PLENTY OF PROPAGANDA IN ATLAS SHRUGGED
Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (1957) has been updated in a film directed by Paul Johansson. The movie begins in September 2016, two months before President Obama’s successor will be selected by voters. Socialism is the response to Great Depression II, which occurred sometime after Obama’s reelection. After the initial frames, which depict dire conditions for ordinary Americans, the rest of the story focuses on the ultra-rich, who live in a world of opulence. Since the government is trying to crack down on billionaires, those running businesses have several possible responses: (1) run their companies as usual, (2) capitulate to demands of trade unions and fail, (3) survive by using government connections to pull the rug out from under honest businesses, or (4) disappear mysteriously. Most of the focus is on how Dagny Taggart (played by Taylor Schilling) tries to rescue her family’s railroad company from bankruptcy by rebuilding the rails with a new type of steel developed by a corporation headed by Henry Rearden (played by Grant Bowler). However, government regulators try to undermine the project. The film ends without explaining why top executives are disappearing. Although billed as Part I of a trilogy, the remaining parts are not being filmed, so the questions raised in the film can only be satisfied by reading the novel. The story has a basic flaw: If socialism truly exists, then railroads would already have been nationalized. MH