I find it incredible that Ayn Rand could foresee the future so clearly. 56 years ago she was writing about the US economy, culture and government today.
It's also important that she left a country where socialism/communism had already dominated the people and she fled to a land she initially perceived to be better than that. I take Atlas Shrugged as the "been there, seen that" warning to a country that she saw as shockingly comfortable going down the socialist road.
You would think that when an expert, a person who experience it first hand, LIVED it, they would not be ignored and passed off so easily. How anybody can dismiss her (with a shrug..ha ha), is disturbing to me. She KNEW what she was talking about...period.
Having experienced the same path to Socialism/Communism in her homeland, an objective historical appraisal seems likely too. We wonder just where the "tilt point" to Marxism for America is today. 50+ % on the Obama dole should do it. Highly likely to occur in next 3-4 years.
What's shocking to me...someone made this point, I think in this site but it might have been another one...is that books like 1984 and AS have been out for decades, and the political class seems to have read them over, looked at the tactics of the antagonists, and said "not bad...I think I'll try that!"
It's like someone watching Star Wars and concluding that yeah, the emperor and vader are evil, but ruling by this "dark side" thing has merits and we ought to try it out.
Respectfully: It is highly likely that today's majority of "low-information" voters have never read 1984 or Atlas Shrugged. We must never forget that we get exactly what we vote for. The burden to prevent such a failure of democracy is more with the people than those who represent them. Our government representatives represent themselves first and their constituents rarely. "Gotta keep my yob mon!"
Clairvoyance, or an objective appraisal of history and the recognition that it repeats...
Respectfully,
O.A.
It's like someone watching Star Wars and concluding that yeah, the emperor and vader are evil, but ruling by this "dark side" thing has merits and we ought to try it out.