Project X

Project X has left me shocked at how far gone the outer world is. It proves to us readers that the inevitable is finally occurring. This government system that we saw as leaning toward the more socialist side has become a full on dictatorship, controlling its inhabitants with threats and fear.

Rand has always described the faces of those who surround the main characters has having fears in their eyes and at first I didn’t understand why. There are many cases in which a government is corrupted but many inhabitants aren’t aware of the corruption or view it as wrong.  Also Rand did not reveal evidence of such immense power being used to instill fear on a mass population until the unveiling of Project X, I assumed that other than the absurd laws all other form of corruption in this government was kept on the down low. Now I fully understand why these people are scared out of their minds. Project X is an invention of the State Science of Institute that uses sound waves to destroy its target. The power that this machine possess is far to great for a corrupt government controlled by looters such as this one to have power of for the exact reason that Rand is demonstrating; it will be used for the wrong purpose.

I found this scene to be absolutely horrifying; the imagery of the young boy and his mother, and the goats tied to a stakes in the ground, and reading Dr. Stadlers flow of conscious thoughts before, during, and after the blast left me speechless and horrified. Far worse than that is that this unveiling accomplished everything that it was probably set out to do. It instilled such a great amount of fear within the people, enough fear that the government chose to use this against them and when they were asked to only say nice things about the project and almost everyone, but one, obeys their orders. Even Dr. Stadler, who at first was horrified that his name was associated with such a deadly machine obeyed, even reading a prepared speech by the government in order for the public to be more accepting of this machine that was supposedly created to keep peace and defend themselves from enemies. It was mind boggling at first that many of them obeyed, but then thinking it through it was not that shocking. It has been proven time and time again that when an authority figure offers a command, even if it is an extreme one, many willingly obey due to pressure and sometimes fear.