Atlas lied

Well, not exactly...the government did

I’ve written before of prescient parallels between Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and America today, especially with regard to government manipulation of markets and the socialistic tendencies of many in America today. Having decided to re-watch the movies (I wouldn’t mind re-reading the book, but it is quite long, and it will have to wait in line behind several others), something struck me about half way through the first installment.

Because the State has an agenda in “protecting” the steel industry, and because Hank Rearden has formulated a new metal alloy that is stronger, lighter, and less expensive than steel (which other companies are struggling to produce anyway), the government-run State Science Institute runs a smear campaign against Rearden and Rearden metal.

They trot out studies that claim the metal to be inferior and flawed, even dangerous. They malign Rearden as lying about the metal. They do all they can to discourage anyone from using Rearden metal.

When prominent businesswoman Dagny Taggart decides to use it anyway in order to replace the rails for Taggart Transcontinental’s trains, and oil magnate Ellis Wyatt backs them, the government goes to work trying to bring them down as well.

Does this sound familiar? One of the most poignant examples in recent history is the Covid jabs. Remember how the government wanted everyone to get injected, and other treatments, along with those who promoted them, were demonized? Surely you recall Ivermectin being demonized as “horse paste,” and the physicians who treated their patients with it being reprimanded, or worse, by state medical boards.

Of course, it has since become clear to anyone with a functioning cerebral cortex that the shots were not as “safe and effective” as the government claimed. Neither was Ivermectin the danger that the government claimed. As a matter of fact, the FDA lost a lawsuit over their social media posts falsely asserting that Ivermectin was dangerous and only for use in animals.

This was not a isolated occurrence. Additional instances of this type of behavior from the government are coming to light more and more often. Government agencies have for decades vilified saturated fats as dangerous and lauded seed and vegetable oils as “healthy.” The exact opposite is true.

Likewise, blood cholesterol levels have been blamed for heart disease, and cholesterol-lowering statin drugs pushed as the solution. Yet reality has revealed that cholesterol is not a causative factor in heart disease and statin drugs are deleterious to health.

The food pyramid of grains vs meats, “green” electricity vs fossil fuels, electric vehicles vs gas automobiles… The examples are myriad.

Government has grown to the extent that it believes it has the power and responsibility to pick, or more accurately, decide, the winners and losers in the market. They will fund their pet projects while endlessly regulating their competition, often making financially unsustainable the continued existence of the unfavored contender.

Government will turn brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, all in the name of preserving and growing its own power. They will claim to stand against the rich and for the poor, but they will just make everyone poorer. They will poison you then look you square in the eye and tell you they didn’t, even when the evidence is clear. They will implement policies in the name of altruism that bring nothing but despair. Then they will tell you to applaud their heroism.

They stand in front of the pedestal on which the world is perched, and they wink at you, pretending as if they are Atlas propping it up and expecting you to play along with the charade.

And to their own detriment, the masses will indulge them. They continue to believe the lies, even when many John Galts* arise and expose the truth. Instead of praising or following those John Galts and regaining their liberty and freedom from being looted, the masses castigate the truth-bearers, because it is easier to shut their eyes to the truth than to admit they’d been deceived.

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*John Galt is the character in the book who opens the eyes of those who produce so that they see how the government steals from them, uses them, to perpetuate their own power and to “care for” the non-producers.

Note: If you haven’t read Atlas Shrugged, I highly recommend you do. If you’re not up for reading such a long novel, then at least watch the movies which, while they aren’t perfect, at least capture the essence of the novel very well. I guarantee you will see a lot of parallels between Rand’s writing and our current state of affairs.