Ayn Rand, foresight 20/20

• RAND: No, not yet. But before I explain, I must correct one part of your question. What we have today is not a capitalist society, but a mixed economy -- that is, a mixture of freedom and controls, which, by the presently dominant trend, is moving toward dictatorship. The action in Atlas Shrugged takes place at a time when society has reached the stage of dictatorship. When and if this happens, that will be the time to go on strike, but not until then.
• PLAYBOY: What do you mean by dictatorship? How would you define it?
• RAND: A dictatorship is a country that does not recognize individual rights, whose government holds total, unlimited power over men.
• PLAYBOY: What is the dividing line, by your definition, between a mixed economy and a dictatorship?
• RAND: A dictatorship has four characteristics: one-party rule, executions without trial for political offenses, expropriation or nationalization of private property, and censorship. Above all, this last. So long as men can speak and write freely, so long as there is no censorship, they still have a chance to reform their society or to put it on a better road. When censorship is imposed, that is the sign that men should go on strike intellectually, by which I mean, should not cooperate with the social system in any way whatever.