On The Basic Failure Of Galtism

The basic problem with Galtian philosophy and the silly people who preach it is that at its heart, it's a completely moronic paradox. One one hand, Galtism is applied selfishness: the hubris-born belief that the world will not survive your absence. It is by definition, elitism of the highest order. And yet on the other hand, Galtism is always passed off by its adherents as a populist movement where the people must band together against a common foe, the foe in this case always being the Government and whoever heads it, in this case Barack Obama.

Populist Elitism. You have to love it. At its very core Galtism is a delusion of self, making it the perfect social religion of the self-delusional GOP. One has to believe that they are the engine that drives all progress in America and by that logic, the globe, and yet Galtism always contains a minimum of pissing and moaning about how tough it is, and how The Man is always keeping you down.

Delusions of grandeur mixed with a persecution complex. Enlightened self-interest taken to its selfish endpoint, combined with consistent whinging that everyone else is the problem, the moochers and the looters and the people suckling off the government teat. Or as Rorschach famously said in Watchmen, "The people will cry out 'Save us!' And I will whisper 'no.'"

Nothing more than megalomania with a veneer of sepia-toned civility. It's the Divine Right of Kings for the Kindle Age. No wonder they love Rand so much. It allows them to de-humanize society and elevate themselves. Not the first people to do so, won't be the last.

But in the end (expanding on the Watchmen theme) what makes it so appealing to a group of maladjusted anti-social hatemongers is that Randian Galtism allows the inner child of these juvenile delinquents to pretend they are ethically tortured superheroes, cruelly fated themselves to have to decide the fates of millions for a society too corrupt to ever be allowed to decide for itself, all the while feigning moral superiority. It's all a sick game of emo LARPing to them. Paradox defined.

If you can think of a better definition for the modern GOP, I'd like to know. They've been preaching Galtism for years now.