Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged (Movie)

I am so tiredof knee-jerk name calling instead of actuallyaddressing points in a discussion.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
do you have any clue what those quotes mean?
Click to expand...

Absolutely, I know exactly what they mean. Do you need me to explain them to you?

I am very familiar with President Kennedy's quote because it is from my favorite speech. It was at the dedication of the Robert Frost Library at Amherst College on October 26, 1963. I encourage you to listen to it. The part that always grabbed me is in this excerpt. President Kennedy was "one acquainted with the night." As a sickly child and young adult, he had been given the last rights of the church 3 times in his life. It gave him a perspective and wisdom of a man well beyond his years. It made him not only a man for his time, it made him a man for all times.


jfk2.jpg

Listen to this speech

In America, our heroes have customarily run to men of large accomplishments. But today this college and country honors a man whose contribution was not to our size but to our spirit, not to our political beliefs but to our insight, not to our self-esteem, but to our self- comprehension. In honoring Robert Frost, we therefore can pay honor to the deepest sources of our national strength. That strength takes many forms, and the most obvious forms are not always the most significant. The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation's greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.

Our national strength matters, but the spirit which informs and controls our strength matters just as much. This was the special significance of Robert Frost. He brought an unsparing instinct for reality to bear on the platitudes and pieties of society. His sense of the human tragedy fortified him against self-deception and easy consolation. "I have been" he wrote, "one acquainted with the night." And because he knew the midnight as well as the high noon, because he understood the ordeal as well as the triumph of the human spirit, he gave his age strength with which to overcome despair. At bottom, he held a deep faith in the spirit of man, and it is hardly an accident that Robert Frost coupled poetry and power, for he saw poetry as the means of saving power from itself. When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.

The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure. He has, as Frost said, a lover's quarrel with the world. In pursuing his perceptions of reality, he must often sail against the currents of his time. This is not a popular role. If Robert Frost was much honored in his lifetime, it was because a good many preferred to ignore his darker truths. Yet in retrospect, we see how the artist's fidelity has strengthened the fibre of our national life.

If sometimes our great artist have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.

The Poet and the President
 
This about sums up my feelings about Atlas Shrugged:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
Click to expand...



http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/ephemera-2009-7.html
 
Damocles said:
The movie comes out this weekend in limited theaters. Is anybody going to watch it?

I plan on going. I loved the book, it's almost psychic nowadays...

Find a theater near you:

http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/theaters
Click to expand...

I liked the book.....Rand's a typcial Russian novelist though. Why say in one word what can be said over and over and over again in 10,000 words. I liked The Fountainhead too but it was one of the worst movies I ever saw in my life. What will the do about John Galts speech to keep it under 17 hours?
 
They'll have a techno beat, all of the audience will be given acid upon entrance, and told to take it at intermission or something, and then we'll go from there.
 
NigelTufnel said:
This about sums up my feelings about Atlas Shrugged:





http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/ephemera-2009-7.html
Click to expand...

Oh that's funny. Rand does make some valid philosophical points. She has two major flaws in presenting her philosophy of objectivism in novel form.

#1. She makes a point, repeats the point, clarifies the point, makes the point again for good measure, then again, just in case you missed it, then she beats you over the head with the point until you're numbed and semi-conscience. Then she repeats it all over again, and again and again.

#2. Objectivism, by the standards philisophical naturalism, lacks objectivity.

In using the literary technique of the novel to popularize her philosophy Atlas Shrugged was a staggering success but from a literary stand point it's an awful novel and far to long. The only thing it was missing was the obligatory opening sentence of "It was a dark and stormy night."

She does make some valid points though. She is correct on her attack on dialectic philosophy which is the keystone of modern socialism.
 
King of Reason said:
They'll have a techno beat, all of the audience will be given acid upon entrance, and told to take it at intermission or something, and then we'll go from there.
Click to expand...

I don't think 3 hits of blotter acid and a full pipe of crystal meth could keep you awake. I think I'll wait till this one comes out in DVD. If it's as bad as "The Fountainhead" you'd be asleep inside of 10 minutes.
 
King of Reason said:
I like that they are doing it in parts, so that they can cram as much of the book onto the screen this way. I imagine it will cut off shortly before "the speech." I actually purchased a set at Borders containing both Atlas and Fountainhead, but I haven't got around to reading much more than a few chapters of Atlas.
Click to expand...

The Fountainhead is the worst book I've ever read, and the worst book ever written. Ayn Rand should be posthumously given two death sentences, one for being an evil monster, and another for being the worst writer in all of history. This is a survival of the fittest world, and we've decided to select her out.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
that would almost be funny, if it weren't for you believing that hitler was a Libertarian.
Click to expand...

Hitler was the ultimate conservative/libertarian. Libertarianism is an ideology that is incapatibile with freedom and humanity. Those who hold to it are apes, and should be treated as the apes they choose to emulate and shot in the head. Hey, survival of the fittest.
 
Damocles said:
Right. Because Totalitarianism is the same thing as Libertarianism... :rolleyes:

Tell me all about how Stalin was a "Right Winger", how Communism isn't really "left" and nobody has ever used power in Communistic societies to kill millions more than even Hitler killed...

Ignorance is bliss, especially if you have a talent for ignoring reality so you can pretend to think you are somehow "better" than others. My guess is you pressing Mein Kampf onto others as a belief system without regard to any understanding of their belief is a sign of projection. Tell me how it feels to believe in National Socialism?
Click to expand...

Communism is the ultimate in conservative ideology.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
sure, until you declare rights to not be offended, or scared by inanimate objects, rights to government supplied healthcare, food, housing, income, etc.
Click to expand...

Yep, we make up rights off the top of our head and declare them inviolable. Just like libertarians. That's the politics of our nation: argument via declaration.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top