Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 (Movie)

[WhipperSnapper]

They exist because of Government, today. They are merely an extension of Government, today.

They serve no purpose whatsover, but to stifle Man, today.

Even in a capitalist society you would still need lawyers to handle criminal matters, divorces, contracts (gonna have lots of contracts!), wills, trusts, real estate transactions, and complicated business transactions (if not most transactions between businesses). It's not all personal injury law, and even that is often legitimate. (What happens if someone's negligence or fraud causes injury to someone in a free society? What if someone is responsible for an auto accident? How would it be resolved?)

 

[WhipperSnapper]

The left, let's go ahead and call it Government, have placed us where we are today. Indebted up to out knees, without any means of production, and subservient to a world of tyrants.

We had plenty of means of production until free market ideology allowed it to be outsourced to Mexico, India, and China. Now we're indebted because we lowered taxes on the upper classes while the lower classes could no longer provide the kind of tax revenue they used to be able to provide while also having an increased need for government welfare, all a direct result of free trade ideology.

Individual and (Religious) freedom are what this country was founded apon, and what made us great.

That's mostly true but the free market dogmatists forget that government regulation was also involved with creating the periods of prosperity.

The Government, has stolen, stolen, corrupted, taxed, and spent, with no regard to the individual.

There is no incremental theft left for the Government. The S&P 500 have said the US Government is NEGATIVE in their ability to pay their debts.

It's close to done, Craig. You can't maintain the US Government is this great thing, when the fact is that they have been spending money they don't own.

You have no idea just how much what you type comes off sounding like religious no-think dogma. Perhaps you should put more effort into checking your premises. Is it possible that some sort of explanation other than "socialist policies have driven us into the ground" could be at fault for our current predicament? To not ask and seriously ponder that question is to be a dogmatist.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

For those who are into this sort of thing, NPR's On Point radio did a full 3/4 hour segment on Ayn Rand today:

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2011/04/27/ayn-rand-resurgence

 

[dawp]

looks like this flick is as bad as I thought it would be, pulling 13% at rotten tomatoes.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/atlas_shrugged_part_i/

 

[cwjerome]

I watched "The Passion of Ayn Rand" a few months ago... kinda cool, for people who have a passing interest in Rand/Objectivism. Weird to see "Ayn Rand" getting banged from behind on film.

 

[Macamus Prime]

Rand is a communist??

Someone better tell Tea Partiers they should stop using a capitalist hero created by a communist. That's like taking on the image of a hero created by a terrorist.

 

[Thump553]

I lost track of this-how did the movie do in the theaters? I assume it has already come and gone, I don't recall seeing any ads for it locally.

 

[Steeplerot]

Rand is no different then a her fellow russian communist Bolsheviks. Rands ideology is just the flipside product of a highly dysfunctional age of Russian politics.

Its like the choice of being a satanist or a christian. Either idea although they say they are opposed are just mirrors of one another and use the same book for their dogma in reality. A false choice.

Here's a tip. Those old extremist Utopian Russian ideologies are BUNK and do not mesh at all with American culture.

It took lenist-marxists awhile to figure this out in the USA also. Why does it take righties. So long to catch up with the rest of the world is you right wing libertarians problem.its not that the world is too dumb for ayn rand or folks are perpetuating some big government conspiracy so they do not embrace libertarian capitalist ideology -Its because rational people know better then to fall for bullshit.

 

[CitizenKain]

I lost track of this-how did the movie do in the theaters? I assume it has already come and gone, I don't recall seeing any ads for it locally.

Badly. It looks like it took in around 3.9 million total, so I wouldn't expect any sequels.

 

[thraashman]

Randian ideas are that the individual, by being himself, and by seeking to maximize his happiness, are what makes the world go around.

The problem here is the definition of individual in Randian ideas. In her philosophy the only individual is the self. Her own words said that those who are unable to support themselves deserve no love or assistance. She has literally said those who cannot support themselves (not those who choose not to but those unable to) do not deserve to be shown love. That's what those of us in the real world call being a monster. The right has increasingly lofted Rand up to these heights and tried to emulate what is in the end an extremely destructive philosophy. Society works as a whole. Individuality is important, but also there's a need to function as a part of a whole. Idolizing Ayn Rand is about the biggest fail a society can do.

 

[Zorkorist]

I disagree. The beauty of Rand's philosophy, and what so many people fail to understand, is that most people are good. And what makes good people, feel good, is doing good.

So when Rand espouses the individual, and his rights, and his powers, and his philosophy, she is in the end, espousing goodness.

As opposed to Government, or Society, which limit the individual, and thereby limit his ability to do good.

They, Government or Society, steal from the individual, what makes him an individual (and his "goodness") in the name of promoting a "better" Government or Society. That's what make them so insipid: The individual never gets to take claim of his goodness.

She's not saying that the person whom is unable to care for themselves deserves to die. She's saying that an individual, absent of the demands of Government or Society, will help this individual, because it is good.

The second that Government or Society starts stealing from the individual, however, all his goodness is lost. The $5 that might buy that person a meal, is now the $5 in taxes he paid to Government.

So WHO is the one leaving this person on the street to die? The individual, or society?

-John

 

[CitizenKain]

I disagree. The beauty of Rand's philosophy, and what so many people fail to understand, is that most people are good. And what makes good people, feel good, is doing good.
-John

So the only preventing people from doing good is an agency then punishes people for doing bad things. Meanwhile people who wish to exploit others can do whatever.
Rand really was pants on head retarded.

 

[Brigandier]

Rand is no different then a her fellow russian communist Bolsheviks. Rands ideology is just the flipside product of a highly dysfunctional age of Russian politics.

I agree with this, and I like Ayn Rand.

 

[Throckmorton]

The previews made it look like it's pro-exploitation. Should be a hit with the Wall Street crowd.

 

[Zorkorist]

I lost track of this-how did the movie do in the theaters? I assume it has already come and gone, I don't recall seeing any ads for it locally.

I heard Mike Rosen in Denver interview one of the producers last week and they said they were happy with the turn-out. It's probably still playing somewhere near by.

The people that go to see the movie are generally devotees... it's not going to be a smash success ever, but it is doing fine in the "art" circle.

While I should go see it in a theatre, my last experience in a theatre was "Avatar" (not good) and probably was 20 years before that I saw my last movie in the theatre.

-John

 

[Zorkorist]

So the only preventing people from doing good is an agency then punishes people for doing bad things. Meanwhile people who wish to exploit others can do whatever.
Rand really was pants on head retarded.

I didn't understand a word of that. I must be retarded.

EDIT: Ok, I reread your post, and your fallacy is that again, as I say, people are generally good. You think that people are generally bad, which is incorrect.

Religions, Governments, and Societies, want you to think people are generally bad. This is how they make money - protecting you from other people, or in some cases like Religion, yourself. (LOL!)

-John

 

[Zorkorist]

The previews made it look like it's pro-exploitation. Should be a hit with the Wall Street crowd.

Don't you mean Government? That same Government that has driven (exploited) this country to its knees?

-John

 

[Throckmorton]

Don't you mean Government? That same Government that has driven (exploited) this country to its knees?

-John

How many drugs are you high on right now?

 

[CPA]

Badly. It looks like it took in around 3.9 million total, so I wouldn't expect any sequels.

It was a limited release with the $3.9M. They are expanding theatres in which they are showing it. There also have been quotes from several of the big distribution companies who regret that they passed on it. It's doing much better than expected.

 

[Throckmorton]

Maybe it will make Teabaggers rethink their free market fundamentalism.

 

[Steeplerot]

Maybe it will make Teabaggers rethink their free market fundamentalism.

People better wake up grow some cajones and find some Class consciousness soon. I know all these teaparty free market fairytale folks are not all rich. Pretending you will be rewarded someday from the rich for selling out the working class can only last for so long before more of our democracy gets bought out and the rich use theirnmedia to make workers even more apathetic for their gain.

 

[nick1985]

Damn, this thread drove our resident commie friend nuts.

 

[Steeplerot]

Damn, this thread drove our resident commie friend nuts.

As probably only one of the only people in the world who actually sat through 3 books (unlike libertarians) I enjoy tearing her crackpot idealogy apart.

 

[CallMeJoe]

Damn, this thread drove our resident commie friend nuts.

Does this mean you considered the Commie Friend sane and rational before he was exposed to the insanity and irrationality of Ayn Rand?

 

[WhipperSnapper]

It was a limited release with the $3.9M. They are expanding theatres in which they are showing it. There also have been quotes from several of the big distribution companies who regret that they passed on it. It's doing much better than expected.

I suspect that if everyone who's read the book went to watch the movie, they'd break even on it at the box office.