What film do you mean? Aside from the famous Frontlines documentary For the Good of All there are two others also on Cuyahoga, In Condemnation and For All People for All Time, which also includes the Delaware Water Gap and the houses NPS burned there.

There are others, including several short ones on Shenandoah with interviews of victims and family members. The link I just gave for Shenandoah had some interviews but I was focusing on the NPS arrogant response at the end. It's the same bureaucratic arrogance they reveal elsewhere, including in an NPS internal administrative history of Cuyahoga where they said that they had "to get the land while the getting was good".

NPS may seem quiet to you there now, but is quietly working behind the scenes for more Obama National Monument decrees nationwide, plus the latest NPS centennial celebration this year -- its previous centennial celebration was in 1972, which was "celebrated" with massive acquisitions expanding the National Park System under the government slogan, "Buy Back America".

Isn't it great to have a national "celebration" of a government agency? Do we get one for IRS, too?

ewv: Thank you for working with Rick Kenyon and the land rights cause. - My goal for making a show was to create the kind of awareness that would make steamrolling over McCarthy more difficult in the future.

Shenandoah and other atrocities - I've seen the film, and I am sure you are familiar with A Land Gone Lonesome and other works. The fight I am in is in the quite stage now. It is a manageable endeavor that respects productivity and freedom.

Exactly.

Our community is the last non native community still inside a National Park. We've had major fights over the years, and while things look calm now, the typical park method of waiting out the locals a generation or two, is going to be difficult in our park. I've had the target on my back for a while.

Agreed. I am new in the Gulch, but I am glad I posted my initial comment.

Thanks, well said. I sometimes forget that I didn't move to Alaska to prove anything, but Objectivist ideas are important. I am aware that doing this mine tour is important to me, but places me as an adversary to many folks on in the park (see the link to the Land Rights org.)

I went to McCarthy because I loved the artifacts and history as much as the scenic area. The lack of infrastructure was a challenge, but not a cause. I had to build it, it would have been easier to be productive somewhere else. But if I wanted to restore McCarthy it had to do be done there.

In sharing my life with strangers, I make money, I never looked at it as altruistic. In making the community better I did it for me, and everyone is welcome to come along for the ride.

I was not advocating that Objectivism is somehow Alaskan, I just notice a lot more self reliance in general as you get further away from civilization.

"Enjoying grand scenery while running a business is not art." - agreed - but I was making a bad joke - "Esthetics: my life is an artistic expression of business surrounded by..." I was poorly using business as art. Which is as creative as I can get. The restorations of the old ghost town buildings, surrounded by impossible natural beauty.

NPS never creates anything. It only takes over what is already there and abuses the local people.

I was in contact with some of the people involved in fight against that, wrote an article on NPS history of abuse for Rick Kenyon's Wrangell St. Elias News, and helped spread the word elsewhere about what NPS was doing there. NPS doesn't like it when people targeted for a new National Park find out what its record is.

It wasn't limited to the Pilgrim family and the other inholders who had their access blocked at Wrangell St-Elias. NPS ambushed and pointlessly arrested people on the Alaskan rivers, ultimately causing a big commotion with the Alaskan Congressional delegation.

NPS wars come in waves, not just in Alaska but everywhere. A controversy dies down with no apology, compensation, or admission of wrongdoing, then they relatively behave themselves for a while, then it starts up again when the bureaucrats think everyone has forgotten and they can get away with it. This is what happens when government has arbitrary power. Get anything you can about NPS abuse into the TV series any way you can work it in. The public is in near complete ignorance about how abusive that agency is -- NPS hides its corruption behind the scenic props.

Your 2004 op-ed on NPS attitude towards population removal is excellent. Here is a short video of an NPS official very arrogantly stating what you were talking about (at 0:02:52). Watch the expression on his face. They regard inholders allowed to stay as "museum pieces" that are part of their display and find normal human life to be a "contradiction". It's not hard to see what would happen to you if NPS got eminent authority (which it usually does have). The NPS bureaucrat was referring in particular the mass condemnation for population removal of thousands of people for the establishment of the Shenandoah National Park and for which it has no regrets and no conscience to this day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkWH3...

Yes, it isn't "going Galt" as that phrase is ordinarily meant.

Every producer must create what did not exist before. If you are in a primitive area you have to create more to establish a base that is otherwise already available to leverage from. There is no inherent value in starting over under primitive conditions.

Ayn Rand never advocated dogma, or intolerance towards learning from others. No one can learn everything he needs to know from some Objectivist. Ayn Rand learned philosophy at a university in the Soviet Union.

"The two great values to be gained from social existence are: knowledge and trade. Man is the only species that can transmit and expand his store of knowledge from generation to generation; the knowledge potentially available to man is greater than any one man could begin to acquire in his own lifespan; every man gains an incalculable benefit from the knowledge discovered by others. The second great benefit is the division of labor: it enables a man to devote his effort to a particular field of work and to trade with others who specialize in other fields. This form of cooperation allows all men who take part in it to achieve a greater knowledge, skill and productive return on their effort than they could achieve if each had to produce everything he needs, on a desert island or on a self-sustaining farm." -- Ayn Rand in Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal

Home schooling may or may not be superior or necessary depending on the local school systems available. Division of labor is a value where possible. One can accomplish a lot more when he doesn't have to do everything himself.

Altruistic self sacrifice is an ethical doctrine, not metaphysics. Trade, the exchange of value for value, is not altruism. There is nothing inherently altruistic about the tourism or hospitality industries.

Enjoying grand scenery while running a business is not art. Choosing to live in such a setting rather than the conveniences and life-saving services routinely available somewhere else is a personal choice of lifestyle, not Objectivist esthetics.

Operating a mining tour to emphasize one of man's achievements and a necessity of civilized life is a real irony inside a National Park. Providing such education is putting a target on your back! Living with the National Park Service is a long way from a "perfect political arena" and is no escape from politics. Escaping political control in a rural area anywhere today is an illusion.

I am not trying to convince anyone not to live in the wilds of Alaska, but it does not mean Objectivism and does not even necessarily mean "going Galt". Objectivist philosophy provides principles for living anywhere, and living successfully and fully anywhere requires it.

I suppose the environment has something to do with it, but based on what I've seen on cable, Alaska appears to resemble a frontier style place. I've been impressed with a show about Alaska's State Troopers. Just the territory that needs covering seems pretty daunting. If I'm not being too personal, I'd like to know your background. You seem to have abilities in a large number of applications in order to do what you do. I've had a varied career having had 4 of them myself, but you seem to have me beat.

The policy statements you referred to mostly repudiated attempts by others, individually or in groups, to speak in her name or in the name of her philosophy. She regarded her own statements and those by others that she explicitly endorsed as the only source of knowledge about her philosophy.

Ayn Rand knew, and approved, of individuals silently quitting, changing careers, or moving to another country to avoid repression, but opposed the notions of dropping out of society entirely, trying to emulate the fictional Galt's Gulch of Atlas Shrugged, going on "strike", trying to start new countries, etc. in an attempt at reform.

She regarded censorship to be a primary criterion before resistance against the legal system as a means of fighting back because she knew the importance of ideas. She was an intellectual who advocated the spread of betters ideas, particularly philosophical ideas, as the fundamental means to influence the course of the country.

That's great.

McCarthy most of the time. I am in Anchorage every 8 weeks for a day or two, then back to McCarthy...

Wasilla. What about you?

Ewe: The irony is not lost on me!

Thanks Sarah! Where in Alaska do you live?

Thanks Herb7734, Alaska has lots of self reliant folks.

Regarding being dependent on the NPS for tourism: McCarthy was tourism based long before 1980. Tourism in MCCarthy has grown about 3% a year in line with state of Alaska tourism growth.

Ewv you are correct on the fights.

http://www.landrights.org/ak/wrst/Pil... This is during the heat of the battle. There is an oped piece I wrote in 2004 that changed a lot of the dynamic. However, you are correct in that the federal "compliance" mixed with 'in your face attitude' is a freedom fight on the front lines.

Libertybelle:
I don't advocate dropping out of society either. Ayn Rand presented a theoretical gulch to illustrate her philosophical potential for society. I saw (somewhat romantically at first) a potential for myself to bring business, productivity and advancement to my life by taking on a big project in a tiny town.

I don't want to be pretentious, I did not drop out of society to shrug. I moved into a unique world that offered an opportunity to create.

Sounds good to me! Where do I sign up !!!

Wow!
Reality certainly beats conjecture.
I'm old & retired, but it is good to know that there are people like yourself out there. It gives me hope.

It was at one point, the largest town in Alaska with over 400 buildings. It was "sin city" for the company town of Kennicott 4 miles away. Gambling, moonshining and prostitution.

Economically: I had to create infrastructure that did not exist in order to produce goods & services for sale. I found objectivism to be a core value, meaning I was never expecting the state to provide infrastructure. It was up to me. As more people arrived, more skills created better community opportunities. I find "tolerance" is far from dogma. Learning to make better decisions takes work. I did not learn tolerance from Ayn Rand's work without the perspective of other mentors.

Epistemology: I see daily that homeschooled kids learn the direct relationship between their actions and results. Chop wood for heat, deal with food or go hungry. There is no avoidance. U.S. City life is fraught with the ease of avoiding action and resulting disconnect.

Politically, we have access fights,and not much political radar. Shear distance and living outside of any Burrough or local governing body helps a bit. It's not a perfect political arena, just substantially less influenced by politics.

Metaphysically we do not live for the sake of others, and this is expressed in daily life. For instance, we are in the hospitality industry, however we share our lifestyle with guests. Hospitality in our area is literally sharing your life with strangers. An interesting position for this objectivist anyway.

Esthetics: my life is an artistic expression of business surrounded by the highest concentration of mountains and glaciers on the planet. I am currently working on opening a mine tour that is an expression of man's nobliest achievement.

Hi Neil, and welcome! Although I haven't done a lot of homesteading in the great state of Alaska, I have lived there my entire life. I'm looking forward to talking more with you and sharing experiences!