John Galt on the RINO Response to the Pro Antifa Media

In the course of John Galt's climactic speech in Atlas Shrugged, he spends a paragraph on what today is recognizable as RINO cowardice in response to America's extremist, pro-Antifa, fake-news media, starting with the New York Times. We are witnessing this most recently vis-a-vis the Stephen Moore nomination:

You, who are half-rational, half-coward, have been playing a con game with reality, but the victim you have conned is yourself.  When men reduce their virtues to approximate, then evil acquires the force of an absolute, when loyalty to an unyielding purpose is dropped by the virtuous, it's picked up by scoundrels--and you get the indecent spectacle of a cringing, bargaining, traitorous good and a self-righteously compromising evil.  As you surrendered to the mystics of muscle [leftists] when they told you that ignorance consists of claiming knowledge, so now you surrender to them when they shriek that immorality consists of pronouncing moral judgment. When  they yell that it is selfish to be certain that you are right, you hasten to assure the that you're certain of nothing.  When they shout that it's immoral to stand on your convictions, you assure them that you have no convictions whatever. When the thugs of Europe's People's States snarl that you are guilty of intolerance because you don't treat your desire to live and their desire to kill you as a difference of opinion--you cringe and hasten to assure them that you are not intolerant of any horror.  When some barefoot bum in some pesthole of Asia yells at you:  How dare you be rich--you apologize and beg him to be patient and promise him you'll give it all away.

Ayn Rand on the Fake Media

I have been rereading Atlas Shrugged, and I have reached the chapter, "This is John Galt Speaking,"  in which John Galt makes his grand speech.  I noticed a passage on page 916 of the Signet edition, a few pages before the speech, that describes the media in the Atlas Shrugged world right after Hank Rearden disappears.  The description sounds like the media in today's America.  As a child Rand had lived under Soviet totalitarianism, and the media in today's America likely has much in common with the USSR's media, which is likely the model for this description:

It was strange, she thought, to obtain news by means of nothing but denials, as if existence had ceased, facts had vanished, and only the frantic negatives uttered by officials and columnists gave any clue to the reality they were denying.  'It is not true that the Miller Steel Foundry of New Jersey has gone out of business.'  'It is not true that the Jansen Motor Company of Michigan has closed its doors. 'It is a vicious, anti-social lie that the manufacturers of steel products are collapsing under the threat of a steel shortage.  There is no reason to expect a steel shortage.' 'It is a slanderous, unfounded rumor that a Steel Unification Plan had been in the making and that it had been favored by Mr. Orren Boyle.  Mr. Boyle's attorney has issued an emphatic denial and has assured the press that Mr. Boyle is now vehemently opposed to any such plan.  Mr. Boyle, at the moment is suffering from a nervous breakdown.'  But some news could be witnessed in the streets of New York...

Atlas Shrugged and the Decline of New York

This past Tuesday I had to take my wife to her dentist in Manhattan, so I spent a little time walking around our old neighborhood, the Upper West Side, while she got her crown.  I learned that apartment buildings now have policies that can ban smoking outside the building; supermarket plastic bags are now illegal; if you want to use paper bags, you must pay a 5-cent penalty.

With so many meddlesome laws, New York is not a place in which I care to live. I first realized that the city had gone past the point of no return in 2000, when I sat on a Manhattan narcotics grand jury.  The grand jury was in the New York Supreme Court Building, 60 Centre Street, where the 1957 movie 12 Angry Men takes place.  In interacting with my fellow Manhattanites, I realized that the people of New York had gone far down the left-wing path, that they no longer believed in the rule of law, and that the ultimate result would be increasing socialism and moral chaos.

I was just rereading Atlas Shrugged, which I assigned to my class as an extra credit assignment. When I was in Manhattan on Tuesday, several things reminded me of it.  It is about the exodus of industrialists, managers, and the competent from a United States increasingly dominated by socialist looters, with an end result of the country's reverting to 18th century standards—a goal advocated today by  environmentalists.   

This passage is an example of Ayn Rand's perception of how backward-trending socialist law works.  A bureaucrat named Dr. Ferris explains the process to capitalist Hank Rearden, inventor of Rearden Metal:

“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris.  We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against—then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures.  We’re after power, and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d be better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.  Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens?  What’s there in that for anyone?  But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted—and you create a nation of lawbreakers—and then you cash in on guilt.  Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.

 I can picture a Democratic Party policy adopted by di Blasio, Warren, Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, et al. whereby neighbors are encouraged to inform on each other:  "Hello, police? I just saw my neighbor,  Mrs. Taggart, entering her apartment with a plastic bag of groceries.  Yes, we're at 140 Riverside Drive, Apt. 16-k. Please send a squad car."

Who Is John Galt?

 I heard at the Ulster County Republican dinner on Friday night that the film version of Atlas Shrugged, rumored for more than 50 years, was unveiled at the CPAC meeting. The film's website is here.  This is the trailer:

Atlas Shrugged Video Trailer

I was saddened to learn that the Atlas Shrugged movie that had been scheduled for 2008 was not made. I noticed this video on Youtube and think it is cool.  Unfortunately blogspot is cutting off the end but you can view it here if you want or click on the video.