with fifty hours per year of mandatory
service to be demanded from every middle and high school student.
While this particular plan has yet to be implemented, on April 21, Obama
did sign the
Serve America
Act which transfers six billion dollars of taxpayer money to
the government's
Corporation for National and Community Service,
to be used to expand the existing
AmeriCorps
organization, adding 175,000 additional people to the government payroll.
He also signed a bill which takes the audacious step of redesignating
September 11th as a
"National Day of Service"!
President Obama has
stated:
"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve
the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have
a civilian national security force that's just as powerful,
just as strong, just as well-funded."
[Emphasis added]
And Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has
said:
"Citizenship is not an entitlement program. It comes with
responsibilities.... Everybody—somewhere between the ages
18 and 25—will serve three months of basic training and
understanding in a kind of civil defense. That universal
sense of service—somewhere between the ages of 18 and
25—will give Americans, once again, a sense of what they are
to be American and their contribution to a country and a common
experience."
[Emphasis added]
And notice that Emanuel's plan is not just for training, but for
understanding, which can only mean indoctrination
into the government's view of what it means to be a "good and useful
citizen"!
These quotes, along with the actions of this administration, make it very
clear that Barack Obama believes that the citizens of America owe a duty
to their country, and that they should be compelled to meet this obligation
through mandatory service. This is nothing less than a push to make every
citizen and indentured servant to the state, which of course, inverts the
proper relationship of the government and its citizenry while violating
the Thirteenth Amendment.
United We Slave
While working to push mandatory service legislation through Congress, the
White House has created an organization called
United We Serve, which acts as a clearinghouse for initiatives
all across the country where individuals can volunteer for public service
in their communities.
Now, if this were an activity undertaken by a private organization, there
would be nothing wrong with publicizing such opportunities and allowing
people to freely volunteer their time, effort or money to promote
actions which they judged to be beneficial and were therefore eager to
support. But the government is not like any other private
organization. It is a repository and instrument of force. While we may
freely choose whether or not to associate with any given private
organization without fear of reprisal, the government operates through
coercion, compelling us to follow its mandates under the threat of
fines or incarceration, and it is this simple fact which renders the
government's involvement in promoting activities like these wholy
inappropriate.
It might be argued that, in and of itself, United We Serve appears
to be completely benign, without a hint of threat or coercion associated
with any of the activities being promoted, — but this is not true.
The implication of force always accompanies any governmental
action. We already know from this administration's own statements that
it desires to make national service a requirement of citizenship, so an
organization such as this, which uses public funds to register information
on all "projects", and aids in matching "volunteers" to those projects, can
easily be seen as just a first step towards the ultimate goal of mandating
participation from all citizens in the future.
But don't take my word for it. Many of Obama's Hollywood supporters
understand exactly what the President requires of them. For example,
in this video ad,
Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore make it all explicit when they:
"pledge to be a servant to our president and to all mankind
...".
Now, some might argue that these are just a few actors who have completely
misinterpreted the President's meaning. So instead, let's look at what
the administration is proposings in its own words. In preparation for
Obama's September 8th speech to school children all across the country,
the government originally made the following
"suggestions" to teachers
of pre-K through sixth grade, to have the students:
"write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the
president"
and
"to engage in a discussion about what 'the president wants us
to do' "
In response to the public outcry at such blatant tactics of indoctrination,
these guidelines were changed, but the intent and the message is clear.
Students, too young to fully grasp the principles involved, are being
subtly encouraged to see themselves as subservient to the President and
to learn to place the government's desires or society's goals ahead of
their own. With the release of the text of his speech to students, we see
this mind-set in action:
"Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your
country."
or
"What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one
hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?"
or
"So don't let us down—don't let your family or your
country or yourself down."
So, the message to the students is that they should stay in school and
study hard, not strictly for the benefits of creating more opportunities
and achieving a better life for themselves, but principally so that they
can become good, productive citizens and contribute to solving the
countries myriad problems.
"Don't let your country down! Meet your obligation
and commit to serving the common good."
This is not the credo of freedom, but instead a call to slavery.
Individualism versus Self-Sacrifice
What is insidious about the push for National Service is how it so
totally violates the concept of individualism, which is the
bedrock principle underlying the U.S. Constitution. The purpose of
the Constitution was to: (1) recognize the unalienable rights of each
individual; (2) establish a governmental framework for protecting those
rights; and (3) place strict limits on the power and scope of government
so that it could not abuse its mandate and itself become an instrument
for the violation of individuals' rights. As the Declaration of
Independence states:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
Powers from the consent of the governed ..."
[Emphasis added]
This statement very clearly established the hierarchical relationship
between a citizen and their government. The existence of the rights of the individual, and the need to protect those rights, are the
sole justification for the creation of government.
A government is not a sovereign entity with any inherent rights or
privileges of its own, but instead, only acquires it legitimacy from the
voluntary consent of its citizens, and only insofar as it adheres to its
constitutionally prescribed function of protecting its citizen's rights.
The existence of government is not an end we strive for, but simply
a means to a different end:
To create a society where free people may pursue their own
individual goals and dreams—in other words, their
happiness—while living in peace and harmony with others.
Barack Obama's incessant call for sacrifice
by US citizens is an affront to the Constitution. Free individuals are
not a resource to be called upon to serve at the behest of the President
for the government's grand designs. Instead, it is the government, which
has been instituted for the explicit purpose of serving the needs of its
citizens in protecting their rights. By elevating the purpose and value
of "government" or "society" above that of the the citizen,
Obama perverts the fundamental principle of the Constitution, substituting
collectivism in place of individualism.
The Morality of Altruism
Individuals are turned into sacrificial animals, only by accepting the
moral code of altruism, which is defined as:
1: unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others
2: behavior by an animal that is not beneficial to or may be harmful
to itself but that benefits others of its species
Only by first convincing someone that their personal hopes, dreams,
desires, feelings, goals and lives are of less importance when compared
to those of another person, group, or even possibly to an abstract ideal,
do you prepare them for slavery and sacrifice. Growing up in Soviet
Russia during the aftermath of its revolution, the philosopher, Ayn Rand,
watched first hand as the morality of altruism played itself out, writ
large across an entire country's population. The lesson she learned was
that altruistic dogma applied only to those destined to be ruled by an
elite leadership that was not subject to the same standards. Or as the
character Ellsworth Toohey from The Fountainhead puts it, when
asked by Peter Keating as to what he is really after:
"Power, Petey. I want to rule.
Whom...?
You. The world. It's only a matter of discovering the lever. If you
learn how to rule one single man's soul, you can get the rest of
mankind. It's the soul, Peter, the soul. Not whips or swords or
fire or guns. That's why the Caesars, the Attilas, the Napoleons were
fools and did not last. We will. The soul, Peter, is that which can't
be ruled. It must be broken. Drive a wedge in, get your fingers on
it—and the man is yours. You won't need a whip—he'll bring
it to you and ask to be whipped. Set him in reverse—and his own
mechanism will do your work for you. Use him against himself. Want to
know how it's done? See if I ever lied to you. See if you haven't
heard all this for years, but didn't want to hear, and the fault is
yours, not mine.
There are many ways. Here's one. Make man feel small. Make him feel
guilty. Kill his aspiration and his integrity. ... Kill man's sense
of values. Kill his capacity to recognize greatness or to achieve it.
... Kill by laughter. ...
Here's another way. This is most important. Don't allow men to be
happy. Happiness is self-contained and self-sufficient. Happy men
have no time and no use for you. Happy men are free men. So kill
their joy in living. Take away from them what they want. Make them
think that the mere thought of a personal desire is evil. Bring them
to a state where saying 'I want' is no longer a natural right, but a
shameful admission. Altruism is of great help in this. Unhappy men
will come to you. They'll need you. They'll come for consolation,
for support, for escape. Nature allows no vacuum. Empty man's
soul—and the space is yours to fill.
I don't see why you should look so shocked, Peter. This is the oldest
one of all. Look back at history. Look at any great system of ethics,
from the Orient up. Didn't they all preach the sacrifice of personal
joy? Under all the complications of verbiage, haven't they all had a
single leitmotif: sacrifice, renunciation, self-denial? Haven't you
been able to catch their theme song? 'Give up, give up, give up, give
up'? Look at the moral atmosphere of today. Everything enjoyable,
from cigarettes to sex to ambition to the profit motive, is considered
depraved or sinful. Just prove that a thing makes men happy and you've
damned it. That's how far we've come. We've tied happiness to guilt.
And we've got mankind by the throat. ...
The world of the future. The world I want. A world of obedience and
of unity. A world where the thought of each man will not be his own,
but an attempt to guess the thought of the next neighbor who'll have
no thought—and so on, Peter, around the globe. Since all must
agree with all. A world where no man will hold a desire for himself,
but will direct all his efforts to satisfy the desires of his neighbor
who'll have no desires except to satisfy the desires of the next
neighbor, who'll have no desires—around the globe, Peter.
Since all must serve all. A world in which man will not work for so
innocent an incentive as money, but for that headless
monster—prestige. The approval of his fellows—their good
opinion—the opinion of men who'll be allowed to hold no opinion.
An octopus, all tentacles and no brain."
Can you hear the voice of our politicians in these words?
When you read the phrase:
"You won't need a whip—he'll bring it to you and ask to be
whipped.
Set him in reverse—and his own mechanism will do your work for
you.
Use him against himself."
isn't it ominously suggestive of the video by Ashton Kutcher and Demi
Moore, pledging to be servants to the President and all mankind?
While the concept of National Service is particularly vicious, it
is only one program of many that the government imposes, or attempts to
impose, upon us under the justification of self-sacrifice and service to
others. All social programs that declare that some individual or group
is entitled to goods and services by right, also involve some other
party that is then made responsible for providing those goods and
services at their expense. Some of these include:
- Child and Adult Care Food Program
- Earned Entitlements for Railroad Employees
- Federal Housing Assistance
- Food Stamps
- Head Start
- Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program
- Medicare & Medicaid
- Nationalized Health Care
[Proposed]
- School Lunch and Breakfast Programs
- Social Security
- Special Supplemental Nutrition Program
- State Children's Health Insurance Program
- TARP Funds
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
- The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
- Title XX Social Services Block Grant Program
- Trade Adjustment Assistance
- Veterans Benefits and Services
- Workers' Compensation
- Workforce Investment Act
- ......
Each recipient benefiting from these programs abdicates responsibility
for their own life and casts themselves into the role of ward of the
state. And, for each of these government programs to operate,
other individuals are required to work, producing value in the marketplace,
only to have the product of their labor taken from them by force and
redistributed to "the wards" against their will, while receiving
no direct benefit themselves. The proper term for this arrangement is
slavery.
It is the morality of altruism that makes all of this possible, and it is
altruism that must be stopped.
The Antidote: A Personal Declaration of Independence
This country is at a crossroads. We can either continue the move towards
the form of collectivism that is being actively pursued by the current
administration, abdicating more and more responsibility for our own lives
while placing ourselves in servitude to others and agreeing to be ruled by
the elite in Washington D.C. — or we can change direction and move
back towards the principles of freedom and individual rights embodied in
The Declaration of
Independence and the
U.S. Constitution.
And as Ayn Rand identified it in the quotes above, this is a battle
for nothing less than one's very soul.
The antidote is to adopt a morality of rational self-interest:
"Reason is man's only proper judge of values and his only proper
guide to action. The proper standard of ethics is: man's survival
qua man—i.e., that which is required by man's nature for his
survival as a rational being (not his momentary physical survival
as a mindless brute). Rationality is man's basic virtue, and his
three fundamental values are: reason, purpose, self-esteem.
Man—every man—is an end in himself, not a means to the
ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing
himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work
for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own
happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life."
— Any Rand
[From the Ayn Rand Institute]
In the novel, Atlas Shrugged, the essence of this morality was
encapsulated in the following pledge that was taken by every person who
wished to reside in the haven of Galt's Gulch:
"I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live
for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for
mine."
This pledge, which one makes to oneself, is an expression of individualism,
and a Personal Declaration of Independence from the shackles
of both society and the state.
The first half of the pledge is a recognition that no others have a claim,
by right, to your life, whether they be an individual, a group, or the
government, and you assert your freedom and independence.
The second half of the pledge indicates a recognition that you are a
self-sufficient adult, prepared to take responsibility for the conduct of
your own life, and, respecting the rights of others, you have no intention
of forcing them to fulfill that responsibility for you.
In other words, you are stating that you are neither a ward
nor a slave of the state.
If you agree with this, then you qualify to take the John Galt
Pledge. Click on the image below and add your name to a growing
list of individuals demanding that the government respect and defend
their personal autonomy and restore their lost constitutional rights.
Click here to take The John Galt Pledge
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Blog
The blog page contains updates, announcements and additional discussions
explaining the intent behind this
initiative, as well as ideas and suggestions from readers.
Contact
I am very interested in receiving feedback and suggestions regarding this
project, and I would enjoy hearing any ideas you may have for related
activities. Please send me an e-mail message sharing your thoughts.
Interesting ideas and suggestions will be added to this site in the
future.
I wish you all the best and I truly appreciate your participation in the
fight for freedom, in whatever form you choose to express it.
In Liberty,
--
C. Jeffery Small
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Sites Promoting This Initiative
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