CLICK
Posted on 04/17/2011 9:43:01 AM PDT by RonDog
Here’s a marketing question I thought I’d never ask: Well, exactly that appears to be happening with the movie adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
Would you think that a critically panned, low-budget movie, with a virtually unknown director and cast, could catapult a more than 50 year-old book near the top of the Amazon bestseller list?
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.forbes.com ...
I read somewhere that Gary Cooper didn’t understand anything of what he was saying.
Great actor. Dim bulb.
BM’ing this reply for later reading
Very well-stated. BTTT!
Since I owed several hundred dollars this year, I waited until yesterday to do my taxes. I happened to mention the movie to my tax preparer, and she had never heard of AS. I told her a bit about it, and she sounded interested, so I mentioned where it was playing in KC. Hopefully another convert?
Mark
Clint Eastwood narrated a documentary on Coop, and when it came to the fountainhead he rips the movie to pieces. I know this stuff was written for clint but whoever wrote it was a complete idiot or didn’t watch the movie or is a complete lib.
The communism of the Democrat Left.
The fake conservatism of the Republican "Right."
The godless, selfish, materialistic objectivism of Ron Paul Libertarianism.
So that leaves what? A Christian theocracy?
Mark
What?? You mean you don't loan the government money interest free each year, then pay HR Blockhead loan-shark level rates to get your refund back a week sooner? What are you, some kind of financial illiterate?
OK... I really don't know much about Rand other than what I learned this week. She clearly believed some terrible things.
I've seen you posts here for years and you and I are over 90% in agreement on other issues, so I will defer to you on Rand in general at this point in time.
That said, I enjoyed the movie.
...that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights...
So, you are saying that a Godless person forfeits unalienable rights endowed by our Creator?
I am 100% sure that is not how it works!
No. Of course I don’t believe that.
All men means all men.
But those who reject self-evident Truth enslave themselves...and far too often, others.
You know what they say: Misery loves company.
Ayn Rand gave a famous speech to The Graduating Class Of The United States Military Academy at West Pointon March 6, 1974.
Do you really think they would have invited her to speak if she felt they were fools?
Do you think she would have attended if she thought they were fools?
Forgive me for taking her well documented views through to their only logical conclusions.
And it’s not my fault if she wasn’t consistent in what she preached.
Unsurprisingly, of course, since her philosophy was built on sand.
She is quite flattering to the West Point graduates at the conclusion. Check it out - it’s a great speech.
http://fare.tunes.org/liberty/library/pwni.html
Also, her being inconsistent is one matter. Why would West Point invite her to speak? Were they that poor when it came to judging character?
I have many problems with Rand, but she really has the liberal-leftists pegged. For that, at least, I applaud her.
Your post immediately brought to mind Objective Truth and Reason, plus John Galt's explicit oath,
"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine."
CLICK
In conclusion, allow me to speak in personal terms. This evening means a great deal to me. I feel deeply honored by the opportunity to address you. I can say — not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, political and esthetic roots — that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world. There is a kind of quiet radiance associated in my mind with the name West Point — because you have preserved the spirit of those original founding principles and you are their symbol. There were contradictions and omissions in those principles, and there may be in yours — but I am speaking of the essentials. There may be individuals in your history who did not live up to your highest standards — as there are in every institution — since no institutions and no social system can guarantee the automatic perfection of all its members; this depends on an individual's free will. I am speaking of your standards. You have preserved three qualities of character which were typical at the time of America's birth, but are virtually nonexistent today: earnestness — dedication — a sense of honor. Honor is self-esteem made visible in action.You have chosen to risk your lives for the defense of this country. I will not insult you by saying that you are dedicated to selfless service — it is not a virtue in my morality. In my morality, the defense of one's country means that a man is personally unwilling to live as the conquered slave of any enemy, foreign or domestic. This is an enormous virtue. Some of you may not be consciously aware of it. I want to help you to realize it.
The army of a free country has a great responsibility: the right to use force, but not as an instrument of compulsion and brute conquest — as the armies of other countries have done in their histories — only as an instrument of a free nation's self-defense, which means: the defense of a man's individual rights. The principle of using force only in retaliation against those who initiate its use, is the principle of subordinating might to right. The highest integrity and sense of honor are required for such a task. No other army in the world has achieved it. You have.
West Point has given America a long line of heroes, known and unknown. You, this year's graduates, have a glorious tradition to carry on — which I admire profoundly, not because it is a tradition, but because it is glorious.
Since I came from a country guilty of the worst tyranny on earth, I am particularly able to appreciate the meaning, the greatness and the supreme value of that which you are defending. So, in my own name and in the name of many people who think as I do, I want to say, to all the men of West Point, past, present and future: Thank you.
Address To The Graduating Class Of The United States Military Academy at West Point New York — Ayn Rand — March 6, 1974
Wow!
You are way off base in making that comparison!
Does the word FORCE mean nothing to you?!
Socialists and Communists demand Godlessness by the full force and power of the State! Ayn Rand advocated exactly the opposite! She held that Government has no right to compel a citizen to think, feel, believe or act in any way at all.
Objectivism rejects any belief in the supernatural, yet we have the God given right to believe in God and Objectivism could never force anyone to give up faith.
I personally have compassion for a young Jewish girl that was forced to live through Evil Communist pogroms and property confiscations in the Soviet Republics before finally escaping with nothing but hatred. Only a moments thought brings some understanding of her lost faith.
Many pogroms accompanied the Revolution of 1917 and the ensuing Russian Civil War, an estimated 70,000 to 250,000 civilian Jews were killed in the atrocities throughout the former Russian Empire; the number of Jewish orphans exceeded 300,000.
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