Mr. Lyles Goes to Washington

Ayn Rand once wrote that the skyline of New York represented the will of Man unbound. The shimmering glass towers stretching towards the heavens symbolize his most noble aspirations and his greatest achievements.

If that is true, then the skyline of Washington DC represents the will of man shackled, crushed, and “regulated”. As you plunge into downtown DC you are greeted by acres of squat, homogenous buildings sprawling in all directions. At night, the dark windows of bureaucrats’ offices look like endless rows of tombs, giving the city the feeling of catacombs.

The humbled cityscape of DC is directly a result of hubris at its center. The entire city is a monument to the arrogance of politicians. There is a law in Mordor that no building may be taller than Mount Doom, the Capitol Dome from which the eye of government watches and controls the world’s affairs. As a result of the ordinance, this masterwork of city planning has a problem with urban sprawl.

Next to the pitiful stunted office buildings, the ornate public structures in the imperial capital stand out in marked contrast. They feature vaulted ceilings and marble pillars carved in the style of the Romans. Their walls are emblazoned with slogans trumpeting the virtues of the city’s masters. They use words like freedom, liberty, and equality when they speak of the gifts of government. By repeating the words enough times they hope to convince people that it is true.

The words “freedom”, “liberty”, and “equality” belong to an earlier time in United States history. Today the words have been hijacked to gain support for programs that seek the opposite. So much from our history has been drained of its meaning by the politicos on Capitol Hill. Men of the quality of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington would have never supported the use of public funds to build memorials to them. Yet grand memorials to both stand in DC, paid for with the sweat and blood of a million citizens who were told that the fruits of their labor had more important uses than their own satisfaction. The memorials serve to awe those same citizens into obedience to the new empire which follows none of the ideals of those enshrined.

The denizens of Mordor hurry about manner-less, hissing and snapping at one another through unsmiling lips. One must be prepared to push and to elbow, otherwise one must be prepared to never get anywhere. Driving is even more hazardous, as people act in the same manner but in control of thousand-pound hunks of metal.

Looking at the imperial capitol from this macro angle paints a depressing picture, especially if one remembers what the main business of the city is. The health of the city is in direct proportion to the size of government, the city feeds on blood sucked from the rest of the country. And the city is booming.

Jacob makes a hobby out of hating the government on his current live journal here. Someday, he hopes to make a living out of it.