Reason TV: Ayn Rand’s relevance
posted at 12:15 pm on November 2, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Reason TV kicks off its Ayn Rand retrospective this week with a look at how suddenly relevant the philosopher and novelist has become. A-list Hollywood stars want to make a movie from Atlas Shrugged, and suddenly “going Galt” has become a popular catchphrase for producer strikes. Who would have guessed that the era of Hope and Change would have produced Rand as a counter-cultural phenomenon?
Well, perhaps Rand herself would have foreseen it — and in fact she did, in Atlas Shrugged:
Just how much has Rand and her Objectivism returned to the fore? Her book, with no particular marketing campaign of which I’m aware, is just outside the top 100 books on Amazon, at #103. This is a perfect example of what Nick Gillespie calls “the long shelf life of Ayn Rand,” which springs from the natural impulse of a free people when confronted with statism, even so-called benevolent statism. In the novel, the producers of the world act individually, but eventually all reach the same conclusion.
I agree with Nick that Rand may wind up being more relevant to this century than she was to the last. Rand’s message got a little lost as a result of the Cold War and its aftermath; we focused on Soviet statism as an external threat rather than progressive statism as an internal threat. At the moment, we have a clarity on that point that we never quite had in the previous 50 years.
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We like this.
-Equality7 2521
mankai on November 2, 2009 at 12:17 PM
Does anyone trust Hollywood to make this movie?
Cindy Munford on November 2, 2009 at 12:18 PM
It’s about time.
nolapol on November 2, 2009 at 12:21 PM
no, but sometimes some movie turn out pretty well.
upinak on November 2, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Play the video game Bioshock, then come talk to me about Ayn Rand.
Or just attempt to burn me for suggesting you play a video game.
The Calibur on November 2, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Don Draper is a flaming liberal. Sorry to announce that.
faraway on November 2, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Does anyone trust Hollywood to make this movie?
Cindy Munford on November 2, 2009 at 12:18 PM
Not in a million years.
Maybe casting Janeane Garofalo would make it a block buster. /
milwife88 on November 2, 2009 at 12:23 PM
I was watching the original mini-series “V” on PsyFi last night and it was eerie the way “The Visitors” hoodwinked so many. I know it’s a stretch, but it reminded of Oblahblah and all that he’s doing.
SouthernGent on November 2, 2009 at 12:24 PM
The time of Galt is long over. It’s time to go Ragnar.
promachus on November 2, 2009 at 12:25 PM
We are certain the Committee on Films will hear us and realize this would be a great moment for all men. We must get to them with our idea.
-Equality7 2521
mankai on November 2, 2009 at 12:25 PM
In the age of Obama and most film makers his minions I just don’t see the message translating well. Dependence on the government will somehow equate as a virtue.
Cindy Munford on November 2, 2009 at 12:26 PM
I just started Anthem yesterday. I bought her collection this year and still have a ways to go, but each one has been a page turner.
XWing5 on November 2, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Anthem is quite good too.
We could definitely use some kind of Ayn Rand movement about now. I hope the Rand estate has absolute control over a film version of AS.
Dongemaharu on November 2, 2009 at 12:27 PM
It’s already in the works and it looks like it’s gonna be horrible.
Tommy_G on November 2, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness.
- Ayn Rand
itsspideyman on November 2, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Doing property taxes for some of my business locations today. %72,000 for one, $66,000 for another, etc.
Property may go Galt. I might be better off NOT paying property taxes. If I can stay 3 years in a building without paying property taxes, that is $210,000 for me…more than I can sell the building snce almost NO business can aford the taxes.
The next 10 years are NOT going to be pretty.
WashJeff on November 2, 2009 at 12:30 PM
We do not understand the Committee on Films. How can they twist our idea? Surely they will see our intent and understand how our message is best for all men.
We do not care what the Committee on Films says. We know this is sin. We know the Committee on Films would not approve of our desire to exalt their books and accurately portray their message.
We paused and thought to ourselves. What we thought was sin. We do not trust the Committee on Films and hope to make ourselves without restriction. We have never thought this way before we met the ugly ones.
-Equality7 2521
mankai on November 2, 2009 at 12:32 PM
I can see the back of the DVD now…
Fed up with the culture of greed and corruption, John Gault heads out to create a perfect society where people aren’t enslaved for the sake of obscene profits.
Many fat-cat CEOs try to stop Gault as he works to provide health care, living wages, and unionization for all.
Will Gault be able to create an America that finally lives up to the social justice and moral immparatives envisioned by the founders or will people be forced to give up happiness for petty selfish things like liberty and freedom?
smrtas1 on November 2, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Acton Institute has a better hold on the Source of Liberty than Rand ever did. see their documentary “Birth of Freedom”
jp on November 2, 2009 at 12:37 PM
The U.S. American populace is, of yet, not very aware of how many medical doctors are already or are planning to go Galt, if Pelosi’s nightmare will be enacted.
Schadenfreude on November 2, 2009 at 12:37 PM
It could be an awesome movie.
the_nile on November 2, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Ugggggh! You could be so right and it would be so disgusting.
nolapol on November 2, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Even when The Simpsons tried to make fun of Ayn (Fountainhead)… they inadvertently made her point (albeit imperfectly).
mankai on November 2, 2009 at 12:40 PM
I’m sure it will be turned into a movie condemning those evil individualists who refused to support the deserving masses.
MarkTheGreat on November 2, 2009 at 12:42 PM
American industrialists have about as much chance of organizing a nationwide “going Galt”-like strike as CIA agents are of “going Jack Ryan”. Both are fictional characters that embody the ideals of their creators but are far, far from reality.
RayinVA on November 2, 2009 at 12:43 PM
There was a movie about Ayn Rand that seemed to trivialize her and mAke her out as a fickle user of people
I don’t know the veracity or if it was pure fiction but I wouldn’t doubt the attempt of commies to set a standard on anything that could be used against them
Sonosam on November 2, 2009 at 12:44 PM
I’d suggest that movie be a cartoon, as that comports with the intellectual level of Rand’s writing.
Funny thing is, of course, that the last 20 years have been tremendously profitable for the type of characters she created. The John Galts of the world have seen a huge increase in income, decline in taxes and a growing share of the national net worth. All the whining about the relatively modest changes proposed by Obama is laughable
Bleeds Blue on November 2, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Good message. Bad book(s).
JohnTant on November 2, 2009 at 12:47 PM
I dont think they tried to make fun of Ayn , it was clearly Ayn Randish in message.
the_nile on November 2, 2009 at 12:48 PM
The leftist actors would not really get the ideas and be able to speak them convincingly. I noticed that when Gary Cooper spoke the lines of Howard Roark expressing his motivation as an architect in The Fountainhead that he recited them mechanically as if he had no clue as to what he was saying. It sounded like a sequence of syllables.
scrubjay on November 2, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Just finished Atlas Shrugged last night.
As for an Atlas Shrugged move, I fear that there are a million ways to screw it up, and very few ways to do it well.
ZenDraken on November 2, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Or…business owners could do what Francisco d’Anconia did, and completely trash their cash cow and make it worthless right before the government takes it over.
Yeah, I went there. :P
Fly_in_Ointment on November 2, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Relatively modest? I’d hate to see relatively extreme!
jimmy2shoes on November 2, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Who is John Galt?
[sorry, I couldn't resist]
Juno77 on November 2, 2009 at 12:51 PM
They made a movie out of Fountainhead, which was about 90 minutes as I recall, meaning that very little of the book was actually included in the movie.
Akzed on November 2, 2009 at 12:52 PM
The Fountainhead…
Bleeds Blue on November 2, 2009 at 12:53 PM
We are.
Akzed on November 2, 2009 at 12:53 PM
Modest is nationalizing entire industries and trying to take over 1/6 of the economy, while adding 16% to our national debt in a single year.
Even Pookie laughs.
lorien1973 on November 2, 2009 at 12:53 PM
And ‘oddly’ enough the middle class in America has gotten larger and more wealthy as a result too.
As to Obama’s proposals – how is taking over 1/6th of the US economy a modest ‘proposal’? The NHS in Britain is one of the largest – if not the largest – employer in the world. If the use socializes it’s health industry we’ll dwarf the NHS.
gwelf on November 2, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Rock On!
Fighton03 on November 2, 2009 at 12:55 PM
I’d love to see Allah’s take on Rand.
Love Ed’s show, but his posts are little more than what we see in the headlines. He basically just cues up the story or clip, adding very little.
Agree or disagree, Allah consistently weaves three or four articles together and provides incisive analysis. Often times something you wouldn’t see or notice otherwise. Ed reads like a RNC talking points.
Trent1289 on November 2, 2009 at 12:57 PM
I read ATLAS SHRUGGED early this year, finished in March. It was scary. If the train industry had been changed to the auto industry, I would have believed Ms. Rand had pulled off some sort of time travel. As I watch the headlines today I am constantly reminded of the book. Maybe Hollywood could sell it as a horror movie.
humdinger on November 2, 2009 at 12:58 PM
Remember the “OMG! Bushitler’s federal deficit is like, $350 billion or something! We are bankrupt!”
I remember. Do you remember? I remember.
Bishop on November 2, 2009 at 12:59 PM
If they do, would somebody please edit Galt’s three hour radio rant for time?
Alternately, they could make it a trilogy, and then I will know to only go to the first two.
Count to 10 on November 2, 2009 at 12:59 PM
That’s exactly correct. Even as income inequality has exploded, the average tax rate paid by the top 1% of Americans has fallen by about 1/3 over the last 25 years. Again: it has fallen.
The Randists are basically inverted Marxists. Highly ideological, hysterical and classist. The only difference between the bifurcated class analysis used by Marxists and Randists is which class they view as the perfect moral being. For Marxists it’s labor, for Randists it’s the capitalists.
crr6 on November 2, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Perhaps an Atlas Shrugged movie in the style of Blade Runner might work?
By “work”, I mean: Get the message across, be artistically satisfying, and be a box-office success.
Ridley Scott, I’ve got a project for you…
ZenDraken on November 2, 2009 at 1:00 PM
BTW, President Genius just declared that he had pulled the economy back from the brink.
All of you millions of recently unemployed who have spent months looking for a new job should be clapping and cheering.
Bishop on November 2, 2009 at 1:01 PM
My only qualm about ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is that the mechanism for the archivers and producers showing their “collective” (pardon the pun) disgust for Statism is mostly impractical.
What is desperately needed is a Practical way of having the same effect.
We all can’t run off to the mountains, so what’s the alternative?
Juno77 on November 2, 2009 at 1:01 PM
It was Rand’s extrapolation of FDR’s domestic policy, which is probably why it looks familiar. You know, given that Obama is trying to re-create/complete it.
Count to 10 on November 2, 2009 at 1:02 PM
Just finished it on Saturday night. 1069 pages describing what we are living through NOW. Not for the faint of heart, but if you proclaim libertarian/conservative tendencies, then you must read it. Push through to the end.
DrStock on November 2, 2009 at 1:03 PM
I may not agree with anything else you have ever written, but I am in agreement with you one this one thing.
Count to 10 on November 2, 2009 at 1:04 PM
Ah yes the good old ‘income inequality’ canard mixed with a pinch of ‘those rich bastards aren’t paying their fair share’ to scare all of us to join the liberal class war. Classic.
gwelf on November 2, 2009 at 1:04 PM
Ayn Rand was an adulterer. Funny how that gets overlooked in the conservative myth-making.
Grow Fins on November 2, 2009 at 1:05 PM
As I remember from years ago when this was first negotiated, Leonard Peikoff insisted on total script control.
elfman on November 2, 2009 at 1:06 PM
+1
Good Lt on November 2, 2009 at 1:06 PM
Canards are all they have.
mankai on November 2, 2009 at 1:07 PM
I don’t care a whit about income inequality. You’re paid what you’re worth. If you want to be paid more then increase your value to your employer. Income redistribution is simply the theft of one man’s production given to another man who has done nothing to deserve it.
How did we end up with a large portion of our society believing that they deserve, even demand, the fruits of someone else’s labor? I didn’t go to college and then grad school for the “privilege” of being taxed at a higher rate than those that didn’t follow my path.
What is confiscated from me is confiscated from my family. What sacrifice must I and my family make so my income can be given to someone else?
Marxism, socialism, progressivism or whatever label you want to provide to the ideology of the Left one thing is certain, it is evil.
DerKrieger on November 2, 2009 at 1:07 PM
Stop at the end of part 2. All the relevant economic theory is done by then.
Part 3 is just a vicious revenge fantasy, cloaked in science fiction and framed by the New Testament.
Count to 10 on November 2, 2009 at 1:07 PM
Well, that settles it. Burn her at the stake.
lorien1973 on November 2, 2009 at 1:07 PM
Make flying the U.S. flag mandatory; the libs will do the leaving.
Bishop on November 2, 2009 at 1:07 PM
The Kennedys were too. What does it matter?
WashJeff on November 2, 2009 at 1:08 PM
Galt could live in secessionist Texas. Get ready to move.
prophetsfather on November 2, 2009 at 1:08 PM
So? Your point? I don’t know anyone discussing Ayn Rand as a citizen on whom we should model our lives. What is discussed is the prescience of her novels and how Atlas Shrugs in particular mirrors today’s society. Get with the conversation or go away.
DerKrieger on November 2, 2009 at 1:08 PM
Ogabe snorted coke. Funny how that gets overlooked in the liberal myth-making.
Bishop on November 2, 2009 at 1:09 PM
Actually, income growth has been virtually flat for most groups since the 1970s.
And there are no plans about to “take over” 1/6 of the economy. Most practices and hospitals would remain private, as they are now, and even the public option is estimated to affect only a small percentage of the market. The trillion dollars over ten years is less than 1% of GDP.
Bleeds Blue on November 2, 2009 at 1:09 PM
Adulteress. And so were her characters. Its one of the reasons that my feelings on Atlas are mixed. Overall, what she does do is give a broad picture of what not to do, as apposed to what to do.
Count to 10 on November 2, 2009 at 1:09 PM
Marxists believe in forcibly stealing property from one person to give to themselves and other who they deem “need” it.
Objectivists (there is no such thing as a “Randist”) believe in letting people sink or swim on their own free will and accord, their own drive, their own talent, their own desires and their own choices. Each individual respected as a sovereign being not able to be sacrificed to the will of others by force and not sacrificing others to them self by use of force.
HOLY CRAP. WHAT A TERRIBLE THING.
Good Lt on November 2, 2009 at 1:09 PM
Randian Objectivism doesn’t work with social conservatism.
brak on November 2, 2009 at 1:10 PM
Now if we can just get the producers in California to stage a massive week long strike sometime in January 2010 to punish the California legslature for stealing their income through increased withholding that the state has no way of paying back.
paulsur on November 2, 2009 at 1:11 PM
You call that flat? Give me a break.
Count to 10 on November 2, 2009 at 1:11 PM
I can’t go along with this kind of philosophy.
davidk on November 2, 2009 at 1:11 PM
She was an atheist too… and I believe that the US was founded on the premise that rights are not derived from government (either from Kings or from other men), but from “Nature’s God”…
But with that said, her concept of society is not amoral. Her concepts of “selfishness” is filtered through an atheist prism, but it can be seen from a Judeo-Christian prism. That is, the practical result of her concepts of “self” and “morality” can fit into a historic, American parameter.
And she was a great writer.
mankai on November 2, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Don’t hire anyone. Fire any Liberal on your staff if you’re in a position to and don’t buy anything. Or at least avoid businesses supportive of the Left’s agenda, like GM, Chrysler, Nike, Apple, Goldman Sachs, et al. Buy foreign stocks. Buy gold. Don’t sell any stock so you can avoid cap gains taxes. Move out of a blue state.
DerKrieger on November 2, 2009 at 1:12 PM
And you, as an “enlightened” liberal, seem to think that everyone who understands the relationship between economic freedom and political freedom and believes in limited government, individual rights and the sacredness of private property are conservative Christians.
Newsflash, jackass.
EVERYONE HERE KNOWS RAND IS AN ATHEIST.
That has nothing to do with her ideas about free market capitalism and its relationship to society-wide prosperity, political freedom and individual freedom.
Now go actually READ a Rand novel and stop pretending that because you heard somebody else talk about her ideas that you’ve “read” Rand.
Good Lt on November 2, 2009 at 1:12 PM
Which has what bearing on the ideas she proposes, exactly? Scumbags can have good ideas and do good things. You may have heard this argument before … probably because I’ll bet you made it in the 90s.
TheUnrepentantGeek on November 2, 2009 at 1:13 PM
Whose dollars?
Where is that “paltry trillion” that you would have lambasted Bush for coming from?
(blank out)
Good Lt on November 2, 2009 at 1:13 PM
Obligatory:
http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback200501050715.asp
brak on November 2, 2009 at 1:14 PM
That is not what Obama has said several times. He has stated repeatedly that the public option is the first step to a single payer system managed by the government. Listen to what Obama says he means it!
paulsur on November 2, 2009 at 1:14 PM
Do you Leftists Actually BELIVE that BS, or is it just a front to sell that crap sandwich?
Juno77 on November 2, 2009 at 1:14 PM
Medicare only costs $8 billion a year right now. Or so I hear from congress in 1960.
lorien1973 on November 2, 2009 at 1:14 PM
Yeah, the middle class is just where it was since the Reagan tax cuts. I thought the same thing as I cranked up my TRS-80 and was waiting for the cassette player to load my Sky Blaster program!
But the inner cities! Wow, since the War on Poverty… they’ve been thriving!
mankai on November 2, 2009 at 1:14 PM
I think this was possibly in reference to forced rather than voluntary action. I for example don’t want a dime of my money taken from me to be given to someone else no matter how noble the cause but I will freely give my money to causes I believe deserve it.
DerKrieger on November 2, 2009 at 1:15 PM
BB still can’t grasp that Obamacare is already a mess in MA and ME. He thinks that if it’s bigger, it won’t suck nearly as bad. That rates won’t go higher and hospitals won’t close because of it.
Proof of concept is alien to liberals.
lorien1973 on November 2, 2009 at 1:15 PM
So let’s tear the top curve DOWN.
That will “equalize” everything and solve society’s problems.
Right?
FAIL.
Good Lt on November 2, 2009 at 1:16 PM
“Relatively modest”? Compared to what?
“Average” tax rate is misleading. We could tax everybody above average income at 100%, and everyone else at 0% and still have the same average tax. And that would definitely create income inequality. Before destroying the economy, that is.
And if everybody had enforced equal income, would the world really be a better place?
Apples and Oranges. For Marxists the perfect moral being is whomever follows Marxian thought (whatever that is) to perfection. For “Randists” it’s whomever uses objective reality, reason, and self-interest as their moral basis.
ZenDraken on November 2, 2009 at 1:16 PM
A movie likely would be false to the point of her writing.
As for practical action, we are seeing a practical application in the fact of people moving out of high tax states, particularly New York.
This is not, ultimately, a solution to the problem, but it is a fact that is beginning to sink in to many people. Its implications are profound.
Ayn Rand’s issues are being teed up, which is a very positive development.
GaltBlvnAtty on November 2, 2009 at 1:16 PM
You are talking about derived characteristics, rather than underlying philosophy.
Marxist philosophy ignores the productivity of capitalists, and assumes all value comes from physical labor — Rand assumes physical labor is mostly irrelevant, and most value comes from the inspirations of capitalists. In that respect, they are mirrors of each other. Not that in Atlas, most of the would dies so that the capitalists can have their utopia in the end.
Count to 10 on November 2, 2009 at 1:16 PM
Atlas Shrugged is available on audio CD and audio download (Audible.com)too. I have the download, read by Edward Herman, and it’s wonderful. I replay it about once a year.
petefrt on November 2, 2009 at 1:16 PM
Anthem is a good one to start with. Short and very entertaining. I would also recommend We the Living, which was her first novel and is semi-autobiographical.
WarEagle01 on November 2, 2009 at 1:17 PM
To be precise, she had an open marriage with one person, with the approval of the other parties spouse, for what it’s worth… (assuming you believe the privacy of one’s bedroom and agreements between consenting adults.)
“Funny how that gets overlooked in the conservative myth-making.”
elfman on November 2, 2009 at 1:17 PM
Fellow traveler! I’ve been out tuning-up my Trail 70 motorcycle and monitoring the last $28 in my checking account.
I think I may move to Detroit and open up a business, I hear they are doing wonderful things in Michigan.
Bishop on November 2, 2009 at 1:18 PM
Hell – I make $8 billion per year with my left pinky.
No money at all. Nothing. Current and future taxpayers will never miss the trillions getting burned by this Administration.
Money has no value to individuals, after all. It’s the root of all evil. Unless you’re donating to Obama’s political campaigns for his campaign commercials. In that case, it magically becomes “good.”
/Rand hater
Good Lt on November 2, 2009 at 1:18 PM
Yes. We are aware Obama cultists are quite adept at deification and myth making. We know this.
Good Lt on November 2, 2009 at 1:19 PM
You actually believe this? Not even the CBO backs up what you’re saying. And if you don’t believe that ObamaCare/NancyCare or any other incarnation of a Democrat plan we’ve seen so far isn’t calculated at destroying private insurance then you’re not paying attention.
gwelf on November 2, 2009 at 1:19 PM
What about that looks like it’s going to be horrible?
elfman on November 2, 2009 at 1:20 PM
“Her book, with no particular marketing campaign of which I’m aware, is just outside the top 100 books on Amazon, at #103.”
In her recent Rand bio “Goddess of the Market,” Jennifer Burns reports that 300,000 copies of Rand’s books are purchased annually by the Ayn Rand Institute. This does not account for all of Rand’s sales, but it does account for a substantial part of them. (ARI distributes the books to high schools.)
Any author who has a foundation buying 300,000 copies a year is going to stay on the bestseller lists.
sauropod on November 2, 2009 at 1:20 PM
What is it about liberals and their precious myths. No matter how many times they are demolished, they keep dragging them back out.
Income inequality did not increase. What happened was that a higher percentage of income went to cover fringe benefits.
As to the rate the rich paid falling. So what? The amount of money that they actually paid went way up. You were aware that at the same time the rate was cut, many deductions were being eliminated? Or do you just present those arguments that support your case and ignore everything else?
You are aware that the percentage of income tax paid by the rich exploded during this time as well?
But you don’t care. So long as someone else is supporting you.
MarkTheGreat on November 2, 2009 at 1:20 PM
It could be an epic movie, but no doubt if Hollywood made it today, they’d demonize it as much as possible.
petefrt on November 2, 2009 at 1:21 PM
Rand does NOT assume that physical labor is irrelevant. She obviously (as even a cursory reading of Atlas would reveal) that physical labor coupled with the mind that moves it is the root of production. Hence, the whole point is that physical labor is all well and good for production, but amounts to a whole lot of nothingness without the mind at the head of the operation or behind it.
Good Lt on November 2, 2009 at 1:21 PM
How liberal of you. Attack the messenger when you can’t discredit the message.
MarkTheGreat on November 2, 2009 at 1:22 PM
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