New documentary coming Oct 7th: “Ayn Rand and the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged”

The Ayn Rand Institute has helped sponsor the production of a new documentary titled Ayn Rand and the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged. Written and directed by Chris Mortensen, it is “a feature-length documentary film that examines the resurging interest in Ayn Rand�??s epic and controversial 1957 novel and the validity of its dire prediction for America.”

The movie will be released “in select cities” on October 7th, 2011. And judging from the trailer below, it looks quite good.

According to IMDB the documentary includes interviews with John Allison, Mike Berliner, Andrew Bernstein, Harry Binswanger, Yaron Brook, Northrup Buechner, Jennifer Burns, Al Ruddy, Ed Snider, and many others. I also recognize Leonard Peikoff’s former wife Amy Peikoff, here at the very start of the trailer.

The movie’s synopsis at IMDB begins:

Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged is a feature length documentary film that examines the resurging interest in Ayn Rands epic and controversial 1957 novel and the validity of its dire prediction for America.

Set in what novelist and philosopher Rand called the day after tomorrow, Atlas depicts an America in crisis, brought to her knees by a corrupt establishment of government regulators and businessmen with political pull the looters and the moochers who prey on individual achievement.

Less a conventional work of fiction than a philosophical manifesto in the form of a romantic novel, over the course of a thousand-plus pages, Atlas tackles no less an essential argument than the one debated by philosophers and theologians since time immemorial: altruism vs. self-interest. Am I my brothers keeper – or not? For Ayn Rand, the answer is an emphatic no. To Rand and the disciples of her Objectivist philosophy, self-sacrifice is as heinous an act as murdermurder of the soul.

For more information about the documentary, check out the movie’s IMDB page, its Facebook page, the Ayn Rand Institute’s site for the Atlas Shrugged novel, and the movie’s official website, where you can sign up to host a screening or to be notified once the DVD is available for pre-order.

Steve Jobs inspired by Atlas Shrugged when he started Apple?

According to a new Bloomberg interview with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, the young Steve Jobs may have been inspired by Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, among other books, in his ambitions with Apple.

Excerpts:

(at around 5:30)

INTERVIEWER: Steve, give us some insight into Steve Jobs’s personality and what it is about him that made him so ambitious and so driven to turn Apple around.

STEVE WOZNIAK: I can only speak to the early days. In the early days, he wanted to have a, you know, a success, and he wanted to be an important person in the world. And he wanted to do it by having a company that was successful and made money. And it sort of like evolved in those directions over time. He didn’t lose that part of his personality.

(around 9:00)

STEVE WOZNIAK: …And he did want to have a successful company, and he had a lot of ideas. He must’ve read some books that really were his guide in life, you know, and I think… Well, Atlas Shrugged might’ve been one of them that he mentioned back then. But they were his guides in life as to how you make a difference in the world. And it starts with a company. You build products and you gotta make your profit, and that allows you to invest the profit and then make better products that make more profit. I would say, how good a company is, it’s fair to measure it by its profitability.

If true, of course, Steve Jobs certainly wouldn’t be alone. Many entrepreneurs have been influenced by Ayn Rand’s novels to push for more entrepreneurial solutions to the world’s problems.

It sounds to me like Wozniak might be a bit of an Atlas Shrugged fan himself.

UPDATE – From Bob Maloney in a Facebook thread:

Mr. Jobs was at the same screening as I on opening night at Shoreline Theatres in Mtn. View a few months ago. I doubt he would have bothered to make it out to a busy opening night showing (especially as frail as he was) unless he was a fan of Atlas Shrugged.

Celebrity Ayn Rand fan: PayPal co-founder Luke Nosek

From a new article in The Independent about a Silicon Valley startup being backed by the founders of PayPal:

Polish-born Nosek, 36, worked on supercomputers at the University of Illinois in the early 1990s, then entered Silicon Valley working for the computer-services company Netscape, before co-founding PayPal. He cites as a key personal influence the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, whose ideas picked up considerable traction among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs during the 1990s. “I’m not a libertarian or an objectivist [like Rand],” says Nosek, whose personal collection of elaborately spun theories and stories is â?? like his bank account â?? seemingly inexhaustible. “But the most important lesson I got from Rand was that business can be good or evil. I have realised more and more that great companies, founded for a long-term purpose, such as Google or Facebook or SpaceX, may do more good in the world than any other vehicle that we have.” Nosek became the link-man between Founders Fund and Halcyon Molecular: he is the man who discovered the Andreggs.

See the full article for much more.

The ‘Ayn Rand vs. Jesus Christ’ Campaign

A new article by Harry Binswanger at The American Thinker begins:

The American Values Network, a left-wing group, with considerable funding by George Soros, has launched a media blitz under the banner “Ayn Rand vs. Jesus Christ.” As an Institute founded by Ayn Rand’s heir and devoted to advancing her philosophy, Objectivism, we would like to respond. Since this is an issue Rand faced repeatedly in her lifetime, our response is basically to let her speak for herself.

The AVN campaign is right in saying that Rand opposes accepting any ideas on faith — i.e., in the absence of rational evidence. Reason, based on sensory observation, is man’s only means of knowledge — the knowledge on which his life depends. Accordingly, she considers not only religious faith but any departure from reason to be destructive both personally and culturally.

But the AVN is wrong in bringing religion into politics at all. The American system treats religion as a private matter, not something to shape government policy. This is a corollary of the separation of church and state. The AVN campaign goes to shocking lengths in violating this principle. A recent video shows a young man pursuing Paul Ryan in a parking garage urging him to follow the Bible not Rand (whom he has praised) in his congressional budget proposal. Bringing religion into politics doesn’t get much cruder than that.

See the full article for much more.

John Hospers, R.I.P.

Pro-liberty philosopher John Hospers — who was a personal friend of Ayn Rand in the 1960s and the first presidential candidate for the Libertarian party in 1972 — passed away on June 12, 2011.

I had lunch with Hospers in Los Angeles in 1996, shortly after graduating from college, and enjoyed his gentleness and intelligence.

In 2004, the Atlasphere published a lengthy article by him titled “Election 2004: The Case for Bush.”

Jesse Walker offers a brief tribute at Reason.com.

For more background about Hospers, you can read his bio and also find some of his recent articles available online.

Reviewing the correspondence from Hospers that I’ve seen over the years, I came across this interesting tidbit from him (a reply to Richard Allen on the old We The Living discussion group) about Rand’s take on Charlie Chaplin:

No, Rand didn’t care for the ‘silent comedians’. Several times in our conversations the topic of Chaplin came up — all negative. At first I thought that his political leftism was the main issue — that along with his preference for girls a generation ‘too young’ for him. These all had an influence on her low estimate of Chaplin.

But the main thing was his art, not his life: it was repellent to her that Chaplin celebrated (or seemed to) the ‘hero’ as helpless victim, not in charge of his fate but being buffeted about on the whims of circumstance, always reacting but not initiating action. She didn’t find his antics cute or even funny. Not only did she dislike ‘Modern Times’ as an indictment of capitalism, she found his parody on Hitler in ‘The Great Dictator’ (after the ‘little tramp’ had been abandoned) unworthy of even a single smile.

Rest in peace, Dr. Hospers. And thank you.

“I Am John Galt” book now available on Amazon.com

The new book I Am John Galt by Donald L . Luskin and Andrew Greta is now available for purchase on Amazon.com.

We plan to publish a full review soon at the Atlasphere. Don’t wait for that, though; the book looks excellent.

From the press release:

“Who is John Galt?” may well be the best known line from all of Ayn Rand’s works. Soâ?¦ who is he? Galt is not only the fictional character from the hugely bestselling novel, Atlas Shrugged, who has come to embody the individualist capitalist who acts in his own self interest and in doing so lifts the world. He is also found in todayâ??s CEOs, journalists, sports figures, and actors who have led their lives according to Galtâ??s philosophy and in so doing they have achieved phenomenal success, not only for themselves but for those around them.

In their new book, I AM JOHN GALT: Todayâ??s Heroic Innovators Building the World and the Villainous Parasites Destroying It, well known market commentator Donald Luskin and financial journalist Andrew Greta introduce us to the real-life titans whoâ??ve lived their lives like Randâ??s fictional heroes and the malefactors whoâ??ve lived like her fictional villains. Filled with exclusive interviews, profiles, and analyses of the superstars who have based their lives and careers on the philosophy of the perennially popular Ayn Rand, this book both inspires and enlightens.

I AM JOHN GALT stars:

· The Individualist: Steve Jobs as Howard Roark, the man who reinvented four industries just because it was so cool

· The Mad Collectivist: Paul Krugman as Ellsworth Toohey, the man who preaches socialism from the pages of Americaâ??s newspaper of record

· The Leader: John Allison as John Galt, the man who walked away after building Americaâ??s strongest bank

· The Parasite: Angelo Mozilo as James Taggart, the businessman who co-opted government and nearly wrecked the US economy

· The Persecuted Titan: Bill Gates as Henry Rearden, the businessman who created revolutionary technologies and was criminalized for his success

· The Central Planner: Barney Frank as Wesley Mouch, the politician who meddled in the economy and almost destroyed it

· The Capitalist Champion: T.J Rodgers as Francisco dâ??Anconia, the modern Renaissance man and agent provocateur for capitalism

· The Sellout: Alan Greenspan as Robert Stadler, the libertarian who became an economic czar

· The Economist of Liberty: Milton Friedman as Hugh Akston, the academic who showed the world the connection between capitalism and freedom

Engaging and entertaining, I AM JOHN GALT examines how the inspiration that is Galt thrives more than 50 years after the publication of Atlas Shrugged. It will spark the interest of Ayn Rand fans everywhere, as well as those seeking a way to succeed in today’s turbulent and confusing times both in their business lives and their personal lives.

About the Authors

Donald L . Luskin is Chief Investment Officer of TrendMacro, an investment strategy and economics research firm. For over thirty years, he has been a leading figure in investment management and financial markets. He was formerly vice chair of Barclays Global Investors (now BlackRock) and is the founder of Investment Technology Group and MetaMarkets.com. Luskin appears weekly on CNBCâ??s Kudlow Report and contributes frequently to the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of Index Options and Futures: The Complete Guide and editor of Portfolio Insurance: A Guide to Dynamic Hedging, both published by Wiley.

Andrew Greta is an author and business executive with more than fifteen years of experience in the financial markets and currently holds an appointment with the College of Business at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. He formerly led corporate and business development at CME Group in Chicago. Greta is a former contributing editor for TheStreet.com. His articles on finance and investing have appeared in numerous national publications including SFO magazine, DSNews.com, ABCNews.com, Online Investor, and Individual Investor.

TIME magazine: Ayn Rand fans get a film of their own

TIME magazine has a new article by Alex Altman about the Atlas Shrugged movie, titled “Atlas Shrugged, The Movie: Ayn Rand Fans Get Film Of Their Own.” Since it’s pre-dated for Monday, April 25, 2011, the article must be in their print edition, as well.

It begins:

John Aglialoro is on a quest. Aglialoro, 67, is the CEO of a fitness-equipment company, a former U.S. poker champion and an objectivist â?? a subscriber to Ayn Rand’s doctrine of rational selfishness. In 1992 he bought from Rand’s estate the movie rights to Atlas Shrugged, her 1957 novel about the heroes who prop up society and the parasites who leech off their efforts. His dream was to make a film that honored Rand’s philosophy.

For 20 years the dream eluded him. Studios shied away from the project. Scripts were written and discarded. A deal to have Angelina Jolie play heroine Dagny Taggart fell through. Even Rand’s acolytes feared that a thousand-page doorstop whose emotional climax is a lengthy monologue on the virtues of unfettered capitalism would flop as a film.

See the full article for more.