What To Do: For Yourself and Family

I hope that as a result of AR’s writing, listening to Yaron Brook, and happening across my comments a question will cross your mind, “What should I do?” There are actually two levels to this question, the personal and the public. By “public” I mean what is normally considered activism. But you rarely see people talk about what to do personally.

Part of my answer to the question of what to do for yourself is: Live your life. Work for happiness. Enjoy yourself. While a rational man never ignores the fact that he lives a life across decades, he is only alive in the present. Don’t forget to enjoy the values you can today, especially those you have achieved.

Then there is the consideration of what to do regarding forthcoming crises. One thing to consider is what will happen to the assets that you have, e.g., your home, your investments, etc. Are any loans subject to being called? How stable are the interest rates? How safe is your income? How liquid are your assets? And so on. Don’t put your head in the sand!

For more extreme situations, in a way there is less you can do.

You hear of people buying guns and canned food. Any of that might be of use in a situation that is brief, but afterwards, even if you are set for a couple years, what do you do then. What you would need is a long-term solution, which ultimately means being in a safe community.

One then tends to think of Galt’s Gulch. I do. Remember that it was a private estate and people came by invitation only. It was defended. The rest of the country, by contrast, collapsed.

The idea of Galt’s Gulch was that people who understood Galt’s message wanted to be together to the extent possible for enjoyment and safety.

Today, a few Objectivists get together on occasion, briefly. Many say they want to, but don’t. Few do business with each other. In a way, there is no community. I am aware of no efforts to seriously consider a way for us to survive a crises (it should be relatively secret). On our current road, we will suffer to the same extent as the rest of the population, even though we understand what is happening and know that it will end in disaster!

That doesn’t seem like the rational thing to do.