With the first major movie re-make of Ayn Rand’s classic novel due to be released in theaters this week, we are forced to take a hard look at the state of the world and ask whether we have made any progress since her penetrating insight galvanized the clear distinctions between free-market and collectivist thought.

With just a quick examination, my first impulse is to say no.

Just as a reminder, the book and the movie, Atlas Shrugged, is a story about what would happen if the creative producers of goods and services tire of having the fruits of their labors stolen by an altruistic, collectivist society—and go on strike.

Looking through Rand’s moral prism we can immediately assay that the world is mostly engaged in state-sponsored economic corporatism. China is most certainly dealing in fascist corporatism, as her communist elites embrace control of private corporations that operate both within her borders and on the world commodity scene.

Russia is nothing more than capitalism gone vogue, Mafia-style. India is struggling to emerge from her long love affair with social economic justice, but is having a hard time of breaking the addiction.

Europe is spinning its wheels trying to deal with the long term effects of having been coddled as the recipient of 50-years of U.S. military and economic protection and its fondness for post-colonial experiments with ethnic diversity.

Collective European military assertiveness in an African crisis is best illustratedwith the French first-strike in Libya, which was immediately followed by a spring break on the Riviera. Actually I can’t fault the French too much. They are showing that they are pretty good at third-world fair play by asserting neo-colonial military power to solve a bloody voter-fraud feud in the Ivory Coast.

Oh, I almost failed to mention the failure of the European Common Market, which became a further exercise in European Community Organizing around a debt-diving, sled-ride into Greek-Portuguese-Irish bail-out chaos.

How is Uncle Sam doing? Not much better. The bad news is that Obama’s energy policy chased all the oil producers out of the Gulf. The good news is that they will be back soon, to drill in the same waters for Brazil, using U.S. tax breaks and subsidies. Oops, that wasn’t such good news.

Gold, silver and other commodities are sky high. Food inflation is contributing to riots all over the world, as the U.S. pledges Iowa voters to continue subsidies in Ethanol and contribute to the starvation of millions in Africa. But it’s ok, really. Federal Reserve proxy-chairman George Soros says that the U.S. can absorb more U.S. debt “in order to get the economy going”. I guess that gives Bernake and company a green light to resume the $600 billion in quantitative easing scheduled to come to a grocery store near you in June.

Did I mention the Middle East is on fire too?

Back here at home, the Republicans are happy they “cut the budget” by $30 billion in the same week the national debt went up $50 billion. The Obama Administration is planning to unveil its "new" tax-reform plan to tax the rich. Of course with the dollar devalued 20 percent over three years, the $250,000-per-year “rich” now starts at $200K.

Don’t look now, but I think John Galt just left the building.