Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is the quintessential Objectivist bible of fiction. The story follows the collapse of the American State (and others), but while certain characters are lacking in depth (some claim that the one dimensional John Galt represents Rand’s Animus) and there are several other flaws, the account of the State’s collapse echoes unusually close with the current path chosen by Zimbabwe.

IOL correspondent, Basildon Peta, described the recent decisions by the Mugabe led Government for the medical services to revert to ox-drawn carts for the transport of ill, injured or dying patients to hospitals lacking in essential medicines. Similarly, old steam driven trains are now to replace the more modern diesel or electric powered trains that cannot be maintained. That is despite the declining consumption of electricity by business and reported imports of electricity Zimbabwe receives from the Inga Dams in the Democratic Republic of Congo, alongside attempts to purchase arms from China in exchange for Zimbabwean land.

But the train story itself has an interesting parallel in that Atlas Shrugged also follows the fictional collapse of the private and public train services in the States. In fact, the decision to co-opt steam driven trains leaves one wondering whether Zimbabwean bureaucrats made the decision not just out of desperation but after having read the story of Taggart Rail’s demise. In that selfsame story the end was near when lines had to be changed by manual co-ordination.

Indeed, the resulting Zimbabwean food shortages, the electricity cuts and the collapsing rail services set in front of the continued spouting of State ideology and idiocracy (the colour red has been banned from public broadcasts) all dovetails rather unnervingly close to that Atlas Shrugged’s account of the United States’ fictional collapse. And the similarly unnecessary arms purchase to defend against unspecified enemies runs close to the paranoid arming of the American State with expensive and self-destructive weaponry in the story that is the prelude to the end.

So much so that the descent into darkness is now just as likely to conclude in incidents of bloodshed. Rand herself wasn’t right in many aspects but her flawed fictional story is still demonstrating an instinctive understanding of just what ‘revolutionary’ action does bring, comparable to that of George Orwell’s ubiqituous Animal Farm. Whether Thabo Mbeki believes in quiet diplomacy any further or is covertly supporting, the ANC and ultimately South Africa will face the effects of such an event.