Objectivism Archive

Atlas Shrugged Movie Updates

April 27, 2006 · Category: Atlasphere, Objectivism, Reviews

Following the recent story in Variety, we're ramping up regular coverage of the Atlas Shrugged movie at the Atlasphere. If you're interested to follow the status of the movie, check in with the Atlasphere's Atlas Shrugged Movie archive.

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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as John Galt and Dagny Taggart?

April 27, 2006 · Category: Atlasphere, Objectivism, Reviews

New Individualist editor Robert Bidinotto reports that Lionsgate is moving forward with its plans to produce the Atlas Shrugged movie: According to Variety, "Ray" producers Howard and Karen Baldwin believe they've cracked the challenge of turning the 1,100 page novel "Atlas Shrugged" into a manageable feature. Lionsgate has acquired worldwide distribution. And reportedly both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are very interested in the project: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been linked to the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's bestselling novel 'Atlas Shrugged'. Variety reports that the couple are rumoured to be considering starring as lead characters Dagny Taggart and John Galt. 'Atlas Shrugged' ...

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About the Atlasphere’s Business Model

April 27, 2006 · Category: Atlasphere, Objectivism

Just posted this at The Atlasphere's Ayn Rand Meta-Blog. Comments are turned off over there, so I'm cross-posting it here in case anyone has thoughts they'd like to share. This morning one of our members sent us the following message: Guys at the Atlasphere -- as an investor in a couple dating sites, and the CEO of a pretty large internet subscription company -- I thought I'd point out that it's most common to show the pictures to basic members, so that they get really motivated to contact the other party and then pay to upgrade. Hiding the photos is hiding ...

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Atelier Yoyita’s Portrait of Ayn Rand

April 19, 2006 · Category: Objectivism, Reviews

Artist Gloria Norris (who paints by the name Atelier Yoyita) sends along a link to her new portrait of Ayn Rand, shown below. From the artist's web site: "Yoyita is a Portrait artist working in Classical Realism in the tradition of the Renaissance, with sculptures of the Civil Rights movement, landscapes, marine art and miniatures." While my first impression of the painting was that it was not entirely flattering, my second impression was that there was something strikingly alive and vital about the subject's gaze. Draw your own conclusions! UPDATE: More about Yoyita's background as an artist: Yoyita was born in Managua, Nicaragua, Central America. ...

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Lessons from the Netflix Startup Story

April 16, 2006 · Category: Intellectual, Objectivism

If you are inspired by stories about the good business practices behind phenomenally successful companies, then you must read "Five Lessons From the Netflix Startup Story." Here are some excerpts that remind me of the business philosophy in Atlas Shrugged: Starting a new company takes a lot of persistence, positive thinking, and a never-say-die attitude. Many experienced people gave us long lists of reasons why our business idea wouldn't succeed. Why would people wait for movies to come in the mail when they could just go down the street to Blockbuster? How can you cost-effectively mail out movies? Won't they get broken, stolen, ...

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‘The Good’ on Good Friday

April 14, 2006 · Category: Atlasphere, Individualism, Intellectual, Objectivism

The Atlasphere just published a holiday column by Editor Jason Dixon titled 'The Good' on Good Friday. It's an excellent article -- and today's required mudita reading. It begins: Around the world today, Christians are celebrating Good Friday — a commemoration of Christ’s crucifixion. Catholic and Protestant traditions alike offer special services on this day. Hymns, processions, reverence, and solemnity are the mainstays. I submit that this ritual is one reason for Christianity’s success. Not this particular ritual, but ritual itself, and the reverence that accompanies it. In philosophical terms, they provide a concrete symbol of an abstraction. In layman’s terms, they’re food for the ...

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For the Record: Corrections Regarding Diana Hsieh’s Interview for Axiomatic Mag

April 7, 2006 · Category: Objectivism

I just discovered Axiomatic Magazine's January 2006 interview with Diana Hsieh. In the interview, Diana uses an observation I made in one of my Mudita Journal postings as evidence that the people in and around The Objectivist Center "lack a serious commitment to understanding Objectivism." Since Diana's paraphrase of what I said leads to a very different conclusion than anything I had intended -- indeed, anything I believe is actually true -- I would like to set the record straight. Here is the quote from Diana, from her interview: Most of the people in and around TOC lack a serious commitment to understanding Objectivism. ...

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Questions that Inspire Greater Happiness

April 1, 2006 · Category: Intellectual, Mindfulness, Objectivism

Faustin asks some fascinating, challenging questions: These are a few of my favorite questions. I believe, when your boots hit the ground, your answers to these questions matter. *** Is life an exciting adventure to be welcomed? Is happiness possible? Can we, as humans, understand the world around us? Thus, can we effectively cope with its challenges? Can human relations be healthy? Are they generally mutually beneficial? Can we wake up in the morning, confident that there are other good people in the world, doing fascinating things, providing products and services that further our lives, our goals, our happiness, and should we thus embrace their freedom and ...

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Anonymity at the Atlasphere

April 27, 2005 · Category: Atlasphere, Objectivism

I received the following letter from someone who was perturbed that I deleted his Atlasphere profile when he joined the member directory under the name "Zero Disclosure." I thought some of you might be interested in my response. Here's his note: In all honesty, I'm just disappointed. In Atlas you can find a lot said about capitalism. If you take capitalism to the web, you will find that the best websites are the ones that don't micro manage users. I wonder what your conversion rate is for people you delete. Do they re-register, or do they ...

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On Objectivism and Living Well

August 17, 2004 · Category: Buddhism, Individualism, Intellectual, Objectivism

Will Wilkinson makes some interesting observations about Objectivism's failure to fully address the importance of human sociality. His observations correspond with some of my own observations recently about problems within Objectivism. For example, during the recent TOC graduate seminar, I made a point of asking each participant: "What do you actually do differently, now that you're an Objectivist?" Sure, Objectivism has changed how we think. But if there's no theory/practice dichotomy, then our behavior should be changing, too, right? For a "philosophy for living on earth," the answers I received were not particularly encouraging. Most people were hard-pressed to think ...

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