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Category: Philosophy

Robert Mayhew Interviewed

13 October 2009

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Robert Mayhew, a philosophy professor and prolific editor and author, about Ayn Rand’s first novel, We the Living (1936). He discusses the book, its urgently relevant theme of the individual versus the state, the movie version, and his thoroughly engaging Essays on Ayn Rand’s We the Living.

This is the first of three new, exclusive interviews about this classic work of literature planned for publication on the site. Forthcoming in the series are my personal interviews with Ayn Rand archivist Jeff Britting, author of an Ayn Rand biography and co-producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, and Duncan Scott, co-producer of the restored film adaptation of We the Living, made in Italy in 1942 and reconstructed with Ayn Rand’s cooperation.

Read the interview with Dr. Mayhew here.

Fall 2009: Peikoff, OCON and Ayn Rand

11 October 2009

This fall, I am working on projects, studying Objectivism, and reading two new biographies of its creator, Ayn Rand. My review of Yale University Press’ Fred Astaire by Joseph Epstein is available for purchase in the fall edition of The Objective Standard.

The foremost expert on Objectivism, Leonard Peikoff, will deliver a 6-part lecture course at the 2010 Objectivist Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) reports. Dr. Peikoff’s forthcoming book, The DIM Hypothesis, in which he presents a new philosophical theory, will be the basis for the course. For more information about this exciting news, read the announcement in ARI’s latest Impact, which is packed with interesting information.

Incidentally, my movie review of the pirated, 1942 Italian film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s We the Living is published in the electronic edition (page 5, Impact, Volume 15, Number 10, October 2009), with a brief history of the motion picture. The review is one of a series of articles for this site; others include this op-ed about the 1936 novel. I’m planning to post three new, exclusive interviews about the book and the movie soon.

New on DVD: ‘We the Living’

16 September 2009

We the LivingAs I reported in May, a film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s 1936 novel We the Living, is available on DVD. It is also on sale through the production company.

The 1942 motion picture was recut from a pirated Italian adaptation and released in fascist Italy and Europe as two separate pictures. I’m planning an interview series about Ayn Rand’s breathtaking literary achievement and the outstanding movie version, which was theatrically released in 1988, for publication on the site.

While the film is also excellent, there is no substitute for the superior experience of reading We the Living, which was recently reprinted with an urgently relevant introduction by Leonard Peikoff, in this new trade paperback edition.

Obama at Notre Dame

17 May 2009

After all the anti-abortion protests surrounding supposedly pro-choice Barack Obama’s honorary degree and speech this week, the upshot of President Obama’s commencement address at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, is a religious idea: you are thy brother’s keeper. Shoulder the burdens of your fellow citizen, Obama told Notre Dame’s graduates (his wife, Michelle Obama, addressing graduates at the University of California at Merced, said the same thing). Self-sacrifice, the Obama presidency’s essential principle, is the opposite of what made America great. This nation’s greatness lies in its founding principle that each individual has the right to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness. The moral premise of individual rights is: selfishness. Telling young college graduates as they embark on a career that they exist for the sake of others (Mrs. Obama’s wicked guilt trip has to be heard to be believed) is explicitly anti-American. It is also inherently religious. Obama’s Judeo-Christian opponents, take note: Barack Obama is one of yours.

Disney Dumps Narnia

31 December 2008

Chronicles of Narnia

The Hollywood Reporter scooped Tinseltown with the news that Walt Disney Studios is ditching the dreadful Chronicles of Narnia motion pictures, a smart move on Disney’s part. The first Narnia picture, about four British children who choose to sacrifice themselves in a Judeo-Christian fantasy, was overbearing religious propaganda, the second was a watered-down Christian parable and the violent, thinly veiled series never fit Disney’s brand of clean, honest, and upright family movies; Christian production company Walden Media’s Narnia pics existed for the moralizing, not for the story—the latter being a sacred Walt Disney rule that often drives Disney success (see Disney’s superior Eight Below). Disney Chairman Dick Cook, who discussed killing Disney’s deal with Narnia’s Walden Media—Hollywood’s epitome of artistic mediocrity—in my 2005 interview, knows a stinker when he sees one. Excellent call, Mr. Cook. Don’t be surprised if Twentieth Century Fox, which seeks and sponsors faith-based pictures, picks the Narnia nonsense up and watch for religionists to lash out at Disney—or at anyone who rejects Narnia, which is based on the books by C.S. Lewis.

Religion continues to be a regular topic for discussion on Leonard Peikoff’s weekly podcast, which unfortunately remains in test phase with the roundtable format. Podcast 40 runs the term greed by those in Dr. Peikoff’s company. Podcast 41 fares better—he goes solo again—addressing a range of issues including Sen. John McCain’s heroism, self-indulgence, use of the term religious, meaning of the term arbitrary, morality in theory and in practice, and a communication from an intelligent eighth grader. Podcast 42 goes back to the group with two questions that Dr. Peikoff uses to spark a thread about one’s method of thinking.

Watching yesterday’s political train wreck from Illinois (more to say on that—and the other Illinois-originated political disaster, Obama’s Reverend Rick Warren—later), I’m reminded of my early optimism that the election of Barack Obama to the nation’s presidency could inadvertently lead to recovery by way of a quicker demolition, and, thus, revolution and reconstruction. In the wake of the economic recession and piecemeal, bipartisan nationalization of American industry, cash-strapped states are turning toward so-called privatization—of land, institutions and roads—in overwhelmingly Democratic-controlled states. The point is that, under incoming Obama, whose supposed integrity is unmasked more every day, government control of business will rapidly expand and, without opposition from religionists, such as Rev. Warren, who share National Socialism as a goal, market-oriented solutions may emerge without the usual round of left-wing denunciation—the public may demand it after Obamacans unite behind historic enactment of an axis of religious-environmentalist-National Socialist policies. After all, thanks to religious Republicans and their disastrous expansion of the welfare state and a hugely harmful military presence in Iraq, the left practically controls America’s government.

Peikoff on Greenspan

11 December 2008

In his latest podcast, Leonard Peikoff addresses the question of how former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, with whom Dr. Peikoff studied Objectivism under Ayn Rand, could have written in defense of laissez-faire capitalism yet evolved into an advocate of the welfare state. Returning to his regular solo format, he also answers questions about dating, being both an Objectivist and religious, the difference between a wish and a whim, government financing of technology and President-elect Obama’s attack on the virtue of selfishness.

Property Rights

9 December 2008

Dear friend Sharlee McNamee loves her property on the Corona del Mar beach and she certainly knows how to make the most of it. While I worked in Orange County years ago, driving down from L.A., Sharlee let me stay there on weekends. She and her husband, George, hosted a wonderful celebration for me, as well as countless fund-raisers for films and causes; she was southern California’s supreme beach hostess during the Eighties, welcoming new intellectuals into her warm, inviting world for hours of debate and discussion about Ayn Rand’s philosophy.

For the past seven years, she’s been putting that philosophy into personal practice by defending her beloved property against an assault by the state of California, a noble effort which is finally getting aid from the Pacific Legal Foundation. Win or lose—and justice means 100 percent victory over California’s dictatorial Coastal Commission, a monstrosity that should be abolished—Sharlee McNamee should be supported by anyone who favors individual rights.

Peikoff, Pop and Screen Shots

8 December 2008

Soul

Do dogs have some degree of freedom of the will? Dr. Leonard Peikoff, experimenting with a roundtable format, addresses this question and another in answer to an excellent letter from a truck driver—whom I think has a good point—about whether Objectivists tend to denigrate and dismiss middle class values and those who hold them. I don’t like this new format as a replacement of the usual podcast—I prefer Dr. Peikoff’s solo work as a rule—and I don’t think the participants get to the core of this correspondent’s concerns. Listen to the podcast and judge for yourself.

Shine Through It

Sorry to say that pop singer Seal’s new album, Soul, is a bust. His relaxed vocal style does not suit these original rhythm and blues tunes, which require more intensity than Seal can muster. Seal, it turns out, lacks soul. But Seal managed to inspire actor Terrence Howard to write a song for his new album, Shine Through It. The soulful tune is called “Sanctuary,” and, while the album is mixed, Howard’s an honest artist whose sincerity comes through on every track. He wrote the tender, lush and romantic “Sanctuary” after hearing Seal and his wife, model Heidi Klum, talk about how they met and fell in love.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

After hearing it compared to the brilliant German picture, The Lives of Others, I finally got around to seeing the Romanian picture 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007). The movie concerns two young college students in communist Romania in 1987; it is completely non-intellectual and, therefore, not comparable to The Lives of Others, an excellent dramatization of life under dictatorship. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a crude, naturalistic picture about young woman’s illegal abortion that manages to avoid any of the relevant issues surrounding her unwanted pregnancy, such as Catholicism, communism and the motives of the woman who helps her (how she wound up pregnant and by whom is not addressed). One can only suppose about various motives in this stark, subtitled movie, and one inevitably does fill in the blanks, but ultimately this is a graphic slice of life about getting an abortion.

Pics, Passages and Pre-Presidential Obama

2 December 2008

The Obama presidency is shaping up and, as the saying goes, are we ever in for it. The pretense of Barack Obama’s credibility—especially honesty—is gone. During the campaign, Obama practically (and rightly) denounced Sen. Hillary Clinton as a liar when she falsely—and repeatedly—claimed she was under fire in Kosovo. He pointed out that she routinely substituted being First Lady for foreign policy experience—and now he has designated the woman who all but declared him unfit for the presidency as his secretary of state. You want change? His appointments are Clinton/Bush retreads, unmasking his change theme as a fraud less than a month after he was elected.

His campaign was predicated on pulling troops out of Iraq—a disastrous military deployment by Bush—only to reverse himself and name Bush’s Defense Secretary as his own and back off pulling troops out of Iraq. Clearly, President-elect Obama offers more of the same of what Leonard Peikoff dubbed “Clinbush” on the airwaves. But Obama’s having some relatively positive impact: suddenly, silent Bush head-nodders are denouncing socialism—never mind that Bush and Republicans were shoving it down our throats for the last eight years—after not lifting a finger to oppose Bush’s bailouts, Medicare drug subsidies and aid to Africa.

And the nation—in overwhelming opposition to our government—appears united in the people’s shared contempt for a bailout of failed corporations that make cars that not enough people want to buy to keep them in business—while they’re shackled by regulations that force them to pay outrageous wages and benefits to workers who make cars that nobody wants to buy. The tide is turning against socialism; we shall see how (actually, whether) the people respond (actually, whether they resist) when Obama/Pelosi/Reid/McCain/Clinton invoke total National Socialism. Even NPR liberals and their conservative, eco-religious brethren may not cotton to mandatory solar panels on the roof, nationalized banks and car companies and the Eco-Police coming to take their kids to mandatory Peace Corps camp in the Rain Forest.

On the upside, Obama has signaled that he may lift the ban on embryonic stem cell research, defend the right to an abortion via judicial appointments, pursue nuclear power development and attack Moslem Pakistan—none of which would happen under a Judeo-Christian administration. Also, Republicans, for the first time since Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater’s historic defeat in the 1964 presidential election, are questioning their philosophy instead of making excuses for religious welfare-statism.

But there is an intriguing difference between the first Obama press rollout of cabinet appointments and his latest Hillary-fest; the designees were standing together around Obama in the photo frame at the first event—not so in the second, where Obama stood alone and tried to charm everyone with the sort of cheap, hammy mugging that liberals used to tag on Ronald Reagan, a model by Obama’s admission.

It’s all about Obama, all the time, which is not arrogance as much as superficiality and an ominous sign of what the man feels he needs in order to govern: adulation. An astonishingly honest appraisal of the incoming administration came from a Democratic congressman appearing recently on MSNBC—his name escapes me—in which he praised Obama, twice, for an ability to “make the trains run on time.” Either this moron does not know that this infamous phrase is widely associated with dictatorship—originally, I believe, from a comment by Italian fascist and Nazi ally Benito Mussolini; later associated with Nazi Germany—or, more ominously, he knows exactly the source.

On a sad note, Maryland businessman, real estate developer and Korean War veteran Leon Trager died at the age of 80. Mr. Trager was not a friend, but in my few encounters with him over 15 years as a journalist, he was selfish, generous and principled (thanks for the link, Jack).

John Lewis, Ph.D.

Good news comes from John Lewis, Ph.D., who, at the invitation of a member of Israel’s Knesset, is scheduled to address a conference this month in Israel, Facing Jihad, described as “a summit of European lawmakers who are united in their shared belief that Islam today poses a serious threat to Western civilization.” Professor Lewis is among my favorite teachers; he is writing, teaching a business course at Duke University, and he’s slated to teach a course at the upcoming Objectivist Conference 2009 in Boston. Dr. Lewis tells me that his lecture, “The Defeat of Islamic Totalitarianism: A Proper Policy,” is intended to urge lawmakers to make policy on a proper identification of the West’s enemy.

The Facing Jihad conference also features a screening of the Dutch short film, Fitna, and an address by its creator. I wrote about the outrageous Network Solutions ban on Fitna earlier this year [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/features/?id=2471&p=s.htm (scroll down and read “World Wide Web”)] so it’s good to see the filmmaker get an audience.

I can’t truly say the same about a number of recent motion pictures—and I know I’m behind on reviews—though I promise I’m on the lookout for quality movies and I’m excited about seeing some upcoming movies, such as Milk and Frost/Nixon.

Yes Man was better in concept than in practice—more exactly, the idea of a comedy about a man who says ‘yes’ to everything was not properly executed—and both Body of Lies (with DiCaprio and Crowe) and Pride and Glory were disappointing in spite of Russell Crowe and Edward Norton, respectively, two of Tinseltown’s best actors. The scripts were terrible as usual and Leonardo DiCaprio was awful, unlike his performance in Blood Diamond.

Quantum of Solace and Changeling were excruciatingly dull but both benefitted from low expectations and were mildly interesting in spots. I admit I hate the new thuggish, brain-dead Bond—I hated Casino Royale, Sony’s first Bond re-hatch—but Judi Dench can read the McDonald’s menu and make it sound fascinating.

Lippy Angelina Jolie in Changeling, Clint Eastwood’s stylish Los Angeles crime saga, shows she can act, though any honest person can’t help but notice the glaring double-standard about the non-reaction to this picture—with boys being caged, molested and mutilated—and the outrage over the Dakota Fanning rape scene in the Christian-killed Hounddog. Hollywood apparently scotches anything the religionists object to if it involves sexual abuse and girls. But both Hollywood and the religionists share an extremely high tolerance for sexual and physical torture of boys.

Four Christmases

Not as atrocious as I figured it would be—and Reese Witherspoon can do no wrong—is Four Christmases, though Vince Vaughan still looks (and sounds) like he needs a few weeks of detoxification. The movie is moderately foul as these things go. Jon Voight, Sissy Spacek and Robert Duvall are wasted as usual. I do recommend the innocuous yet infectious High School Musical 3 and an interesting documentary called Dear Zachary which will break your heart, but more on those later. Best thing about Hollywood’s Christmas season so far: Mamma Mia! coming out on DVD.

Notes on National Socialism, Screen Shots

29 September 2008

As the nation continues its march toward national socialism, with President Bush and virtually everyone in Congress insisting financial collapse is imminent if their schemes aren’t immediately enacted—a total lie—writer Ed Cline provides an excellent commentary on the subject at the Rule of Reason blog. America is moving faster toward totalitarianism and, especially now, silence implies consent. Can a whole nation be held morally accountable for the actions of its government? Absolutely. Read The Ominous Parallels: The End of Freedom in America by Leonard Peikoff and see Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg and make up your own mind.

I did not have high hopes for Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which I suspected would not be among the studio’s best doggie pictures (Disney’s Eight Below is the finest dog movie in recent years). Talking dogs and computer generated vermin dominate this piece of fluff, which manages to incorporate multiculturalism in the worst turn of events and is stolen by Andy Garcia voicing the only character—a German Shepherd named Delgado—to earn an emotional investment. Though not as insipid as The Game Plan, this is not Disney’s proudest work.

On the other hand, The Lucky Ones (currently in limited engagement), a comedy that makes you think about Americans being sacrificed in Iraq from the writer and director of the outstanding The Illusionist, is without question one of the year’s best pictures.