A day for Objectivism?

[musashi]

I just finished reading Stephen Ambrose’s book Nothing Like it in the World, the men who built the transcontinental railroad 1863-1869. It seems that this history had an impact on Ayn Rand given that the Taggart Transcontinental railroad played such a key role in Atlas Shrugged.

I was particularly moved by Ambrose’s story about the contest to lay the most track in the final days of the build. After one-upping each other a few times, the Central Pacific hatched a plan to take the record in such a way that the Union Pacific could not counter.

The story moved me on so many different levels.

• Many of the workers, like Grenville Dodge, were veterans of the Civil War. They had spent 4 years in conflict attempting to destroy half of the country. In building the TCRR Yankee and Reb joined to create rather than destroy. To me it seemed cathartic.
  
  The TCRR brought the territory of the US under the dominion of the United States. By bisecting the country, the road proved the superiority of industrialization over aboriginal cultures. Moral or immoral the TCRR secured the spread of “civil” society and sealed the fate of Native American “savages”.
  
  The materials used to build a rail road are massive and costly. Acquiring the assets took far more money that the companies had access to, and yet thy managed to get the resources somehow. Moving all these materials to the end of line is a significant challenge. The project required armies of men to manually lay the track, section by section. Almost every task to lay the track was done by hand tools or harnessed horses. Laying rail roads required the convergence of so many virtues: Organization, commitment, coordination, greed, drive, foresight, the list could go on and on.

The previous single day record (by the UP) was 6 miles in 20 hours. During 10 day light hours on April 27, 1869 the Central Pacific laid over 10 miles of track! A good day walking on flat ground for me is about 20 miles in 10 hours, these men moved at half that speed and left a railroad in their wake!

Ayn Rand chose the rail roads as the icon of her story. The rail roads represented the foundation of society. The Transcontinental Rail Road was a representation of what the men’s minds and efforts can achieve. If the Communist’s claim May 1st as their day, I think April 27th should be the Objectivist’s day.

[reteo]

[in a flat Vulcan monotone voice] This is a meaningless question because symbolic gestures like this have no logical value.

On the one hand, the "meaningless symbolism" argument did initially go through my mind. However, tell me, what makes symbolism "meaningless?"

Think about it for a moment, any time you use language or gesture, you are making use of symbolism to communicate something to another person. Those symbols have logical reasons for existing, and in fact, are the foundation upon which reason rests. If you cannot figure something out as basic as language, then you have no facility with which to reason out deeper concepts, and pass those concepts onto others to further expand on.

Also, the concept of measured time itself is symbolism. We could have been effective enough just focusing on the days, moons, seasons, and years without breaking those individual days down into 24 evenly-spaced segments, which themselves are broken down into 60 evenly-spaced segments, which themselves are... well, you get my point.

No? You don't get my point? Well, if words and times have meanings that go beyond meaningless symbolism, is it not useful to take a small part of each in order to remind us, and educate others on the benefits and facility of reason? In this way we are using two rational, yet symbolic, elements to express our respect for reason and objectivity. With this expression, it is possible to spread the ideas that formed this expression in the first place.

In any event, I voted "Yes."

[musashi]

Think about it for a moment, any time you use language or gesture, you are making use of symbolism to communicate something to another person. Those symbols have logical reasons for existing, and in fact, are the foundation upon which reason rests. If you cannot figure something out as basic as language, then you have no facility with which to reason out deeper concepts, and pass those concepts onto others to further expand on.

Well stated! When I read the “soliloquy of the $” from Atlas it is almost like Francisco is explaining exactly this point. A dollar is a representation, a metric, of the value created by our efforts. If we bank up a large sum, this is a form a validation of our productivity and our capacity to trade. Symbols serve us in many ways.

Every year I read about the idiotic May Day military parades in North Korea or China. I see images of Chavistas wearing red scarves. I smell the tear gas as riot police disperse this year’s crop of protesters be they: Communists, Socialists; labor unions; anti-WTOs; Project ACORNs; ELF’s etc. And the Collectivist movement advances like an insidious headless ameba on the back on this symbolic day.

It just chapped my hide that the principals of Objectivism had no such date to anchor it place on the calendar, and in everyone’s thoughts. What other symbols would be beneficial?

[Oleksandr]

It just chapped my hide that the principals of Objectivism had no such date to anchor it place on the calendar, and in everyone’s thoughts. What other symbols would be beneficial?

Beneficial for what?

[Oleksandr]

Also keep in mind that the book is about Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad, which were both financed through government. Nothing heroic here. Ayn Rand never supported government railroads.

Ayn Rand did speak highly of J.J. Hill who built his transcontinental railroad without ANY government help, and was one of the only few railroads, thereafter that was profitable. And how about UPR and CPR? They had to be bailed out many times.

[musashi]

Also keep in mind that the book is about Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad, which were both financed through government.

The Government definitely played a huge role. But I’m not sure government financed would be a complete description. Yes the US government did issue bonds at 6% and transfer this working capital to the companies at incremental stages based on mileage completed and approved. But these were loans to the companies and they were repaid via subsequent operations. The scope of that project was monumental. Can you imagine how the markets of the time would have reacted to the demand for capital? I think they would not have been able to attract one tenth of the money needed to build the road. As it was both companies had huge short term liabilities throughout the period of construction (something like 3 times book value) even with the financial backing of the government. By today’s standards the companies would have been declared insolvent long before the project was completed. In fact the UP was forced into receivership at the very end in a hostile take over move (the receiver was Boss Tweed’s son! In New York).

The land grants might be considered the biggest Government largess. But much of the land was right away along the track, and even after the road was complete the desolate land had little value. In the prime areas the Government actually made out big time because they controlled much larger areas beyond the granted lands. And ultimately the road lead to much higher land utilization and expansion; a rising tide that benefited all men and government.

There was plenty of corruption and bureaucracy associated with the TCRR and both companies were up to their necks in it, and maybe that was wrong. But there were also courageous men who took on and completed a monumental task.

Ayn Rand did speak highly of J.J. Hill who built his transcontinental railroad without ANY government help, and was one of the only few railroads, thereafter that was profitable. And how about UPR and CPR? They had to be bailed out many times.

Just to put it into context….
For the CP every rail, spike, plate and bolt, every keg of black powder, the engines and rolling stock all had to be brought around the cape by sailing ship. How massive is that? A typical one-way journey might be 3 months… it might be 6 months. How far did they have to plan ahead? What were their inventory costs just for freight in transit?

Once the first line is in place construction of subsequent lines becomes much easier, and materials delivery becomes much faster (days and weeks), safer and cheaper.

[Oleksandr]

All that doesn't matter and does not change anything.

Those were gov't sponsored railroads and they went bankrupt and had to be bailed out. The few fully private were profitable. End of story.

[musashi]

Those were gov't sponsored railroads and they went bankrupt and had to be bailed out. The few fully private were profitable. End of story.

I’m not sure how you’d define sponsor, but to me a sponsor pays for an event or item. The government did not pay for the TCRR, the UP and CP did. The government loaned these companies money, which they repaid. My banker does not sponsor my business ventures. Financing is merely a separate business. If the banker does not get repaid; he has a claim against the collateral that the loan was based upon.

Neither company went bankrupt, only one (UP) was reorganized as a result of a hostile take over by J Gould.

Neither company required any sort of government bail out.

Both companies were private concerns (in fact the CP was practically a partnership of the big 4). Yes they benefited from government assistance. Yes they colluded with the politicians to get the most favorable terms they could. But those conditions did not make them government owned. Had the companies defaulted on their bonds, then the TCRR would have been government owned.

Both made boat loads… and train car loads of money.

[musashi]

Nothing heroic here.

To me the heroic part is the one day mileage record set by the CP on April 27th. This was an incredible achievement that took organization, engineering, creativity, hard work, smart work. It is the closest historical event I’ve heard of to rival the myth of John Henry.

To me the heroic part is the work of the men on that day and the results they achieved.

[redhotrebel]

In order to stop the hordes of possible messages saying that I’ve taken this argument “out of context” I trimmed down the quote to just highlight the exact parts of this argument that I wish to address.

...However, tell me, what makes symbolism "meaningless?"

Symbolism is “meaningless” to everyone that does not share your ‘beliefs’. An example is the Catholic cross or if you want a “day” then we can use Christmas for this argument. The meaning of those two things holds no value or logical inference to most of us. The $ sign in Atlas Shrugged had no effect on ANY person that saw it except D. Taggart because to her that symbol had value/meaning. The symbol was completely meaningless without the personal interpretation. If one gives power to a symbol rather than the reason for the symbol, it logically follows that it will become as inconsequential as every other holiday, cross or tattoo.

Also, the concept of measured time itself is symbolism...

Time is a system or method of measuring or reckoning the passage of events. To most of us time holds its meaning because it determines where we need to be, go to and/or an event that holds meaning to us personally. Time holds significance to a person with a job because it determines their actions and choices. To a jobless loser time holds no significant value as it does not affect their actions or choices. Time has also moved away from the metaphysical (Gods/pagan events/growing cycles) to the scientific realm of calculations. Could we have the latter without the former? That could be argued into perpetuity.

...Well, if words and times have meanings that go beyond meaningless symbolism, is it not useful to take a small part of each in order to remind us...

This argument is based on a false premise that words and times go beyond "meaningless symbols" for anyone other than the person making this statement. Also, do objectivists need to be “reminded” of their values? And if they do, the problem lays with them.

...and educate others on the benefits and facility of reason? ..."

To quote “V”: “...Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an Idea...” The mask or the symbol of it holds no value in itself, the “idea” of freedom, however, is irrefutable. Education is done by providing solid evidence based information, not by having a day on a calendar or a parade.

To quickly answer the topic question: “Should there be an Objectivist day” I say no, irrevocably. If a day holds special meaning to an individual let them celebrate privately. “Whats good for the goose...” I hate having my bank closed, work stopped etc... on behalf of someone else's "symbol" and if objectivists interject their philosophy into the mix it gives sanction to others that wish to do the same.

[redhotrebel]

It just chapped my hide that the principals of Objectivism had no such date to anchor its place on the calendar, and in everyone’s thoughts.

If other symbols/holidays "chapped" you, why would you perpetuate the problem by adding yours to a calendar? Wouldn't a better (albeit more arduous) solution be to dissuade all "special dates" equally. It seems that this would be the most effective solution. It would, at the very least, diminish the stronghold of irrationality.

What other symbols would be beneficial?

Beneficial symbols can be anything that would encourage a person to ask you about its meaning. Ie: the $ is great to communicate to other objectivists, however, most laymen would make presumptions rather than be inquisitive. If, however, you have a symbol/design that is not readily identifiable you are more likely to receive query as to its meaning.