Past Books Are Proving a Perfect Predictor of Things to Come

Looking at two books that are coming true in modern-day America.

One of my greatest strengths and weaknesses is reading a lot.

On average, since I was in my early teens, I read well over two hundred books per year. Sometimes, there are repeats that I like to read every year, but most of the time, these books are ones I have read after spending lots of time perusing the local library shelves.

That’s one of my other strengths and weaknesses. I like books that are in written form where I can turn the page. For some reason, electronic books don’t have the same impact on me.

Two books I have read many times over the past forty-plus years are coming to pass right before my eyes in the America we live in today.

The first book is the last book Ayn Rand ever wrote, Atlas Shrugged. Over the last almost sixty years, this book has presented some of the most controversial ideas written by fans and critics alike.

The second book, I’ll admit, scared the crap out of me when I first read it because I could never see how people would fall for this, but also because it was so esoteric that people with power could take these ideas, exercise them to perfection and never be seen as the evil they perpetrated.

This makes Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky so scary. Alinsky wrote this book in 1971 with the goal of creating a guide for future community organizers.

Even Alinsky could have never envisioned one of his disciples becoming president and enacting the changes we are seeing as a society today.

Let’s dive into the premises of these two books and then look at how they are changing the United States of America we once knew to a country hardly recognizable as that “shining beacon on a hill” envisioned by President Ronald Reagan.

Atlas Shrugged is No Longer Just a Story

I used to think Atlas Shrugged was a really good story. I love the philosophical bend to the book; reading it always fills my mind with deep thoughts.

It wasn’t until I read it after reading Rules for Radicals, though, that I began to see how a book written over sixty years ago was chock full of examples in our American federal government of today.

I am one of those innocent people who believe that a republic with a representative government is good.

However, the more these representative positions become career positions, and the more a federal and state bureaucratic position becomes a position of power, the less I believe in a representative government.

Maybe if there were term limits, both on elected and federal positions in government agencies, I would feel less angst about the state of a burgeoning federal budget that demands more and more taxes from those who create for a living.

I see the “moochers” and “looters” of Atlas Shrugged every time I see a representative who has never held a position outside of government declare that they will make things fair and equal.

I want to tell them, “Excuse me, could you please read The Consitution again? Your job isn’t to make things fair and equal. Your job is to establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

For those unfamiliar, that is the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States. Familiarize yourself with this, read Atlas Shrugged, and then go ahead and dismiss my thoughts as yet another conspiracy theory.

One of the exchanges that best describes the moocher mindset is between Dr. Ferris and Dr. Stadler from Part II, Either-Or, Chapter I, The Man Who Belonged to Earth.

The two are discussing a book Dr. Stadler is struggling with, Why Do You Think You Think?

“Thought is a primitive superstition. Reason is an irrational idea. The childish notion that we are able to think has been mankind’s costliest error.”

This line and others like it fill the pages of this drivel.

In the confrontation, Dr. Stadler says, “If a drunken lout could find the power to express himself on paper, …this is the sort of book I would expect him to write.”

When Dr. Ferris says, “…this book was not intended to be read by scientists. It was written for the drunken lout.”

The two continue to argue, and Dr. Ferris comes up with the paragraph that so perfectly explains the bureaucratic mess of a bloated federal government that has exploded upon the landscape of an America that once honored those who had the ability to create and produce, not the moochers and looters that are part of the system.

“…you’re speaking as if this book were addressed to a thinking audience. If it were, one would have to be concerned with such matters as accuracy, validity, logic, and the prestige of science. And you have always been first to believe that the public does not think.”

This is what America has become. If you think, you’re roundly criticized and subjected to ridicule.

If you disagree with what the people in power tell you to believe, you are called all sorts of names.

This part of Atlas Shrugged has come alive in the hearts and minds of Americans of all shapes and sizes.

Not thinking has produced mass riots led by people who neither produce nor create. These people are called activists, and it is the second book that has given birth to a career path that literally has no redeeming qualities or purpose for all Americans.

Rules for Radicals is Ruining the Creative Minds We Were Given

One of the most poignant lines of this book is in the first chapter, after the long diatribe of a prologue.

“The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.” Rules for Radicals, A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals by Saul Alinsky.

This line is what life is all about for radicals. In the United States, these radicals are now called Progressives.

The Progressives have convinced whole segments of the American population that they exist to bring equality and fairness to all.

They do NOT!

Progressives in America exist to shift POWER to their control.

Sure, they’ve toned down the language and changed the words, but do not be fooled. Progressives want power and want to take it away from any entity they decide has the power they desire.

Let’s walk through the 11 rules Alinsky wrote about that guide real-life tactics to take away power.

Rule 1: Hide your real numbers so people think you have more power than you really do. Take any of today's radical movements: Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+++, and climate change, to name a few. The one thing all of these movements have in common is that their actual numbers are deep in the minority of this country. However, their voices and influence are far greater than their numbers, not because they have noble causes.

Rule 2: Never go outside your own experience. Have you ever noticed how all the groups never go outside their field of experience? Ask a climate change protester how they will bring about a world that doesn’t use mineral extraction. I asked a person once how they saw bringing about this bold new world and was met with the explanation of the century.

“My job isn’t to figure out how. My job is to make you uncomfortable until you become so uncomfortable you stop using oil and gas.”

Rule 3: Go outside the experience of your opponent. The goal of radicals and today’s Progressives is to spread confusion, fear, and retreat. This is how they keep everybody off balance. Think about the whole gender-affirming care for children and hiding any gender change from parents by school teachers and the unions that make their school teachers do this. It is all about confusion, fear, and trying to make parents have a hands-off approach to their own children.

Rule 4: I call this the “rules for thee, but not for me” rule. Progressives have made this an art form.

Rule 5: This is the modern-day Trump rule. When Donald Trump was president, Progressives made it a point to ridicule everything he did. The problem was Trump still ridicules as much as he is ridiculed.

Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. Have you ever watched news videos of Antifa or Black Lives Matter protests and riots? These people are not troubled one bit about destroying people’s livelihoods and their lives. It’s just one big party for them.

Rule 7: We should call this the ADHD rule. Don’t focus on one subject too long. The summer of 2020 riots and looting didn’t last long. After that, it was time to move on to the next distraction.

Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. People have laughed at Al Gore since the 1970s when he held his first hearings on climate change. The words keep changing, but the man making millions off other people’s beliefs hasn’t changed a bit in almost sixty years of keeping the pressure on.

Rule 9: Progressives have this rule down solid! The icebergs are melting! The cities on the coast will be underwater soon! The climate is dying! Terrified yet?

Rule 10: The Biden administration has become master artists at ducking and jiving answers. The entire administration had good mentors, though as they just learned from the masters of Rules for Radicals in the Obama administration. Avoiding answering the “what would you do?” question is a mainstay of the current Democratic and Republican parties. No politician answers a straight question simply because they have learned this rule well.

Rule 11: It’s all about picking, freezing, personalizing, and polarizing your target in today’s culture. The radicals are winning the battle, and those who don’t buy into the radical position don’t even know they’re in a battle.

It’s Not All Doom and Gloom Though

As bad as it may seem to look at these two books, it’s not as bad as it seems though.

Many Americans are beginning to wake up and see that these two books together paint a picture of an America that doesn’t believe in achieving your best potential regardless of your upbringing, race, or current position.

That’s what gives me hope that the moochers and looters of Atlas Shrugged nor the radicals living out Rules for Radicals will dominate the landscape.

Some people know their hope is not in what you see but in what is unseen.

More and more people believe that there are good plans for the good people of this world who seek neither position nor power but believe that there is a future and hope for them.

Meanwhile, knowing what is in these two books will fill you with the knowledge to keep fighting for your hope and future.