So What Can We Do?

Fiction is Reality

I started reading Ayn Rand's renowned book, "Atlas Shrugged" last week. I am almost finished and can't decide if it's good that I have opened this can of worms or not. Don't get me wrong, I think it's quite possibly one of the best books I have ever read. If you haven't read it, you should. Her book is a treatise on what happens when people surrender their agency to the government. It is enlightening and agonizing to read all at once. Every parent in this country should require their high school-aged children to read it (perhaps with a little editing--Mom and Dad should read it first).

There was a time in the 60's or 70's when someone could have read her book and said, "Nah, that will never happen." And they would have slept comfortably that night. But, rather than reading a book written in 1957, I feel like I'm reading today's headlines or the headlines of the very near future. I'm not sleeping well. The utter futility that Rand described in a society that had become a sewer of entitled, mindless, unaccountable, brainwashed non-achievers is painfully apparent in far too many of our citizens of today. The real, almost physical pain that is caused when you are forced to interact with people like that is described masterfully in her book. I finally understand why I would almost rather bathe in acid than go to the post office. I had a very real "Who is John Galt Moment" there today.

I ordered a nice, hardbound book some weeks ago and paid for "shipping and handling". When the book arrived in my mailbox yesterday the box was crushed and torn. I could see through the damaged packaging that a large section of pages had been crushed as well. Having had prior experience with the postal "service" before, I knew that I could not open the box or I would be responsible to pay for the return postage. So I took it to the post office exactly as I received it. Being the cockeyed optimist that I am, I actually thought they would provide a modicum of customer service. (Insert guffaws of drunken laughter here.) Instead, I got what I should have expected. "Well...I can stamp it as received as damaged and you can refuse it and send it back".

"But, I want the book. I just don't want it damaged."

"Then you'll have to contact the publisher and see if they'll send you another one."

"But if I open it to get the contact information, then you will make me to pay to send it back."

"Yes."

"So, even though the postal 'service' damaged it, I would still have to pay for you damaging the book."

"Well, there's no way to know when it was damaged, it could have been crushed or something before we got it."

"But, regardless of how it was damaged, we know I didn't damage it, but I am still responsible to pay to ship it back. There's nothing you can do."

"No, it's against regulations. It's not my fault."

At this point my patience was gone. I said, "So, it's against regulations to provide customer service. It's no wonder you're losing money." And I left.

This battle is not yet over and I will win, trust me. But, will someone please explain why a service that is mandated by the Constitution is so lousy? Okay, I will. When any entity is run by people of which nothing is required, least of all accountability, this will always be the result. Not only is the Postal "Service" a government bureaucracy, it is unionized. The postal employee's job security has nothing to do with the kind of service they provide. They can be incompetent donkeys and will still get their breaks on time, their great benefits package and a fantastic pension. The only time their jobs are at risk is when some other government bureaucrat realizes that even the postal service is bleeding so much red ink that they have to make cuts somewhere.

Let's imagine this scenario at FedEx or UPS. They would have fixed it on the spot or they would have lost a customer. It would have been a wholly different outcome. However, the USPS has no competition which has also given them a false sense of security. I think it's time to privatize the postal service and give some actual meaning to the word service. But, I digress.

This is only a small example of the kind of service we get from government entities. You all know, you have all experienced it. It is at these moments that I am dumbfounded that anyone in this country would want our government to take over healthcare. If they can't look at my experience with the postal "service" and see down the road a few years to where our medical system will be, then I suspect they may be one of the mindless masses in "Atlas Shrugged". In fact, I wonder if the liberal progressives haven't used her book as a blueprint to socialize the world.

Ayn Rand described as "looters" and "murderers" those who spend their existence creating nothing, producing nothing, thinking nothing and then vilifying those who do. The productive, creative, thinking people were accused and labeled as the "greedy rich", as the "selfish industrialist", the "slave drivers" and as those who didn't care about the suffering of humanity. Does any of this sound familiar? A large cross-section of our society has become the Looters. They will spew hate and venom at those who work hard and succeed while at the same time demanding a share of the fruits of their labors. It is a sickening attitude with sickening consequences.

The producers go on strike in Rand's book as their only means to combat this tide of filth. I have often secretly fantasized about the medical community going on strike. Oh, I know it's impractical and will never happen. But imagine a day when the doctors are tired of being blamed, accused and vilified by those who demand perfection and endless sacrifice, and they walk off the job. I would take no delight in the death of anyone. But imagine a day without doctors. Imagine if they all said, we will not be your slaves and we will not work on your terms anymore. What would people do? Throw them in jail?

When did we get to a place where there is shame is making an honest living of any kind? Who told the shiftless and lazy that they have a right to fruits of other's labor? When did government become the instrument to determine what is fair? Why is it appropriate to hate and criticize those who are willing to risk years and their own capital to achieve? What used to be looked up to and admired--success and hard work--is old-fashioned and selfish. At the same, being famous for being famous is revered and fed daily like the appetite of an obese binge-eater.

We are at one of the most pivotal moments in our nation's history. If we do not turn back the tide of the Looters, we will become their slaves for as long as we can stand it. Elections have consequences and the results of the last one have been more than dire. Four more years of Barack Obama will seal our fate and we will become the gray, hopeless characters that dominate Rand's book. I cannot survive in a world like that. It will kill me.