The more I work, the harder I work, the more I produce....The more I am feeding the Beast.
Jason Mark Lewis is an American Libertarian radio talk show host and political commentator. Lewis has a Master's Degree in Political Science from the University of Colorado at Denver as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Education/Business from the University of Northern Iowa. His show is syndicated nationally. His radio show was previously broadcast locally for 10 years on KSTP in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area of Minnesota, until Lewis moved to WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he spent three years. In 2006, Lewis moved back to Minnesota to the newly established KTLK-FM. He is the author of Power Divided is Power Checked: The Argument for States Rights from Bascom Hill Publishing
Lewis has been mentioned as a possible candidate in 2014 against Senator Al Franken. He eventually declined to run. On the July 31, 2014 episode Lewis abruptly quit, assumingly to devote more time to the website he co-founded, http://www.galt.io
Over the past week, talk show host Jason Lewis has been letting on that something big was going to happen on his show. July 31, 2014 he dubbed “Judgement Day.”
Being an avid listener of his, I thought it probably had something to do with his political activism site Galt.io* and probably something to do with his cause called “Starve the Beast.” Was he going to announce that he was going to move his show from the high tax progressive state of Minnesota to a more tax friendly/liberty friendly state?
As it turns out, I wasn’t too far off but he took his “starve the beast” thing a step further. You could say he had “gone Galt” on the air halfway through his radio show.
The following was his epic final monologue:All over the continent of Europe there are castles. Castles that children are taught to admire. But these monuments are not shrines to Liberty but are a stark reminder of an oppressive past that we are quickly forgetting. These elaborate fortresses were built to honor the riches of royalty. Such wealth was not derived from the cooperation of capitalism but from the conquest of collectivism. It was stolen through taxes and fees collected from the serfs. It was not earned.
We have apparently learned little from history for today we have our own royalty dressed up in the robes of compassion. A false altruism that merely enables the mob and crushes the individual. We have erected a shrine called the welfare state and as a result, we now resemble a nation with more takers than makers. Crony capitalists who preach the virtue of community service while acting like economic parasites who live off the system. Indeed the real entrepreneurs are no longer valued. Only the political ones who loathe them. Profit is a dirty word while one’s obligation to society regulates the most productive to second class status. We are it seems endlessly told to live for others. Endlessly told. Taxes are patriotic. We are told to apologise for our own existence. The pursuit of happiness has been replaced by the mandate of self sacrifice. This is not freedom, it is tyranny.
And so we, I, you are faced with a choice. The choice that all people in all times must make: to fund the beast or to starve the beast. To host the parasite or walk away. To participate in the system that punishes the value of your own existence or boycott that system.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have now chosen the latter. They can now feed off one another.
I quit.
Just after Lewis uttered the words “I quit” there was silence followed by his confused producer getting on the air “Um…Jason?” and then announcing that Jason had left the mic. They then went to commercial and found another talk host to fill the remaining hour and a half remaining in the show.
From there there was a flurry of calls and people going to this website and the Galt.io homepage. Was this some kind of stunt? Did Jason Lewis really quit halfway through his syndicated talk show?
Personally, I wasn’t sure. It does now seem that Jason Lewis indeed did quit and decided he was no longer willing to keep feeding the beast.
Okay, so a talk show host who would likely be retiring soon quit in dramatic fashion, what’s the big deal?
For me, it is a bummer. Jason Lewis was one of the few talk show hosts that didn’t tow the party line or spend three hours a day attacking Barack Obama for everything under the sun. Its true that he did attack Obama’s policies with gusto but he didn’t spare the Republicans either. He brought insights that no other syndicated show offers.
And maybe this going Galt is more symbolic than anything else. But what if his message resonates to other high achievers who could stop the motor of the world if they followed this example?
I for one hope this inspires such a revolution even if its on a smaller scale than what took place in Atlas Shrugged.
