"It seems to me what our government has created is two Americas. One that is law abiding and plays by the rules and another that does what they wish and avoid the penalties by living under the radar."

But that is the whole point: if you try to obey the rules than the rules will be changed mid-stream without warning.

The rules will continue to be changed until you must break them in order to survive. Then you will be told that you have "broken the rules" and must help gather up others or pay the consequences of "breaking the rules".

Hitler and Stalin used this to great effect.

Anytime someone tells me "...for the greater good..." I check my wallet and walk away.

Just my .02 cents.

In a novel, the last page will generally say, "The End". In real life there is always tomorrow. If the currencies all collapse, we will still need a place to sleep and food to eat. If there is anarchy in the street of USA's largest 200 cities, some will flee, some will fight, and someday it will have to be cleaned up.
If nothing gets worse until election, if we elect more of the same, it will surely get worse after election. More division between income, sex, religion, and race. ( I list race last because poor white people have had it too. Race is just a special card the progressives play. If we don't like a policy, we must be racist.)

On the other hand, if we elect a law and order administration; say Gulliani for AG, Sheriff Clark for HSA Chief, Bolton as Sec of State, etc. it will get worse as well. Because of the current lawlessness there would be a time of major street sweeping, head banging (not music) and prison building to clean this up. For example; marijuana is still illegal under federal law. How many states are breaking federal law? Another? Sanctuary cities. How many cities are in violation of federal law protecting illegals? I could name several issue of this type.

It seems to me what our government has created is two Americas. One that is law abiding and plays by the rules and another that does what they wish and avoid the penalties by living under the radar. 2-3 false identities, all cash living, pay rent with money orders, no banking affiliations. Live in cities where prosecution is unlikely. As Dick Cheney once said talking about foreign affairs, "We are going to have a hell of mess to clean up after this administration leaves." The same is true for domestic affairs.

The day after analysis isn't included in the novel. In the process of the turmoil one would hope a few producers would see opportunities and fill the gap between anarchy and government.

Ahh...in a manner, those Shrek movies are currently prescient. ;)

Of course, AS is not an Objectivist book of 'Revelations', but it has been prescient over the years.

Shrek 2 was the movie about the conniving old woman (the fairy godmother) trying to gain political power. She "reminds" the king that she turned him into a king from a frog, Blackmail of the first order. Eminent domain, however, was part of the original Shrek when the little pig said, "He huffed and he puffed and he... signed an eviction notice."

Although it's tempting to look for general parallels between global events and the story in a novel, keep in mind it is not an Objectivist book of 'Revelations'. ;)

Was that the Shrek movie about eminent domain or the conniving old woman trying gain political power? :)

The world outside the Gulch is different, as you say, and perhaps not worth living in.

I think the Gulch misleads. The world outside this URL is different. Here (for the most part) logic reigns. One may and can have rational discussions. Outside, we're post-rational. We're in a world of emotion and compulsion. Logic doesn't work. Polemics don't work.

If one wishes to make an impact, to sway society, history, that's the most important thing one can understand about the outside world; polemics don't work, rational discussions don't work; emotions work, emoting works, drama works. The outside world wants drama, It responds to drama. If you wish to argue a point, you must do it dramatically.

The Left has known and used this for a century, since mass media was invented. The Right came late and does it much less effectively. Ayn Rand did it well. Atlas Shrugged is dramatized philosophy although both dialogue and description are heavy with polemics, Hiram Hayden should have forced Rand to cut much of the polemics and dramatize them instead.

Robert McKee travels the world, teaching writers and businessmen this principle; don't tell it, don't say it, make them feel it, dramatize your message and let their feelings sell them your story or product.

This is what I want to do for Aglialoro, dramatize the message because, there's a big world outside this URL and, it's not very friendly.

Or just come to the Gulch to find like-minded individuals to remind us that we are not out of our minds when the world tells us that we are out of our minds.

Watching movies etc. to escape from a bad situation even for only a little while goes back into the ancient time, especially the roman empire in decline. It was not movies it was the Games sponsored by the Senate or the Emperor.
Fast forward to the Great Depression, it was the Movies, now it is the internet, TV and movies.Of course I'm generalizing and skipping an enormous blocks of time, the idea is there. Get your mind off of your problems. Whatever technology is available to do it, just do it.

I think you are correct. We are closer to the beginning of AS than the end. One of my best friends retired recently from being a developer. He and his company had built many of the shopping malls around Publix supermarkets in east central Florida. From 1998 when I met him until 2008, his company made a fortune. After 2008, he essentially shrugged in place, building a couple of Publixes since, but nothing else. He sold his half of the company to one of his former employees. She has much undeveloped land, and 1/4 of the stores in my friend's shopping plazas are now out of business, their windows dark and empty. About half of the supermarkets (non-Publix) in our county are now gyms, with empty space around them.

You are correct. There is nothing to fault, but it is an admission that the pursuit of a happy reality is getting more challenging. My other daughter and several other of my research students had a good week in the lab, so a happy reality is still quite possible. Thanks, Zen.

As for Ayn's foresight, the fact that AS was so lengthy is a testament to her ability to see "how bad it could get, or how very evil those against individual rights and liberty can be." Things were definitely worse in the Soviet Union then they are here now.

I have always tried to control my own reality, and have done a good job of it. There are, and have always been, some things beyond my control. However, now, there are more things beyond my control that are starting to become menacing and closer than I am comfortable with.

I was unfamiliar with that chronology on that web site. Thank you for the enlightenment. My knowledge of ORC had been previously limited to the foul creatures of Middle Earth by that name.

I'm not sure whether people in the Gulch refer to the ORC or this site but, here's a timeline that might enlighten us:

http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/books/ra...

Using this chronology I'd say we're in the early sixties. Nobody's started the strike yet or, if he or she has, we haven't noticed, haven't seen anybody important disappear. I'd say the closest we have to a hard driving smart young industrialist is Elon Musk, who's still slogging away at it.

I'm not sure we'll fall apart in dramatic time. Owning the world's reserve currency may keep us afloat awhile longer. Then again, the collapse, when it happens, because it appears to be financial instead of industrial, could happen in weeks instead of years.

I never liked Shrek. Don't know why. Want something to warm your hearts? "Dark Horse" a documentary about a Welsh village that bred a champion racehorse. Want something hillarious but, instructive? "Er ist Wieder Da" "Look Who's Back". It was on Netflix. Hillarious and enlightening though, one wonders, if it were made today, instead of several years ago, how much different would it be? She'll deal with it better than you. Young people find it easier than do we to mix fiction and reality.

j; I don't find anything in your and your daughter's thoughts to fault. All I might add is that I often think that Ayn may not have foreseen just how bad it could get, or how very evil those against individual rights and liberty can be.

"He enjoyed the sight of a prosperous street; not more than every fourth one of the stores was out of business, its windows dark and empty." --Atlas Shrugged, second page (paperback). I think we are closer to the beginning of Atlas Shrugged than the end. In this novel, Ayn Rand focused primarily on the deteriorating economy rather than on the political upheavals that accompanied it. The economy was already in dire straits when the events in Atlas Shrugged commenced, and it continued going downhill from there. There is still time for the country and the world to take a different path before the arrival of the total economic collapse portrayed in the conclusion of the novel.