Without the Genius of the Vital Few, Life Would be Unexpectedly Brutal

Atlas Shrugged The Movie Part II Set for Wide US Release this Friday

Modern human lives have been made easier by scores of innovations of all kinds, made by people down through history who could be referred to as the "vital few." These people were not necessarily liked or celebrated by the masses, but without their contributions, life as we know it would be far more brutal and short than it is.

From a review of the film:

I would... ask why the “vital few” in society would put up with barriers placed in the way of their economy-enhancing achievement by the ankle-biters of the political and regulatory class.

...Atlas Shrugged, Part II, set for wide release in movie theaters this coming Friday, asks that question, and it’s answered in a very uplifting way. Simply put, the talented, from concert pianists to energy entrepreneurs to transportation visionaries, are beginning to shrug.

...Economic growth is so easy, that’s especially true in a country like the United States full of the most talented individuals on earth, yet our economy suffers today and Atlas Shrugged II reminds us that when looking for causes, we need look no further than a political class full of little people who are putting up barriers to productive economic activity.

Readers understandably want a verdict on Atlas Shrugged II in addition to policy analysis. The answer is that the film is a must see because it in a very handsome way describes the world in which we live today whereby the achievers are being shackled by the moochers. _Forbes: Atlas Shrugged II is Must-See Movie

There are several changes in Part II, including a new cast. Those who have read the book will understand the challenge of transforming Rand's written prose into cinema. But given how few people actually read books these days, it is worth trying to bring the words and ideas to the screen, if only in an effort to partially combat the ubiquitous "dumbing down" that is being carried out by schools, popular and news media, politicians, and popular culture in general.

I just finished watching a DVD reviewer’s copy of Atlas Shrugged Part II, the second installment in the promised trilogy, scheduled to open October 12. It’s late and I’m tired. Tired and scared. Tired of standing on the deck of the Titanic, like so many others, shouting “Iceberg, Iceberg!” Scared as I watch the impending train wreck of a global economy that is being recklessly driven toward a fiscal and monetary cliff by its political masters—safety valves welded shut, fuel being poured on the fire, desperately trying to outrun a disaster of their own making. Wondering if I will know when it’s time to start planning a personal escape, or will stay until it’s too late.

...The drip, drip, drip disappearance of the major industrialists, their businesses falling like dominoes, the economy deprived of innovators who did build that, is alluded to but never viscerally experienced. There is no substitute for plowing through the book, night after night in impending dread, much as we are doing today watching the evening news.

I could go on, but I won’t. You’ll have to read the book—which was a big deal, and still is.

This movie, released a mere three weeks before the election, deserves your support. Vote for it with your movie dollars, if nothing else but to protest the statist madness engulfing us. Perhaps it will force some rational dialogue. _Forbes_ Atlas Shrugged II: Ideas that Tower Over Any Movie

I suspect that popular culture in most western countries has decayed too quickly and too extensively to be rescued by any number of thoughtful films, books, documentaries, or articles. But the idea is not to save cultures or populations as a whole -- that would be impossible. The idea is to help fortify pockets of resistance to the extent that they can survive any likely "dark ages" that may occur as a result of this rapid cultural decay.

The future is likely to be a dangerous place, an Idiocracy without the comic relief. You should learn how to make yourself and your children dangerous, so that when the time comes you, too, will be ready to go Galt.