Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Nationalize Atlas Shrugged!

It's the rational thing to do.

Lookit this creepy thing:



That is part one of SEVENTEEN videos dramatizing the Galt speech. It's a long speech, so who the fuck knows how many videos are yet to be realized.

Oh what the hell, here's #17:


Views for part one? 72140 as of this writing. 361 for part 17.

45 comments:

J— said...

Go-Jon Galt, Jedi Warrior.

Another Kiwi said...

Observe the persistance of my paternalistic twaddle.
Listen to my dreary justification for my libertarian selfishness.
See I have cured your insomnia.

Righteous Bubba said...

The thing is, I could listen to this all the way through on a long drive. It's kind of like Negativland or Les Crane.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

yep, that's gonna be a blockbuster movie.

But when I read the title, I thought Pam Atlas was going Galt. where would we then go for booby-crazy-blogging with alcohol?

Righteous Bubba said...

Wait: we go?

russell said...

I'll be damned if I'll make it 362.

commie atheist said...

Oh no, we've sacrificed Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling!!!

By the way, props on the Atrios link, RB.

Righteous Bubba said...

That Thers has always been nice to me. AND TO AYN RAND YOUTUBE HITS.

herr doktor bimler said...

Black stations, White stations feet on the floor
dance on the ceiling with us, this is 1984, Ha!

Sorry. Just having a Martha-&-the-Muffins flashback.\

The rest of the world never cottoned onto this Objectivist thing. The whole idea of rebranding sociopathy as a philosophy remains an exclusively US phenomenon. Rather like alien abductions.

MasonMcD said...

You'd almost swear Rand's Galt was talking about the religious right wing, rather than "liberals".

Michael Bérubé said...

Fourteen year olds of the world unite! The car keys shall be yours by sheer force of will! Objectivism requires it!

Anonymous said...

Does this mean that intellectual property rights should expire with the creator?

Righteous Bubba said...

Good point. If owners of the intellectual property of others aren't parasites who is?

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Of course not. Property rights are for rich people, ergo inherently good and unassailable.

One place where Walt Disney and Ayn Rand would be in agreement. Along with the whole ubermensch, benign tyrant- master race kind of thing.

wait- did anyone ever see Disney and Rand together? What about Neil Peart?

Anonymous said...

Here's what I don't get. Ayn Rand always stuck me as the siren for 16-year old boys, just like Catcher in the Rye. I went through a Rand phase, mostly because I was immature. Then I grew out of it. Rand should be a phase. When i see grownups still clinging to her I shake my head and think, How sad.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Yeah. The Fountainhead is always read by young architecture students. with the image of architect as noble, struggling artiste who has the right to destroy his client's buildings if he doesn't like the way they turn out, it has done so much damage to young practitioners.

Unfortunately, it is usually read when many of them are also going through their Libertarian notions, so it can be hard to displace.

Even as one of her more readable works though, you have to slog through a ton of Galtian snuttering to get to the rapes and explosions.

Righteous Bubba said...

When i see grownups still clinging to her I shake my head and think, How sad.

The producer-to-parasite ratio Rand envisions is not especially flattering to a bunch of slavish fanboys.

ltgesq said...

what total crap. If the long winded speech wasn't bad enough, they had to drag it out even longer with the funeral music.

This is a perfect example of why I gave up church. Some pompous windbag blathering on and on.

It was the worst and most irritating movie made by Gary Cooper. Utter tripe based on a book of pig intestines.

Righteous Bubba said...

It was the worst and most irritating movie made by Gary Cooper.

Galt and Roark are two different characters. In some technical sense.

Steaming Pile said...

From Wikipedia re. Neil Peart's politics:

Peart has never publicly identified with any political party or organization in Canada or the United States. Even so, his political and philosophical views have often been analyzed through his work with Rush and through other sources. Peart is often categorized as an Objectivist and an admirer of Ayn Rand. Most of this is based on his work with Rush in the 1970s, particularly the song "Anthem" and the album 2112, the latter specifically credited to "the genius of Ayn Rand."[46] However, in a 1994 interview, while contending the "individual is paramount in matters of justice and liberty," Peart specifically distanced himself from a strictly Objectivist line, stating he was "no one's disciple."[47]

Although Peart is sometimes regarded as a "conservative" and "Republican" rock star,[48] he, in 2005, described himself as a "left-leaning libertarian,"[49] and is often cited as a libertarian celebrity. [50][51] He also speaks of Fox News Channel being biased towards conservatives and rebuts British accusations that he and Rush are a "right wing" rock band in his book Roadshow: Landscape with Drums: a Concert Tour by Motorcycle. [52] In 2008 Peart described himself as a "quasi-libertarian" and stated that motorcycle helmet laws, which are often opposed by libertarians, "are not an issue at all to me."[53]

And on top of that, he's probably the best living drummer in rock. I doubt Geddy Lee, who I am under the impression is quite a liberal hippy, would tolerate working with a Rand-devotee for very long.

herr doktor bimler said...

72140 as of this writing. 361 for part 17
Assuming an exponential decline, that means there would need to be another 17 parts before they were down to a single reader.
Come to think of it, 16 more parts would be enough (that would leave 1.4 readers, which we can round down).

Further assuming that the length of the speech is intended to drive away the 72139 untermensch who are not fit to receive Rand's message, then it should be twice as long.

Capcha word is 'feldfal', which I suppose is a typo.

Righteous Bubba said...

Assuming an exponential decline, that means there would need to be another 17 parts before they were down to a single reader.

Homeopathic principles lead me to believe that this one individual could cure everyone of dementia if properly powdered.

herr doktor bimler said...

The same homeopathic principles once led me to experiment with powdering and diluting Canadian Club whiskey, in the hope of obtaining a homeopathic remedy for drunkenness and hangovers. However, my first customers advised me to "Trust in God and keep my powdered rye".

Righteous Bubba said...

Punked!

herr doktor bimler said...

I cannot take credit for the "Powdered Rye" punchline, which is © Myles na gCopaleen.

Righteous Bubba said...

I bought a Best of Myles over Christmas that I haven't gone through yet.

Why hasn't David Cronenberg filmed The Third Policeman?

M. Bouffant said...

Intellectual property is theft.


(secret word: "ripped.") ?

herr doktor bimler said...

That works both ways, of course; theft is intellectual property. This is why I have patented the concept of 'plagiarism'. My lawyers will be contacting you about the copyright payments.

I envisaged 3rd Policeman as more a project for Terry Gilliam. Ralph Steadman produced the cover art on one edition.

Righteous Bubba said...

Certainly someone should give it a shot, someone with some fun and fear in them.

Righteous Bubba said...

Fourteen year olds of the world unite!

I am impressed that the crazy person's speech ends with the thought that we are all like a captain being sucked out of an airplane window rather than like anybody who helped him.

Righteous Bubba said...

When I next have the opportunity to compare sucking and blowing I will revise.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

"suck, Betty, suck! Blow is just a figure of speech!"

lawnguylander said...

The Poor Mouth would be a lot easier to film and Neil Jordan could pull that off but for the Third Policeman, Spike Jonze is yer only man because due to his experience working with extra dimensions hidden behind walls. Tricky stuff. I will get in touch with him and then I will work on the casting. I have Brendan Gleeson in mind for Sgt. Pluck.

Dave L said...

Actually, the hits total for part 17 is misleadingly high; presumably, some people decided to bail after Part I and skipped ahead to see how it would end.

Part 11, by way of comparison, has 114 views.

Righteous Bubba said...

A salute to the bravery of Dave L.

herr doktor bimler said...

The Poor Mouth would be a lot easier to film
I suppose The 3rd Policeman's parallel de Selby story does not lend itself well to a conventional movie script. Still, what about the mollycules speech?

My hands, as it happens, are already more than 50% keyboard because of repeated molecular agitation and interchange.

I look forward to the day when "Going Policeman MacCruiskeen" becomes a political slogan.

Righteous Bubba said...

My hands, as it happens, are already more than 50% keyboard because of repeated molecular agitation and interchange.

Here's hoping one set of knuckles got L O V and E.

herr doktor bimler said...

Close examination reveals that the other knuckles read P 0 R N.

Righteous Bubba said...

Things could be itchier.

herr doktor bimler said...

The truth is that I actually have 'LEFT' and 'RIGHT' tattooed on my knuckles. It saves a lot of time.

Righteous Bubba said...

I've got 1-2-3-4 on one set and 5-6-7-8 on the other. Kinda forgot about the thumbs.

herr doktor bimler said...

Octal notation is the way to go. Cats and parrots agree.

Dillon said...

But when I read the title, I thought Pam Atlas was going Galt. where would we then go for booby-crazy-blogging with alcohol?

Ann Althouse, of course!

Righteous Bubba said...

Good lord she's listening to Limbaugh now.

lawnguylander said...

My hands, as it happens, are already more than 50% keyboard because of repeated molecular agitation and interchange.

I stole that comment and used it in a Flann O'Brien appreciation group on Facebook. And I hope you use a wireless keyboard. It wouldn't do to have a USB cord getting all tangled up in the spokes of your bicycle.