• • • Tea Party brings Ayn Rand back 
Noah Kristula-Green, FrumForum Atheism  Ayn Rand Center  Ayn Rand Institute  Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Essay Contests  Yaron Brook  At least one part of the American economy has enjoyed a boom since the financial crisis: the estate of Ayn Rand and sales of her dystopic door stopper novel, Atlas Shrugged. Until recently interest in Rand represented a small subculture in conservative intellectual life—small, perhaps, because as long as Rand lived, she belligerently chase away anyone who disagreed, even slightly, with her “philosophy” of Objectivism. Rand denounced libertarians as “a monstrous, disgusting bunch of people” and conservatives as “futile, impotent and, culturally, dead.” In return, critics found Rand’s declaration that “The only philosophical debt I can acknowledge is to Aristotle,” laughable. The revelations of Rand’s destructive affair with Nathanial Branden undercut Rand’s writings on “rationally” practicing sex and love. Her acolytes were called “crazy” on the rare occasions they interacted with the outside world. But since the financial crisis, all has changed. The Ayn Rand Institute, which owns the Rand copyrights, claims that sales of Atlas Shrugged tripled between 2009 and 2008.     Share on Facebook

• WikiLeaks mastermind Julian Assange: Evil genius or visionary hacker? 
Luisita Lopez Torregrosa, Politics Daily Atlas Shrugged  As they said about John Galt in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged:” Who is Julian Paul Assange?     Share on Facebook

• Newberry Library Book Fair 2010 features over 120000 books 
Carole Kuhrt Brewer, Chicago Now - Show Me Chicago Atlas Shrugged  The highly-anticipated 26th annual Newberry Library Book Fair is expected to draw over 100,000 book lovers and collectors to the hallowed halls of this treasured Chicago institution, designed by architect Henry Ives Cobb, and built in 1893. [....] Some of the collectibles that dealers and the public will be clamoring for at this year’s sale include first editions of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” Fredic Brown’s “Space On My Hands,” and Thomas Harris’s “Silence of the Lambs.”     Share on Facebook

• • • The death throes of pro-IP libertarianism 
Stephan Kinsella, The Death Throes of Pro-IP Libertarianism Atlas Shrugged  The speed of [the] recent [intellectual property] awakening appears to have caught the old-guard libertarian defenders of IP — mostly Randians and older libertarians from a generation or two ago — slumbering, clinging to the tattered remnants of arguments for IP. As they have gradually realized that a revolution has taken place around them, a few have tried to mount a rear-guard defense; but it has been tepid and half-hearted for the most part. You can see it in the quality of their arguments. Most of these are smart libertarians, who usually make much better arguments than they do when talking about IP. Why are their arguments so weak? It is because they are just wrong. There is no defense of IP (see “ There are No Good Arguments for Intellectual Property”). IP law is unlibertarian and unjustified.     Share on Facebook

• • • The big shrug: Why Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas’ still resonates 
Allen Barton, Pajamas Media Ayn Rand Center  Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Egoism  Yaron Brook  Video  The state of the world seems eerily similar to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. If government created the latest crisis, why are people blaming the private sector? Could it be that conservatives have abandoned individual rights? Front Page with Allen Barton talks to Yaron Brook and Terry Jones about Ayn Rand's classic novel and about whether we are sacrificing responsibility in the name of collectivist irresponsibility.

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• ‘X-Men: First Class’ drafts Twilight vampire Edi Gathegi to play biracial mutant Darwin 
Mike Fleming, Deadline New York Atlas Shrugged movie  Atlas Shrugged  Gathegi, who played Laurent in the Twilight films, just wrapped production on the Paul Johansson-directed adaptation of the Ayn Rand novel Atlas Shrugged.     Share on Facebook

• • Culture briefs - Shrug at film 
Washington Times Atlas Shrugged movie  Atlas Shrugged  "I'm a great fan of 'Atlas Shrugged,' but I'd be surprised if anyone could turn it into a decent movie. So we can hope for the best, but our enthusiasm must be cautious. [....]” — Maynard, writing on " Atlas Shrugged, the Movie?" on July 27 at the website of radio host Tammy Bruce.     Share on Facebook

• Combating Tea Party populism with conservative ‘inactivism’ is a fantasy 
Scott Galupo, U.S. News & World Report - Scott Galupo Atlas Shrugged  Let’s not even get into the sophomoric Manichaeanism of Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto or the revival of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. (I happen to think that many of the conflicts of modern American politics are as much between competing liberties as they are between government and civil society.)     Share on Facebook

• The continuing crisis in the New World Order 
Jacob Steelman, LewRockwell.com Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  The sub-prime meltdown spread like a wildfire throughout the financial industry in September 2008 with what were then unprecedented central bank and government interventions and bailouts attempting to put out the fire storm. [....] Events unfolded like a chapter out of Ayn Rand’s popular novel, Atlas Shrugged.     Share on Facebook

• • • Production wraps on Atlas Shrugged - Part One 
Jeremy Kay, Screen International Atlas Shrugged movie  Atlas Shrugged  (Requires subscription.)Production has wrapped on Strike Productions’ Atlas Shrugged – Part One based on Ayn Rand’s rousing 1957 novel about the collapse of American society after leading thinkers and creators go on strike.     Share on Facebook

• • The independent: Jeffrey Lichtenberg roars back with big deals for big names 
Jotham Sederstrom, New York Observer Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  It wasn’t until the summer between his sophomore and junior years at Hobart College in upstate New York that Mr. Lichtenberg, until then a left-leaning English major, turned his gaze on the real estate industry. After reading The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, two peons to architecture and individualism by Ayn Rand, Mr. Lichtenberg began to apply the writer’s thoughts to his own life, much as Alan Greenspan and Warren Buffet famously did many years before him. “I came back a different person,” said Mr. Lichtenberg, who named his company “Fountainhead Enterprises” after the 1943 best seller. “I came back from wanting to live on a commune to wanting to build something.”     Share on Facebook

• • • Atlas Shrugged filming wraps up 
David Kelley, Atlas Society Atlas Shrugged movie  Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  Image  I spoke with Dagny Taggart the other night. “It’s a huge honor to be part of this film,” said Taylor Schilling, who plays the heroine in John Aglialoro’s independent production of Atlas Shrugged. Tuesday evening, July 20, marked the completion of filming. We caught up with Aglialoro and his team in a weary but ebullient mood as shooting wrapped after an intense five-week schedule.     Share on Facebook

• • • LFM visits the set of Atlas Shrugged- Part I 
Govindini Murty, Libertas Film Magazine Atlas Shrugged movie  Anthem  Atlas Shrugged  The Fountainhead  The Virtue of Selfishness  We The Living  Image  Interview with Director Paul Johansson.[Q:] What is your approach to adapting “Atlas Shrugged” as a movie? [A:] You’re talking about an art form, a living breathing art form … “What is a sculpture?” … it’s everything you’ve taken away from it, and what’s left is the sculpture – that’s what a film is. We took some of the densest material available in literature … and we’ve decided that there are certain parts of that story that cannot be told with the amount of time that we have. We’re taking one third of the book – because this is going to be part one of three parts – or perhaps four parts depending on how they’re going to shoot it all – and we’ve taken what we think is the essential part of Part One – which is 127 pages to Wyatt’s Torch. That’s what we’re up to.     Share on Facebook

• • • LFM visits the set of Atlas Shrugged- Part II 
Govindini Murty and Jason Apuzzo, Libertas Film Magazine Atlas Shrugged movie  Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Image  Video  Jason Apuzzo and I had the chance last week to visit the set of Atlas Shrugged, the highly anticipated film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s epic 1957 novel. We interviewed the film’s director, Paul Johansson (the first interview he has given to the media about the film). We also spent several hours watching Johansson direct a crucial scene between Atlas Shrugged‘s heroine Dagny Taggart and her antagonist, millionaire playboy Francisco d’Anconia. We saw first hand Johansson’s close working methods with his actors (the actor playing d’Anconia compared Johansson’s hands-on directing style to that of Robert Redford) and the passion he was bringing to the production. The location was the historic Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.     Share on Facebook

• ‘Mad Men,‘ Season 4, Episode 1: ‘Public Relations’ 
Mark Whittington, Associated Content Atlas Shrugged  The first words spoken in “Mad Men,” Season 4, Episode 1: “Public Relations” are “Who is Don Draper?,” asked by a reporter for Advertising Age. The question is an obvious riff from the opening line to “Atlas Shrugged.”     Share on Facebook

• • • Top young historians: Jennifer Burns, 34. 
History News Network Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Egoism  Image  Quotes. [....] “Writing my first book, Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, was like being a detective at the heart of an intellectual mystery story. Though Rand's legend was well established among both her fans and enemies, there was little scholarly work about her life and career. I was the first historian to work in her personal papers, and thus it was essential to document her life with archival evidence. Then came the challenge of fitting Rand into the evolving ideological landscape of the American right, which historians were just beginning to chart. The final step was crafting an analytic narrative that would demystify Rand yet retain the tension and sense of discovery that animated my years of detective work.” -- Jennifer Burns about Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right.     Share on Facebook

• • • Criticism of ‘Atlas’ is misunderstanding 
Marshall Behringer, The Northwestern (Oshkosh, WI) Atlas Shrugged  Egoism  Rand’s is the only system of ideas ever conceived that both treats individuals as ends-in-themselves rather than the means to the ends of others, and claims that morality is declaring “I love my life” and acting accordingly, neither sacrificing oneself to others nor others to oneself.     Share on Facebook

• • • The big news you didn’t read this week: The Atlas Shrugged film trilogy 
Frances Martel, Mediaite Atlas Shrugged movie  Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Image  The progress on the set of Atlas Shrugged is a much more important story to both pop culture and the political world than, say, the fact that an anonymous government employee was a little bit racist once, and now is not, but is a socialist agent, or a good samaritan, no one is quite sure. The fact that a film with that kind of ideological baggage is set for release so close to the 2012 elections is something media spinsters should have on their radar. An Atlas Shrugged film means that all the would-be Randians too lazy to read the book or too young to care to watch The Fountainhead now have easy access to her philosophy, which, in large part, is the philosophy of the Tea Party Movement.     Share on Facebook

• • Reading right: Core curriculum 
Tribune-Review (Pittsburgh) Atlas Shrugged  Egoism  Benjamin Wiker’s “10 Books Every Conservative Must Read: Plus Four Not to Miss and One Impostor” (Regnery) doesn’t list his favorites or those that have sold best. “Rather,” writes Wiker, author of “10 Books that Screwed Up the World” and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, “the choices were made based upon what conservatives must read in light of our present condition.” [H]is “One Impostor”? “Atlas Shrugged” -- because “Ayn Rand would have agreed that she was no conservative. Rand’s insistence on pure selfishness as the root and branch of her moral system proved irreconcilable with true conservative moral principles.”     Share on Facebook

• • • “Universities, the major battleground in the fight for reason and capitalism” 
Gary H. Jones, Academe Ayn Rand Institute  Atlas Shrugged  Capitalism  Egoism  Essay Contests  Recent donations from the charitable arm of BB&T, one of the nation’s largest banks, have raised the issue of external influence anew, sparking concerns about academic integrity and the role of the faculty in decisions about accepting gifts that come with curricular or other strings attached. At the center of the concerns about these donations is the requirement that objectivist Ayn Rand’s novels be taught in special courses extolling capitalism and self-interest. [....] “A course on the moral foundations of capitalism might include Atlas Shrugged, though it’s not an obvious choice—it’s badly written and simpleminded,” said the University of Chicago’s Brian Leiter, director of the Center of Law, Philosophy, and Human Values. For such a course, he said, the must-reads would include Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and F. A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. “There is a large contemporary philosophical literature defending markets by scholars like Robert Nozick, David Schmidtz, and Jerry Gaus. I would think at a serious university and in a serious course, you would look at this kind of work long before you get to Ayn Rand.”     Share on Facebook