A few years back there was severe flooding in Gloucestershire or thereabouts which reeked severe damage causing homelessness, injuries & fatalities. I remember asking some libertarians what people should do in the absence of government aid to help them deal with the consequences of something disastrous or worse as the severe flooding which had hit the west country, their response was either the usual libertarian spin that in the absence of government welfare they’d be charities to provide for those in need or that people would be encouraged to provide for themselves.

I do know of libertarians who’d tell people who having barely escaped from whatever natural disaster which had affect them with only their lives that they should of been better prepared, despite the fact that none of us get much warning if any warning when many disasters strike & despite the fact that even if there is some warning that disaster will strike not everybody is capable of making the necessary preparations. None of us know when many disasters are going to strike & so it’s a good job there is government to help assist individuals when disaster does strike. Its oh so easy to say from the comfort of mom’s basement ‘people should have been better prepared’ when whatever disaster strikes.

Charities will provide for those in need in the absence of government welfare? Hmm anybody notice all the famine & disease happening in places like Africa & notice all the charity work done in places like Africa; yes despite all the very productive charity work there is in places like Africa, famine & disease still blights the lives of millions, which kind of proves libertarian spin about charities providing for the needy in the absence of government to be utter bullshit.

In response to the fact that charities are already unable to meet the needs of those in need without the absence of government, some libertarians will snarl at you that shit happens & you can’t prevent people from getting hurt whatever. Its true that whatever system you might have people will get hurt, but less people get hurt in the west from things like disease because of government being able to provide universal healthcare & welfare. Easy to say ‘shit happens’ from the comfort of mom’s basement, easy to say shit happens until shit happens to you.

I’ve often quipped that libertarians seem to think individual liberty ends two inches in front of their nose because they live in mom’s basement spending way too much time intellectually masturbating over Ayn Rand novels.

I wonder whether if Ayn Rand would now be telling those individuals in Wales reeling from the consequences of severe flooding that they should of learnt to swim.

Ayn Rand is probably most famous (or my opinion infamous) for writing a book called Atlas Shrugged which had a huge influence on the so called ‘liberty’ movement in the Unites States. Some have described Atlas Shrugged as ‘a manifesto for sociopaths’, I’d describe it simply as a piece of shit. Atlas Shrugged basically depicts the Unites States as a nation where the wealthy are prevented from being uber greedy & so the wealthy withdraw their labour & go off to live in the desert & as a result the nation collapses. Of course Ayn Rand depicts in Atlas Shrugged that the nation is eventually rescued when adopting the unregulated capitalism of greed & selfishness, but do you expect from a woman who repeatedly described the poor as parasites, what do you expect from a woman who in the 1970s gave a TV interview in the US where she pretty much said that children with learning disabilities should be left for dead.

Ayn Rand was a woman who obviously found it near impossible to have empathy for those less fortunate then herself & raged at the rest of society for doing so. Other then Atlas Shrugged another notorious work of Ayn Rand’s was a guide on how to be selfish entitled ‘Selfishness is a Virtue’, I’m sorry but anybody who has to write a guide to encourage others to be as selfish a twat as you might be is seriously fucked up. Regardless as to how fucked up I might believe Ayn Rand & her work to be, it did have a an influence, her work especially has had an influence upon the socially inept living in mom’s basement who’ve taken rhetoric to heart.

Rather then moving to the desert or moving to New Hampshire to plague the poor people already living there; might I suggest that if unable to have empathy for those well off then yourself or you don’t understand that there is price we all have to pay to live in a civilised society, you get together with like minded people to build a big fucking rocket & fuck off to the moon.

I’d quite like libertarians to get lost rather then whine about having to be considerate towards others, because I’d rather not have to explain to  sociopaths as to why they should be considerate to the likes of those in Wales who this weekend are suffering from no fault of their own.