I’m not intending to get too political on this blog, but I decided to post this video at this time due to some conversations I have been having in online mediums. One that triggered this in particular was a fellow Englishman (I presume) who, in response to a discussion about Nigel Farage of UKIP stated that –

‘…its no good being “right”, you have to be successful.’

This is the kind of apologist nonsense that makes me frustrated. I gave a reply to this person along the lines of the fact that it’s people who are ‘right’ who are precisely what we need right now across the world, regardless of whether they are ‘successful’. Many of the ‘successful’ in the world (in this context) are currently there, not by merit but by favour. Consequently, they are only successful in one misleading sense of the word.

It’s the other types of success that count. If everyone gave up on telling the truth in order to grease the wheels and gain a dishonourable kind of success, where would that leave the disenfranchised masses? Where would that take us? We already have too many people talking from the side of their mouths in this manner.

I have no idea if Mr. Farage is purely a shill, placed there to placate those disenfranchised masses. It’s only wise to consider this possibility but I would rather have a possible shill speaking the truth than no-one at all fighting my corner. Mr. Farage is a modern day David who is taking on Goliath. Those who would criticise him in this way, for not being ‘successful’ are possibly shills themselves.

There are three quotes from Ayn Rand’s great book Atlas Shrugged that really strike a chord with me currently, because I feel that they accurately sum up the state of the world and how this affects self-starters with entrepreneurial intentions – you know, ExRats.

‘When a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law, men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims, then money becomes its creators’ avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they’ve passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.’

‘When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion- When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing- when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors- when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you- when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice- you may know that your society is doomed.’

‘When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, ‘Who is destroying the world?’ You are.’