The original Silicon Valley meaning of a disruptive company was one that used its small size to shake up a bigger industry or bloated competitor. Increasingly, though, the conference stage was filled with brash, Millennial entrepreneurs vowing to “Disrupt” real-world laws and regulations in the same way that me stealing your dog is Disrupting the idea of pet ownership. On more than one occasion a judge would ask an entrepreneur “Is this legal?” to which the reply would inevitably come: “Not yet.” The audience would laugh and applaud. What chutzpah! So Disruptive!
The truth is, what Silicon Valley still calls “Disruption” has evolved into something very sinister indeed. Or perhaps “evolved” is the wrong word: The underlying ideology — that all government intervention is bad, that the free market is the only protection the public needs, and that if weaker people get trampled underfoot in the process then, well, fuck ‘em — increasingly recalls one that has been around for decades. Almost seven decades in fact, since Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” first put her on the radar of every spoiled trust fund brat looking for an excuse to embrace his or her inner asshole. (For a delightful essay on that subject, I recommend Jason Heller’s “I Was A Teenage Randroid.”)
From Ayn Rand...
Consider the following quote…
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.Or this one…
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
The only thing that matters is profit within a market framework.
I am going to start off by saying I read this post just because I saw Ayn Rand’s name. I read The Fountainhead as a teenage and can honestly say the book really inspired me to go out and do the things I dreamed about. Personally I think Rand is an amazing author and respect her theories and challenging ideas. But I am not sure if the application of her ideas is very practical. We need government, bottom line. Profit is obviously not all that matters, what about freedom? Equality? Justice? All these things are at the core of America and we need the government to help provide. Rand is not an economist, she is a philosopher and writer who challenges people to toughen up, work hard, and fight for what they want. Individuals can benefit from her writing, but politicians not so much.
ReplyDeleteBoth of these articles are great! People who literally believe everything that Rand says as true are pains in the ass who sometimes end up annoying people into letting them have their way. While reading I was reminded of the group of students on campus who protest for the right to smoke weed and have bongs on campus. How dumb these people are really blows my mind. You are not going to ever persuade the administration to change the campus policy so that it is not in agreement with state law...duh. If these people really want to protest that badly they should protest to legalize marijuana in Michigan.
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