'Atlas Shrugged' to be released as a movie!

Haha, that's all I'm askin! Atlas is my absolute favorite book of all time, but I will say this. There is a passage almost at the end of the book where a person is giving a speech, and basically it sums up the philosophy behind the entire book in this speech. It gets so long winded and so repetitive that I promise you can skip it and it won't matter! I think Ms. Rand just got a little carried away with herself there. You'll know what I'm talking about when you come across it. Anyway, thanks for giving it a chance.

And btw, laissez-faire capitalism works on paper too! But clearly not so much in real life. You can make anything look doable on paper, but if it fails in practice, it's just not worth a damn.

I'm not trying to derail your thread but I just wanted to clarify that I believe socialism destroys peoples' rights because once your brother is your keeper, you don't belong to yourself anymore. For example, with socialized healthcare the cost of healthcare is distributed among the taxpayers. So since everyone has to pay for Joe's healthcare, Joe shouldn't be allowed to smoke, eat junk food, ride a motorcycle, drive over 35mph, waterski, have sex until married, or anything else that might remotely endanger Joe's health: it's the only equitable way to minimize the cost to the taxpayer. Whereas if Joe paid for his own healthcare he could do as he damn well pleased with no negative consequences except to himself.

This concept is addressed thoroughly in the book.

I don't think the novel has anything to do with being elitist. I think it has everything to do with hardworking and talented people being sucked dry and discarded. In the novel, the main characters set out to "stop the motor of the world" by convincing the movers and shakers not to buy into the failing system anymore.. and then they back off as the vampires of society scrabble over the last crumbs and curse their own bad luck.

And no, they don't do this joyfully.. the struggle of the main protagonist coming to terms with the fact that she is enabling a flawed system to continue takes up most of the book.

When I saw that they were releasing "Atlas Shrugged" as a new movie at this point in time, my reaction was the same as when I saw "V for Vendetta" was being made. It strikes me, not as support of the NWO (if such a thing is truly organized), but as a slap in the face to the direction that (especially) America is heading.

I see evidence of "looters" in this country every day, and I couldn't think of a more appropriate movie to make people aware of what happens when you dole out rewards to your buddies regardless of whether they deserve them or not, and expect your government to police your every movement like a nanny. (Doesn't that sound familiar?)

For example: I know a lady who has worked in the same company for twenty years. She worked her way up from a temporary administrative job to being the person in charge of the clerical supervisors. She and her team of employees, some of them working with her for much of the entire time, organized and streamlined the system so that they were having perfect audits every year. Then, her boss was replaced with someone's friend, who had failed at three other professions. The new boss fired half of this lady's team, demoted her so he could promote people who were friendly with him, runs the business on smiles and handshakes, and doesn't understand why the whole thing is collapsing around his ears. He hasn't bothered to learn how to use the software involved in doing his job, and he whines that it is out of date and too hard to use, so when something goes wrong, it isn't his fault.


"Is it ever proper to help another man? No, if he demands it as his right, or as a duty that you owe him. Yes, if it's your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle. This country wasn't built by men who sought handouts." - Ayn Rand