It looks like it just might happen - the stars are aligned in the skies for a movie production of a novel that totally influenced my life ATLAS SHRUGGED. For those of you who are not aware of this amazing novel written by Ayn Rand and published in 1957 there is a big hole in your life. This writer using the medium of a novel was able to explain philosophically and experientially how a society can go bankrupt financially and morally if the men of the mind, i.e., the thinkers and creators are not allowed to thrive. She explained how the intrusion of politics into the realm of economics and culture can stifle creativity and slowly rot a culture. Of course we have many examples of this occurring in the 20th century: The Soviet Union, China, Vietnam...the list is very long.
And guess who is playing Dagny Taggart? Angelina Jolie. The Director is Vadim Perlman (The House of Fog and Sand) and the script writer is Randall Wallace (Brave Heart). So there is hope that a decent job, at least, will be done (read and read).
It's hard to explain how absolutely eyeopening this novel was to me at a time in my life in my 20's when politics did not make sense, religion seemed to be a fraud and my question was why was Jimmy Carter wearing a sweater and telling us to do the same? Atlas Shrugged showed me that the arch enemy of the creators or the men of the mind throughout history have always been control freaks, power lusters and altruists. Their dominating way of controlling the able was to regulate and command them to sacrifice to those more needy.
The question that Ayn Rand raised in her novel was - why must the creators sacrifice on the altar of the needy? She caused a revolution in thinking that has and still is changing the way people view their lives on earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment