Ed, I may not be as smart as you. Not many objective measures exist for that. So, we have to take the operative modes. I did not understand your post to have a point beyond the plain statement of the words.
Objectivists in particular, but advocates of freedom generally, have been lacking in getting the message out and thereby motivating changes in attitude.
Products become icons because of the insightful and compelling work of advertising. Fifty years ago, advertising agencies were run by and for account executives, men in gray flannel suits. ... Like much else in the sixties, that changed when bold and aggressive creatives advocated for a new paradigm. The goal was no longer to tell your customers about the five key features of your product. Advertising now made your product integral to their self-identification.
We have no special music, no special clothes, no icons, try as we might. Atlas Shrugged comes the closest to being iconic for us. Perhaps this is the natural order as individuals make personal choices, necessarily a different engagement from drinking a Pepsi~Cola.. I suggest, in fact, that the world has changed, is changing, but only that we do not perceive that because of the forest and the trees. I think that unemployment (so-called) is near 50% in America. Millions of people do not pay taxes as they work off the books and under the table. The government is forced to borrow. Perhaps 20 million people actively save a fraction of their income via gold and silver coins rather than putting it in banks. I think that the vote count is greatly inflated as perhaps 80% of eligible voters stayed home. The present administration will be lucky to complete its full term constitutionally. The next one cannot be so fortunate. I do not see a civil war or a revolution, just a simple and complete paradigm shift to an information based virtual world of global capitalism. It will happen over night. In hindsight, it will seem completely expected.
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