The Morning Stampede

 

I had an Atlas Shrugged moment today.

 

In the middle of part 1, after Dagney Taggart and Henry Reardon successfully created their high-tech railroad line in Colorado, as they rode in the engine on the maiden voyage along the line, at 100 miles per hour (book version... it was elevated to 250 MPH in the 2011 movie) (and Dagney took a moment for herself to step into the aft corridor of the locomotive to basically have an objectivist orgasm while feeling the power of the diesel engine throbbing against her body as she broke down in total awe at the power of mankind to create total awesomeness) there was a mental diatribe presented to the reader by Ayn Rand in the form of an observation of what the mind of man can accomplish, and an example of what it looks like, in a snapshot of it in action. The awesome energy of human activity.

 

It was around 9 AM, and I was crossing the six-lane Bayside Bridge that connects Safety Harbor with Clearwater, Florida, on my way to work.  I had the top down in my Chrysler Sebring, and untrue to form, I was not playing the radio. I was just listening to the wind and the sounds of the cars around me.

 

All of the lanes on the bridge were full, and it was the height of the morning rush hour. Safety Harbor is mainly a residential area of the county, and the Bayside Bridge connects it with a large industrial patch of Pinellas County. Firmly embedded within a dense pack of vehicles pushing south at 80 miles per hour, I, and all of my fellow bridge-crossers, were driving to work.

 

I had the sudden sensation of being in, and a participant of, a pack of high tech beasts, stampeding towards a goal, a goal of industrial might. Going to work, like a charging army into battle. The wind, the sound of engines, the jockeying for position, the sheer danger was exhilarating. It was very ... American.