Atlas Shrugged……again

Last night (Oct 12) I went to the opening of the movie version of Atlas Shrugged (Part II). This is the screen adaptation of Ayn Rand’s epic novel. The movie hit home with me and I think that it will to anyone who sincerely believes in liberty. A couple of examples from the movie will illustrate the point. Early in the movie the government authorities assign a young energetic bureaucrat to “watch over” entrepreneur Hank Reardon’s steel plant to insure that all government edicts that emanate from the concept of “fair share” are being followed. Metals miner Francisco d’Anconia, offers the opinion that we now have “watchers watching watchers” and suggests that this is not a very productive concept.

The movie illustrates how people that are the real producers will not put up with this corruption and theft and stifling of productivity and will simply leave their jobs and drop out. This problem is summarized at the end of the movie with Ayn Rand’s most famous quote from her novel: “when you see that in order to produce you must obtain permission from men who produce nothing… and your laws don’t protect you against them but protect them against you …you may know that your society is doomed.”

Isn’t that exactly where we are in the United States today?