]]> jessica biel bikini mishap]]> ]]> hand in history. God does not call us to pray to frustrate us or defeat us. We have prayed and God has answered. Let us not ignore what God has done or be ungrateful. Let us give thanks for answers to prayer for the revival that has begun and let us continue – with thanksgiving - to express the deep yearnings of our hearts for God to do more much more. You must read this very perceptive and challenging book particularly if you have a heart for revival and you long for God to break into our nation. Ashley Cloete is a man of wisdom insight and a diligent understanding of church history. He has hope for South Africa. Floyd McClungAll Nationswww floydandsally orgIntroductionEver since the beginning of being a follower of Jesus more consciously prayer has been fairly central to my life and ministry although I would not dare to call myself a committed intercessor. In 1961 I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour. A major turning point in my life occurred when two teenage friends invited me to the evangelistic outreach of the Students’ Christian Association (SCA) at the seaside resort of Harmony Park that was scheduled to start just after Christmas at the end of 1964. At the beginning of 1963 I had recommitted myself to serving the Lord but I still felt spiritually empty and bankrupt before that evangelistic outreach. How could one go and share the gospel with others in such a state? In desperation I cried to the Lord to equip me! He heard my heart’s cry and divinely touched me. I sensed the power of the Holy Spirit taking hold of me. Now I was ready for the outreach there in Harmony Park! To me this was revival; I was spiritually revived!After one of the evangelistic evening services I received my introduction to ‘spiritual warfare' when Esau Jacobs a young pastor known as Jakes entered the tent after he had a long conversation with a camper. He said that we would not be able to make any head‑way in such confrontations without prayer and fasting. The Harmony Park evangelistic outreach influenced my life in yet another way: I received an urge to network with the Body of Christ with people from different church backgrounds. Two Dutch Reformed Mission Church ministers. Jakes and Ds Piet Bester of the Moria Sendingkerk in Tiervlei (Ravensmead) became my role models and mentors during the next few years. I still had to discover the true Moravian heritage into which I had been born and bred. After my special divine encounter before my first Harmony Park beach outreach. I started to attend the early prayer meetings every Sunday morning at six o’clock at the Moria Sendingkerk where Ds Piet Bester was the minister. One Sunday morning a mini-revival erupted there when suddenly everybody started praying simultaneously. That was quite revolutionary for the era causing some disquiet among the traditional reformed believers. It was significant that women from different churches were meeting each other regularly for prayer at this time. This confirmed for me the special blessing of united prayer. Years later we would put this to good effect in Zeist (Holland) in the 1980s and back in Cape Town since our return in 1992. I have also discerned ever more clearly as time went on that racial and ecclesiastic divisions were hampering a deep work of the Holy Spirit. The need for racial reconciliation and the attempt to help close the gap not only between ‘ecumenicals’ and ‘evangelicals’ but also between the rich and the poor became quite important to me. Opposing the demonic tenets of church rivalry and competition by stressing the unity of the Body of Christ and fighting the diabolic economic disparity and structural injustice in a low-key way were to become other facets of my personal ministry. Although success was hardly visible on the shorter term we have been blessed to discover that our efforts were not completely in vain. Finally. I thank God especially for a wonderful wife and supportive children whom God could use in different ways in my life. For the material that I have been able to collate over the years there are so many people from whom I gleaned it. Individual acknowledgement would be almost impossible. I wish to thank all of those involved generally but nevertheless very cordially. A special vote of thanks is appropriate for Wendy Ryan a Christian from Trinidad (West Indies) who edited the manuscript. A great 'thank you' also to Heidi Pasques and Claudia Taylor who assisted with earlier manuscripts predecessors of the present book. I am very grateful for Jericho Walls and Floyd McClung the leader of the church planting agency for permission to reprint and amend his article in the September to November 2008 edition slightly in stead of the more usual forward. 1. The run-up to the first Cape RevivalsSometimes the impression is spread that revival is solely divine intervention with little or nothing from man's side. The first colonists at the Cape definitely did not sow seeds for revival. This was done by a bilingual Dutch dominee after his retirement and hard years of toiling amongst the resistant Khoi by the first missionary to South Africa the German Georg Schmidt. Racial Prejudice entrenchedAs a rule. European colonists came to the Cape with racial arrogance. The prowess of Western civilization served to entrench racism which had already been prevalent for centuries. The Greek classification of ‘Hellenes and barbarians’ - which was fairly neutral with hardly any racial connotation - was replaced by ‘Christians and heathens.’ The former (i e. Christians) were Europeans and the latter (so-called heathens) the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Africa and all new areas that were discovered. It required a ruling from Pope Paul III with his edict of 1537 to decide that Indians were human! And yet. ‘Bushmen’. ‘Hottentotten’ and slaves at the Cape remained sub-human in the eyes of Westerners,1 like game that could be hunted down. Cape Colonists were indoctrinated with a theology in which racism was rationalized and defended. Thus dark-skinned people were ‘distinguished from Whites because they were said to have been created with the animals on the sixth day. Hence they were excluded from the Garden of Eden which was a white paradise!’ It has been suggested that ‘racism as a racial ideology owes its origin - in our Western cultural history - to attempts at a moral justification of slavery as a social institution’. From this basis it easily developed in South Africa to a defence mechanism and justification for racial prejudice and apartheid namely ‘the preservation and safeguarding of vested (in this case ‘white’) interests.’Moral Degradation at the CapeStrong drink rink played a central part in the popular culture and leisure of the working population of the Mother City. Dutch sailors had a reputation in Europe for being heavy drinkers. The widespread alcoholism in ‘Coloured’ society has its early roots not only on the wine farms of the free burghers and other colonists but even further back. Jan van Riebeeck cannot be blamed that he introduced the vine to the Cape but he was guilty in other ways. He would for instance intoxicate Khoi and rob them of their land under the guise of ‘bartering’.2 Furthermore at the Castle itself drinking ‘appeared to be the most dominant form of recreation’The Dutch colonizers speedily sunk into grave moral degradation. The German counterparts were no better. Adultery became part of the culture with the odd farmer making even a virtue out of his infidelity: ‘Many a farmer was the father of his slave children whom he could sell’. Light-complexioned slaves even gained a better price for the owner!The situation was only checked to a great extent by the pious French Huguenots who arrived from 1688. The renowned church historian Du Plessis described the situation picturesquely: ‘During the dark days of spiritual declension… deeds of individual charity on the part of the pious Huguenots towards the stricken natives stand out in bold relief.’Early evangelistic beginnings in the Mother City The first serious effort of swimming against the stream of racial and religious prejudice in the 18th century at the Cape is said to have been that of the Ds Henricus Beck a Groote Kerk minister and previously the second minister to the French Huguenots. At Drakenstein (the later Paarl) where he had started in 1702 a new Muslim background believer was confirmed in 1703. It is reported that Beck evangelized the slaves at the Cape – many of them Muslims - after his retirement in 1731. He preached in earlier years to the first group of refugees to the Cape the persecuted French Huguenots on alternate Sundays in French and Dutch. A group of evangelical Christians gathered around Ds Beck. His pioneering labour provided the foundation for the ministry of the first missionary to South Africa the dynamic German Moravian missionary Georg Schmidt who started lively Christian groups. In different parts of the world Christian missionaries played a major role not only in the fight against ideologies and barbarism but also in protecting the indigenous people against colonial exploitation and of course in the spread of the Gospel. South Africa was no exception with Georg Schmidt the great pioneer. The prayerful Schmidt was scoffed at by the colonists for wanting to reach out to the Wilden the indigenous Khoisan whom they disparagingly called Hottentotten and Bosjesmannetjes. The German pioneer had initially been scorned and mocked for daring to attempt to civilize Khoi. Georg Schmidt was the first Christian cleric outside of the Reformed ranks to operate at the Cape. The Moravian missionary was exemplary in so many ways networking with the local church and starting a missionary movement in which indigenous believers were to play a big role. Schmidt initially experienced nothing but kindness from the government at the Cape. The ridicule of the colonists however turned into enmity when word got around that the indigenous Khoi had actually started to learn reading. That Georg Schmidt baptised Khoi brought a new dimension of opposition towards missionary work. Labour of Love and Patience of HopeSchmidt gradually overcame the apathy of his flock with ‘labour of love and patience of hope’. By 1742 he was very frustrated after long years of toil and with little to show for it but then the fruit came in the form of three male converts. Schmidt came to the Mother City to greet his compatriots Nitschmann and Eller two Moravian missionaries en route from Ceylon (the modern-day Sri Lanka) from where they had been deported. The visit to the Mother City with his convert Willem resulted in unprecedented interest among colonists and officials. During this visit Schmidt received his letter of ordination from Count Zinzendorf. Thus at last in March 1742 he had authority to baptize suitable candidates. The Count encouraged him in the same letter to baptize his converts ‘where you shot the rhino’ i e at the river. Schmidt thus succeeded - against all odds and contrary to all expectations - to convert Khoi baptizing them in or at the Sergeant’s River. To the Cape church authorities this was unacceptable the ordination having being signed by a foreign denomination. After the baptism of five converts in 1742 he was forbidden to baptize more Khoi. We can hardly comprehend the thinking that caused a government to forbid missionaries to baptize their indigenous converts. This is exactly what happened to Georg Schmidt. He was promptly called to book because he had not heeded the warning albeit that the Calvinists had a convenient formal excuse: Schmidt was regarded as ‘not properly ordained’. Count Zinzendorf the leader of their church had only ordained Schmidt by letter. In the conversion and baptism of the female Vehettge Tikkuie one of Schmidt’s converts there was a clear supernatural element. He had initially only attended to males. At first Georg Schmidt found only three men suitable for baptism. He only proceeded to test Vehettge Tikkuie’s Bible knowledge on 4 April 1742. Quite prejudiced against females he did not expect much but Schmidt was very surprised by her answers. He had little choice than to baptize the intelligent Khoi woman giving her the name of Magdalena surely hoping that like her biblical namesake she would spread the news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This she definitely did. She had been exceptional in every way progressing quickly from the Dutch ABC manual to reading the ‘New Testament’3 in that language. Georg Schmidt was already resented much because of his moralising around their drinking and immoral life-style of the colonists. That he now actually succeeded not only in converting and baptising ‘Wilden’ but also in teaching them to read the New Testament elicited massive hatred and resentment. So many of the colonists were still illiterate themselves!!!A threat to the church?Schmidt was hereafter regarded as a threat. The three Dutch Reformed dominees at the Cape. Le Seur (Groote Kerk) van Gendt (Stellenbosch) and Van Echten (Drakenstein) referred to Schmidt unbecomingly in a letter to their church authorities as ‘the so-called Hottentot converter’ who pretended to convert ‘the blind Hottentots’. On formal grounds they asserted that the converts were not sufficiently instructed and that Schmidt was not ordained. They referred to Zinzendorf’s letter of ordination in very disparaging terms. Their real problem comes through in a sentence that was added as a sort of afterthought: ‘ook mogen geen bejaarden worden gedoopt dan in de kerken voor de gantsche gemeente’ (my bold italics. A paraphrase of the sentence is that they could not palate it that Schmidt baptized in the river and not in a church.)Pressure was successfully exerted by the three ministers to get Schmidt sent back to Germany and Schmidt’s position became extremely unpleasant ‘if not untenable’. Schmidt’s own report on the discussions around his baptism of the five Khoi converts - which can be found in his diary - is quite charitable completely devoid of bitterness or vengeance against the dominees who tormented him. He still hoped that the differences could be resolved. However neighbouring farmers instigated the indigenous Khoi of Baviaanskloof and surroundings so successfully that many of them left the mission post. It seemed as though Schmidt’s work in Baviaanskloof was doomed a complete failure. Impact of Schmidt’s ConvertsSchmidt must have impacted the lives of his Khoi congregants in Baviaanskloof. His prayerful example continued to influence events at the Cape almost fifty years after he was all but forced to leave. It has been reported that Schmidt continued to pray for his Khoi flock without a shepherd in Africa until old age in the East German village of Niesky where he went to be with his Lord in August 1785. The seed that Schmidt had sown at the Cape during his stint of not even seven years germinated both in the Mother City and in Baviaanskloof the later Genadendal. Schmidt was said to have been ‘a man of strong faith and a prayer warrior’. Apparently this example rubbed off on his converts – on Vehettge Tikkuie who got the name Magdalena at her baptism. Khoi Christians reported that she was often found on her knees in prayer. On top of this she taught the believers from the New Testament which she had received from Georg Schmidt before his enforced departure. On Sundays ‘de oude Lena’ would walk to the pear tree where Georg Schmidt had preached to read the New Testament and pray with her folk. Almost 50 years after Schmidt had left. Khoi witnesses said that they came together at her home every evening where she prayed with them. If one takes the finance minister of Ethiopia mentioned in Acts 8 as the absolute first indigenous evangelist we can now say that Magdalena was definitely the first one of Sub Saharan Africa. But she was also the first known indigenous female church planting evangelist of all time. Quite soon after the arrival off the dynamic Ds. Helperus van Lier at the Cape the legacy of Schmidt worked through when Van Lier was present at the deathbed of one of the missionary pioneer’s converts. He saw how the Khoi believer died ‘in volkome rus en vrede van sy siel en in vertroue op die Here.’4 It made such a deep impression on Van Lier that he mentioned this in one of his letters to his uncle Professor Petrus Hofstede an influential academic in Rotterdam who was at that stage still an opponent of the Moravian brethren. Van Lier became a major instrument in getting the Moravians back to the Cape in 1792 but he was instrumental in sowing the seed for the first mini-revival at the Cape. The Run-up to the first mini-Revival at the CapeAs a result of the vision of the young reformed pastor. Dr Helperus van Lier about 60 Christians in Cape Town and its surroundings set aside one day in the week as early as 1788 for the religious teaching of ‘the heathen’ at the Zuid-Afrikaanse Gesticht in Long Street which is now a missionary museum. Cape Town evangelicals were among the worldwide leaders in this regard at that time - not far behind the Moravians of Herrnhut in Germany and Bethlehem (Pennsylvania. USA). A local newspaper the Zuid-Afrikaansche Tijdschrift reported in 1824: ‘When people in many parts of Europe were still discussing whether slaves and heathen should believe and whether they could be taught they had already started with that work in this Colony’. The church members met on certain days of the week for prayer and mutual edification also giving religious teaching to the slaves and Khoikhoi in their service. A ‘revolution’ for which the Lord used Ds van Lier was the change in the attitude of many White believers towards slaves and other people of colour. In those days slaves were initially not allowed near the entrance of the church after the closing of services and they were punished if they dared to attend the funeral of one of the colonists. The prejudice against missionaries was still prevalent when Van Lier arrived but the youthful minister dared to challenge the church through his fiery sermons and personal example. The young dominee literally caused a spiritual revolution at the Cape shortening the duration of sermons and prayers during church services. He also increased house visitation. Believers were encouraged to get involved with the spreading of the Gospel. The historian Theal reports that when Van Lier was in the pulpit people hardly dared to sleep in church because ‘at times it seemed as if he would jump from the pulpit’. Furthermore his preaching was full of earnest appeals and ‘…women were often moved to tears and sometimes fell into hysterics’. Van Lier was very zealous spending much of his time visiting people from door to door ‘.. holding prayer meetings and encouraging works of benevolence.’Van Lier was a great visionary seeing the need for learning the heart language of the people to be reached with the Gospel. He was one of the first to start learning Malayu the trade language with the object of reaching out to the Cape Muslim slaves. The international influence of Van LierThe young preacher Van Lier almost single-handedly set the evangelical world ablaze. His letters from the Cape to Europe were very influential indeed. His testimony - in the form of six letters to Rev John Newton - was originally written in Latin and translated by the well-known poet William Cowper. The title of the booklet is: Power of Grace illustrated in six letters from a Minister of the Reformed church to the Rev John Newton. (It was published in Edinburgh by Campbell and Wallace. 1792). Van Lier’s story of the influence of divine grace in his life seems to have made a lasting impression on Newton who belonged to the ‘inner circle of (slave) abolitionists’ - especially when one considers that the famous hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ came from Newton’s pen. Van Lier’s humility came through when he insisted that a pseudonym Christodulus. (slave of Christ) and not his own name would be used with the publication. It is only natural that the prayer chain at Herrnhut would have included intercession for their bishop Reichel on his trip to the East. But no one probably envisaged that this would lead so soon to the resumption of their missionary work at Baviaanskloof the later Genadendal. This was partly due to Van Lier the mission-minded new dominee whom Reichel met at the Cape. Various letters of Van Lier had the goal of getting the Moravians back. In Europe there was a significant increase in missionary interest towards the end of the 18th century. The 24-hour Moravian prayer chain in Herrnhut that started in 1727 was definitely still going strong and in England evangelicalism was gaining ground. The effect of William Carey’s book. An enquiry into the obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathens (1792) was quite pervasive in Britain and North America. Intensive prayer preceded the revival of 1792-1820 when no less than twelve mission agencies came into being. In London and Rotterdam two interdenominational missionary societies were founded in 1795 and 1797 respectively. Van Lier's correspondence continued to have an impact in Europe. Through his evangelical zeal Van Lier along with William Carey’s book definitely laid the foundations for a missionary society at the Cape. Van Lier’s letter may have influenced his uncle not only to attack the internal ‘onverdraagzaamheid’ (intolerance) in the church in Holland but also to challenge the general arrogant attitude towards ‘de heidenen’ (the pagans). God used Hofstede to such an extent that religious tolerance increased significantly in the Netherlands towards the end of the 18thcentury. Tragically. Van Lier was not around to see the actual founding of the first missionary society outside of Europe at the Cape in April 1799. Van Lier had already died of tuberculosis in March 1793 at the age of only 28 years. The counter attack of the Church and the ColonistsThe majority of the materialistic colonists sadly rejected the slaves outright even in the Groote Kerk and the Lutheran church. Just as bad was what was happening on the farms. The workers who came to Baviaanskloof where three new Moravian missionaries arrived in 1792 had been told by some of the farmers that they were not equal to them and that it was therefore impossible for them to enter heaven. The negative attitude of the farmers however made the Khoi inquisitive. In the Genadendal Diaries one reads in the entry for 5 September 1794: ‘.. they have heard the farmers say many bad things about us... So they wanted to come and see and hear for themselves.’The second Cape Mini-RevivalThe spiritual hunger of the Khoi at Genadendal the new name of Baviaanskloof has been attributed to the prayers of the Americans during the second great awakening there. The 24-hour prayer watch of the Moravians in Europe and America plus the faithful prayer of Georg Schmidt until the time of his death - along with those of his convert Magdalena in Baviaanskloof - will have been just as contributory. It is interesting to note that the three Genadendal missionaries - - Kühnel. Marsveld and Schwinn - recorded in their diary the instance of a man who ‘dreamt that three would come to teach them... They (the Khoi) say that they spoke about it often because they very much wished for it to happen’. In the diaries of these three missionaries one reads again and again of Khoi coming to them desiring to know more wanting to accept the Lord into their lives wishing to be baptized. Evidently the Holy Spirit had prepared these people through dreams and visions. On a daily basis the new Genadendal missionaries were overwhelmed by questions such as ‘What must I do to be saved?’ It is striking that those who came to faith in Christ also sought protection against Satanic forces. People came to Baviaanskloof from everywhere drawn to the mission station as if by a magnet. Some of those from the Cape testified to the obvious: ‘.. this is God’s work no one can hinder it though many are trying’. The third Cape Mini-RevivalIn the case of the other indigenous Cape people group the San called the Bosjesmannetjes divine intervention was no less spectacular. In order to reach the people described as a race that stood 'at a lower stage socially and religiously than any other race upon the surface of the globe’. God initially used a devout colonist. Floris Visser the excellent field-cornet. He was described by the church historian Du Plessis as ‘a man of character and piety whose custom it was even when journeying to gather his companions and then to offer prayer and sing a psalm both morning and night.’Even the San people were deeply impressed by the devotion of Visser and his fellow Boers. Soon they expressed an earnest desire to get to know the God of the Dutchmen. Visser promised to assist them suggesting that they go to Cape Town to present their request there for a teacher or missionary. Two ‘Bushmen’ and a Koranna two of whom had been given the rather derogatory Dutch names Oorlams and Slaparm arrived in Cape Town at the very time when the first four missionaries of the LMS set foot on the shores of Table Bay. This can be regarded as the pristine beginning of the significant work for which Robert Moffat was to become known throughout the British Empire. Missionary work in StellenboschMeuwes Janse Bakker settled in Stellenbosch after he miraculously survived a shipwreck off the coast of South America. He decided to devote his life to missionary work among the ‘heathen’ at the Cape buying a house in Dorp Street. Stellenbosch in 1798. Bakker immediately taught a few slave children there. When the South African Missionary Society (SAMS) started at the ZA Gesticht in the Mother City he and the deacon J. N. Desch were the correspondents in Stellenbosch. In spite of the reluctance of their dominee the Church Council supported Bakker. In no time he was the SAMS missionary in Stellenbosch. Slaves attended the afternoon services in his home which soon became too small. Bakker left for further training in missionary work in Holland the next year returning in 1801 with one big goal: that his property would be used for the extension of the Kingdom. The Impact of an EarthquakeThe Church and the colonists at the Cape started becoming disinterested in reaching out in love to the slaves yet again. But God intervened - surely because of the prayers of the faithful few elsewhere. God sometimes appears to supernaturally use natural disasters to shake people out of their indifference and lethargy. An earthquake on 4 December 1809 at the Cape caused not only an 8-day revival and a significant increase in evangelicals but it also imparted a new urge towards missionary work among the slaves. During the earthquake not a single person was killed but the people fled in fear and watched horrified as the city was shaken as if by the fury of a giant hand. The Methodist military officer Kendrick wrote on 20 November 1810 that it was the greatest thing that could have happened as soldiers and civilians turned to God in prayer and pleaded for mercy. Many persons were led to think seriously about the salvation of their souls. A weekly prayer meeting was started every Saturday evening in addition to the monthly one which continued for many years. Kendrick mentions revivals at Cape Town and at Wynberg at this time. By 1812 there were 142 men in the Methodist Society ‘all of whom experience the Love of God shed abroad in their hearts’. The 1809 earthquake impacted the South African Missionary Society (SAMS) in many ways. Jacobus Henricus Beck a Cape colonist who had joined the SAMS was deeply touched by the earthquake. Before long he was on his way to the Netherlands. Scotland and England for theological training. (Later he became the first pastor of the congregation formed at the ZA Gesticht.)Another Cape colonist who was impacted deeply by the earthquake was Martinus Casparus Petrus Vogelgezang. He was a teacher who also went for missionary training. Later Vogelgezang became a powerful preacher and church planter at the Cape. He started the first denominationally independent church. Undeterred by the rebuff from the big church at the Cape the evangelist Vogelgezang preached the Gospel among the slaves with unprecedented zeal. He initially operated from his shoemaker’s shop in Rose Street a part of present-day Bo-Kaap. That Vogelgezang gained the respect of his ecumenical contemporaries is demonstrated by the fact that various ministers of other denominations were present at his ordination in February 1839 in the Union Chapel on Church Square including Dr John Philip and Rev Robert Moffat of the London Missionary Society. In the course of time the zealous clergyman planted a few churches bringing the Gospel to the Muslims with much authority and conviction.2. Roots of Cape spiritual RenewalThe roots of the first Global Day of Prayer in 2005 and its aftermath can be easily traced to the 1860 revival of the Western Cape that started in the church where the well-known Dr Andrew Murray was the minister. That revival has been described as a result of teamwork. How the 1860 Revival StartedIt has been reported that his father. Ds Andrew Murray (sr) had prayed for revival every Friday evening since 1822. By 1860 he would thus have prayed for 38 years. The gifted young dominee (reverend) Andrew Murray who had just come to Worcester prior to this would be impacted during the revival along with thousands in the Western Cape. The younger Andrew Murray appears to have at least matched his father as a prayerful minister of the Word. ‘The golden ray of prayer illumined all he did... He believed that nothing that was amiss and demanded correction could not be corrected or endured by prayer.’ A significant contribution to the 1860 Worcester revival came from the nearby town of Rawsonville. From approximately 1850 in this town two ladies prayed regularly for revival. In Montagu another Boland town of the region three believers came together for early morning prayer on Sundays from the beginning of January 1860. Then there was the missionary conference in Worcester in April 1860 attended by three hundred and seventy preachers and laymen from different denominations. That can be regarded as the immediate run-up to the revival. The fervent prayer of a young 'Coloured' girl provided the spark to ignite the revival. When the great Andrew Murray was still stalling expecting things to happen in a more traditional way an outsider a visitor from abroad had to warn him not to resist the work of the Holy Spirit. Commonalities of a special work of the Holy Spirit manifested themselves in Worcester as they had also been occurring in Herrnhut (Eastern Germany) with the revival of 1727 and the missionary movement from there in 1731. Dissention among the believers between May 1727 and 13 August of the same year caused a serious disruption around peripheral doctrinal differences. This drove a significant kernel of prayer warriors around the Count Zinzendorf to their knees. In 1731 God used the beatings on the back of Anton a slave from the West Indian island of St. Thomas as the spark to get the Moravian missionaries to the ends of the earth. The same common elements were also present in the Cape's earlier revivals of 1809 and 1838. At first there was turmoil followed by unexpected divine interventions – on 4 December 1809 there was an earthquake and in 1838 the pending emancipation of the slaves caused tremendous turmoil becoming a direct cause of the Great Trek of Dutch colonists into the interior. The unity of followers of Jesus across church and nationality barriers turned the tide on all these occasions. At the Worcester 1860 event the Presbyterian Dr James Adamson set the tone with a report at the conference of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in America and the conditions for revival. Ds Andrew Murray (sr.) was so overawed by the same topic that he burst into tears. A passionate prayer by his son and namesake stirred the hearts of many so much so that it has been suggested that this was the spark that ignited the revival. Montagu was the first place to experience spiritual renewal under Rev James Cameron a Methodist minister. It started in May 1860 with three prayer meetings a day. There was also great conviction of sin and confession and people came from Worcester. Wellington and Paarl to observe and experience it. Revival curtailed by religious Pride and Racism The 1860 revival had a deep effect on society at large. Sadly it was curtailed by the cancer of South African society racial and religious pride. I deem it important to briefly trace the roots of this phenomenon. It does not credit the churches at the Cape that hardly any effort was made to reach the slaves - many of whom were Muslim - with the Gospel up to 1838. A lack of perseverance was prevalent combined with a tendency to go for softer targets than the resistant Muslims. Support from the colonists in the missionary work was not forthcoming at all. Financial assistance to this end dried up possibly also as a backlash to the involvement of Dr Philip who was regarded as ‘political’ by church people because he saw people of colour as the equals in God's sight of the European colonists. (This demonstrates the deep roots of the fallacious unbiblical perception that a good Christian should stay aloof from ‘politics’.) On a personal note ever since I discovered how the publication of the maligned Dr Philip’s two-volumed Researches in South Africa in 1828 was a major factor in the run-up to the final emancipation of slaves worldwide the yearning was birthed in me to be available as a divine instrument to get people set free from all sorts of bondage including racial and religious slavery. Cape Churches work togetherA lone exception to the racial arrogance of the time was the Zuid-Afrikaanse Gesticht. There Lutherans. Reformed believers and other Christians were worshipping together with the common goal to reach the spiritually lost with the Gospel. There the first missionary society outside Europe started in 1799. The efforts of missionaries led to the networking of the Cape churches around the time of the slave emancipation in 1838. The cordial harmonious relationship among churches seems to have continued for quite a few years. A special feature of the Cape missionary effort of the early 19th century was the apparent lack of denominational rivalry. The Presbyterian Dr James Adamson and the Lutheran Rev Georg Wilhelm Stegmann even engaged in combined endeavours. Soon after his ordination as a Lutheran minister. Stegmann not only felt the need to do something for the slaves but he also started with a related ministry in Plein Street in the Mother City. He was asked by Adamson to join him in the outreach to the ‘Coloureds’. Hereafter Stegmann became a regular preacher at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Green Point. At St Andrew’s. Adamson would preach in English in the morning and Stegmann in Dutch during the late afternoon service. A special event to highlight the emancipation of the slaves in December 1838 was organized at the Scottish Church - as St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Green Point was generally known. (Hence the name Schotse Kloof was given to the area where the ministers were residing). An unprecedented revival spirit swept through the Cape. After the abolition of slavery in 1838 there was a rush of freed slaves into the city. Many deserted their former owners in the agricultural areas. As a rule these newly urbanized freed slaves turned to Islam with little exposure to the Gospel. Long before this the saying soon had gone around ‘De zwarte kerk is de slamse kerk.’5Racial Prejudice infects the ChurchIt is sad that church leaders at the Cape appear to have been the instigators of racial prejudice. Even though a separate school for colonist children had been started in 1663 there were still slave and Khoi children in all the schools at the Cape until 1876. The germ of apartheid seems to have been spread by a complete identification of the Dutch Church with Israel. The so-called replacement theology that was generally taught or erroneously implied regarded the Church as the new Israel. The indigenous population was equated to the Philistines to be conquered or eliminated rather than evangelised. The indigenous people the Khoi-San were in their eyes merely “Hottentotten' and 'Bosjesmannetjes'. 'Wilden' which could be hunted down like game. Slaves were semi-people just a small step above other categories of living beings. All this added to the racial superiority which Europeans already had in respect of all races other than White. This made missionary work superfluous. The one-off instruction of Jesus not to bring the Gospel to Samaritans and Gentiles (Matthew 15:24; 10; 5-6) became the norm completely ignoring the great commission of Jesus to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28: 19-20). Just like the Jewish racial prejudice which did not discern that the issue at the heart of the divine prohibition of racial mixing was idolatry the Dutch Colonists regarded it as divine injunction to keep themselves separate from the ‘heathen nations’. A major cause of the Great Trek into the interior was because certain missionaries regarded people of colour as their equals. At the time of the emancipation in 1838 the slaves were still rejected at the first Cape churches but in Onderkaap (the later District Six) mixed congregations started. The Methodists had a racially mixed congregation as early as 1837. In 1854 it is recorded that there were 200 Whites and 150 ‘Coloureds’ on its roll.6 That this racial breakdown is specifically mentioned suggests that the apartheid spirit could have expanded significantly somewhere between 1837 and 1854. Disunity Hinders Revival It seems that Adamson and Stegmann were different from contemporary clergymen. They were completely accepted by people of colour. The Centenary Record of St Andrew’s mentions ‘the unsatisfactory arrangement’ as a reason for the discontent that developed after Rev George Morgan successor to Dr Adamson joined the mission to the slaves. Dr Haasbroek a Dutch Reformed church historian highlighted the concrete reason for the discontent - the slaves were not happy with Rev Morgan. This was exploited by Stegmann. The split that occurred at St Andrew’s in 1842 was clearly the result of personal rivalry between Stegmann/Adamson and Rev. Morgan. At a time when the missionary work started to flourish there occurred division in the St Andrew’s Church. It all started when Dr Adamson was in Scotland. In his absence Stegmann was acting minister thus officiating at both the Lutheran and Presbyterian churches. Rev. Morgan was appointed as the successor of Dr Adamson in 1841. He was proficient in the Dutch language and consequently took a more active part in the teaching and preaching activities at St Andrew’s Mission. Morgan as the new incumbent minister wanted to preach every alternate Sunday at the much better attended evening services but Stegmann was not willing to share the pulpit with him in this way. The German appears to have been unreasonable insisting on officiating at all the evening services of St Andrew’s. Morgan promptly refused Stegmann permission to continue to preach there. After Adamson’s return from overseas he sided with Stegmann. Hereafter the German was more or less forced to leave the church. By this time meetings and school classes for slave children were held at the old theater the Komediehuis in Bree Street. Adamson had brought along funds from Britain for the purchase of the building. On 20 April 1842 a ‘vergadering van ontevredenheid’ (a meeting of dissatisfaction) took place at this venue. Stegmann implored the big slave audience to return to the Scottish Church but only one person responded positively. The rest refused. He had however caused much of the discontent himself. The former theatre that hereafter functioned as a separate church for freed slaves called forth the anger of the colonists. Hearing about slave children being taught in the building complex enraged the colonists terribly. In the course of the protest the angry colonists pelted the building at Riebeeck Square with stones. Hence the church got the name St Stephen’s named after the first Christian martyr who was stoned to death. A Revival smotheredIn the ministry of Stegmann his heart for the lost shone through especially for the Muslims. Ds Davie Pypers whose call to St Stephen’s in Bo-Kaap in 1956 was soon followed by a burden for the Cape Muslims describes Stegmann as fiery in spirit powerful in the word and a hero in prayer. Stegmann has been typified as a man 'met gebedsworsteling en herlewingsgees'.7 This is illustrated by words from Stegmann’s diary: 'Oh how heavy does the case of the poor deluded Mohammedans hang on my mind.. oh Lord how long shall they continue in darkness.. open the door send out Thy servants.'Apparently Stegmann had some notion of spiritual warfare. It is reported that the conversion of souls was the primary goal of his ministry and that he was a ‘warrior of God and an attacker of the strongholds of Satan.’ The Lord used Stegmann’s powerful preaching to convict the congregation on 5 November 1843 in such a way that a church member evidently overpowered by the Holy Spirit exclaimed aloud towards the end of the sermon 'Lord have mercy' and fainted. A hush fell over the church and thereafter the whole congregation burst out in tears in a typical revival scenario. Stegmann was quite self-critical when the near revival appears to have been smothered a few months further on. He took a part of the blame when he conceded in August 1844 with regard to the spiritual warfare: ‘What a havoc Satan has been making in poor St Stephen’s lately so that with my own inward corruption and the perverse walk of many... I am ready to sink down.’It seems that Stegmann and Adamson did not discern the feasibility of confession on behalf of the churches for the treatment meted out to slaves in the decades immediately prior to and coinciding with the start of his ministry. That could have arrested the back-sliding into old patterns of racial arrogance. Prayer as a special KeyDr Andrew Murray put in practice what he had taught about ‘waiting on the Lord’ when he was invited to be a speaker at the World Missions’ conference in New York. 1900 - billed as the biggest ever to be held. (At this time the effect of the Enlightenment and Rationalism had significantly diminished the belief in unseen forces like the Holy Spirit.) Murray had no inner peace about going to New York not even after the organizers tried to use his famous friend Dr Dwight Moody to entice him by inviting Murray to join him in outreaches in the USA after the World Missions’ conference. But he was not to be swayed. He felt morally bound to stay with his people because of the South African War (1899-1902).8Murray’s subsequent absence at the conference ironically became the biggest driving force of missions in the 20th century. After he had received the papers and discussions at the conference. Murray jotted down what he thought was lacking at the event. The result was a booklet that he gave the title The Key to the Missionary Problem. This booklet had an explosive influence on the churches in Europe. America and South Africa. In the booklet Murray referred prominently to the 24-hour prayer watch example of the Moravians. He called seriously for new devotion and intensive prayer for missions. Murray powerfully stated that missionary work is the primary task of the church and that the pastor should have that as the main goal of his preaching. These sentiments were repeated in a small booklet that he called Foreign Missions and the week of Prayer. January 5-12. 1902 - stating that ‘missions are the supreme end of the church’. He furthermore suggested: ‘to join in united prayer for God’s Spirit to work in home churches a true interest in and devotion to missions (is) our first and our most pressing need.’Murray summarized the link between the Holy Spirit and missions as follows: ‘No one can expect to have the Holy Ghost unless he is prepared to be used for missions. Missions are the mission of the Holy Ghost.’ The first of the triennial General Missionary Conferences was convened in 1904. It was very much prepared through prayer. These conferences surely contributed greatly in the run-up to the world event in Edinburgh in 1910. Throughout his booklet The Key to the missionary Problem Murray highlights prayer as the major single factor to change the world. He states over and over again that the problem is a personal one. We have this key in our own hands: ‘We feel that our only hope is to apply ourselves to prayer. Prayer more prayer much prayer very special prayer should first of all be made for the work to be done in our home churches on behalf of foreign missions’. About the priority of the work of the Holy Spirit and the power of prayer. Murray also said: ‘And yet it is only when they have first place and everything else is made subordinate to them that the Christian life will be truly healthy’. But Andrew Murray knew that he had an uphill task conceding: ‘This preaching of contrition on account of our lack of obedience to Christ’s great command will be no easy thing’. Prayer impacts the Missionary ProblemIt is surely no mere co-incidence that revivals broke out in different parts of the world in the years hereafter - in such divergent countries as Wales. Norway. India and Chile. (The snowball effect of the Welsh revival on Korea has been highlighted by Patrick Johnstone the author of the well known missionary treatise Operation World. As an indirect result of this effect Asia became the biggest missionary sending continent of the world with the Back to Jerusalem movement of China. India and Korea as the leading lights.) The Cape was used by God to get missionary endeavour as a worldwide priority an important spur to the conference at Edinburgh in 1910 which in turn could be regarded as a forerunner of the World Council of Churches. (An interesting fact is that William Carey,9 whose work ushered in the modern missionary movement had proposed a hundred years earlier that a missions’ conference should be held at the Cape of Good Hope.) It is fitting that a big missions’ conference is planned for May 2010 in Cape Town the centenary of the Edinburgh event.103. Evangelism Explosion in the Mother CityAround 1990 spiritual warfare was widely regarded as a modern fad although the Moravian pioneer Count Zinzendorf practiced the 'warrior marriage' and John Booth started the Salvation Army with all its military ranks. At the end of the 19th century precursors started from South Africa when Andrew Murray brought the issue into focus through his emphasis on prayer and the interest he aroused for the work of the Holy Spirit. Revivals in different parts of Africa were initiated from Cape Town after Murray’s founding of the South African General Mission in 1889. The Key to the Missionary Problem really set the scene for great things also in Africa. Hans von Staden the founder of the Dorothea Mission was born of German parents in the Free State town of Winburg. The family moved to Stellenbosch in 1920 where he developed a close friendship with Andrew Murray the grandson of the well-known theologian with the same name. The writings of Dr Andrew Murray especially The Key to the Missionary Problem were destined to have a profound influence on Von Staden. In 1942 Von Staden experienced God’s call to his life work the founding of the Dorothea Mission: ‘I discerned His commission: we were to dedicate our lives to the evangelization of the people in the dark city townships of South Africa’. The Origins of the Cape Town City MissionMr Frederick George Lowe came to Cape Town in 1896 as a concerned Anglican and a businessman who sold low-priced clothing. He soon got involved with the poor and needy especially at the time of the Bubonic plague in 1901. Lowe started what he called the City Slum Mission in 1902. This outreach remained fairly obscure till the Bubonic plague hit the Mother City once again in 1915 - especially the areas of Salt River and Woodstock. The compassionate work of the City Slum Mission now became more widely known. After Lowe’s death the mission received its present name the Cape Town City Mission. Over the years churches and all sorts of charitable and compassionate institutions were established all over the Cape Peninsula. The combination of evangelism and compassionate outreach – which the City Mission took from their model the Salvation Army which started already operating at the Cape in 1883 - became an integral part of their ministry. (This remained the case till the 1990s when the evangelistic portion became a part of Kingdom Ministries led by Pastor Alfie Fabe which started sending out missionaries to different countries.)Spiritual Vitality of praying WomenThe spurning and suppression of Black women with regard to leadership did not harden them. In stead of getting bitter and resentful. Black women especially appeared to have accepted male leadership gracefully. Until the late 1940s these women organised activity among themselves independently. They would often allow the men to formally open meetings in which they participated as speakers. The manyanos (the Xhosa word for prayer unions) turned out to be instruments of Black empowerment virtually second to none. Here women leaders would not only pray and preach but here their dignity and political awareness were also developed. The practice and hurts of apartheid society was possibly the reason for determined resistance in the 1950s to reshape their meetings to provide more practical instruction and community activism. Whereas White and some ‘Coloured’ church women’s groups concentrated on fund raising. Black women amended their name soon to ‘Prayer and Service Union.’ The social and mutual support offered by prayer groups helped compensate for the isolation and poor social structures which Western missionaries held up as models. Testimonies preaching and spontaneous prayer became the lifeblood of Black Christian groups. In the prayer groups they could develop their potential as orators without first having to be literate. In accepting a role in moral teaching of their adolescent children. Black Christian women turned their backs on pre-Christian norms by which female relatives other than the mother had provided sex education. In general the spiritual life of manyano women appears to have been more creative and vital than that of the other racial groups. Dawn prayer and nights of prayer were quite common. A new Fire for Evangelism The depression of the early 1930s appears to have caused a new fire for evangelism. The start of the Docks Mission is a case in point. When John Crowe listened to an open-air service of the Salvation Army in Adderley Street in 1932 as a young man he was touched. How happy his prayerful mother was when he shared that he had decided to follow Jesus! The ‘slightly Coloured’ family - as those with a fair complexion from that racial group used to be called - attended the Baptist Church in the Mother City’s Wale Street. Almost immediately the 18-year old John Crowe wanted to share the gospel with other people in the neighbourhood of Roggebaai - the area where Andrew Murray also evangelized. With his namesake John Johnson he soon struck a partnership getting involved in open-air services at different places. Later they were especially active on the Grand Parade. Cape Town’s equivalent of Hyde Park Corner,11 where various political groups and others had their meetings. Harold. John Johnson’s brother joined them at a later stage. When people started committing their lives to Jesus through their ministry the young men asked for permission to conduct meetings in one of the Railway cottages that soon became too small. They then rented a wood and iron construction that was called the ‘Tin Shanty.’Starting their outreach in the Dockyard the church group which started operating from the ‘Tin Shanty’ called themselves the Docks Mission. From its earliest years prayer and fasting belonged to the habits of the Docks Mission. An evangelistic outreach was gradually picking up via Bo-Kaap and District Six two residential areas predominantly inhabited by people of colour in the first half of the twentieth century. Open-air services were prominent in this drive - with the Salvation Army the Docks Mission and the Cape Town City Mission in the forefront. Praise. Worship and FastingA Bible verse which is rightly quoted quite often is Zechariah 4:6. ‘Not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord Almighty’. This is basic to revival but it is unfortunate that the context is usually not considered when the verse is quoted. Other basic principles are contained in this prophesy (Zechariah 4) namely that of the power of the weak and the ‘few’ in building the temple. ‘Shouts of thank­s­gi­ving’ declare that ‘all was done by grace alone’ (v.6-8). Praise is used in the ‘OT’ a few times in the attacks on God’s enemies. Probably the most well-known of them is Joshua and the seven trumpets. The gathering marched around Jericho augmented by the united shout after the sev­enth time on the seventh day. (We note the repetition of the number seven the biblical number for being complete and perfect.) Some­times fasting prostrating worship and praise occur in close proximity in Scripture (e g. Nehemiah 9:1+4; 2 Chronicles 20:3ff). The arch enemy apparently saw to it that fasting as a tool in spiritual war­fare lost its initial purpose. It was either com­pletely neg­lected or it became a ‘work’ to earn God’s favour for example to fast during lent. Jesus himself fasted and prayed for forty days and nights before he started his ministry (Matthew 4:2). When His opponents pointed to the fact that His disciples were not fasting the Master did not cancel the feasibility of it. He merely stated that the disciples would be doing it when he. ‘the bridegroom’ would have been taken away (Matthew 9:15). Jesus did however attack fasting as an outward show to impress others (Matthew 6:16; Luke 18:12). The Master was operating fully in line with ‘OT’ teach­ing where we read for example that God rejects fasting when those who are fasting are living in evil pleas­ures and oppress (underpay?) their workers (Isaiah 58:3). But the Hebrew Scriptures teach just as clearly that fasting can be a sign of penitence (2 Chronicles 20:3; Ezra 8:21; Jonah 3:5; Daniel 6:18; Joel 2:15). It can also be used as a weapon in fight­ing the enemy (Esther 4:16). All three of these prayer elements - praise worship and fasting - were employed profitably in these early 20th century Cape ventures. The Docks Mission Prayer Leads to Growth At the ‘tin shanty,’ many a Friday night was used for an all night prayer meeting. No wonder that God gave the new denomination phenomenal growth. Not only were new churches started on Brown’s Farm (Ottery) and Factreton Es]]> ]]> hard get up just as early invest just as much, take the same risks and put up with just as much bullshit no matter what they receive in return. It’s hard for me to believe that people could be that stupid. But there they are. Do you ever wonder after dealing with all that is going on with the economy and the upcoming election if it’s getting to be time to “go John Galt”? For those of you who have never read Ayn Rand’s [2] the basic theme is that [3] and his allies take actions that include withdrawing their talents. “stopping the motor of the world,” and leading the “strikers” (those who refuse to be exploited) against the “looters” (the exploiters backed by the government). Perhaps the partisan politics we are dealing with now is really just a struggle between those of us who believe in productivity personal responsibility and keeping government interference to a minimum and those who believe in the socialistic policies of taking from others using the government as a watchdog and rewarding those who overspend underwork or are just plain unproductive. Obama talks about taking from those who are productive and redistributing to those who are not — or who are not as successful. If success and productivity is to be punished why bother? Perhaps it is time for those of us who make the money and pay the taxes to take it easy live on less and let the looters of the world find their own way. My question to readers is what are some ways to “go John Galt” (legally of course) — that is should productive people cut back on what they need make less money and take it easy so that the government is starved for funds or is there some other way of making a statement? capitalism and individual rights and work to make things better. We still have free speech in this country and we still have a culture that (for the most part) values reason success and prosperity. A Democrat president a Democratic Congress and perhaps a filibuster-proof Senate is all the public needs to hold the entire Democratic Party apparatus fully and completely accountable for the next few years. It’s a good thing! As a frequent reader of “right-wing” blogs (and less frequent commenter). I look forward to hectoring from the sidelines opposing for the sake of opposing and generally making an ass of myself. Hell the Kos kids seem to have had a ball these past few years: all the fun with none of the responsibility. So many decisions so much fun with the upcoming elections! So PJM readers if you are a conservative or libertarian what do you think? Is going John Galt the answer? Would turning into the Kos kids float your boat? Or is rationality and critical thinking going to get us anywhere? If you have a question you would like answered please leave it below or email me at [6] . Your questions may be edited for length and clarity. Please note that your first name only or no name at all will be used to identify your question — if you want me to use your name tell me; otherwise you will be referred to by your first name or as “a reader,” etc. : http://www amazon com/gp/redirect html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww amazon com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2F0452011876&tag=pajamasmedia-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325[3] John Galt: http://en wikipedia org/wiki/Who_is_John_Galt%3F[4] Here are some examples:: http://drhelen blogspot com/2008/10/going-john-galt html[5] reader James Racicot at Instapundit: http://www pajamasmedia com/instapundit/archives2/025673 php[6] askdrhelen@hotmail com: mailto:askdrhelen@hotmail com Another way to go for the highly skilled successful individual is to work part time a few months here a few weeks there rake in enough in a fraction of the year to live on the equivalent of a laborer’s salary with 10 times more free time. David Friedman thinks a cryptographic e-cash will mostly be enough to protect profits and income from parasites and to an extent that sounds workable. But physical properties can and will still be confiscated. States will have to show more backbone than they have been and reintroduce nullification- strictly for the sake of liberty- to American jurisprudence. If states can hold their ground and remain unrelenting against any irrational interpretation of the interstate commerce clause. I think we’ll be alright. It’s vitally important to ditch the dollar. Don’t be swayed by sophistic speech about how doing business in US Dollars is patriotic. By any reasonable measure. Americans are entitled to disavow the nation’s odious debt. I’d like to see 20,000 community currencies bloom in the country within the next ten years. I bought a fresh copy of Atlas Shrugged last week in honor of our wonderful new era. The answer to your question is no. Here are the reasons as angry and frustrated I get by the looting of our tax dollars which are then funneled into specific intrest groups to empower and entrench Democrats. I am also an American. Yes Mozzillo and fannie and freddie could have been a chapter out of her books and yes the demonization of fossil fuels and nuclear so that tax dollars can be funneled into alternate energy which really doesn’t produce energy is also annoying. But what do you believe that their are no safeguards in our country? How long can a system that relys on a printing press and shell games last before reform kicks in. How many hundreds of billions can be wasted on ethanol and the like before utter disgust sits in. Be paitent believe in your country and trust the judgement of the people even if you lose an occasional election. The great thing about America lose one election just wait 2 years for the next one. HM,Cleary you never read Atlas Shrugged half of the villains in the book are wealthy industrialists just like the guys you talk about. Raj,Rand has contempt for rotten and vile people who under the cover of altruism destroy. There is no contempt for people who work and earn from the guy who shovels coal to the genius its how you act that defines you. Ayn Rand truly nailed the character types at play. Those who would destroy society do seem to be gaining the upper hand. The Left and media have completely poisoned the environment such that the next 4 years will be very contentious and perhaps even violent no matter who wins this election. The Left offers absolutely nothing positive in their vision. They have repeatedly demonstrated themselves to be driven by the worst aspects of human nature. One must plan accordingly. ‘Contempt’ is your projection. There are thousands of private organizations that make a difference in peoples lives. Americans voluntarily support them with billions of dollars of contributions. They do a far better job than any government. Actually it’s the politicians that view segments of the population with contempt using them only as pawns of obtain and hold power. That’s where the real ’selfishness’ lies - in the creation of dependent voting blocks. The record seems to strongly suggest that government has done more to destroy the lives and families than anyone else. Washing your hands of the personal responsibility of caring for your fellow man by declaring it government function is morally bankrupt. But that’s what so much of leftism is about - absolving oneself of any personal responsibility or accountability. That’s an excellent recipe for societal breakdown. If you really do care about the weaker members of society donate to the private charities that actually help them. The IRS will even accept donation if you think government the answer. “If you need further proof of Zen look at the world TODAY. We are living through the ultimate Zen moment: ideological forces unleashed over past hundred years are coming to their final epochal battle. And we get to be part of it!” (Marx-Lenin-Gramsci-Alinsy-Ayers-”Cloward-Piven”-ACORN-Obama.)— Chris Nicholson. Thanksgiving 2008  I cannot help but see everything that has been happening since the start of the US primary election campaign through a lens supported by a shiny blue-green handle of polished Reardon Metal. I just can’t. “Health care is a right.”. “Wall Street greed”. “Fairness” in taxation. “Progressive”. Hideous cronyism. Food rations. Government-forced actions for the good of “the poor”. Unabashed collectivism run rampant. Conniving preening newspapermen sure of—and exploiting—their power. Fuel shortages. People freezing in the cold. All that’s missing is “Brother can you spare a dime?”. Of course that’d have to be up-priced to $4.50 starbucks is a right just as surely as healthcare is a right, “Who is John Galt?” John Galt is the walking talking end result of a man who lives his life in a fashion consistent with a philosophy* based on the concept of human rights. Then against all odds he causes the world’s economies to stop via removing the “intellectual capital” necessary to stop the cascading failures rippling through the infrastructure of the economy in order to save himself (and thereby as luck would have it others) from the horrors of life in an advancing collectivist dystopia. ______________________*This philosophy known as “Objectivism” was created on a base of primarily (imho) of Aristotle logic by Ayn Rand and was most unequivocally laid out in John Galt’s speech in Atlas Shrugged my favourite book of all I’ve read. It has been deduced from first principles from the sole idea that what makes “man” (ie: humankind) unique is our ability to reason. Oh and upon the basic premise that a person is dropped into this existence by no choice of his/her own into a situation not of his (or her) choosing. Everything else from property rights to how humans band together to form civilizations the roles of government in those civilizations,to freedom of speech and the right to bear arms flows from these two underlying pillars. Much more about Ayn Rand here._______________________ “Who is John Galt?” is also the question that characters throughout the novel have adopted as a common refrain in response to news of the latest failure in the system or as answer to the “who is responsible for the failure of x” question. “Who is responsible for the mess at Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac?” ”Who is John Galt?” It is an early literary instance of the “meme warfare”. (I think it’s unintentional but there it is.) In Atlas Shrugged the expression’s origin is a mystery that is explained as the story unfolds because NOBODY KNOWS WHO HE IS he’s a cypher and is a metaphor for what is causing the world to stop. Ironically it turn’s out that he is in fact a person who is in fact stopping the world’s engine. But I digress. John Galt is a metaphor. He is the ideal of the human superman. He is the personification of reason (that which separates us from the other animals) rigourously applied. He acts rationally—with all that THAT implies—in his own self interest. John Galt is political man acting on his own behalf to make is way to the best of his ability who asks only for an equal playing field. Thus he’s a part of everyone to lesser or greater degree. John Galt’s clarity of thought and expression is needed in this period. The historical allusions are patent: he explains (over the nation-wide radio network (that he “hijacks” to get the message out) how evil collectivism is and how the “virtue” of altruism is actually the most antihumanitarian idea ever proposed. (Of course it’s fiction so Miss Rand can have her hero “name names”). I think the question should be rephrased for today to be “Where is John Galt?” If John Galt’s inside everyone where is he? The signs are slowly starting to come to fore: the crowds at McCain events are demanding answers and demanding that the message get out. They’re demanding answers because their own personal John Galts are demanding answers and answers that are consistent with their values; the media-arm of the Obama campaign having long since cast their objectivity aside are pulling out all stops to beat the John Galts into submission by repeating the big lies but John Galt the personification of reason’s application is not buying it. Our John Galts are screaming for the truth aching from the cognitive dissonance when our reality and our common sense rub chaffingly against the constructed reality being foisted upon us by the forces that seek to undo us. McCain seeks to speak to our Galts as they slowly awaken from their inter-election hibernation. And then out of the west blows a breath of fresh air in the form of the plain-spoken Sarah Palin. Values-based without question. The Alaskan unafraid to deconstruct faux-grecian column by faux-grecian column the media-constructed facade of the opposition’s reality. In an Objectivist sense. Palin is beyond the pale as Objectivism is atheistic to its core. That said. Palin helps awaken our John Galt because she appeals to core values. (admittedly not Objectivist but close enough) that are shared or sadly vaguely-remembered: the greatness of “Man” the primacy of reason and the necessity of character the joy of being alive. All of which leads me to my point. When I amend my own line to include the adversary thus “Marx-Lenin-Gramsci-Alinsy-Ayers-”Cloward-Piven”-ACORN-Obama vs Aristotle-Smith-Locke-Jefferson-Madison-Rand-Reagan-McCain” and focus on the end of each line we see that Obama is the perfect end of that particular line while McCain is not John Galt and John Galt is the perfect end of the line. Here’s the strategy I believe he’s following in face of the hostile media. (Lifted from my earlier post [http://web me com/chris_nicholson/Site/desmondiswatching/Entries/2008/10/10_McCain’s_Strategy_Unfolds_Before_Our_Eyes_%26_thegreatschlepp_is_gonna_backfire html]). By “grassroots” and “electorate” I’m referring to our John Galts. Strategy: Mobilize the grass roots. Via a timed release during CSW* of precision-guided memes into the popular culture using advanced semiotic techniques and by asserting control of the news cycle that is by manipulating the manipulating deadwoods—which happily demonstrates a uniquely linear modality of thought—the campaign’s messages can be brought to the electorate in the age of YouTube in snippets where there they’re amalgamated on-line by allied cyberforces and promoted by allied media.  Allow the electorates’ flames of natural curiosity to be stoked by promoting the available alternate information sources and judiciously add fuel to keep the fire burning.  I firmly believe that McCain has come to some similar assessment of the theatre of engagement and consequences of failure. If he has come to a similar strategy conclusion then it comes down to us (well by “us” I mean Americans one of whom I sadly am not). Are we John Galt enough to finish the battle? Because he currently is executing a strategy that will force the answers that will be Obama’s undoing and in the process exposing the rampant collaboration of the deadwoods. Our personal John Galt will surely act to save himself and Atlas will shrug. If Ayn Rand believed in heaven it would be nice to think of her looking down saying. “don’t you say I didn’t warn you!” I may or may not become unproductive when and if I retire. In a free society I have the right to choose how productive to be for how long. This right is linked in principle to the responsibility for my own life. In other words. I can do what I want but I must take the consequences. Under socialism one has neither these freedoms nor these responsibilities. Socialism holds that the government should make these decisions for me. The claim is that there is more wisdom in central planning–that the government knows better than we do. This is demonstrably untrue. Because socialists (and their ilk) can’t win the argument based on the facts of reality (the system has never worked and can never work) they continually rely on the emotional argument about the fate of the “weaker sections of society.” These arguments dupe a lot of people because most of us do care about others. The idea that some “sections of society” are naturally “weaker” is a strawman argument based on a Marxist contruct. In fact under capitalism everyone in society has a chance to become stronger by working and trading. At this point with the media digging in the minds of so many people and for this matter the ones specially that want somethings for nothing is a lost cause. It seems that we are going down hill from here. It looks like to many people want to dare try that socialist system that Obama wants to impose on this country……… I say let it happen. I can only imagine the caos. That would be a very interesting experiment. Mind you I don,t want it but it,s ineviteble it,s coming so hold on to your horse its going to be a bumpy ride….. I think L Raj is an ignoramus and is very likely one of those unproductive types. Children are “unproductive” on purpose. Plenty of other countries have productive children manning sweatshops. Besides that the last time I checked the various markets serving the wants and needs of children from toys to schools are quite large. Retired folks are not unproductive - they pay taxes like the rest of us and they contribute to society and our economy in a big way. They have time to engage in leisure activities and travel and where do you think that money goes? I have never minded helping others in need as long as they are actually in need and not just lazy. The spirit of individual giving is alive and well in this country as it has always been. It is not the government’s job to mandate charity that’s called socialism and I am NOT game for that. As a business owner. I work very hard for the money I make. I already give to a variety of charities and organizations and I will not participate in federal mandates concerning redistributing wealth as proposed by Obammy and crew. I have not curtailed spending on the personal or business fronts just yet. I believe that would just hamper the recovery of our financial markets. In the unlikely event of an Obammy election victory I will immediately scale back all business operations and cut my personal spending to a bare minimum. I will then discuss my options for protecting my savings and investments from the government with my CPA accountant and attorneys. Obammy will be unable to redistribute money he can’t locate. I will simply adapt to the government’s tactics to take my money and give it to others. One of two things will happen - I will continue to enjoy laissez-faire capitalism or I will stop contributing to the federal bankroll. It is very disappointing that we are even talking about this subject and that it could actually become a reality. I believe in the innovation and creativity of the American people and we will outsmart and defuse attempts to socialize our economic system. This is not a matter of being “human” or caring for others it is a matter of keeping the government out of our lives. America is the most charitable country on earth in terms of private donations and we don’t need our government telling us we need to do more. The feds can’t have my guns and they can’t have my money either. I believe in our system of Democracy and the multitude of built-in controls for guaranteeing individual freedoms. Unlike other forms of governments we can fight back against overreaching and power-hungry leaders. At the end of the day the real power rests with American citizens not the federal government. Perhaps I’m a bit idealistic in those thoughts but I will fight to preserve our Union and I know I’m not alone. Historically speaking. America isn’t very good at preventing problems. We are however very good at correcting them and ensuring they never happen again. Perhaps this is one of those times and we won’t prevent an impending calamity. If that’s true. I am quite confident that we will correct the errors and move on having learned a valuable lesson. I have no fear of the future because I know we can defeat any enemy and meet any challenge - after all that is the American way. I remain optimistic - I’m hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. I agree with those who advocate fighting back by spreading rational ideas to counter the collectivist Democrats. When they countrol both Congress and the White House they will drive the country into the ground quickly enough to cause a national backlash before the next election. The time to withdraw all productive activity will be when and if they manage to quash freedom of speech. When it is no longer possible to speak out against collectivism when advocates of individual liberty and Capitalism are driven from the radio bloggers begin being prosecuted by a Democratic controlled Justice Department and thugs begin beating and killing those protesting the policies of an incipient dictatorship then there will be no other option. Atlas Shrugged was published when I was in high school and I read it then. It was one of my motivations to join campaign staffs of John Tower and later. Richard Nixon. At first. I felt I was helping stave off the coming of the day to “go John Galt.” But I learned in the campaign trenches that the choice is not between the ideologies — individual freedom and welfare state. Those are healthy points to argue but they are not what decides elections. The reality of the choice in an election is between the level of corruption of candidate. I have re-read Atlas Shrugged this year and Rand catches this truth. The reason Obama is so deft at changing his positions on issues is that he only uses those positions to get votes. These switches are thoroughly corrupt. Don’t kid yourself: we are about to elect someone who is corrupting massive numbers of voters by promising idealism that shrouds his ambition. Obama is not a new liberal he is a garden variety manipulative and corrupt politician. If John McCain loses it will be because he is not corrupt. It is not easy to elect an honest candidate but we still have three weeks to try. Lincoln said “you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” Let’s hope this election is one of those times or our democracy is going to be trashed for the next four years. We are putting as much as we can into retirement. We just took a big loss on our stocks but the purchase money came from tax deferred income. If we didn’t set it back in tax differed retirement accounts half of it would be lost to taxes anyway. We have a professional firm. Our employees are paid well. Our local community could really use more job positions in that income bracket. Too bad the benefits don’t make the risks and headaches of growing the business worth the effort. We don’t put any real effort into marketing our business we just take what comes by word of mouth and we have all we want to remain the size we are. I love marketing and some times I am tempted to do it just because of my love of doing it. Then I remind myself of the consequences of more business: more work more headaches more responsibilities more taxes and VERY little more after tax spending dollars. I am currently an expat thinking of returning to the US mess because it’s the same in all the developed countries: massive debts greying demographics ever more costly empty promises; however the US still has replacement rates and ample land. Overseas where would one go? Central and South America are largely cheap but unstable (Chile an exception) thanks in part to the ridiculous “War on Drugs”; much of it is violent as well. Canada and its thoughtcrime Human Rights Commissions? Western Europe is too expensive and slowly turning militantly Islamic like Turkey; Eastern Europe is depopulating but not as fast as Russia. Red China? An Islamic country? Disease- and corruption-ridden sub-Saharan Africa? Japan (and soon South Korea too) is already shrinking in population with massive debts but remains adamantly opposed to mass immigration although it’s safe and culturally stable. The Philippines is cheap but dangerous. You could probably buy residency in a Pacific island nation but without infrastructure or industry of any sort what would you do? India perhaps. Australia and New Zealand seem not yet to have gone wholly insane but maybe I’m misinformed. Thailand has appeal but its Muslims like killing reportedly have higher birth rates than Buddhist Thais and are moving north. Objectivism is based on reason and logic. That was taken out of schools long ago in preparation of leading the sheep to slaughter. The Democrats are led by communists and the Republicans sold out to the politically connected pseudo-businessmen who buy influence. The government has nationalized over 50% of home mortgages the biggest insurance company and now the banks… what’s left to save? We’ve been riding the slippery slope for a long time and we’ve reached the point of critical mass where the system can no longer support all the rotters. There’s about half the country now who openly support socialism. It looks to me like the old saying. “the way to cook a frog is to put him in a pot of water and slowly turn up the heat until finally when he realizes what’s happening it’s too late - he’s cooked”. If Obama does get elected and the Democrats do control both houses of congress can they possibly do more harm than Abramoff and the Republicans did by selling us out? What “side” is our side? Perhaps if Obama and the Democrats have all the power they will rush forward with the communist agenda quickly enough to force the frog to jump out of the water before it’s too late… if it isn’t already too late. I tell my family and friends who have bought-in to the Democrat socialist propoganda. “be careful what you wish for you might get it”. I think that is what Ayn Rand was warning us about… after all she experienced it first hand before coming to America. One last thought when the laws of man contradict the laws of the creator we self-destruct by our own choosing. The ten commandments are pretty clear and not subject to the Supreme Court’s interpretation. When America decides to correct course and align ourselves with the universal laws of our Creator then and only will we ever again enjoy God’s blessing… it’s our choice. John Galt? Who’s John Galt? Please excuse a couple of comments Re: some of the commentary. First the child sweat shops; There was a very big fight in the United States over child labor. The parents wanted it. They did not want their children growing up without contributing to the family income. They did not want lazy children. The fight was led by the ASPC!America has a very noble goal of educating every student. There are very little rules to prevent any child from going to school. Many choose not to take advantage of this opportunity. They should not be granted a free ride. They should be told go to school; learn a trade or study to enter college. College is not required to earn a good living in the U. S. The plumber who spoke to Obama has the right of it. A good trade is very valuable. Envy is one of the 7 Deadly Sins. Worry about what you can do and how well you can earn a living. Don’t waste so much energy on what someone else is doing or making. Sure the Boss makes more; if that bothers you study to become the boss! You are the key to you and your earnings. We all of us should provide not just sustainment for those who cannot for medical (includes mental) reason make it. They are not at fault and should be feasted and comfortable. They ask; why did God make so many handicapped? Ever think it was to see how we the able bodied help them?Live your life and help those who cannot help themselves. The lazy are not helpless they are just lazy. Atlas Shrugged is an interesting if flawed work. Rand’s philosophy which she styled “objectivism,” is as completely materialist and as dogmatic in tone as anthing Marx or his epigoni have written — and occasioned Whittaker Chambers’ famous comment in his review for the National Review: “Out of a lifetime of reading. I can recall no other book in which a tone of overriding arrogance was so implacably sustained. Its shrillness is without reprieve. Its dogmatism is without appeal. In addition the mind which finds this tone natural to it shares other characteristics of its type. 1) It consistently mistakes raw force for strength and the rawer the force the more reverent the posture of the mind before it. 2) It supposes itself to be the bringer of a final revelation. Therefore resistance to the Message cannot be tolerated because disagreement can never be merely honest prudent or just humanly fallible. Dissent from revelation so final (because the author would say so reasonable) can only be willfully wicked. There are ways of dealing with such wickedness and in fact right reason itself enjoins them. From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged a voice can be heard from painful necessity commanding: “To a gas chamber — go!” That said like most high school students who read Atlas Shrugged. I enjoyed it though with a bit of a jaundiced eye. One of my early objections to the book was how much the ‘bad guy’ characters seem to be cardboard caricatures rather than real people. However a couple of years ago I read Amity Schlaes book. The Forgotten Man in which she detailed a rather full portrait of Rexford Guy Tugwell (on whom Ellsworth Toohey in the Fountainhead was supposed to be based) and I concluded she was perhaps more accurate in capturing the essence of these people than I had believed possible. I’m not sure if it’s time to go “John Galt” or if it would even be possible for me. I’m certainly going do everything I can to keep a low profile and try to keep income in a sweet spot that meets real needs without exposing myself to higher taxes. (I don’t expect that to work real well but we have to try….) “It is the eternal struggle between two principles right and wrong throughout the world. It is the same spirit that says ‘you toil and work and earn bread and I’ll eat it.’ No matter in what shape it comes whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race it is the same tyrannical principle.” I own a small LLC and will likely fall into the 250,000 range this year. I will be using a large portion of that previously income taxed profit to pay for the loss of business I am currently experiencing and expect to continue to experience in the Obama future. I think I will sell and take advantage of the proposed no capital gains tax on small business that Obama is proposing. Since small business doesn’t pay capital gains otherwise there is no other way to take advantage. It may be too far fetched at this point to really consider armed resistance. What could produce the kind of outrage which would cause conflict on that scale ? There are a few things which would do it. But let us suppose for a moment that a conflict did erupt what would the men who are within the ranks of the government forces do. Which cause would they serve ?Suppose the Democrats decide to prosecute George Bush and Dick Cheney. (as they have threatened ). I could foresee some difficulty in carrying out an arrest if the Democrats were to become that brazen. Who knows what would ignite a conflict. But the days are near when we can sense our liberty and freedoms slipping away through a treacherous and greedy government. The Constitution is swiftly being gutted and reduced to trash. I vaguely recall Jefferson making some reference to Liberty requiring renewal by the blood of patriots. It was once possible and it may still be so. The problem with Going Galt if Obama wins is that it won’t matter. Obama and his Alinsky crowd are interested in the collapse of our system so they can put in a Socialist economy that will allow us to “evolve” into a Communist utopia. (You can’t make this stuff up. Read Alinsky and his fellow travelers.) Withdrawing from the system will only hasten this end. Rather than withdrawing. The best medicine is to teach people how to make money lots of it. The more people who believe that they can earn $250,000 in the next few years and the more that actually do the less enthusiasm there will be for confiscating “plumber’s wealth.” The thing is. I don’t think “going John Galt” is really manifested by some conscious or concerted effort to ’shrug’. That’s not the danger. The danger is that productive people will in a more subtle and possibly even unconscious way find other venues for their pursuits. A capitalist investing their capital in India rather than Indiana is a form of “going John Galt.” Just as water finds its way to the lowest point so too does capital find its way to the places its owner is best served. There have been a few stories in the past year or so about Denmark fretting the flight of highly skilled labor — which some people there couldn’t understand since the Danish government sprung for all their schooling healthcare housing etc. But rather than going on strike. I’d rather try to advocate for laissez-faire capitalism and individual rights and work to make things better. We still have free speech in this country and we still have a culture that (for the most part) values reason success and prosperity. The next few years will be critical for this country both with respect to domestic and international issues. If the better people choose now to “go on strike” then we may simply be ensuring the victory of the bad guys whereas if we speak out (in whatever capacity we can) then we still have a chance. There is the socially responsible banker who went bust because he gave loans to those who needed them rather than to those who could afford them. There’s the government regulation and takeovers to ensure that failed businesses keep going. All is in denial of reality a rejection of reason. Result: the rational is distrusted; men are guilty of being “unfair” if they value competence and “unfeeling” if they refuse to indulge failure. The individual is subordinated to the national and the national to the international. Unfortunately the crooks in this case are the bankers and financiers who have speculated worthless debt into hundreds of billions of dollars of leveraged profits. Nothing the government will do and nothing in the forthcoming election will affect these people. They have already made their money and will buy the best advice possible on how to keep it safe. A lot of people have colored this very black and white in their minds with Obama and the democratic party representing the looters and McCain and the conservatives representing some sort of fairness. Rand herself never saw it that way. She was contemptuous of conservatives and thought they were crooked businessmen. Just as Democrats wanted to rob productive people and give the cash to the undeserving so did the conservatives. The only difference was that the recipients of democratic favors were idle poor people and that of conservative largesse were crooked businessmen who could afford to buy politicians. On a final note. I think that some of the people who make the profound decision to “shrug” like Atlas will only get dandruff on their shoulders. Much as many of us like to feel we are the key to the economy the real movers and shakers probably don’t read this column. Yes. I’m not one of them either. Just because something has always happened in the past doesn’t mean it will always happen in the future. Eventually the sun will enter it’s red giant phase and there will be no more sunrise or sunset on the planet Earth. Eventually a tyrant will grab power in America and there will be no more elections. That will happen much sooner then the red giant thingie. Like this January. We already have a candidate that could care less about the Constitution. America IS the Constitution. So when he Hates America he hates the Constitution. Can Tyranny be far away? “The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of oppression if they are strong enough whether by withdrawal from it or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable.”- General Ulysses S. Grant I certainly think that Sarah Palin could be Dagny. A smart and determined woman who doesn’t want to let this country go down without a fight. I think that her basic appeal to so many is that she still hasn’t given up. As to how can you pull off a Galt in today’s society. One you definitely homeschool your kids or send them to a private school and trade/barter with other productive people as much as possible. My dad did this for my wedding traded his services to the florist etc. I was talking to a plumber yesterday about a neighborhood that was doing the same thing. For instance his neighbors worked off plumbing jobs by mowing his yard cleaning his gutters giving him fresh vegetables from their gardens etc. The government doesn’t get anything and the producers only deal with other competent producers. Question: in Atlas shrugged the capitalists all left their toils and disappeared to a distant remote hideaway apart from the rotters… where is it that you would go today? Perhaps capitalists who believe in free people and free markets need to consider a place where they would at least outnumber the rotters (certainly not in NY). I’m not sure where that would be but if enough capitalists decided to migrate to one place could that even work? Like the old saying says. “you can run but you can’t hide”. At some point if you care about America’s future you just gotta stand and fight… even if you lose… better to lose fighting for what is right than losing one’s soul and being a rotter. Who IS John Galt? I have talked to several of my fellow small businessmen in just the last week who are ready to hang it up. The bailout was the last straw for a bunch of them. These guys work hard and meet payrolls while managing to scrounge out a living for themselves as well. When they see people who should be out of business getting bailed out by a bunch of politicians who just want to hide their role in creating this mess then is too disheartening for them to want to continue. No one is going to bail them out of their bad decisions and for the most part they are too honorable to even ask for such a thing. I am hedging my bets against Obama. I am looking to offload part of my operations onto someone else so that they can struggle under his whip instead of me. It will put about 9-10 people out of work but I am sure Obama the kind and compassionate. PBUH will take care of them. The funniest thing about this is that one of my employees was wearing an Obama t-shirt just the other day. She is one of the ones who won’t have a job if the guy gets elected because she is one of the least productive employees I have and is part of the operations I am off-loading. I can’t tell her that because there is no end to the trouble such things could cause but I can’t help but feel sorry for her. She is not the type who will land on her feet and will have trouble holding a job anywhere else than with me… (yeah. I know. I am a big sucker). Going “John Galt” doesn’t necessarily mean you have to completely withdraw from American society but you can work smarter. Determine if you are comfortable scaling back a little. Will the extra money you make at the margins justify the amount of hours you need to put in? Do you really need that second big flat screen? Learn a trade/skill. Barter for services. I’m 55 and going back to tech school on the weekends to learn woodworking. Not as an income producer but because I like to be able to do more around the house. Who knows? I may become skilled enough to be able to use it that in combo with other DYI skills may help a bit. For those that want to keep running that rat race at the same pace as before or feel its their ‘duty” remember you will never be loved by those who receive your redistributed wealth. You will be castigated by the ruling political class for your “greed” and “selfishness”. Mr. Patel comments in this thread: “I certainly think that Sarah Palin could be Dagny. A smart and determined woman who doesn’t want to let this country go down without a fight. I think that her basic appeal to so many is that she still hasn’t given up.” I wonder if he/she has actually read any of Rand’s books? Or if he knows Sarah Palin’s views beyond some blurb on the news? Did you know that Sarah Palin is against abortion up to and extending to cases of rape and incest? Did you know that she belongs to a church that believes the Bible is the literal word of God and that she favors teaching Creationism in science classes? That her selection as Vice President was not for her Dagny-esque credentials (which she has none) but to appease the religious right who didn’t altogether trust McCain? Putting Dagny and Sarah Palin in the same sentence does serious injustice to both. I am not sure which of the two would be more offended (allowing Rand to speak for Dagny if she were alive). Actually I recommended something similar on my site and was reminded in comments about John Galt. Of course being the Right Wing Death Beast that I am. I am also for adding that on November 5th people should start putting “Impeach Obama” bumper stickers on their vehicles. I think we should reciprocate the same treatment the Left gave George Bush as well as “stopping the engine”. We are in a situation similar to the 1850’s where a significant change is being pushed. It is very likely that there will be a strong push towards socialism if Obama is President. We can fight now or we can fight later. Later is harder. As tempting as it is to pull a John Galt. I think it is premature at this point. My number one reason? I have two young kids. I want them grow up in freedom where success is rewarded and you can be anything you want. Granted we have fallen quite a way from that ideal but I don’t think it is too late. If Obama is elected and gets a super-majority in both the House and Senate it will make things extremely difficult but not impossible. Remember it took the socialists 80 years to take control of our institutions. (Gramscian Long March) It might take us 80 years to get them back. If he gets a veto-proof majority of the Senate expect one of the first things Pres Obama does is sign the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” back into law. Bye-bye talk radio. And he doesn’t really need to get 60 democrat Senators to do that because he already has a handful of RINO’s like Snowe. Collins and others that he can probably count on. His campaign and leftwing groups have already made aggressive attempts to intimidate both the rightwing internet blogs and conservative public organizations into silence with threats of legal action and IRS audits. Wait until he actually has real power to be able to do this. The left already controls the speech of all college and public school students through PC and outright speech codes. They already have the media and the entertainment industries on their side. Talk radio and the internet are the only two effective means that the right has to express itself organize and communicate. When those are stifled we will have no means to get our views out at all. How are we supposed to fight back against all that? Word-of-mouth? This election is critical to keeping our freedoms. It’s too bad that all we have is McCain in the breech trying to hold back this tide. Even if he wins you never can tell when he’ll go all “maverick” on us again. ” When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right. Come you who are blessed by my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him saying. Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer them. Truly. I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers you did it to me,” But this race isn’t over. Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s over. For the current polling to be correct would require a lurch to the left in American politics such as has NEVER been seen. The current polls smell bad are probably dramatically oversampling Democrats and young voters and seem at variance with historical trends. Perhaps our forefathers had it right that only the propertied class could vote. These days we could make it the ‘Investor Class’. If you don’t have a stake in the system then how can you be expected to make a reasoned decision? Thought I’m solidly in the middle class - my wife is a full time mother now - I have fears of my income and future inheritance being reduced. I rarely have apocalyptic fears of the future but lately I’ve been thinking that America is ‘broken’. The dream of the founders has been taxed lawyered and loopholed away. This is what America (left/’independent’/right) wants? I shudder at the thought. You said:Values-based. Palin is beyond the pale as Objectivism is atheistic to its core. That said. Palin helps awaken our John Galt because she appeals to core values. (admittedly not Objectivist but close enough) that are shared or sadly vaguely-remembered: the greatness of “Man” the primacy of reason and the necessity of character the joy of being alive. Remember. Rand herself said that she was intransigently but not militantly atheist. Palin’s beief in God or even her pro-life beliefs do not dsiqualify her as she DOES not believe in using government to force those values on others. She wants to persuade people by setting an example in “respecting culture of life”. Remember in a free society this is exactly the pattern to be followed for rational co-operation. I’ve just re-read Atlas and I was thinking about the easiest way to “go John Galt” and realized that it has been taken away from us. The most effective way is to dry up the tax coffers but for 85% of the working public that option was taken away in the ’30s with the legalization of the most insidious of all socialist tools the direct withholding of taxes from payrolls. I think that the repeal of this act should be a plank in any conservative/small government platform. The American public has been turned into one big ATM…and the sad fact is that we don’t even miss the money that we never get. Between the marginal tax difference and daycare it would not be that much of a hit for my wife to give up her job and stay home (and reducing the very high day care costs we incur). We live pretty simply. No debt. I do a little consulting work (about 1 day a week) but have made no attempt to grow my business. The marginal tax rates make it not worthwhile. I suspect that a lot of people will make similar decisions - less effort to makes those sales working over the weekend to complete that software projects etc. The impact of going John Galt will be incremental - many many people just cruising. I think as a society we will move toward the European model over the next few years - higher taxes less freedom more government higher unemployment. There’s a very simple solution to creeping socialization — go back to the Founders’ vision and DON’T GIVE PARASITES THE RIGHT TO VOTE. I say this even as a WIC-collecting parasite. Shut the “takers” out from the political process and allow the “makers” to decide how much of their wealth they’ll allow the government to confiscate. Unless we take this measure the results are inevitable and depressing. Do you think someone living off 700/month from the government (I know such folks) for a bogus “disability” cares anything about small business owners etc.? Hell and no. In this thread several people proposed going to a foreign country or even having a conservative exodus to Canada. Here are my thoughts on moving. this is #8 on the list of things to do. 8. Move: Go Reinforce a Red State: With liberal judges moving into courtrooms life in liberal states could get tougher. Your nuanced and entitled liberal neighbors will make you angry. Where is a good place to move? I want someplace that is far from the southern border and with a smaller population density. Texans generally have the right attitude and Texas has no state income tax but that’s a long border. Since a liberal federal government won’t protect our borders crime coming up from Mexico will be a big problem. Alaska is perfect in all ways but the weather. The same is true of Montana. Personally. I’d look at Utah or South Carolina for reasonable environments of all kinds -although they do have state income taxes. “ One of the most significant passages from Atlas Shrugged is a 60-70 page speech by John Galt. In the novel. Galt interrupts a presidential address to explain why he has called for a strike of all the great industrial minds of the world. The speech was written as a single continuous quote that goes on for hours. While it’s central to the plot of Ayn Rand’s book the Galt speech is also a complex philosophical proof which actually took her years to write. It’s easily the most difficult part of the book to read. This is a digest of John Galt’s speech compiled to under a thousand words. It’s excerpted from a screenplay of Atlas Shrugged adapted by Daryl J. Sroufe in the early 1980s. Reprinted here with his permission: For twelve years you’ve been asking “Who is John Galt?” This is John Galt speaking. I’m the man who’s taken away your victims and thus destroyed your world. You’ve heard it said that this is an age of moral crisis and that Man’s sins are destroying the world. But your chief virtue has been sacrifice and you’ve demanded more sacrifices at every disaster. You’ve sacrificed justice to mercy and happiness to duty. So why should you be afraid of the world around you? Your world is only the product of your sacrifices. While you were dragging the men who made your happiness possible to your sacrificial altars. I beat you to it. I reached them first and told them about the game you were playing and where it would take them. I explained the consequences of your ‘brother-love’ morality which they had been too innocently generous to understand. You won’t find them now when you need them more than ever. We’re on strike against your creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. If you want to know how I made them quit. I told them exactly what I’m telling you tonight. I taught them the morality of Reason — that it was right to pursue one’s own happiness as one’s principal goal in life. I don’t consider the pleasure of others my goal in life nor do I consider my pleasure the goal of anyone else’s life. I am a trader. I earn what I get in trade for what I produce. I ask for nothing more or nothing less than what I earn. That is justice. I don’t force anyone to trade with me; I only trade for mutual benefit. Force is the great evil that has no place in a rational world. One may never force another human to act against his/her judgment. If you deny a man’s right to Reason you must also deny your right to your own judgment. Yet you have allowed your world to be run by means of force by men who claim that fear and joy are equal incentives but that fear and force are more practical. You’ve allowed such men to occupy positions of power in your world by preaching that all men are evil from the moment they’re born. When men believe this they see nothing wrong in acting in any way they please. The name of this absurdity is ‘original sin’. That’s impossible. That which is outside the possibility of choice is also outside the province of morality. To call sin that which is outside man’s choice is a mockery of justice. To say that men are born with a free will but with a tendency toward evil is ridiculous. If the tendency is one of choice it doesn’t come at birth. If it is not a tendency of choice then man’s will is not free. And then there’s your ‘brother-love’ morality. Why is it moral to serve others but not yourself? If enjoyment is a value why is it moral when experienced by others but not by you? Why is it immoral to produce something of value and keep it for yourself when it is moral for others who haven’t earned it to accept it? If it’s virtuous to give isn’t it then selfish to take? Your acceptance of the code of selflessness has made you fear the man who has a dollar less than you because it makes you feel that that dollar is rightfully his. You hate the man with a dollar more than you because the dollar he’s keeping is rightfully yours. Your code has made it impossible to know when to give and when to grab. You know that you can’t give away everything and starve yourself. You’ve forced yourselves to live with undeserved irrational guilt. Is it ever proper to help another man? No if he demands it as his right or as a duty that you owe him. Yes if it’s your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle. This country wasn’t built by men who sought handouts. In its brilliant youth this country showed the rest of the world what greatness was possible to Man and what happiness is possible on Earth. Then it began apologizing for its greatness and began giving away its wealth feeling guilty for having produced more than its neighbors. Twelve years ago. I saw what was wrong with the world and where the battle for Life had to be fought. I saw that the enemy was an inverted morality and that my acceptance of that morality was its only power. I was the first of the men who refused to give up the pursuit of his own happiness in order to serve others. To those of you who retain some remnant of dignity and the will to live your lives for yourselves you have the chance to make the same choice. Examine your values and understand that you must choose one side or the other. Any compromise between good and evil only hurts the good and helps the evil. If you’ve understood what I’ve said stop supporting your destroyers. Don’t accept their philosophy. Your destroyers hold you by means of your endurance your generosity your innocence and your love. Don’t exhaust yourself to help build the kind of world that you see around you now. In the name of the best within you don’t sacrifice the world to those who will take away your happiness for it. For those of you bastardizing the term “selfish”. I strongly encourage you to read The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand then I challenge you to tell me why rational egoism is a bad thing. For that matter. I challenge you to tell me how rational egoism won’t save the world from all its current crisis. And for those of you who want to help everyone (even those undeserving of help) remember you can’t help anyone unless you take care of yourself first. Please put on your oxygen mask then secure the masks of others. And finally. I am an extremely benevolent person (moreso than any socialists or leftists I know) but it is immoral to FORCE me to help anyone much less those who are unwilling yet able to help themselves. I suppose then that I’m a Randian small-l libertarian insofar as I think any government coercion of the individual is immoral. This would of course include any forceable confiscation of income. As far as economics is concerned just read Milton Friedman and you’ll understand what I believe: Free markets are the only moral system. What may come as a surprise - or not - is that I agree with these two avowed atheists based upon my faith and understanding of Biblical principles. There is a reason that the Commands of God begin with. “I Am the Lord your God” and end with. “You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor’s.” It’s like a God’s-eye - or top-down - view of the metaphorical Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: The end result of all sin is godlessness and the root of all sin is covetousness. Since covetousness is a multi-faceted thing you can look at it through many different prisms: Covetousness is envy jealousy lust greed &c and covetousness leads to every other sin in the list of God’s commands - thefts adulteries murders. &c. Covetousness boils down to any unholy desire for something God blessed another with. Income taxes especially progressive income taxes are nothing other than government-imposed covetousness and they really are truly theft. When leftist politicians say things like they. “want to spread the wealth around” or. “paying income taxes is patriotic” they are supporting government theft and they are also inducing citizens to sin by buying into the idea that institutionalized covetousness is legitimate. In fact all appeals to class envy are inducements to sin. Property taxes are also a form of institutionalized covetousness because only those with property - the successful and productive - will be subject to those taxes and the moneys will be redistributed to the unsuccessful and unproductive. Besides if the government can steal your property for not bowing to their extortion demands then YOU DON’T OWN THE PROPERTY. THE GOVERNMENT DOES! So the first thing you have to do if you want to make ANY SPIRITUAL PROGRESS AT ALL in life is to get the idea into your head that it is none of your business who God blesses with what. He has His reasons and whether things seem fair to you or not is completely irrelevant. The further our people have gotten from this most basic of moral principles the further our government has strayed into the immorality of the institutionalized covetousness known as socialism. It’s a simple cause and effect relationship. Where the atheist libertarians run into the wall however is over what societal laws are actually necessary and almost all of those have to do with protecting the innocence and safety of our children. 5 - We will be doing everything we can to minimize our tax liability. This is getting harder since the company my wife works for is just to successful and her team is exceeding their goals (big bonuses.) We’re not going to stop our careers based on Washington but we might seek other forms of compensation. 6 - Speak your mind. We’ve got free speech we need to use it. Also donating to those causes or groups who are effective advocates for you is a good idea. Though a part of me feels that if we took all the money wrapped up in political campaigns lobbying and political issue advocacy groups (NRA etc.) it could be put to better use actually helping people. Right now our retirement plan is to be debt free and as self-sufficient as possible. An Obama/Pelosi/Reid governing triumvirate may change our investing decisions but not our overall plan. The circumstances now continue to remind me of Francisco and the unraveling of the economy in Atlas Shrugged. But I don’t think it’s John Galt as much as it is that the number of looters is beginning to overwhelm the efforts of the productive minority. It’s what happened eventually in the Soviet Union when the pressure to compete with the West overwhelmed their limited ability to produce. But as one of the commenters here pointed out the ending of our story may not be as happy as that of the novel. Creeping socialism has done a number on the majority of our population and “progressive” government-controlled education has done a number on the majority of our youth and we are not the people we once were. We are poised and ready for our Hitler our Obamamessiah our Great Leader that will tell us all what to do. In the Lord of The Rings it was “One Ring to bring them all. One Ring to find them. One Ring to bring them and in the darkness bind them”. Just substitute Obama for Ring and you’ve got it. Modern technology (tracking microchips. UAV and satellite surveillance cameras and weapons of mass destruction) makes possible a tyranical control of the population like nothing that has ever existed in the past. Instead of John Galt on strike think John Galt in chains. The John Galt of the novel would have died rather than produce in chains but I doubt that most of us are as clear and firm in our reasoning and principles. Look. Paul: you can talk about what the culture values but we both know the source of values and the fact is that *individuals* are responsible for what they think and value. Now you might be right as a matter of statistics and if we stipulate to mush-definitions for the concepts that you list but the more principal fact is that only a rare few can actually reason to the bottom of “reason success and prosperity”. The anti-reason in comments on this post alone should adequately demonstrate the epistemic material to work with in the culture. Most people regard the 1990’s as a “success” because of that creep from Arkansas and if Ben Bernanke personally dropped a satchel full of Federal Reserve Notes on their porches they would happily call it “prosperity”. “Free speech”. Look around you: that hasn’t stopped a steady march of imbec