The Rational Egoist

In a scene reminiscent of Ayn Rand’s epic novel, Atlas Shrugged, the skyline of NYC went dark today. While her novel was not meant to be prophetic, it’s not too far off from modern America.

The biggest blackout in history hit the eastern U.S. today.

The biggest power blackout in history hit steamy U.S. and Canadian cities Thursday, stranding people in subways, closing nuclear power plants in Ohio and New York state and choking streets with workers driven from stifling offices.

Officials were looking at a power transmission problem from Canada as the most likely cause, said a spokeswoman for New York Gov. George Pataki. There was no sign of terrorism, officials in New York and Washington agreed.

The blackouts robbed power for millions of people in a broad swath of the U.S. Northeast - stretching west to Ohio and Michigan - and in southern Canadian cities, starting shortly after 4 p.m. EDT. In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, workers fled their buildings when the power went off. There also were widespread outages in Ottawa, the capital.

Power began to come back in some cities as afternoon turned to evening, but officials said full restoration would take hours longer.

What was the fundamental cause of this blackout? The government.

A government is an agent that forces other individuals to do something. A proper government ONLY uses retaliatory force against those who initiate force against the citizens under that government. When the government is extended beyond this purpose (to protect its citizens from the initiation of force) the government NECESSARILY causes stagnation and recession in the area that they control.

As I stated in my 8/5/03 post, Where We Are Headed:

A human being is a being who possesses a volitional consciousness, which means, that the mind does not work automatically, but rather, either a human must CHOOSE to use his mind and try to observe and identify reality correctly, or a human must choose to evade that effort of observing and identifying reality and instead let his mind wander. As an example, think of reading a book. When reading a book, you can either choose to concentrate on what is written as you read down the page, or you can let your mind wander, not concentrating on the words in front of you (have you ever read a page of a book and afterwards thought to yourself, what did I just read? This is what letting your mind wander is like). Since a human being has no automatic means of survival and his mind does not work automatically, the CHOICE to use one’s mind is critical to producing the materials which will benefit his own life which includes everything ranging from the basics such as food, water, and shelter to the advanced materials such as technology, industry, and medicine.

Since a human being needs to use their mind in order to create the materials necessary for the benefit of their own life, and since one must choose to either use one’s mind or not, it follows that one should choose to use their mind as much as possible. What is the precondition for being able to use one’s mind as much as possible? Freedom. In order to be able to use one’s mind to the fullest capacity, and thereby create the best conditions for the benefit of one’s life, one must be able to be free to choose to use their mind or not to use their mind. Why is this? Because the mind and force are OPPOSITES. Force entails the physical compulsion of an individual to act in a given way, against the will of the individual, thus removing the ability for that individual to choose to use their mind or not. Without the ability to choose to use one’s mind, it is impossible for a human being to choose between a number of alternatives (because force entails the physical compulsion to act upon one of those alternatives against one’s will). Thus, it is impossible for any human being that is forced to create the conditions necessary for the benefit of their life.

By regulating the energy industry, the government rendered the individual members of this industry incapable of using their minds properly, and thus, incapable of creating the conditions necessary for the benefit of their own lives (which includes creating the best product in their particular industry: energy).

In a free market, the fact of competition drives certain businessmen (if they want to succeed) to attempt to create the best product at the highest quality and the lowest price. This is a natural result of a free market in which there is no government intervention. In order for consumers to buy one’s product, one has to produce the best product and the lowest price in comparison to the competition. In a government controlled market however, a business does not have to provide the best product at the lowest price, but rather only needs to pull political favors from politicians. This (along with the inability of individuals to use their mind under a governmentally controlled market) results in the stagnation and recession of that given market.

Therefore, this massive blackout was the inevitable result of a continued amount of government intervention in the economy.