Don’t bother with college, smoke pot...

Don’t bother with college, smoke pot

I here offer a ‘kitchen table’ review of the film, “Atlas Shrugged 2.” It continues Ayn Rand’s story of the conflict between individual freedom and a menacing federal government, which has raised prices, unemployment and poverty. Gasoline, for example, sells at 42 dollars per gallon.

A young woman, Dagny Taggart, the chief operations officer for a railroad line, works heroically to make it a success against the depredations of politicians, business rivals and even her own brother, a slug, who takes credit for her leadership successes.

She finds running the business ever more difficult, because the experienced and talented persons upon which she depends are disappearing, one by one. We learn that they have joined up with a mysterious person, John Galt. Business leaders, entrepreneurs, creative persons from all walks of life, unwilling to endure the government harassment, have simply dropped it all and vanished. The plot-turns pile on the suspense and move the film toward a thrilling ending.

While John Galt is fiction, it gives a name to a reality. In Communist Poland, the John Galts would say, “They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work.” In Russia, they just drank vodka. Today, in the U.S., they don’t bother with college, live at home with their parents, smoke pot and play video games.

George Kocan

Warrenville