Because, in some
respects, Ayn Rand wrote during a gentler time with
respect to civil liberties, and the film endeavors
to consistently reflect Rand’s emphasis on economic
regimentation, there is little focus on the kinds of
draconian civil-liberties violations that Americans
face today. The real-world version of Directive
10-289 is not a single innovation-stopping decree,
but an agglomeration of routine humiliations and
outright exercises of violence. The groping and
virtual strip-searching by the Transportation
Security Administration, the War on Drugs and its
accompanying no-knock raids, the paranoid
surveillance apparatus of large-scale wiretaps and
data interception, and the looming threat of
controls over the Internet and indefinite detention
without charge – these perils are as damaging as an
overarching economic central plan, and they are with
us today. While not even the most socialistic or
fascistic politicians today would issue a ban on all
new technology or a comprehensive freeze of prices
and wages, they certainly can and will try to
humiliate and physically threaten millions of
completely peaceful, innocent Americans who try to
innovate and earn an honest living. Obama’s
administration has engaged in this sort of mass
demoralization ever since the foiled “underwear”
bomb plot during Christmas 2009 – but Romney would
do more of the same, and perhaps worse. Unlike Obama,
who must contend with the pro-civil-liberties wing
of his constituency, Romney’s attempts to violate
personal freedoms will only be cheered on by the
militaristic, jingoistic, security-obsessed faction
that is increasingly coming to control the discourse
of the Republican Party. There can be no hope for
freedom, or for the dignity of an ordinary traveler,
employee, or thinker, if Romney is elected.
I encourage the viewers
of the film to seriously consider the question, “Who
is John Galt?” He is not a Republican. If any man
comes close, it is
Gary Johnson, a principled libertarian who has
shown in practice (not just in rhetoric) his ability
and willingness to cut wasteful interventions,
balance budgets, and protect civil liberties during
two terms as Governor of New Mexico. He staunchly
champions personal freedoms, tax reduction, foreign-policy
non-interventionism, and a sound currency free of
the Federal Reserve system. Gary Johnson was,
in fact, a businessman of the Randian ethos – who
started as a door-to-door handyman and grew from
scratch an enterprise with revenues of $38 million.
And, on top of it all, he is a triathlete and
ultramarathon runner who climbed Mount Everest in
2003 – clearly demonstrating a degree of ambition,
drive, and pride in achievement worthy of a hero of
Atlas Shrugged.
Ayn Rand never meant the
strike in Atlas Shrugged to be an actual
recommendation for how to address the world’s
problems. Rather, the strike was an illustration
of what would happen if the world was deprived of
its best and brightest – the creators and innovators
who, despite all obstacles, pursue the path of merit
and achievement rather than pull and artificial
privilege. Today, it is necessary for each of us to
work to keep the motor of the world going by not
allowing the purveyors of pull to gain any
additional ground. Voting for Mitt Romney will do
just the opposite – as Atlas Shrugged: Part II
artfully suggests to the discerning viewer.
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