Who is John Galt

SS109 wrote: Praising the elite? Actually for the time period, there appears to be a lot of classic literature that is class based, Orwell's 1984 had the proles and the elites, Huxley's Brave New World, even gave the classes letter rankings. Yet those aren't reviled for their class distinctions.

Um, maybe because far from glorifying the "elite" classes, those books were highly critical of the results of rigid class distinctions?

AspenValley wrote:

SS109 wrote: Praising the elite? Actually for the time period, there appears to be a lot of classic literature that is class based, Orwell's 1984 had the proles and the elites, Huxley's Brave New World, even gave the classes letter rankings. Yet those aren't reviled for their class distinctions.

Um, maybe because far from glorifying the "elite" classes, those books were highly critical of the results of rigid class distinctions?

I didn't read them that way. In 1984, the proles were simpletons that worked, enjoyed their beer and pop music. Happy but clueless.

Same in Brave New World, the lower classes are cast as simpletons and nothing is expected from them.

Both authors I cite do come from Britain, very much a class based society in the 1940's and before.

Side note: For the royal wedding, Kate Middleton is a commoner and some of the nobility do think William made a poor choice picking her. But in a blow for unbridled capitalism, her parents rose up from coal mining parents to multi-millionaire party planners who could afford to send their daughter to a very expensive high school, (50K+) to meet her fiance.

Both Brave New World and 1984 were about the highly deleterious effects of societies that were designed and controlled by an elite class while the underclasses do all the productive work. Atlas Shrugged is about giving all the credit for a successful society to an elite few who are "burdened" by the rest of humanity's lack of productivity.

SS109 wrote: Side note: For the royal wedding, Kate Middleton is a commoner and some of the nobility do think William made a poor choice picking her. But in a blow for unbridled capitalism, her parents rose up from coal mining parents to multi-millionaire party planners who could afford to send their daughter to a very expensive high school, (50K+) to meet her fiance.

Sheesh - can't even get away from the stupid royal wedding here?

towermonkey wrote:

SS109 wrote: Side note: For the royal wedding, Kate Middleton is a commoner and some of the nobility do think William made a poor choice picking her. But in a blow for unbridled capitalism, her parents rose up from coal mining parents to multi-millionaire party planners who could afford to send their daughter to a very expensive high school, (50K+) to meet her fiance.

Sheesh - can't even get away from the stupid royal wedding here?

No, but doesn't it give you a thrill to know that it was "unbridled capitalism" that made it all possible... Makes me tingle all over. :Whistle

She didn't meet him in high school, according to the movie I just watched. She met him at St. Andrews University.

All of which has exactly WHAT to do with John Galt/Ayn Randian silliness, again........?

UPDATE: Since "Atlas Shrugged" was only shown on ONE SCREEN of ONE THEATER out of 10-12 theaters in the city where I'm currently working...And since it closed after a 2-week run, (to be replaced by "Fast (& Furious) 5"), I was curious what the nationwide box-office for it was....

ATLAS SHRUGGED Plunges 70%: Box Office

The first installment of a planned trilogy based on Ayn Rand's 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged: Part I had one of the worst drop-off rates this weekend at the North American box office, down more than 70% after losing 143 locations. Currently showing at 228 theaters, Atlas Shrugged earned only $131,000, averaging a dismal $601 per theater on its fourth weekend out according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo.

Producer John Aglialoro has said he wanted to go ahead and make Atlas Shrugged parts II and III, but without betraying Ayn Rand's "principles." Since that meant "without losing money," chances are there'll be no Atlas Shrugged sequels. Made for a reported $20m (earlier sources pegged the film's budget at $10m), Atlas Shrugged has taken in only $4.28m in North America.

Monday, May 9, Update: Atlas Shrugged was actually down 58%, still a steep figure though considerably less so than the estimated 70%. It collected $197,000, or about 50% more than reported on Sunday. Despite its stronger than expected performance this past weekend, Atlas Shrugged remains a major flop — one that will in all likelihood disappear in the very near future. The film's per-theater average remained quite low: $866

http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/atlas-s ... nt-bowler/

Box office

Atlas Shrugged: Part I was a box office bomb. The film opened on 300 screens on April 15, 2011, and made $1,676,917 in its opening weekend, finishing in 14th place overall,[48] but when compared on a per-screen basis, it finished 9th, or 3rd if films on less than 100 screens are discounted.

Ticket sales dropped off significantly in its second week of release, despite opening an additional 165 screens. The per-screen average dropped 71% from $2,254 dollars on the opening Friday to $660 one week later, with the result that despite the increased number of screens, the total revenue actually dropped by 54%.[51] These poor returns led producer John Aglialoro to cancel his plans for a wide release, saying: "Critics, you won."[52]

The box office collapse continued in the third week of release. Instead of the 1000 screens the producers promised, the film ended April playing on 371 screens, with total sales on the third Friday down 58% from the previous Friday. The following Friday the total sales fell another 57%, marking an unbroken pattern since the film's release in which Friday ticket sales dropped more than 50% week over week.[51]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged:_Part_I


I guess there won't be a Part-II or Part-III. But it should be available at your favorite Wal-Mart & Target stores soon...

I better go see it soon before that new movie comes out- the one that all the liberals are talking about.....

Starring Karl Marx
"The communist manifesto movie"
It's sure to be a blockbuster.

BearMtn, will BHO have time to star in a movie, run for President and ruin a nation all at once?