Very. And I believe Confucius called that a curse...but I thank the God (I no longer believe in) that I lived to see an immigrant woman from Soviet Russia provide both stellar fiction alongside and integrated with a truly groundbreaking new Philosophy. One that challenges and corrects primarily the moral errors, in addition to many logical ones, of several thousand years of rationalist, Western, Philosophy.

And if the world avoids total destruction, but degrades into an Anthem-like society of a new Dark Ages, we can rest assured that millions of both printed and digital versions of Atlas and her other works will survive, somewhere, waiting to be discovered by some future John Galt. And to bring our progeny a new Renaissance.

I still hope the new Renaissance occurs and prevents the new Dark Ages. I don't I'll live to see which way it goes, but at least I'll die knowing which way it can, and should.

You say that the Muslims don't care if they die. My reading of history suggests otherwise. When Genghis Khan and his Mongols conquered that part of the world, they didn't have any problem with fanatics. Vlad Dracul also taught the Turks some manners. The lesson to be gleaned from these examples is that you shouldn't be interested in proving how "civilized" you are when dealing with outfits like ISIS. You need to show them how UNcivilized you can be when provoked. Let them know that "civilization" is a thin veneer when dealing with assholes.

That is not a bad thing, in my humble estimation. This country needs a lot of "law and order" to put a stop to all the leftists BS protesting, etc.

I think you are right, and I would estimate the timeline to be in the neighborhood of 40 years before it would be like Venezuela.

That said, a real currency collapse, or laws line 10-289 could speed that up quite a bit. We are living in a country with a lot of savings held in the financial system that could disappear overnight. That could mean that older and retired people would be instantly impoverished and really affect the economy.

I think with the deficits, entitlement programs, and entitled citizens, a currency collapse is our #1 danger. This could occur very quickly because of unforeseen things happening here or in foreign countries.

Dagny was irrational and unreasoning at that time, imo.

+1

Theatre going did become an escape in AS and the Great Depressions we have experienced (we are in one now if you calculate it with the same method used for the 1930's). Sometimes as a relief the mind needs to think of other things. Although many believe that voting in the correct candidates will cure the problem I think we are too far gone. We are currently supervised by a communist democracy. Even if you voted in someone who understands liberty the way Ayn Rand did as a president (or senator or other) they would have no effect. There are people who are willing to kill you to maintain their job (BLM, Homeland Security, IRS, etc.) if you refuse to abide by the rules they are enforcing. If a president told a bureaucracy to disband they would simply ignore him and continue on (there are thousands of 'legal' ways to do it). The debt based fiat currency we are using is near collapse and yet most people and almost all economists will defend it even though it preys on the poor, the elderly and the weak. Even if you have a place that you think is yours you will find out you are mistaken. All property is indebted by local and state governments through bonding, someone still holds the title to your land (not you) even if you don't owe a bank. The state can demand immediate payment or force you to vacate the property. If you want to test this quit paying your property taxes. Your neighbors can vote to indebt you and you can't do anything to stop them. If you do have stores of food and gold roving bands of lawless hungry people are not your only problem. During the depression the government took gold from people and their food. I knew an old man that lived in that time period, he said the feds came and buried his livestock to 'help drive the prices up for the good of the country and to help get out of the depression' and his family went hungry and had to beg the feds for food. There is no one running for the job of president that doesn't want it for all the wrong reasons. The same is true for all political positions with very few exceptions. When you have a government structure that is deviant from a constitutional republic you are left with those who want power vying for office. Gandhi failed to realize this in India. He assumed that if the English were out of power and the Indians were running the government they would treat their own fairly. All that happened was that the power to use violence to enforce arbitrary rules was given to the Indian people who abused it as badly as the English had for the same self serving reasons. The only difference between the candidates is what lie they will tell the electorate to get elected. The presidency is now a launch pad for power and money. I think we are near the end, however every time I thought it might actually collapse into chaos they found a way to keep it going and continue to erode liberty and fiscal responsibilities in small steps. The 'big drop' may never come. America may continue into the morass step by step, because even sheep like a slow steady progress to the slaughter house, sudden movement can make them unpredictable.

Indeed. Touche!

Singin' in the Rain even pokes fun at the transition to the "talkie flicks".

Indeed, they are. That is part of the pleasure derived from watching them. Humor must have an element of truth.

From p. 411 of AS, "You honest men are such a problem and such a headache. But we knew you'd slip sooner or later ..."

If Trump wins, expect a "law and order administration" with the players that you mentioned as AG, HSA Chief, Sec of State.

We live in interesting times.

I agree that it is still pretty early in the AS timeline. That is part of what troubles me. If it is this bad now ...

I agree. I re-read it every few years or so, and currently just starting Part III this time around.

I don't think we've approached the point of mass shortages, "frozen" transportation, people walking off jobs and into the night for who knows where, and a complete collapse of the infrastructure, e.g., as at the very end where New York City goes dark, and the implied beginning of the total breakdown of civil society is beginning. As Rand said, the novel is not prophetic, and actually meant to keep itself from being prophetic. Whether we get to an actual Atlas-like ending or just a massive worldwide depression that we somehow recover from, and with better principles...I don't think anyone knows right now.

And if you add in the wild card of mystic, terrorist extremists who care nothing of this Earth, and have nukes, to whom "mutually assured destruction" may mean nothing or actually be a good thing, it may be a quick, unAtlas-like ending...

Yes, theater going is an escape so long as there is good reality theater to go to.

As too the question...I don't think we're at the end yet...parts of the end show up in one country or another but not the whole of it yet...I think it's sad to say...the worst is yet to come...but I do hope that our own awareness of it will shrug it off a bit till we figure out whom is our last hope OB1.

As A.R. put it in the past, we are "Cashing In."
In this case, we are cashing in on almost 8 years of the most divisive president since Lincoln.
We are cashing in on the influx of anti-American refugees.
We are cashing in on the conversion of fatherless black men and boys being converted to Islam. who were looking for a purpose in life and someone to blame.
We are cashing in for people who should know better hiding their heads in the sand.
We are cashing in for 100 years of liberal education.
The wonder would be if nothing happened.

I've both read and heard on TV that folks used the new "talkie" flicks to at least temporarily forget their woes during the Great Depression.
Fred Astaire dance scenes, Shirley Temple, singing cowboys, The Wizard of Oz, Flash Gordon in silver underwear, the fantasy list goes on . . .

Jim, most people are still clueless about their environment and wholly unprepared for change. The economy still provides ample supplies of everything, especially distractions from reality.
It's pretty early in the timeline of AS.

Our current Divider-In-Chief prefers that you keep your two cents. Shh!

The same reason Dagny went back. Producers create things and solve problems.

Good value at .02. ;^)

When the government cuts power to theaters, because it is an unnecessary frivolity...then we are near then end.

No, we will walk Eddie Willers looking for the future and stumbing, drink the sublimity of Halley's Fifth Concerto, or become Ellsworth Tooey's easily led sheep from "The Fountainhead"!

The government itself is in a third group: they do what they wish, ignoring any inconvenient law regardless of how heinous the crime, and avoid the penalties by bribery and corruption.
Why would any sane person decide to follow the rules dictated by that group of looters, thieves, and slave masters?