Alright, so: this OKCupid profile got linked on Twitter. The greatest highlight is that the "proud conservative American and brony" who "work(s) very hard to enmesh the philosophy of Ayn Rand within the framework of tolerance and love espoused by Pink Pie and friends" is "trying to finish the first draft of (his) e-book entitled Serfdom in Equestria, an expose on the liberal agenda slowly eroding freedom in the My Little Pony universe."
Things kinda escalated, and, um ... I may or may not have offered to play devil's advocate on that topic, in the service of sparking an interesting debate.
So:
The "liberal agenda slowly eroding freedom" in Equestria is NOT Celestia's 1000+ years of absolute rule -- but Princess Luna's return.
MARXIST MASTERMIND: THREAT OR MENACE? |
Consider these facts:
- Celestia basically is Objectivist hero Mane Galt. Before the days of Equestria, there was a collectivized society in which unicorns shared control of the sun. A society so deeply dysfunctional that the three races of ponies destroyed a nation through the Tragedy of the Commons, and almost drove themselves extinct. Celestia's rise to power shows how the power of the productive individual will always create better results than a system of useless parasites. Since then, Celestia has managed the sun and guided the state to create a Randian utopia.
- A thousand years ago, as the series tells us in its opener, Luna "... became resentful. ... One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn." Wait -- WAIT. What call could a non-parasite ever have to become resentful? If she was providing a legitimate service to Equestria, she could have simply withdrawn it, and the world would quickly crumple at its lack. Note she didn't withdraw her moon from society -- she used it to block the sun, source of crops and heat and light. Just like useless and illegitimate trade unions trying to leech off of benevolent industrialists, the only power this evil liberal has is to loot and destroy the products of others.
- Celestia defeated Luna, of course. But she would retain within her the seeds of Equestria's future downfall: guilt. Alas, she could not be the perfect paragon of enlightened selfishness that Equestria deserved; she could not rid herself of the notion that kindness could have ever transformed the lunar looter's inherent uselessness.
- So Luna returned from the moon and decreed that the night would last forever. Again, she was holding Equestria for ransom: confiscating ponykind's earnings by force. Classical big-state liberalism.
- There was a fight, triangle won, and then ... Celestia gave half of the state's power to an unelected, unaccountable war criminal. What!
- Look at the nightmare of modern liberalism demonstrated by Luna's return ... in fact, look at Nightmare Night (since that's the main evidence the show gives us). She waltzed into Ponyville when they were having a simple seasonal festival, and declared by fiat that they would change it into a celebration of excess. In honor of herself, naturally. When the citizens protested, she attacked them with sonic and biological weapons. Again the show of force to get her way. Liberals cannot change, they can only steal.
The solution is clear: it is time once again for Celestia to go Galt. Leave the resourceless mountain peak to the lunar looter and her useless minions of the state. Take all of Equestria's producers and retreat into the laissez-faire unregulated paradise of the Everfree Forest, and let an irredeemable society spasm in its death throes.
EDITED TO ADD: A friend writes via IM, "I do, however, think your conclusion is off. Celestia can no longer be trusted to act in her own best interests (*gag*). We need a new hero. And do you know who was founding an autonomous, self-sufficient utopia? Braeburn."
Of course! And the Appleloosans were putting to productive use land which the irrational and superstitious natives wanted to leave fallow. Titans of industry!