There is a movie being made right now based on Atlas Shrugged. I can't help but think that when Hollywood is done with this adaptation it will look like it was written by Sol Alinsky or may George Soros.

I don't trust anyone with Ayn's work. Just read the book.

I did.

I read it when I was a socialist. I'm now conservative.

She's still f**king boring

Read Dune by Frank Herbert first, it's much better. Hell, read everything Philip K. Dick wrote in order, its probably fewer pages than one of Rand's novels.

Lionsgate has stalled the release of the movie version of Atlas Shrugs - starring Angelina Jolie as Dagney Taggert. Production began in 2007 and was was rumoured to have been completed in early 2008 - before she did Changeling.

Depending on which article you read, release and/or production was stalled several times. The new release date is supposed to be 2011. My guess is that it was not released back in 2008, as scheduled, because it may have influenced election results. However, Hollywood is notorious for changing a books main storyline and focusing instead on a books sub story - especially if it has to do with sex or violence - which can effectively obliterate the original message.

I see Atlas Shrugged mentioned a lot today in American Blogs. I take that as an Omen.
JMO

Ayn Rand is genius...I would suggest reading and rereading her works to any and everyone...and not just Atlas Shrugged. Try some of her non-fiction...'the new left - the anti-industrial revolution' is excellent.

That guy's idea I find significantly less genius.

Treason! Is the sin never named!
It upsets Islamists & Democrats.
They being the biggest purveyors
of such iniquity.
JMO

Correction - Atlas Shrugged not Atlas Shrugs - my bad.

Whether or not one agrees with her Objectivist/Libertarian philosophy, the insight Ayn Rand had in realizing what government was doing in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s is displayed in the books she wrote at that time. A better understanding of the attitudes which prevail among bureaucrats today, can be developed by reading Atlas Shrugged.

"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We *want* them broken. You'd better get it straight That it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against– then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
-- *Ayn Rand,* _/Atlas Shrugged , Ch. III, "White Blackmail"/

Tough to make letters in Idaho. The highways go in general directions with few intersections.

I thought The Fountainhead was a better story, but Atlas Shrugged wasn't bad either. (I read the first 15 pages of the speech, then skipped it; she would have done better to include it as an appendix, as Orwell did with Newspeak in Nineteen Eighty-Four.)

I have always thought Tom Wolfe's comment (about another writer) "[he] hit some very large nails not quite squarely on the head" was the best description of Rand. She's not always right - no one is - but she is generally accurate. Her parable of the Twentieth Century Motor company could have been lifted off recent posts here at SDA - from "Obama's gonna pay my mortgage" to the Tamil freeloaders to the New Jersey riots over housing vouchers. I've always loved Grandpa Simpson's succinct summation of today's ethos: "Gimme, gimme, gimme!". Rand quite correctly noted that always ends in tears; unfortunately for us, many remain to be shed.

I think "Capitalism" and "The virtue of Selfishness" are insightful and well worth the read. But for foundational Libertarianism I still prefer Murray Rothbard.

Posted by: Dunbar at August 14, 2010 5:59 PM

I would recommend Robert Heilein over Herbert

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

I've always said that the non-fiction works are more important than Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead, and that ultimately the Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology is going to be the most important of all because it deals with the foundations of philosophy, upon which ethics and then politics are built.

John Galt at Aug 15 12:36 AM

GREAT QUOTE! I will have to read me some Heinlein.

nv53: Totally agree...I think her non-fiction works give rise to a level of discussion not readily available from her fiction alone, and make a deeper understanding and examination of her fiction possible.

A short summary of Atlas Shrugged as it relates to economics can be found at
ATLAS AND ECONOMICS

"Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself"
Robert Heinlein

"Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many in too small a pen. Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily does this to himself"
Robert Heinlein

Book Reviews huh?

Love Atlas Shrugged. One of my fav non-spoiler quotes: "Well, we tried it – and we learned. Our agony took four years, from our first meeting to our last, and it ended the only way it could end: in bankruptcy. At our last meeting, Ivy Starnes was the one who tried to brazen it out. She made a short, nasty, snippy little speech in which she said that the plan had failed because the rest of the country had not accepted it, that a single community could not succeed in the midst of a selfish, greedy world – and that the plan was a noble ideal, but human nature was not good enough for it. A young boy – the one who had been punished for giving us a useful idea in our first year – got up, as we all sat silent, and walked straight to Ivy Starnes on the platform. He said nothing. He spat in her face. That was the end of the noble plan and of the Twentieth Century."

I didnt see the double meaning right away...

Dune. Great book. Sequels did not do justice to the first. And why was Duncan Idaho in every book?

Heinlein. Puppet Masters, Starship Troopers a must read. His later stuff seemed much different though.

Yeah well ayn rand has forgotten one thing in her argument against religion ...god gave her the ability to reason. other than that she sounds ineresting but still godless wich is sad, but hey that is free will bestowed upon us by god.

for every creation there is a creator.

Paul in calgary

"Yeah well ayn rand has forgotten one thing in her argument against religion ...god gave her the ability to reason."

Huh? Talk about circular argument...keep spinning with that one. If by 'god' you mean the process of biological evolution, ok...but Rand doesn't argue against evolution whatsoever.

There already was a version made, I believe.

What's interesting is all those socialist economists scratching their head wondering why, with all the stimulus, the economy isn't picking up. Well......

when the government promises to hike energy prices, tax evil capitalists and generally rob the rich to give to the government, then is it any wonder that no-one is doing anything to earn more money?

@ BTJ

No but ayn rand is an athiest and she think's religion is stupid and foolish.

Paul in calgary

"No but ayn rand is an athiest and she think's religion is stupid and foolish."

She rightly states that religion is based on faith, and that it is reason, not faith, that is man's ultimate success. Religion is an out of date and inferior means of relating to the world around us. Reasoning based on logical, conceptual thought is what brings about ingenuity and progress. The Industrial Revolution was built by reason, not faith...not religion.

"The Industrial Revolution was built by reason, not faith...not religion."

True to a point but understand that faith is based on beliefs that can be construed on ones meaning of 'truth'...If "religion" is then, in essence the product of a popular movement, it can alter anything, including progress through technological advancement aka industrial revolution.
Where I'm getting at is that western culture has slowly degraded into a mass belief that industrial manufacturing and the necessary exploitation of natural resources to do so is demonized to a point where we might be headed for the next dark ages.

There is all kinds of beliefs and religions and they don't have to directed solely at worshipping unseen divinity.

Right now it is ironic to state that we have reached the age of supercomputers, almost Godless and for that reason, fear has created a superstition which is threatening progress. It's called environmentalism and it has become a religion as well as an industry.