“The truly and deliberately evil men are a very small minority; it is
the appeaser who unleashes them on mankind; it is the appeaser’s
intellectual abdication that invites them to take over. When a culture’s
dominant trend is geared to irrationality, the thugs win over the
appeasers. When intellectual leaders fail to foster the best in the
mixed, unformed, vacillating character of people at large, the thugs are
sure to bring out the worst. When the ablest men turn into cowards, the
average men turn into brutes.”— AYN RAND
On a recent trip to Colorado, I fired up the Atlas Shrugged
audiobook. As I passed a line of train cars sitting empty and idle,
noted the high gas prices, and listened to complaints about gas station
supplier shortages, it occurred to me that Rand’s 1957 novel made a
number of chillingly accurate predictions about our modern Wokestopia
(i.e. Woke-dystopia).
Like many immigrants who escaped
communism, Rand knew firsthand the corrosive effect of politicizing the
industries that supply and feed our economy. The central plotline of Atlas Shrugged
follows the accelerating political corruption of American corporations.
Rand painted a picture of a kind of corporate/leftist fascism that
feels familiar to us in 2021. Below are some of the predictions that
have partially or completely come true.
Politicizing industry strangles production........
Freedom of speech is an endangered species.............
Political corruption will sap our ability to get things done..........
“Temporary emergencies” created by bad policies are never temporary............
Everything is illegal............
Rand’s vision had flaws. But history
has vindicated her dire warnings about politicized corporate/government
partnerships oppressing freedom. Central planning of an economy always
leads to corruption, inefficiency, and oppression. The historical
examples are abundant and consistent as similar tragedies played out in
Europe, Asia, Latin America, and now the United States. Yet even after
the spectacular collapse of the Soviet empire, pernicious socialism has
accelerated from creeping incrementalism to a full-on march.........To Read More....
