I've been watching the state of the union lately and I'm trying to decide if it's seems to be following Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged because it's that prophetic or because I read it recently and it's just in the forefront of my mind.
I don't mean the work stoppage by the intelligentsia and actors in our society. I mean the creeping socialism and growth of the entitlement society. Right down to the charity-chic that seems to be running through the liberal rich.
On the one side we have the mass that believes that whatever they want, they deserve. That just struck me. Look at that first sentence. "What they want, they deserve." Not what they've earned or what they've saved for or what they've worked for. All it takes, it seems, is the merest suggestion that there is an entitlement for something and suddenly we've got screaming mobs demanding it now. It doesn't matter what, be it a $500 FEMA Walmart card or a $700 billion bail out of a loan system that was created by the same entitlement attitude.
On the other side we have a class that's been raised to believe that money is bad and should be given away. Only, not theirs. Everyone else's money is bad and should be "redistributed", but I've got to support 20 Chihuahua's all named Mr. Barky Von Schnauser, so you can't have mine.
Caught in the middle? We'll that's most of us. That shrinking middle class that more and more has had to bear the onus of the economy, the society, the civilization.
Remember, the middle class is a relatively recent invention of society. Most of civilization can be characterized by a Ruling Class/Serf Class system. Whether it be plutocracies and serfs or theocracies and peons or oligarchies and slaves. Really, of the 10,000 years of human civilization, only the last 600 to 700 years have seen a real middle class.
With the .gov taking over Freddy, Fannie, AIG and all those other home loans, we're back to a ruling class that owns it's subjects again. Oh well, middle class was nice while it lasted, wasn't it?
But back to my original thought. Are we watching Atlas getting ready to shrug? The parallels are there and all too obvious to ignore. I just wish I knew where John Galt was, I'd build a house next to his.
And finally, what I feel about this proposed "bail out" was best said by a greater man than I. I posted it before, but here's the link, go back and read it, copy it and email it to others, send it to your congresscritters, if that would do any good.
3 comments:
Your statements are absolutely correct.
The book is more prophetic than I ever wanted to see in my lifetime.
Here's a timely quote from Rand:
"Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed."
If you'd like a great explanation of exactly what government manipulations of the economy brought about this mess, read this article - written 8 years ago - which predicted the whole thing.
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