The Remarkable History of "We the Living"

Andrew Leigh on Breitbart's Big Hollywood reviews a remarkable DVD, released just in time for the holiday season.

The question is, what is not extraordinary about "We the Living"? The story itself, written by Russian born American author and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982), the prehistory of the original film - shot in Mussolini's Italian Social Republic in 1942 and banned for its critique of collectivism, or the release of the 1986 version or now, the DVD?

"We the Living" is Ayn Rand's first and most personal novel, first published in 1936, a work which is "as near to an autobiography as I will ever write", she's on the record as commenting.

The novel is set against the background of the Russian Revolution. It tells the story of three people who see through the lies of the parallel reality that the Communists had erected, defy the power of the collective state, and demand to live their own lives, pursue their own happiness.

It laid the groundwork for the integrated theory Rand called Objectivism, which may be summed up as the Ethics of Capitalism.

Another work, "Atlas Shrugged" is still inspiring many liberty loving people today. At the bursting of the dot com bubble sales of the book sharply increased. At the height of the subprime mortgage crisis it ranked #33 among Amazon.com's top-selling books.

- "We the Living" (1942) IMDb page
- "We the Living" (1986) IMDb page
- Review on The Atlasphere by Andrew Leigh

The Neo Fascist Approach to Humanity

What say you? This is a real winner, isn't it? Uplifting and a edifying. The horror of it is, these nihilists know very well the memes of this stuff find their through the culture, into people's minds, spreading their evil message. Ideas have consequences.



Brilovett on the Objectivist dating site Braincrave has an article up with a few gems on ecofascism. It's a "posthumous" interview with Ayn Rand. Here's one:

We don't need the government to protect the environment?

[Playboy 23] My position is fully consistent. [Obj 977] In the Middle Ages, man's life expectancy was 30 years. If it were true that industry is destructive to human life, one would find life expectancy declining in the more advanced countries. But it has been rising steadily. Anyone over 30 years of age today, give a silent "Thank you" to the nearest, sootiest smokestacks you can find. (...)

Read it all >>>



from member:

In Memoriam: an Icon

Died today in Amsterdam at 76 - against the odds - Ramses Shaffy ...



Hat Tip: princessWhizz

Shaffy Cantate from beginning (1966) to end (October 26, 2009)

Combating the Crisis with the Frank Cunimondo Trio

Veterans Day with Norah Jones

On Politeia: Lest We Forget ...

The Most Beautiful of Them All

Some commentators just can't quite make their minds which is the most beautiful black tulip ever.

On Thursday November 5 one hundred Ayaan black tulip bulbs were planted in the gardens of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. The tulip is named after politician and author, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

The naming of the flower took officially place in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Attended by Ayaan herself, a single bulb was planted in the grounds of the Met.

This is where inevitably, the postmodern bane of political correctness kicks in. 

The Rijksmuseum's director, William Pijbes, also present in New York took the opportunity to assert that open, vital societies - like the one of the Dutch Golden Era (17th Century) - cannot exist without the introduction of foreign elements. (What Pijbes and his ilk really advocate is the elimination of national identity).

Pijbes also proudly emphasized that the Rijksmuseum is a house in which independent spirits can flourish. (Yeah, repeating multicultural truisms is the mark of the autonomous mind!).

The Ayaan black tulip is a long dream come true for tulip growers. Various black tulips have hit the market, but according to grower Lydia Boots the Ayaan is the most beautiful black tulip ever.

In September 2006 Ayaan Hirsi Ali became a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

Over the last decade or so Ayaan established her credentials as a well known Islam critic, specifically when it comes to the fate of women in Islam (see video). 

In 2004 she co-produced the film "Submission" with Theo van Gogh. He was beastly slaughtered on an Amsterdam street by radical Muslim, Mohammed Boyeri one year later. His assassination was commemorated just last Monday, November 2.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali when serving as a Libertarian MP, after relentless death threats and constant political bickering, finally fled the Netherlands and settled in Washington.

She deserves every honor of having this politically correct feat of horticulture named after her, but Ayaan's beauty and valor are simply incomparable to anything they could ever produce.

Of Cultural Resistance, Child Abuse and Divided We Conquer

Big Hollywood has unearthed no less than 11 new Youth-for-Obama indoctrination videos of various qualities, styles and degrees of creepiness.

A few things they share however: inculcating in the young an adoration for the dear leader and an emphasis, not on their common humanity, but on what divides them.

Not a single moment are we allowed to forget that everyone belongs to a minority group, the postmodern equivalent of the class struggle. It can't be rubbed in often enough!

They never fail to point out the collectivist divide: black is juxtaposed to white, girls to boys, rich to poor, abled to disabled, the list is endless. It is how Progressives rule. It is nevertheless a by-product of another fallacy.

In"Why Multiculturalism is Racist and Evil" we explained how that works:

"Polylogism (here defined, and here seen in postmodern action) is a form of collectivist (group)  subjectivism that also produced the National Socialist racial theories. A postmodern term for polylogism is multiculturalism.

A people, racial or cultural group is seen as having to follow its own particular destiny apart from the rest of humanity (...) The irrationality of multiple 'logics' apart, this form of self-determination negates universalism and is in fact racism, with apartheid as a direct consequence.

Universalism endows the human race as a whole with basic rights, as poetically summed up in the American Declaration of Independence: (...) "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The most dangerous aspect in this particular instance of exploiting children for political reasons is that no one on the Left seems to be aware of any moral problem! Or do they, but do they carry on nevertheless, perhaps because the aim justifies the means? Another instance of "our collective goalis so much higher than a few individuals!"



I went into this over a year ago, in October 2008 in a post entitled "The Comprehensive Guide to Youth for-Obama" when the Presidential campaigns were winding down:

"To begin with, children of any age as a rule are innocent, vulnerable and impressionable. This is why we strive to shield them from predators and exploitation. Doses of reality are administered piecemeal in a controlled fashion, carefully dispensed when we believe they are able to handle a given situation.

Children lack the mental tool to discriminate, and are therefore open to suggestion. Precisely because their minds are like sponges, soaking up all information that's available to them, the totalitarians of our world prefer their pawns young, at the earliest age possible."

By coincidence it has transpired that the source of the Obama PropArt was the National Endowment of the Arts' (NEA) incestuous involvement with the administration; would suggest one of our intrepid new media reporters sheds his pajamas and starts ferreting into the possibility of equally inappropriate relations with someone in the dear leader's office with the National Teachers Union (or something) (tip: why not try Buffy first?).

Now enjoy the B-Cast's dealing with "V" (apparently the new "O" ... who could've thought! so much independent thinking!) and the 11 Youth-for-Obama nuggets.



Related dossiers:

- "The Dialectics"

- "Socialist Causes Explained"

"Mr. Smith Goes To Washington"

In honor of Doug Hoffman and individual patriots like him ...

"Mr. Smith Goes To Washington", posted with vodpod
Details of this 1939 film Frank Capra film on IMdB. Starring the one and only ... James Stewart! The story is shockingly relevant!

A Relevant Anniversary: "Time for Choosing"

Mission to Moscow: A Very Short History of PropArt

Barack Obama's intimate relations and conference calls with aspiring artists at National Endowment for the Arts may come as a shock to purists, it is anything but a novelty!

New York Post: "To Russia with love", by Lou Lumenick

The lost film that shows how Hollywood — and Washington — embraced the Soviets

On Christmas Eve, 1942, screenwriter Howard Koch was packing for a trip to New York when he received an urgent summons to meet with his bosses, Warner Bros. founders Harry and Jack Warner.

After thanking Koch for his contributions to “Casablanca,” which had opened a month earlier, the moguls ordered a reluctant Koch, as his patriotic duty, to whip out a script for an unusual pro-Soviet propaganda epic to be directed by “Casablanca” helmer Michael Curtiz.

“Mission to Moscow,” which arrives on DVD Tuesday (at warnerarchive.com) after decades in obscurity, turned out to be Warner Bros.’ most notorious production, an eye-catching jaw-dropper labeled by a critic as a “$2 million love letter” to dictator Joseph Stalin, now best remembered as the No. 2 mass murderer of the 20th century.

Most remarkably, the film Jack Warner would call the only one he ever regretted making — after a grilling before the House Un-American Activities Committee that sent Koch into blacklisted exile — was personally commissioned by the President of the United States, who asked Warner Bros. to make it as part of Hollywood’s efforts to whip Americans into a patriotic frenzy during World War II.

“President Roosevelt himself asked Harry and Jack Warner to assist in educating, entertaining and enlightening the American people,” says Harry’s granddaughter, film historian Cass Warner. “Little was known about the Soviet Union, who were our allies at the time, [but] this never came to the forefront even when the film was used as evidence of the Bros. making subversive films during the McCarthy Era.” (...) >>>

Mission To Moscow
Geüpload door DwightFrye. - Nieuwe video's uit de hele wereld.

Is the War on Public Enemy #1 Obama's Waterloo?

The People's Cube: "Obama's War on Fox News Becomes a Quagmire", by Red Square

THE WHITE HOUSE - Despite the President's promise of a swift and decisive victory, Obama's War on Fox News has developed all signs of an unwinnable quagmire, making the White House even more isolated in its unilateral attempts to crush the growing media insurgency.

As the war continues to grind on for a second month, public opinion is shifting towards a quick and complete withdrawal. While many observers still agree that the "War on Limbaugh" is a "just and necessary war," even the former supporters of the war effort are now labeling the War on Fox an "unnecessary war of choice" and claim that the cable channel had nothing to do with Obama's falling approval numbers. (...) >>>

No comment.

The view on the White House banana leaf from the guys at Trifecta:

Pajamas TV: "The White House Declares War on Fox News"

As we said earlier on Politeia ... the Presidential stature is crumbling.

Condemning Multiculturalism

Here is one of those viral "Thomas Payne" videos on which more in this post on Big Hollywood.

The subject is the tearing apart of America by the multiculturalists of this world. But replace America by any other country in Western Europe, and the argument works equally well.

What keeps sticking in my mind is the lie I once heard one of the proponents utter: "we love cultures so much that we think everyone has the right to pursue his or hers to the full wherever he or she is."

It sounds nice, doesn't it? So sophisticated, so respectful, so - well, cultured. Yes, and it's a load of crap!

The full implementation of that wish means balkanization, the forming of ghettos and the surging of tribal and sectarian warfare; the end of the world as we know it!

Precisely! It's the postmodern dialectic at work again: the destruction of Western civilization is indeed what the proponents are after. The habitual traitors are advocating to "delete the border" because borders - indeed nations - are immoral! They want a new, egalitarian world order!

What they can't get their thick skulls around is that - if everything is basically of equal value - nothing is worth anything and result is anarchy and nihilism: it equals suicide. But as I said, what they are after is destruction.

Why don't we let Thomas Paine explain it:

Obama Mobilizes the Nation Towards a Common Goal

Sitting in the image archive is a picture defining what precisely constitutes totalitarian culture. We've used it on the blogs before, but have been holding off on posting it again in relation to the Obamazation of the US. After all, we don't want to monger fear, do we?

Forget about "achieving socialism", as this a covert operation owing to Americans' allergy for the term. They'll think up a innocently sounding epithet at some point, like "social justice".

But news is breaking tonight on Big Hollywood and - while not unexpected - it is not good. We'll work on it later on, but for now, let's get to it. Here's the gist, but only from the first part, so go to the site to get it all.

In the meantime this creepy piece of State propaganda has surfaced about the "enemy within". Since there is no Bill this beggars the question what the facts precisely are?

Big Hollywood: "LEAKED NETWORK MEMO REVEALS: Obama Controls Your Television Set", by John Nolte

On September 10th of this year the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) posted a press release informing the world that “from October 19-25, more than 60 network TV shows [will] spotlight the power and personal benefits of service,” and that this “unprecedented block of TV programming is the first wave of a multi-year ‘I Participate’ campaign.”

On its face this all sounds rather benign in that silly, liberal do-gooder kind of way. The networks have launched these kinds of campaigns before and other than some clunky exposition awkwardly inserted into your favorite show to meet the mandate — no harm, no foul. (...)

Like the NEA story, once again we see the same buzzwords pop up; suggested topics pitched to an overwhelmingly left-of-center group: Education, health, environment, the economy and lastly — almost as an afterthought as some kind of “bi-partisan” cover – support for military families.

We’ll have to wait until next week to see what effect this initiative will have on the 60 television (and news) programs in question, but thanks to the intrepid Patrick Courrielche and Stage Right, today we can answer the simple question of…
“What’s wrong with this?”

Doing the work the Kamikaze Media (many of whom are participating in this event rather than digging for the story) refuses, and with the help of Big Government’s Dana Loesch, Patrick and Stage Right have discovered that when it comes to this White House – whether it’s the NEA conference calls or EIF’s iParticipate programming — all roads funnel into one place: online volunteer portals, including Serve.gov, where if you plug in “health care” all kinds of Planned Parenthood openings pop up along with a video dispelling those ugly “myths” knocking ObamaCare.

There’s scarier stuff, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise *cough*Trutherism*cough* (...) >>>

‘BIG GOVERNMENT’

A parody video takes on Will Farrell's ad for Move On:

Racist! (Updated)

You gotta see this!

Pajamas TV/Sonja Schmidt: "What's it Take to Be a Racist?"

Sept. 29, 2009
~

Democrats' shrieks of "racist!" this week reached psychotic levels. Let's not sum up who made up the chorus, but former antisemetic President Jimmy Carter was the temporary apotheosis.

Charges of racism have very little to do with reality and serve the purpose of what in another era was 'fascist'. It's a stopper and a slightly more grown-up version of a temper tantrum.

The big winner in this offensive is, yes ... racism.

Big Hollywood: "Real Racism: Lessons in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’", by Andrea Shea King

My name is Bob Ewell. We’re all Bob Ewells if you check with the Left and their media mouthpieces.

Who is Bob Ewell? Well, if you’ve ever watched the movie To Kill a Mockingbird, you’d know that Ewell is the racist character who destroyed the life of an innocent man.

To Kill A Mockingbird is a classic American film, based on Harper Lee’s novel of life in 1936 Alabama and racial injustice that resided there.

The importance of this movie is that the cries of racism today, most recently by former president Jimmy Carter — which are not true — damage and set back the real cases of racism.

This movie shows us real racism, which thankfully, we don’t see much of today. (...)

The contrast is glaring between this made up political racism and the real deal — the real Bob Ewells of the world. Like Television.com offers it for free online. (...) >>>

Here's the theme by Elmer Bernstein, which is exquisite!

IMdB page.

Slide show.

Wiki.

And for heaven's sake! Stop the racist! rage!!!

Another update (Oct. 15, 2009)

Red State: "The Totally Real And Not Fake Stupid Quotes Shenaniganza!", by Caleb Howe

That’s what the MSM had to say in comments about Rush Limbaugh’s recent bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams. According to some guy I overheard at the mall, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs suggested that Limbaugh owning the Rams “is exactly the same as slavery, but fatter.” And then there’s what Helen Thomas probably said, “Rush to what window? With a ram? Where’s my sweater?”

So in honor of the controversy, I’ve compiled a top ten list of some completely ridiculous but totally true and not fake quotes of famous people who are not (or so they claim) Rush Limbaugh. These are, like, so the true. For really real. Really. No … really.

THE TOTALLY REAL AND NOT FAKE QUOTES SHENANIGANZA TOP TEN (...) >>>

A Cosmic Splash

Tribute to Brigitte Bardot

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com

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Book Review: How to Live and Survive Among the Left (Updated)

I'm reposting this because I just found a very spirited and entertaining interview that City Journal's Contributing Editor, Stefan Kanfer had with the author. It can be viewed on C-Span's Book TV After Words. Enjoy!

City Journal: "I Can’t Believe I’m Sitting Next to A Republican"

A Survival Guide For Conservatives Marooned Among the Angry Smug and Terminally Self Righteous, by Harry Stein

With biting wit and amusing personal anecdotes, Harry Stein’s “I Can’t Believe I’m Sitting Next to a Republican” chronicles the everyday travails and triumphs of the plucky conservatives marooned in the liberal bastions that loathe them, from Manhattan to Hollywood, to all the noxious places in between.

Surrounded by the insufferably smug and self righteous – from the angry old lady with the anti-war sign affixed to her walker to the random jerk at a dinner party quoting George Soros – these intrepid souls live in a hostile world; knowing that anytime a neighbor chances to learn their views on affirmative action, big government, feminism, the environment, abortion, multi-culturalism, sex education, the reliability of The New York Times, the scariness of evangelicals or (fill in the blank), his/her face will register stunned surprise and deep confusion. Or worse. (...) >>>

Watch Harry Stein here in an interview on PJTV.