[A_perfect_lady]

A society of college professors and entertainers wondering why the trucks of food have stopped coming, and the gas stations are empty?

[Zathras]

More likely a bunch of Professors and Entertainers wondering why they are about to be shot after they helped destroy the USA.
The Killing Fields.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

A society of college professors and entertainers wondering why the trucks of food have stopped coming,^{_grocery store shelves_} and the gas stations are empty?

The cynicism which socialists direct at society absolves socialists from taking any responsibility for contributing to the working of society. It is simply amounts to the assumption that everything they grew up taking for granted “just is” - and that government can “fix” society in any arbitrary ways to suit their fancy with no nasty side effects like truckers not trucking because it’s too dangerous for them if it’s too dangerous for the police.

They’re used to permanently stocked shelves and gas station tanks, so they assume that that will always be the case absent evil-doers. A case of studied ignorance of the subtle workings of society which make society so efficient.

I, Pencil is an article written in 1958 by Leonard E. Read. The burden of the article is how diffuse are the inputs to make a simple item like a pencil. Of course a particular company - Eberhard Faber, in the example instance - made the pencil. But Mr. Faber did not simply speak the pencil into existence; the company has to have buildings housing machinery, and workers to operate the machines. But beyond that, the Eberhard Faber workers have to have food, shelter, and normal amenities - including those required by their families.

And the same is true of the vendors who supply Eberhard Faber with the machinery they require, and all the obvious materials - wood, graphite, rubber, and the ferrule material and the enamel. All those vendors have their own equipment, workers, and supply chain. And in all cases the workers need food, shelter, and normal amenities. So although the pencil certainly does not exist without Eberhard Faber, society works together to make pencils - and everything else.

So, “You didn't build that? Somebody else made that happen?” Yes - but that “somebody else” was not government. The “somebody” was more like everybody - mostly very indirectly. It is not the government but society - as Thomas Paine points out in Common Sense, a very different thing - which makes the pencil.