William Dunn points out that The Intellectual Activist now has a “TIA Daily” feature offering “daily news and analysis from a pro-reason, pro-individualist perspective.”
Check it out if you might be interested.
Category: The Atlasphere
All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.
Block Debates Eminent Domain at U Chicago
Rand-influenced economist Walter Block will be participating in a debate over eminent domain at the University of Chicago next Monday:
The debate revolves around the question: Should government have a right to take anyone’s property for less that what the owner would freely and voluntarily agree to accept as payment? Or, more formally: Is the state’s power of eminent domain necessary in a free society?
The announcement for the event includes an interesting bit about Block’s background with Ayn Rand:
Block, too, is believed to have never shied away from a good debate. As a senior at Brooklyn College in 1963, Block found his way to a luncheon honoring novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, and proceeded to the head of the table. He poked his head between Rand’s and that of her companion, psychologist Nathaniel Branden, and announced that there was a socialist present who wanted to debate someone on economic issues pertaining to capitalism. They politely asked him, “Who is this socialist?” and Block declared that it was him. Branden graciously took Block aside and agreed to debate, not only right then and there, but also thereafter, continuously, until one of them had changed the other’s mind on the merits of capitalism and socialism.
Today, Block is pleased to admit that he lost that debate.
His debate with Chicago Law School professor Richard Epstein will be held at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, May 10th at the Law School, and is sponsored by the Ludwig von Mises Institute. For more information, see the full announcement on the UChicago web site.
More Atlas Shrugged Movie News
As noted earlier, there have been reports that the Atlas Shrugged movie is now an “open question.” A more optimistic outlook is reported by The Atlas Society.
According to this report, the recent reorganization of Anschutz Film Group will not derail the Atlas Shrugged project.
Read the full article…
TOC Summer Seminar Early Registration
The Objectivist Center is reminding folks that the early registration deadline for The Center’s 15th Annual Summer Seminar is approaching. The seminar takes place the week of July 3-10, 2004 at The University of British Columbia.
On May 6th, the conference fee increases from $845 to $945. The conference fee includes your choice of over 60 hours of scheduled presentations, participant sponsored sessions, Seminar materials, lunch from Sunday through Friday (except Wednesday), coffee breaks, the opening cookout, and the closing banquet and dance. And, if you can’t make it for the entire week, this year there is a daily option being offered so that you can tailor the Seminar to fit your schedule. The $160 daily fee includes all scheduled presentations, participant sponsored sessions, seminar materials, lunch, and coffee breaks that day.
Jamie Dorrain, TOC’s Conference Director, says in an announcement about the early registration deadline:
We have an excellent program this year that includes lectures, courses, and workshops in philosophy, politics, art, and personal applications of Objectivism. Once again, the Seminar will feature two morning courses. Shawn Klein will teach a basic course, “The Basics of Objectivism,” and William Thomas will teach a new course “Analyzing the Harmony of Interests.” The seminar will feature lectures on political, ethical, and cultural topics. There will also be practical workshops in self-awareness, nutrition, acting, and physical fitness. And, as always, participants can look forward to insight and enjoyment of the arts: music, film and drama, poetry, literature.
For a brochure, call Erin Hill at The Center (800-374-1776). Brochure, secure online registration and more information are also available at TOC’s website.
Scottish Artist Jack Vettriano
Writing for Scotsman.com, Brian Monteith draws a comparison between Scottish artist Jack Vettriano and Howard Roark:
THANK goodness for Scottish artist Jack Vettriano. If he didn?t exist we would have to invent him.
There?s an excellent novel written in the 1940s by Ayn Rand called The Fountainhead, which was later made into a film with Gary Cooper in the lead role as the hero, Howard Roark.
The story is simple enough; Howard Roark is an architect who values his work for its own sake, famously saying: “I don?t build in order to have clients; I have clients in order to build.”
The buildings are his creation; he has designed them, toiled over them and brought them into the world. He cannot be corrupted or seduced by the collectivist establishment, which is made up by politicians and officials of the state and by art critics in the press. Ultimately, he demolishes one of his own buildings rather than let it be corrupted by his critics.
Jack Vettriano is a Howard Roark of our times. He paints because he enjoys it; it brings him clients. He is popular because it just so happens that he is in tune with our contemporary longing for nostalgia. He too has toiled over his work, having been self-taught and living from hand to mouth until he became financially successful. Now he enjoys the sweet taste of success.
See the original article for further information about this artist and the establishment that opposes him. You can also see some larger Vettriano prints at bertc.com.
13 Going on 30 is Good-hearted Fun
Jennifer Garner’s new movie 13 Going on 30 opens this weekend. My wife and I saw the sneak preview two weeks ago ? and found it completely endearing.
The comedy represents a new turn for Garner, best known for her butt-kicking roles in movies like Daredevil and her TV show Alias. I was skeptical about how her new direction would come off, but in the end my wife and I were each won over completely. (In fact, we’ll be going back for seconds this weekend.)
Garner has a rare quality as an actress: the ability to project undiluted joy at being alive in the world. And, though you can’t tell by the trailer, the movie’s clear theme is the importance of staying true to oneself, even if it means being less-than-popular.
This is not a good movie for cynics. Watch the trailer for a glimpse of what’s in store.
Also, ExtraTV offers a good set of interviews with Jennifer on her experiences making the movie. (Favorite quote, from her Alias co-stars, on whether Jennifer could successfully play a thirteen-year-old: “Jennifer, you are thirteen; I hate to tell you.”)
Atlas Shrugged Movie is 'an Open Question'
The Rocky Mountain News has reprinted the Wall Street Journal article we mentioned earlier this week titled “The Reel Life of Phil Anschutz.” From the article:
For a brief time, Anschutz and Baldwin were excited about the prospect of filming Ayn Rand’s epic novel Atlas Shrugged. They snapped up the movie rights for more than $200,000 in 2003, only to discover that the 1,075-page book’s sprawling nature, long speeches and many subplots made it an extremely problematic film project. Anschutz insiders say it’s an open question whether they will press on.
The entire article is worth reading, if only for a close look at one wealthy man who believes Atlas belongs on the big screen. From the intro:
Some people know Phil Anschutz, co-founder of Qwest Communications International Inc., as a hard-charging financier who has amassed a $5 billion fortune in oil, railroads and telecommunications. But a very different side of him emerged two years ago, in a late-night phone call.
The call was to Angelo Pizzo, a Hollywood screenwriter known for creating the movie Hoosiers in the 1980s. Anschutz had hired him to help craft a $30 million inspirational film about soccer’s World Cup. Crews in Brazil were about to film a scene of the U.S. coach exhorting his underdogs in a locker-room pep talk. Even though Anschutz had seen the script many times, he was bursting with ideas about what needed to be in that speech.
“Phil wouldn’t stop,” Pizzo recalls. ” ‘Tell them, This is about pride,’ he said. ‘When we go out there, nobody knows who we are, but this is how we will remember ourselves for the rest of our lives.’ He wasn’t just making this movie to entertain people. He desperately wanted it to teach young people about how to deal with life.”
How to Slash Your Taxes
Writing for TownHall.com, Alan Reynolds provides an elegant analysis of how taxation influences one’s motivation to work. From his article:
I have discovered a fool-proof strategy for beating the income tax, the Social Security tax and the Medicare tax: Lower your income.
After analyzing his own (tongue-in-cheek?) experiences with this strategy, he concludes:
The sensible solution is to stop working at 62-65, or to work as little as possible — like running a 12-cylinder engine on 4 cylinders. Yet this is a dangerous message to send to our rapidly aging population. Future growth of tax revenues, and of the economy, will be heavily dependent on whether or not older Americans choose leisure over work.
Between 2000 and 2020, the population between the ages of 25 and 54 is projected to increase by only 3 percent while the population over 55 increases by 63 percent. If older people shun work, there will be virtually no growth in the labor force aside from immigration. America’s medium-term challenge is not a shortage of jobs but a prospective shortage of willing and able workers.
Even if only a fraction of future seniors respond in the ways I have to tax penalties on work, money flowing into the Treasury, Social Security and Medicare from an aging workforce will slow even more than expected.
A few years ago, the Russell Sage Foundation (which routinely bankrolls egalitarians) sponsored a collection of papers turning Ayn Rand’s opus into a question, “Does Atlas Shrug?” The authors could not get the right answers because they did not ask the right questions. Work effort cannot be measured by hours on the job. Work effort is more like a dimmer switch than a light switch; we adjust it by degrees. And mature, educated taxpayers are not docile sheep but wily foxes. When tax collectors set out to punish extra effort and investment, we get the message.
See the full article for additional information.
TOC Summer Seminar Deadlines
The application deadline for The Objectivist Center’s Advanced Seminar in Objectivist Studies and the Student Scholarships for the 2004 Summer Seminar is April 23.
The Advanced Seminar in Objectivist Studies offers participants the opportunity to take part in the exciting work being done at the frontiers of Objectivist theory and to hone their skills at philosophical analysis and argument. It will be held June 30 – July 2, 2004 at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Visit the TOC web site for more information and an application for the Advanced Seminar.
For students wishing to attend The Objectivist Center’s Summer Seminar, scholarships are available to help full-time students who could not otherwise attend. Scholarships will be awarded on the basis of merit and need. Visit the TOC web site for more information and a scholarship application for the summer seminar.
Atlas Shrugged Movie Update
From Don Hauptman:
People often ask me about the status of the Atlas Shrugged movie project, as if I have insider knowledge, which I do not.
On the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal (April 22, 2004) is a profile of Philip Anschutz, an entrepreneur who has invested large sums to make wholesome, family-oriented films. The article mentions that he is closing Crusader Entertainment, one of his movie divisions. Crusader is the company that acquired the rights to film Atlas last year. (That came about due to the USA Today article, but that’s another story.)
Deep in the Journal article, a paragraph notes that Anschutz and his colleagues had difficulty adapting the novel. With Crusader’s closing, whether Atlas will now be filmed is described as “an open question.”
This is a sad but familiar tale. I was overseas in the Navy in 1970 or ’71 when I saw the news about Godfather producer Al Ruddy obtaining the rights. Numerous attempts have fallen through since then.
I have a print subscription to the Journal, but not online access, and so can’t provide a link. The Journal is on sale for a dollar at finer newsstands everywhere.