IRVINE, CA--The nationwide strike in Venezuela, in protest against the dictatorship of Hugo Chavez, is simply life imitating art--specifically Ayn Rand's prophetic 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged, notes Robert W. Tracinski, senior fellow at The Ayn Rand Institute. Robert W. Tracinski was a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute between 1997 and 2004.
Tracinski, also a columnist for Creators Syndicate, explains: "In Ayn Rand's novel America is sliding into an economic dictatorship, and the inventors and businessmen respond by going on strike. In an era of violent strikes by factory workers, it was shockingly original to show that the entrepreneurs, inventors, and capitalists could be the ones to walk out."
But Ayn Rand's imagined strike is no longer fiction, notes Tracinski. "For four years Venezuela has been sliding into an economic and political dictatorship under Chavez, a protégé of Fidel Castro and admirer of Saddam Hussein. In response, Venezuela's largest federation of businessmen has led the whole nation for more than 50 days in a massive work stoppage."
"Like the villains in Atlas Shrugged, Chavez demonized productive businessmen as 'exploiters' and promised to loot them for the sake of the 'little guy,'" Tracinski says. "And now, like the heroes in Atlas Shrugged, Venezuela's most productive citizens have gone on strike to withdraw their support from the regime that seeks to enslave them."
The lesson: "Atlas Shrugged was not just a warning against dictatorship," he says. "It was a warning against the moral code that preaches the sacrifice of the productive individual to the envious masses--and unleashes any demagogue who promises to loot the producers."