In reality. Mankind is just about to tip over into the Cold War, and in the novel that the movie is based upon, in the shadow of the "Great War". World War Two is looming over history's horizon. Our species is indeed being led by a gaggle of idiots, lunatics, and rank villains, including Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Josef Stalin. Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and the "War Party" of Imperial Japan.

It is no different now, not a bit, and nothing that you and I can do is very likely to change it. I am just a humble scribbler (well, fairly humble, anyway). Someday people may actually look back and say, "He was really right!" but I almost certainly won't be around to hear it. And if you repair automobiles, manufacture clothing, police the mean streets, or do the state's evil bidding in far-off hell-holes, then you and I are in the same boat.

Nevertheless, progress does somehow manage to get made. People all over the world are far better off now, they live much longer lives, enjoy more freedom, and possess more wealth, than they did during the Middle Ages, all through the efforts -- usually obstructed vehemently by the state -- of private individuals working in the free market system.