This One's for George--Galt's Gulch sorta


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This One's for George--Galt's Gulch sorta

Hey George,

I found a little tale of woe that might touch your heart.

:smile:

(I'm evil, I know. :smile: )

Check this out:

Ayn Rand's Capitalist Paradise Is Now a Greedy Land-Grabbing Shitstorm
Adam Weinstein
August 28, 2014
Gawker

Now that sounds like a normal hit-piece on Rand, right?

Well it is.

But it's a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle more...

From the article:

Plenty of Rand-y acolytes have dreamed of fleeing Obama's (and Clinton's and Carter's and Johnson's and Kennedy's) America and entering the warm, dopamine confines of their own Galt's Gulch. Last year, one group appeared to have succeeded with a settlement in Chile—"a fully self-sustaining community" that would enable individualistic immigrants (with sufficient funds) to fully renounce "the oppression of the over-regulated, over-taxed, war-riddled and welfare-riddled society consuming the world." They take Bitcoin and everything.

But all is not so sweet. Wendy McElroy, a "Canadian individualist anarchist" of some note, bought a 1.25-acre plot in Galt's Gulch Chile last year, or so she thought. She wrote a blistering post Monday suggesting that the Real Men of Genius behind the settlement are grifters, or incompetents, or both:

Shortly after purchasing, I received an unsigned email through the webform of a site I maintain. It informed me that GGC was a fraud. One reason: GGC lacked water rights. In Chile, purchasing surface land and water rights are two separate processes. GGC is desert terrain, rather like California, and water rights are absolutely necessary for a community to be established.

. . .

The emailer was apparently an ex-employee who demanded payoffs from Galt's Gulch's two main developers. Which, according to McElroy, he got, after "many unpleasant details," and after GGC did get some land that included water rights. But then, the whole thing deteriorated into a power struggle and lawsuits over "maze-like transfers of cash and authority," and at some point McElroy learned that she didn't actually own her plot, because the development wasn't authorized to sell lots that small:

I had the opportunity to ask a question of the salesman who showed my husband and me "our property." I claimed it because I fell head over heels for the most beautiful tree I've ever seen. I felt an instant connection as though the two of us were old souls who had found each other. I could believe it, I could see it... waking up each morning and having coffee under that tree, telling it about my plans for the day. Months later, in a Skype conference, I asked the then-GGC-alienated salesman, "When you 'sold' us the property, when you printed out a photo from your phone that read 'Wendy's tree,' did you know you could not legally sell us the lot you were offering?" He said, "That is correct."

That silence you hear? That's the sound of Atlas shrugging.

:smile:


The company is called Galt's Gulch Chile (GGC) and the joint owners are Jeff Berwick and Ken Johnson.

Here is Wendy McElroy's article that was quoted in the Gawker article: The Fate of Galt's Gulch Chile.

I don't know anything about this venture or the principals, but I have seen a shit storm gathering here and there online. I read a Homeric rant against Berwick on Facebook earlier today, but I don't recall who wrote it (he is a person I don't know) and I can't find it anymore.

He claimed Berwick threatened him with violence over something to do with Paraguayan passports and ended by saying that the real reason Berwick's stuff, including his own boat, keep going south on him is because of him, not a screwed-up world.

I don't know enough about Berwick to evaluate him properly, but that Galt's Gulch deal sure looks shady from my distant view. I bet he's a good storyteller, though. This only popped up in my Facebook feed because Sharon Presley commented on the rant and she wasn't too friendly about him.

(In my best fake sincere catty voice): Anyway, toodle-loo. Just thought you would like to know.

:smile:

Michael

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Plenty of Rand-y acolytes have dreamed of fleeing...

Running away like a coward is the first stupid mistake... and relying on a utopian collective to create a plug-and-play Galt's Gulch is the second.

As I see it, building Galt's Gulch means finding the way to enjoy a good life as a sovereign individual in this world exactly as it is right now. No one else will ever build it for you. You can only build it yourself.

Greg

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In the interest of consolidating information on this thread from other sides so interested readers can decide things for themselves, here is an article from a couple of days ago by Jeff Berwick:

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly on Galt's Gulch Chile

I have not read this yet, but I will. It popped up in my Facebook feed.

Michael

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Bill: Good evening this is Bill and Maryann reporting the news. Todays top story is: Sharks bites men. Some men were bitten by sharks as they tried to reel them in. Surprisingly, it took several years to sink in.

Maryann: I dont get it. Why is this news? Because they took so long to feel the bite? Aw, Bill. I dont have the heart to make any more jokes about such stupid behavior.

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Bill: Good evening this is Bill and Maryann reporting the news. Todays top story is: Sharks bites men. Some men were bitten by sharks as they tried to reel them in. Surprisingly, it took several years to sink in.

Maryann: I dont get it. Why is this news? Because they took so long to feel the bite? Aw, Bill. I dont have the heart to make any more jokes about such stupid behavior.

Peter:

Wrong window? Or, did aliens visit you last night?

A..

Hmm the quote function seems to have healed itself...

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Why Adam, this is a clear refusal to think~ I see strong parallels between the Galt's Gulch scam and a refusal to identify a shark attack. Glad the quote function is working. Now how do we get quotation marks and comma's to work while using cut and paste.

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Now how do we get quotation marks and comma's to work while using cut and paste.

Peter,

Here's what I do.

1. Copy/paste the excerpt to the following place to strip out the formatting (it is free):

Paste Bin

2. Copy/paste it from Paste Bin to OL, but don't yet publish it.

3. Do any formatting or corrections you see that need it.

4. Hit the "Post" button.

As the formatting is different from all kinds of different places on the web, the results sometimes vary, but generally not too much. The worst thing that happens to me is I sometimes have to put in spaces between paragraphs.

I have found this method to be a massive time-saver for getting uniform results.

Michael

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Why Adam, this is a clear refusal to think~ I see strong parallels between the Galt's Gulch scam and a refusal to identify a shark attack.

The real weakness is being dependent on a collective to build Galt's Gulch for you. That draws opportunistic cheats like a turd draws flies.

Greg

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Paste bin is an interesting site. Thanks, Michael. The advertisement is moving all the time and that is annoying. "Let me try some quotes and commas, etc."

And a new paragraph. To paste I needed to enable HTML then I deleted the same HTML box. Let's see what happens.

 

Nope that did not work. I will edit and then click on HTML

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I have known Wendy McElroy to be invariably principled, courageous and trustworthy. I have no doubts about the accuracy of her account. I am very sorry she was the victim of a rip-off, especially one in the name of liberty.

I too have been victimized by libertarian scamsters. However, I'm not prepared to say they are a greater threat in our movement than in the general population.

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... I'm not prepared to say they are a greater threat in our movement than in the general population.

FF,

Scammers are not prejudiced. They want the money, not ideas or ideology.

Scammers are equal-opportunity... er... partners...

:)

Of course they are not predominant in the libertarian movement. They are everywhere. I wish libertarian scammers were a bit more colorful, though. If someone has to lose their money, at least we should be able get a good story out of it.

:)

Michael

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I have known Wendy McElroy to be invariably principled, courageous and trustworthy. I have no doubts about the accuracy of her account. I am very sorry she was the victim of a rip-off, especially one in the name of liberty.

In every business transaction there is first a meeting of the minds. There is first a want or a need, then there is an offer to fulfill that want or need. But without a match of values... no transaction can take place.

Predation requires the sanction of the victim.

I too have been victimized by libertarian scamsters. However, I'm not prepared to say they are a greater threat in our movement than in the general population.

Likely less... as there are certain ideas which can be appealed to in libertarianism, that are less prevalent outside of the ideology.

Greg

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I understand these people have bought the land but not the water rights, making the growing of lemon orchards and housing people rather impossible. So it begins with fraud, a shame since they could have began as honest homesteaders. I know an Ayn Rand fan who is actually selling a plot of land next to his house in a safe and well connected location in a nice town in the southern pampas. That is more akin to a real gulch than this commercialised version.

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I understand these people have bought the land but not the water rights, making the growing of lemon orchards and housing people rather impossible. So it begins with fraud, a shame since they could have began as honest homesteaders. I know an Ayn Rand fan who is actually selling a plot of land next to his house in a safe and well connected location in a nice town in the southern pampas. That is more akin to a real gulch than this commercialised version.

You just offered a fine example of how it's better to build your own Gulch than to depend on others to build it for you.

Greg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here's another hit piece that traces the Chilean land fraud to an alleged lack of morals among libertarians in general:

"The owners would never get zoning clearance to build anything there. A fact of which the founder of Galt’s Gulch, Ken Johnson had always been aware. But, Ayn-Rand-Style rational self-interest prevailed, and he proceeded to scam all takers for every dollar they’d throw at him. Wonder where he learned that from? . . .

"For the record, though we think shipping every Libertarian in America off to Chile is a fantastic idea. Maybe we should start a crowdfunding campaign to send them there."

http://aattp.org/galts-gulch-ayn-rands-libertarian-utopia-implodes-almost-instantly-after-launching/

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This just hit Salon:

Ayn Rand’s capitalist paradise lost: The inside story of a libertarian scam

No comment so far because I haven't read it all.

Well I read it.

The author, Richard Eskow, who poses as a paragon of moral endowment and philosophical percipience, describes Rand as follows:

And let’s get one thing straight: Ayn Rand isn't a deep thinker. She’s a gelatinous mass of chaotic and violent drives, loosely wrapped in pseudo-Nietzschian babble. Her writings are intellectually shallow econo-porn, part Kraft-Ebbing and part Horatio Alger, possessing neither coherence nor philosophical depth. Rand writes that Galt’s Gulch represents “the mind on strike,” but it’s more like a work slowdown.

I want to say something about misunderstanding...

Nah... Actually I don't.

For once, I have nothing to say.

I stand in awe.

:)

Michael

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From the Vice story:

A con of this magnitude could only have existed in the libertarian community because [Johnson] used their paranoia and distrust of the government to say, ‘Put everything in a trust, I won’t tell anybody who you are, don’t let anyone find out you’re investing, and I prefer you use precious metal or Bitcoins so it can’t be traced,’” Kirley said. “It really worked out well, whether it was intentional or just the perfect storm.”

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