Topic: Atlas Shrugged

[Libertas]

I wanted to go today. Is there a site where they list the theatres by state where it's playing???

Ask and ye shall receive.

http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/theaters

It's only playing in six theaters so far in Pennsylvania.  Luckily, one of them is five minutes from my house.

 Thanks Rick!!Looks like the closest to me is about 65 miles away. Let's see what the wife has to say or I may be going it alone.

Go here

http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/demand

and tell the theatre you want the film shown.

No theater really close to me, so I hit your link, thanks.

I'll make an effort to recruit some people and get to this somewhere this week.

[Pandora]

Atlas Shrugged opened in 300 theaters and exceeded expectations this weekend.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

    Did conservatives make “Atlas Shrugged – Part 1,” a low-budget adaptation of Ayn Rand’s famous 1957 novel, a box office hit? While the film’s opening weekend sales didn’t reach blockbuster levels, earning $1.7 million from about 300 theaters, the film’s backers are enthusiastic about the results.

    “We’re at the upper edge of our expectations,” said “Shrugged” producer Harmon Kaslow. “And we’re a way above what the industry expected us to do.”

    Independently produced and distributed, “Atlas Shrugged” had a fairly solid per-theater average of $5,590, in line with the weekend’s other indie success, “The Conspirator,” a historical drama about the trial of Abraham Lincoln’s assassins, which earned a similar $5,550 per-venue average across 700 theaters.

    According to Kaslow, the film over-performed in some markets – including Atlanta, New York, Nashville, and Portland – generating as much as $12,000 to $25,000 per theater. The film did not do as well in some locales, such as Pensacola, Fla., and Mobile, Ala.

    Working with distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures, which is known for its Christian-targeted releases, Kaslow hopes next weekend to increase the film’s reach from 300 to 1,000 theaters, and from its current 80 cities to around 250, which would include smaller towns in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Montana.

So, nyah.

[John Florida]

They made it hard to go see but it's got leggs.If it comes closer to home I'm going again.

[Libertas]

But Big Hollywood and Big Media won't play the nuance of the numbers being good at the theater-level, by restricting it's release they've attempted to limit its impact.  I think Rickl's right...we need to get the word out and send out gobs of people and hit Pan's link asking for it to be distributed to more theaters.  I think I'll call a number of them each day and express outrage when they tell me they aren't carrying it!  

 

[Pandora]

Heheh.  Tam is a pip!

The trailers are showing before the start of Atlas Shrugged:

    Movie Screen: "Disneynature proudly presents: The next great Earth Day adventure!"

    Me: *snort* "Wow! Target marketing fail!"

    People Inadvertently In Earshot: *laughter*


Actually, the movie in question looked pretty cool, what with it being about big kitties and all. I refuse to go see it on Lenin's birthday, however, lest I inadvertently contribute statistically to the propaganda effort. (Conversely, I planted my butt in a theater seat for Atlas Shrugged two days in a row, for just the same reason.)

[rickl]

From the Chicago Sun-Times (hat tip Instapundit):

Box-office power of Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ baffles insiders

The power of Ayn Rand devotees has impressed some Hollywood distribution executives, who took note of the hefty $5,640 per-theater average scored by “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1” during its opening weekend.

“Shocking,” one executive said about the healthy business the low-budget film has been doing, considering its “awful” marketing plan.

Awful or not, business has been brisk enough for producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro to expand from 299 theaters to 425 this weekend and to 1,000 by the end of the month. They don’t have enough film prints to fill all the orders.

“Things have turned for us,” Kaslow said. “When we started, exhibitors were not embracing the film like we thought they would. Now, we can pretty much go into as many theaters as we want. It’s just a matter of logistics.”

[radioman]

I tried to find a showtime this week, and its not playing anywhere in the Houston area. It was playing last weekend, but they ended it quickly.

[charlesoakwood]

I tried to find a showtime this week, and its not playing anywhere in the Houston area. It was playing last weekend, but they ended it quickly.

Try one of these:

http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/theaters#Texas
Houston BUY TICKETSGOOGLE MAP
AMC Gulf Pointe 30
11801 South Sam Houston Pkwy E, Houston, TX 77089

Edwards Greenway Palace Stadium
3839 Weslayan, Houston, TX 77027

Rave Motion Pictures Yorktown 15
15900 Yorktown Crossing Pkwy, Houston, TX 77084

Hurst
Rave Motion Pictures North East Mall 18
1101 Melbourne Road, Hurst, TX 76053

Katy
Cinemark 19
1030 W Grand Parkway N, Katy, TX 77449

[radioman]

I tried to find a showtime this week, and its not playing anywhere in the Houston area. It was playing last weekend, but they ended it quickly.

Try one of these:

http://www.atlasshruggedpart1.com/theaters#Texas
Houston BUY TICKETSGOOGLE MAP
AMC Gulf Pointe 30
11801 South Sam Houston Pkwy E, Houston, TX 77089

Edwards Greenway Palace Stadium
3839 Weslayan, Houston, TX 77027

Rave Motion Pictures Yorktown 15
15900 Yorktown Crossing Pkwy, Houston, TX 77084

Hurst
Rave Motion Pictures North East Mall 18
1101 Melbourne Road, Hurst, TX 76053

Katy
Cinemark 19
1030 W Grand Parkway N, Katy, TX 77449

I thought that too until I went to the theatres and noticed that they didn't show the movies playing. All of 'em.

[radioman]

Ok - I found a theatre in the woodlands and just finished watching it.
I can't tell the difference between the movie and our government.

[John Florida]

Ok - I found a theatre in the woodlands and just finished watching it.
I can't tell the difference between the movie and our government.

 That's the impression I came out with. My son and I were saying the same thing on the drive home and it's scary.

[rickl]

Ok - I found a theatre in the woodlands and just finished watching it.
I can't tell the difference between the movie and our government.

I saw a comment at Ace of Spades earlier today:  "I was planning on going to see Atlas Shrugged, but I think I'll just stay home and watch the news instead."

[rickl]

Unfortunately, I saw this article today:

Twelve days after opening "Atlas Shrugged: Part 1," the producer of the Ayn Rand adaptation said Tuesday that he is reconsidering his plans to make Parts 2 and 3 because of scathing reviews and flagging box office returns for the film.

"Critics, you won," said John Aglialoro, the businessman who spent 18 years and more than $20 million of his own money to make, distribute and market "Atlas Shrugged: Part 1," which covers the first third of Rand's dystopian novel. "I’m having deep second thoughts on why I should do Part 2."

"Atlas Shrugged" was the top-grossing limited release in its opening weekend, generating $1.7 million on 299 screens and earning a respectable $5,640 per screen. But the the box office dropped off 47% in the film's second week in release even as "Atlas Shrugged" expanded to 425 screens, and the movie seemed to hold little appeal for audiences beyond the core group of Rand fans to whom it was marketed.

Link

Everybody who has been procrastinating, get your butts to the theater NOW.

I left the following comment at that article.  It's still in moderation.

It does not surprise me in the slightest that critics panned the movie. I fully expected it, no matter what was put on the screen.

Rand had a few things to say about critics in her earlier novel "The Fountainhead", and they weren't very complimentary.

I liked the movie, and I think the most important audience are those people who haven't read the book. I've been doing what I can to recommend it to everyone I know.

The good opening weekend followed by a lackluster second weekend is not too surprising, either. All the serious Rand fans were looking forward to it for a long time and saw it as soon as it opened. Don't throw in the towel so quickly, John. Give it a little time. There may be a delayed reaction until word gets around and the non-readers get around to seeing it. I'm doing my part in browbeating everyone I know to check it out.

[charlesoakwood]

If syndication makes a bundle they will make part II.

[Pandora]

And the left chortles .........

[rickl]

Ace finally got around to writing a post about the movie, and whaddya know?  He bumped my comment to the front page!  Check it out.

ETA:  He left off the first sentence, though.  My whole comment was #84.

[John Florida]

Ace finally got around to writing a post about the movie, and whaddya know?  He bumped my comment to the front page!  Check it out.

ETA:  He left off the first sentence, though.  My whole comment was #84.

 

[TeachX3]

I have not read the book, (don't enjoy reading), but my husband is picking AS1 up from the store today so we can watch it.  I know I'm late to the Atlas Shrugged party, but I am looking forward to seeing it.

[Weisshaupt]

I have not read the book, (don't enjoy reading), but my husband is picking AS1 up from the store today so we can watch it.  I know I'm late to the Atlas Shrugged party, but I am looking forward to seeing it.

The movie is good. Rand was an awful writer and badly needed an editor. However, at times she was rather eloquent. I
edited it to be short and sweet taking out the best parts.  There is of course way more to the work, and some parts that still give me the creeps, but the essential stuff is here

Henry Rearden is a very successful self?made  Industrialist, who invented a new metal, better, lighter
and cheaper than Steel. As a he has taken on the upkeep of his extended family.  His mother calls
unexpectedly at his factory one day and says

“Phillip is unhappy. He feels it is not right that he should have to depend on your charity and live on
handouts and never be able to count a single dollar of his own. You must give him a job, here at the
mills? nut a nice clean job of course, with a desk and an office and a decent salary, where he wouldn't
have to be among your day laborers and your smelly furnaces."
"Mother, you are not serious"
"I certainly am. I happen to know that that's what he wants; only he is too proud to ask you for it. But if
you offer it to him and make it look like it's you who're asking him a favor ? why i know he'd be happy to
take it. "
"But he knows nothing of the steel business!"
"What has that got to do with it? He needs a job."
"But he couldn't do the work"
"He needs to gain self?confidence and to feel important. He needs to feel that he is wanted"
"I hire men who produce. What has he got to offer?"
"He is your brother."
"What has that got to do with it?"
"He's your Brother," she said, her voice like a phonograph record, repeating a magic formula she could
not permit herself to doubt, "He needs a position in the world. He needs a salary, so that he'd feel that
he has got money coming to him as his due, not as alms"
"As his due? He wouldn't be worth a nickel to me"
"Is that what you think of first, your profit? Yes sure you are helping him? like you'd help any stray
beggar. Material help? that’s all you know or understand. Have you thought about his spiritual needs
and what his position is doing to his self respect? he doesn't want to live like a beggar. He wants to be
independent of you"
"By means of getting from me a salary he can't earn for work he can't do?"
"You'd never miss it. You've got enough people here making money for you."  
"are you asking me to help him stage a fraud of that kind?"
"you don't have to put it that way"
"Is it a fraud or isn't it?"
"You have no mercy for anybody"
"Do you think a fraud of this kind would be just?"
"You are the most immoral man living ? you think of nothing but justice. You don't feel any love at all!"
"Mother, I am running a steel plant, not a whorehouse."
"Don't you think of people and your moral duties?"
"I don't know what it is you choose to call morality... If I gave a job to Phillip, I wouldn't be able to face
any competent man who needed work and deserved it"  
"That's your cruelty, that's what is mean and selfish about you. If you loved your brother, you'd give him
a job he didn't deserve, precisely because he didn't deserve it ? that would be true love and kindness andbrotherhood. Else what is love for? If a man deserves a job, there's no virtue in giving it to him. Virtue is
the giving of the undeserved."

Later, Rearden is having an argument with his wife. Henry Says:

"Why would you want it, if it is not the truth? What for?"
"Now you see, that’s the cruelty of conscientious people. You wouldn't understand it, would you? If I
answered that real devotion consists of being willing to lie, cheat and fake in order to make another
person happy? to create for him the reality he wants, if he doesn't like the one that exists"
"No," he said slowly, "I don't understand it"
"It’s really very simple. If you tell a beautiful woman that she is beautiful, what have you given her? It’s
no more than a fact and it has cost you nothing. But if you tell an ugly woman that she is beautiful you
offer her the great homage of corrupting the concept of beauty. To love a woman for her virtues is
meaningless. She's earned it, its payment, not a gift.  But to love her vices is to defile all virtue for her
sake ? and that is a real tribute of love, because you sacrifice your conscience, your reason, your
integrity, and your invaluable self?esteem.. What is love, darling, if it is not self sacrifice? What is self?
sacrifice unless one sacrifices that which is one's most precious and most important.. That's the
immense selfishness of the puritan. You'd let the whole world perish rather than soil that immaculate
self of yours with a single spot of which you'd be ashamed"

Rearden does, however, “soil his immaculate self” and has an affair with Dagny Taggart,  an woman
trying to save her family’s railroad by being one of the first to try using the new Rearden Metal in an
industrial application.  Jim Taggart’s (Dagny’s Brother) , who serves as an inconsequential head of the
Railroad decides to get married and invites Rearden as well as Dangy to the celebration.  Francisco
d’Aconia, a childhood friend of the Taggart’s and irresponsible playboy Heir to the d’Anconia Copper
Mine fortune crashes the party. Francisco was talking to a small  group of party goers:

Standing unnoticed on the edge of the group, Rearden heard a woman, who had large diamond earrings
and a flabby nervous face, ask tensely, “Senor d’Anconia, what do you think is going to happen to the
world? “
“Just exactly what it deserves.”
“Oh, how cruel!”
“Don’t you believe in the operation of moral law, madame?” Francisco asked gravely. “I do.”
"Rearden heard Bertram Scudder, outside the group, say to a girl who made some sound of indignation,
"Don't let him disturb you. You know, money is the root of all evil – and he's the typical product of
money
Rearden did not think that Francisco could have heard it, but he saw Francisco turning to them with a
gravely courteous smile.
"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Aconia. "Have you ever asked what is
the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and
men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with
one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, whoclaim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible
only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?”
"When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will
exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value
to money. Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in
your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have
been gold, are a token of honor – your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is
your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on
that moral principle which is the root of money. Is this what you consider evil?”
"Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell
yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat
without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your
food by means of nothing but physical motions – and you'll learn that man's mind is the root of all the
goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.”
"But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you
mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Then is
money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money
made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By
the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made – before it can be looted or mooched – made
by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows
that he can't consume more than he has produced.”
"To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every
man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort
except by the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits
you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no
more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders.
Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own
injury, for their gain, not their loss – the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry
the weight of your misery – that you must offer them values, not wounds – that the common bond
among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell,
not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the
shoddiest they offer, but the best your money can find. And when men live by trade – with reason, not
force, as their final arbiter – it is the best product that wins, the best performance, then man of best
judgment and highest ability – and the degree of a man's productiveness is the degree of his reward.
This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?”
"But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It
will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires.
Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality – the men who seek to
replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.”
  "Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants; money will not
give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with
a purpose, if he's evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, oradmiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the
brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the
victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking
to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money. Is this
the reason why you call it evil?”
"Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth – the man who would make his own fortune
no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But
you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a
worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it
should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one would not
bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root.
Money will not serve that mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?”
"Money is your means of survival. The verdict which you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood
is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own
existence. Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men's vices or men's stupidity? By catering
to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing
work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment's or a
penny's worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not
an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you'll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would
not pinch?hit for your self?respect? Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity? Is this the
root of your hatred of money?”
"Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of
virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the
unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?”
"Or did you say it's the love of money that's the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know and love its
nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within
you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It's the person who
would sell his soul for a nickel, who is the loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money – and he has good
reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it.”
"Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it
dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.”
"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an
approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another –
their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.”
  "But money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no
courage, pride, or self?esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not
willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich – will not remain rich for
long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come
crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will
hasten to relieve him of the guilt – and of his life, as he deserves.”
"Then you will see the rise of the double standard – the men who live by force, yet count on those who
live by trade to create the value of their looted money – the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In amoral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But
when a society establishes criminals?by?right and looters?by?law – men who use force to seize the
wealth of disarmed victims – then money becomes its creators' avenger. Such looters believe it safe to
rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for
other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production,
but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the
pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.”
"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a
society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see
that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see
that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer
by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them
against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self?sacrifice – you may
know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and
it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half?property, half?loot.”
"Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's
protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit
pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary
setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on
wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a
check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch
for the day when it becomes, marked: 'Account overdrawn.'”
"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect
them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not
expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, 'Who is
destroying the world?' You are.”
"You stand in the midst of the greatest achievements of the greatest productive civilization and you
wonder why it's crumbling around you, while you're damning its life?blood – money. You look upon
money as the savages did before you, and you wonder why the jungle is creeping back to the edge of
your cities. Throughout men's history, money was always seized by looters of one brand or another, but
whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep the producers bound,
demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor. That phrase about the evil of money, which you mouth with
such righteous recklessness, comes from a time when wealth was produced by the labor of slaves –
slaves who repeated the motions once discovered by somebody's mind and left unimproved for
centuries. So long as production was ruled by force, and wealth was obtained by conquest, there was
little to conquer. Yet through all the centuries of stagnation and starvation, men exalted the looters, as
aristocrats of the sword, as aristocrats of birth, as aristocrats of the bureau, and despised the producers,
as slaves, as traders, as shopkeepers – as industrialists.”
"To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money – and I
have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice,
freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man's mind and money were set free, and there
were no fortunes?by?conquest, but only fortunes?by?work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, thereappeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being – the self?
made man – the American industrialist.”
"If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose – because it contains all
the others – the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money'. No other
language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static
quantity – to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted, or obtained as a favor. Americans were the
first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of
human morality.”
"Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters'
continents. Now the looters' credo has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark
of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your
magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip?driven slaves, like
the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the
dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide – as, I think, he will.
"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction.
When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of
men. Blood, whips and guns – or dollars. Take your choice – there is no other – and your time is running
out." "
There were people who had listened, but now hurried away, and people who said "It's horrible!" ?? "its
not true!" ?? "How Vicious and selfish!"? saying it loudly and guardedly at once, as if wishing their
neighbors would hear them, but hoping Francisco would not
"Senor d'Anconia," declared the woman with the earrings, "I don't agree with you!"
"If you can refute a single sentence I have uttered, Madame, I shall hear it gratefully."
"Oh, I can't answer you. I don't have any answers, my mind doesn't work that way, but I don't feel that
you are right, so I know that you are wrong."
"How do you know it?"
"I feel it. I don't go by my head, but by my heart. You might be good at logic, but you're heartless"
"Madame, when we'll see men dying of starvation around us, your heart won't be of any earthly use to
save them. And I'm heartless enough to say then when you'll scream "But I didn't know it!" ? you will not
be forgiven.

Rearden meets Dagny after the party, embarrassed by a confrontation that occurred between Dangy
and his wife,  and sorry Dagny was put in such an awkward position.  Dagny responded:

"Hank, I want nothing from you except what you wish to give me. Do you remember when you called
me a trader once? I want you to come seeking nothing but your own enjoyment. . My way of trading is
to know the joy you give me is paid for by the joy you get from me ? not by your suffering or mine. I
don't accept sacrifices and I don't make them. If you asked me for more than you meant to me, I would
refuse. If ever the pleasure of one must be bought by the pain of the other, there better be no trade at
all. A trade by which one gains and the other looses is a fraud. You don't do it in business, Hank. Don't
do it in your own life."

Rearden returns home and discovers his wife knows about the affair, but refuses to divorce him.  
The Nation is in the middle of an economic depression. The government enacts all sort of regulations
that dictate how much each firm is allowed to produce (so as to not compete with smaller or less
efficient enterprises) , limit the amount any one can buy from a single firm ( ensuring everyone gets a
“fair share”)  and prohibits a individual from owning more than one enterprise ( in order to ensure
everyone gets a “fair” chance to own a business)   Rearden is forced to surrender his supply chain to
others, and begins to have difficulty securing enough copper, iron ore and coal to make his product.  The
man in charge of the coal mines needs an order of Rearden metal  to shore up the tunnels in order to
continue producing Coal. Rearden  makes a black market deal to give him the metal he needs in order to
get the Coal he needs to keep his furnaces running. The Government discovers the deal…and a
government official visits him…  

"We've waited a long time to get something on you. You honest men are such a problem and such a
headache. But we knew you'd slip sooner or later ? and this is just what we wanted"
"You seem to be pleased about it."
"Don't I have good reason to be?"
"But, after all, I did break one of your laws."
"Well, what do you think they are for? Did you really think we wanted those laws to be observed? We
WANT  them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against? 
then you'll know it is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows
were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent
men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't
enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that is becomes
impossible to men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law?abiding citizens? What is
there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed or enforced nor
objectively interpreted ? and you create a nation of law?breakers ? and then you cash in on guilt."
  
Rearden tells the man that it is Blackmail. A way for the government to own him and his work, without
actually seizing his property..   
  
"You know Mr. Rearden, it's not necessary to use such words as that."
"as what?"
"Words are relative. They are only symbols. If we don't use ugly symbols, we won't have any ugliness.
Why do you want me to say things one way, when I have already said them another?"
  
( “SeaKittens”) Rearden denies the government official a deal and tell him to take it to trial. The Govt
official leaves and Francisco pays him a visit and says:

"Do you want to see it used by whining rotters who never rouse themselves to any effort, who do not
possess the ability of a filing clerk, but demand the income of a company president, who drift from
failure to failure and expect you to pay their bills, who hold their wishing as an equivalent of your workand their need as a higher claim to reward than your effort, who demand that you serve them, who
demand that your strength be the voiceless, rightless, unpaid, unrewarded slave of their impotence,
who proclaim that you are born to serfdom by reason of your genius, while they are born to rule by the
grace of incompetence, that yours is only to give, but theirs only to take, that yours is to produce, but
theirs is to consume, that you are not to be paid, neither in matter nor in spirit, neither by wealth nor by
recognition nor by respect nor by gratitude ? so that they would ride on your rail and sneer at you and
curse you, since they owe you nothing, not even taking off their hats which you paid for?"


Rearden returns home and talks with his family about the upcoming Trial.  His Wife said:


"you’ve admitted you sold the metal to Ken Danagger?"
"I have."
"Then you might go to jail for ten years."
"I don't think they will, but its possible."
"Have you been reading the papers Henry?" asked Phillip with an odd kind of smile.
"No."
"Oh you should!"
"Should I, why?"
"You ought to see the names they call you!"
"That’s interesting", said Rearden; he said it about the fact that Phillips smile was one of pleasure.
"I don't understand it," said his mother. "Jail? Did you say Jail, Lillian? Henry are you going to be sent to
Jail?"
"I might be."
"But that’s ridiculous! Do something about it."
“What?"
"I don't know. I don't understand any of it. Respectable people don't go to jail. Do something. You’ve
always known what to do about business."
"Not this kind of business."
"I don't believe it." Her voice had the tone of a frightened spoiled child. "You're saying it just to be
mean."
"He's playing hero, Mother," said Lillian. She smiled coldly, turning to Rearden, "Don't you think your
attitude is perfectly futile?"
"No."
"You know that cases of this kind are not...intended ever to come to trial. There are ways to avoid it, to
get things settled amicably ? if one knows the right people."
"I don't know the right people"
"Look at Orren Boyle. He's done much more and much worse than your little fling at the black market,
but he is smart enough to keep it out of court rooms."
"Then I am not smart enough."
"Don't you think its time you made an effort to adjust yourself to the conditions of our age?"
"No.""Well, then I don't see how you can pretend that you are some sort of victim. If you go to jail, it will be
your own fault."
"What pretense are you talking about Lillian? "
"Oh, I know that you think you are fighting for some sort of principle ? but actually its only a matter of
your incredible conceit. You're doing it for no better reason than you think you're right."
"Do you think they're right?"
She Shrugged. "That's the conceit I'm talking about ? the idea that it matters who's right or wrong. It is
the most insufferable form of vanity, this insistence on always doing right. How do you know what is
right? How can anyone ever know it? It's nothing but a delusion to flatter your own ego and to hurt
other people by flaunting your superiority over them."
He was looking at her with attentive interest, "Why should it hurt other people, if it's nothing be a
delusion?"
"Is it necessary to point out than in YOUR case its nothing but Hypocrisy? "
"This is why I find your attitude preposterous. Questions of right have no bearing on human existence.
And you're certainly nothing but human ? aren't you Henry? You're no better than any of the men you're
going to face tomorrow. I think you should remember that it's not for you to make any stand on any sort
of principle. Maybe you're a victim in this particular mess, maybe they are pulling a rotten trick on you,
but  what of it? They're doing it because they're weak; they couldn't resist the temptation to grab your
metal and to muscle in on your profits, because they had no other way of ever getting rich. Why should
you blame them? It’s only a question of different strains, but it is the same shoddy human fabric that
gives away just as quickly. You wouldn't be tempted by money, because it’s so easy for you to make it.
But you wouldn't withstand other pressures and you'd fall just as ignominiously. Wouldn't you? So you
have no right to any righteous indignation against them. You have no moral superiority  to assert or to
defend. And if you haven't, then what is the point of fighting a battle that you can't win? I suppose one
might find some satisfaction in being a martyr, if one is above reproach. But you? who are you to cast
the first stone? I believe you understand me."
"No, I don't. "
"I think you should abandon the illusion of your own perfection, which you know full well is an illusion. I
think you should learn to get along with other people. The day of the hero is past. This is the day of
humanity, in a much deeper sense than you imagine. Human beings are no longer expected to be saints
nor to be punished for their sins. Nobody is right or wrong, we're all in it together, we're all human ? and
the human is the imperfect. You'll gain nothing tomorrow by proving that they are wrong. They'll
appreciate it. Make concessions for others and they will make concessions  for you. Live and let live.
Give and Take. Give in and Take in. That's the policy of our age? and it's time you accepted it. Don't tell
me you are too good for it. You know you are not. You know it and I know it."
  
She wanted to force upon him the suffering of dishonor? but his own sense of honor was her only
weapon of enforcement. She wanted to wrest from him an acknowledgement of his moral depravity ? 
but only his own moral rectitude could attach significance to such a verdict. She wanted to injure him by
her contempt ? but he could not be injured, unless he respected her judgment. She wanted to punish
him for the pain he had caused her and she held her pain as a gun aimed at him, as if she wished toextort his agony at the point of his pity. But here only tool was his own benevolence, his concern for her,
his compassion. Her only power was the power of his own virtues. What if he chose to withdraw it?  
An issue of guilt, he thought, had to rest on his own acceptance of the code of justice that pronounced
him guilty. He did not accept it. It never had.  His virtues, all the virtues she needed to achieve his
punishment, came from another code and lived by another standard. He felt no guilt, no shame, no
regret, no dishonor. He felt no concern for any verdict she chose to pass upon him: he had lost respect
for her judgment long ago.
And the sole chain still holding him was only a last remnant of pity.  
But what was the code on which she acted? What sort of code permitted the concept of a punishment
that required the victims own virtue as the fuel to make it work? A code ? he thought ? which would
destroy those who tried to observe it; a punishment, from which only the honest would suffer, while the
dishonest would escape unhurt. Could one conceive of an infamy lower than to equate virtue with pain,
to make virtue, not vice, the source and motive power of suffering? If he were the kind of rotter she was
struggling to make him believe he was, then no issue of his honor and his moral worth would matter to
him. If he wasn't, what was the nature of her attempt?
To count upon his virtue and use it as an instrument of torture, to practice blackmail with the victim's
generosity as the sole means of extortion, to accept the gift of a man's goodwill and turn it into a tool
for the giver's destruction .. he sat very still, contemplating the formula of so monstrous an evil that he
was able to name it, but not believe it possible.  
  
He heard Lillians voice, "Where have you been the last five minutes Henry? You haven't answered me,
you haven't heard a word I said."
"I heard it. I don't know what you are trying to accomplish."
"You’ve always been unpopular," said Lillian, "and it's more than a matter of any one particular  issue.
It's that unyielding, intractable attitude of yours. The men who are going to try you, know what you are
thinking. That's why they'll crack down on you, while they'd let another man off."
"Why no, I don't think they know what I am thinking. That’s what I have to let them know tomorrow. "
"Unless you show them that you're willing to give in and co?operate, you won't have a chance. You've
been too hard to deal with."
"No. I have been too easy."
"But if they put you in jail," said his mother, " what’s going to happen to your family? Have you thought
of that?"
"No, I haven't"
"Have you thought of the disgrace you'll bring upon us?"
"Mother, do you understand the issue in this case?”
"No, and I don't want to understand. It’s all dirty business and dirty politics. All business is just dirty
politics and all politics is just dirty business. I never did want to understand any of it. I don't care who's
right or wrong, but what I think a man ought to think of first is his family. Don't you care what this will
do to us?"
"No Mother, I don't know or care."
His Mother looked at him aghast.  "Well, I think you have a very provincial attitude, all of you," said Phillip suddenly, "nobody here seems
to be concerned with the wider, social aspects of the case. I don't agree with you Lillian. I don't see why
you say that they're pulling some sort of rotten trick on Henry and that he's in the right. I think he is
guilty as hell. Mother, I can explain the issue to you very simply. There's nothing unusual about it, the
courts are full of cases of this kind. Businessmen are taking advantage of the National emergency to
make money. They break the regulations which protect the common welfare of all ? for the sake of their
own personal gain. They're profiteers of the black market who grow rich by defrauding the poor of their
rightful share, at a time of desperate shortage. They pursue a ruthless, grasping, grabbing, anti social
policy, based on nothing but plain, selfish greed. It’s no use pretending about it, we all know it ?? and I
think its contemptible"
He spoke in a careless, offhand manner, as if explaining the obvious to a group of adolescents; his tone
conveyed the assurance of a man who knows that the moral ground of his stand was not open to
question.
"Phillip," Reardon said, not raising his voice, "say any of that again and you will find yourself out on the
street, right now, with the suit you’ve got on your back, with whatever change you've got in  your
pocket and with nothing else."
He heard no answer, no sound, no movement. He noted that the stillness of the three before him had
no element of astonishment. The look of shock on their faces was not the shock of people at the sudden
explosion of a bomb, but the shock of people who had known they were playing with a lighted fuse.  
There were no outcries, no protests, no questions; they knew he meant it and they knew everything it
meant. A dim sickening feeling told him that they had known it long before he did.  
"You.. you wouldn't throw your own brother out on the street, would you?" his mother said at last; it
was not a demand, but a plea.
"I would"
"But he's your brother..Doesn't that mean anything to you? "
"No."
"Maybe he goes too far at times , but it’s just loose talk, it’s just modern jabber, he doesn't know what
he is saying."
"Then let him learn."
"Don't be hard on him…He's younger than you.. and..and weaker. He .. Henry, don't look at me that way
I’ve never seen you look like that.. You shouldn't frighten him. You know that he needs you."
"Does HE know it?"
"You can't be hard on a man who needs you, it will prey on your conscience the rest of your life"  
"It won't."
"You've got to be kind, Henry"
"I'm not."
"You've got to have some pity"
"I Haven't."
"A good man knows how to forgive"
"I don't."
"you wouldn't want me to think you were selfish."
"I am."Phillips eyes were darting from one to the other. He looked like a man who had felt certain that he stood
on solid granite and had suddenly discovered it was thin ice, now cracking open all around him
"But I.." he tried, he stopped, his voice sounded like steps testing the ice " But don't I have any freedom
of speech?"
"In your own house, not mine."
"Don't I have a right to my own ideas?"
"At your own expense, not at mine."
"Don't you tolerate differences of opinion?"
"Not when I am paying the bills."
"Isn't there anything involved but money?"
"Yes. The fact that it is MY money."
"Don't you want to consider any hi..." he was going to say "higher" but changed his mind ??"any other
aspects?"
"No."
"But I'm not your slave."
"Am I yours?"
"I don't know what you??" He stopped; he knew what was meant.
"No," said Rearden, "you're not my slave. You are free to walk out of here any time you choose."
"I..I'm not speaking of that."
"I am."
"I don't understand it..."
"Don't you?"
"You've always known my ... my political views. You've never objected before."
"That's true," said Rearden gravely. "Perhaps I owe you an explanation, if I have misled you. I've tried
never to remind you that you're living on my charity. I thought it was your place to remember it. I
thought that any human being who accepta the help of another, knows that good will is the giver's only
motive and that good will is the payment he owes in return. But I see I was wrong. You were getting
your food unearned and you concluded that affection did not need to be earned either. You concluded I
was the safest person in the world to spit on, precisely because I held you by the throat. You concluded
that I wouldn't want to remind you of it and that I would be tied by the fear of hurting your feelings. All
right, let's get it straight: you’re an object of charity who's exhausted his credit long ago. Whatever
affection I might have felt for you once, is gone. I haven't the slightest interest in you, your fate or your
future. I haven't any reason whatever wishing to feed you. If you leave my house, it won't make any
difference to me whether you starve of not. Now that is your position here and I will expect you to
remember it, if you wish to stay. If not, then get out."

Rearden then goes to court to face the charges that he made a black market deal.  

Do you... " he judge stumbled; he had not expected it to be that easy. "Do you throw yourself on the
mercy of this court?"
"I do not recognize this court’s right to try me."
"What?"Hank Reardon repeated his statement.
"But, Mr. Reardon, this is the legally appointed court to try this particular category of crime."
"I do not recognize my action as a crime."
"But you have admitted that you have broken our regulations controlling the sale of your metal."
"I do not recognize your right to control the sale of my metal."
"Do you mean that you are refusing to obey the law?" asked the judge.
"No. I am complying with the law to the letter. Your law holds that my life, my work and my property
may be disposed of without my consent. Very well, you may now dispose of me without my
participation in the matter. I will not play the part of defending myself where no defense is possible, and
I will not simulate the illusion of dealing with a tribunal of justice."
"But Mr. Rearden, the law provides specifically that you are to be given the opportunity to present your
side of the case and to defend yourself."
"A prisoner brought to trial can defend himself only if there is an objective principle of justice recognized
by his judges, a principle upholding his rights, which they may not violate and which he can invoke. The
law, by which you are trying me, holds that there are no principles, that I have no rights and that you
may do with me whatever you please. Very Well. Do it. "
"Mr. Rearden, the law which you are denouncing is based on the highest principle? the principle of the
public good."
"Who is the public? What does it hold as its good? There was a time when men believed that “the good"
was a concept to be defined by a moral code of values and that no man had the right to seek his good
through the violation of the rights of another. If it is now believed that my fellow men may sacrifice me
in any manner they please for the sake of whatever they deem to be their own good, if they believe they
may seize my property simply because they need it ? well, so does any burglar. There is only this
difference: the burglar does not ask me to sanction his act."  
"Are we to understand," asked the judge, " that you hold your own interests above the interests of the
public?"  
"I hold that such a question can never arise except in a society of cannibals."
"What, what do you mean?"
"I hold there is no clash of interests among men who do not demand the unearned and who do not
practice human sacrifices"
"Are we to understand that if the public deems it necessary to curtail your profits, you do not recognize
its right to do so?”
"Why, yes I do. The public may curtail my profits any time it wishes ? by refusing to buy my product."
"We are speaking of..other methods."
"Any other method of curtailing profits is the method of looters ?? and I recognize it as such."
"Mr. Rearden, this is hardly the way to defend yourself."
"I said I would not defend myself."
"But this is unheard of. Do you realize the gravity of the charge against you?"
"I do not care to consider it."
"Do you fully recognize the consequences of your stand?"
"Fully.""It is the opinion of this court hat the facts presented by the prosecution seem to warrant no leniency.
The penalty this court has the right to impose on you is extremely severe."
"Go ahead"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Impose it."
"This is unprecedented," one of the judges said.
"It is completely irregular," said the second judge. "The law requires you to submit a plea in your own
defense. Your only alternative is to state for the record that you throw yourself on the mercy of the
court."
"I do not."
"But you have to."
"Do you mean that what you expect from me is some sort of voluntary action?"
"Yes."
"I volunteer nothing."
"But the law demands that defendant’s side be represented on the record." "Do you mean that you
need my help to make this procedure legal?"
"Well, no ... yes ... that is, to complete the form."
"I will not help you."  
The third and youngest judge, who has acted as prosecutor, snapped impatiently, "This is ridiculous and
unfair! Do you want to let it look as if a man of your prominence had been railroaded without a… " He
cut himself off short. Somebody at the back of the courtroom emitted a long whistle.  
"I want", said Rearden gravely, "to let the nature of this procedure appear exactly for what it is. If you
need help to disguise it ? I will not help you."
"But we are giving you a chance to defend yourself ? and it is you who are rejecting it."
"I will not help you pretend I have a chance. I will not help you preserve an appearance of righteousness
where rights are not recognized. I will not help you to preserve an appearance of rationality by entering
a debate in which a gun is the final argument. I will not help you pretend that you are administering
justice."
"The law compels you to volunteer a defense!"
There was laughter at the back of the courtroom.
"That is the flaw in your theory, gentlemen," said Rearden gravely, "and I will not help you out of it. If
you choose to deal with men by means of compulsion, do so. But you will discover that you need the
voluntary co?operation of your victims, in many more ways than you see at present. And your victims
should discover that it is their own volition ? which you cannot force ?? that makes you possible. I choose
to be consistent and I will obey you in the manner you demand.  Whatever you wish me to do, I will do it
at the point of a gun. If you sentence me to jail, you will have to send armed me to carry me there ? I will
not volunteer to move. If you fine me, you will have to seize my property to collect the fine ? I will not
volunteer to pay it. If you believe you have the right to force me ? use your guns openly. I will not help
you disguise the nature of your action"
The eldest judge leaned across the table and his voice became suavely derisive:"you speak as if you are
fighting for some sort of principle, Mr Rearden, but what you are actually fighting for is only your
property, isn't it?""Yes, of course. I am fighting for MY property. Do you know the kind of principle that represents?"
"You pose as a champion of freedom, but it’s only the freedom to make money that you're after."
"Yes, of course. All I want is the freedom to make money. Do you know what that freedom implies?"
"Surely, Mr. Rearden, you wouldn't want your attitude to be misunderstood. You wouldn't want to give
support to the widespread impression that you are a man of no social conscience, who feels no concern
for the welfare of his fellows and works for nothing but his own profit."
"I work for nothing but my own profit. I earn it. No I do not want my attitude misunderstood. I shall be
glad to state it for the record. I am in full agreement with the facts of everything said about me in the
newspapers ?? with the facts, not with the evaluation.  I work for nothing but my own profit ?? which I
make by selling a product they need to men who are willing and able to buy it. I do not produce it for
their benefit at the expense of mine, and they do not buy it for my benefit at the expense of theirs; I do
not sacrifice my interests to them nor do they sacrifice theirs to me; we deal as equals my mutual
consent to mutual advantage? and I am proud of every penny I have earned in this manner. I am rich and
I am proud of every penny I own. I have made my money by my own effort, in free exchange and
through the voluntary consent of every man I dealt with ?? the voluntary consent of those who
employed me when I started, the voluntary consent of those who work for me now, the voluntary
consent of those who buy my product. I shall answer all of the questions you are afraid to ask me
openly. Do I wish to pay my workers more than their services are worth to me? I do not. Do I wish to sell
my product for less than my customers are willing to pay me? I do not. Do I wish to sell it at a loss or give
it away? I do not. If this is evil, do whatever you please about me, according to whatever standards you
hold.  These are mine. I am earning my living, as any honest man must. I refuse to accept as guilt the fact
of my own existence and the fact that I must work in order to support it. I refuse to accept as guilt the
fact that I am able to do it and do it well. I refuse to accept as guilt the fact that I am able to do it better
than most people ?? the fact that my work is of greater value than the work of my neighbors and that
more men are willing to pay me. I refuse to apologize for my ability ? I refuse to apologize for my success
? I refuse to apologize for my money. If this is evil, make the most of it.  If this is what the public finds
harmful to its interests, let the public destroy me. This is my code ? and I will accept no other.  I could say
to you that I have done more good for my fellow men than you can ever hope to accomplish?? but I will
not say it. I do not seek the good of others as a sanction for my right to exist, nor do I recognize the good
of others as a justification for their seizure of my property or their destruction of my life. I will not say
that the good of others was the purpose of my work ?? my own good was my purpose, and I despise the
man who surrenders his. I could say to you that you do not serve the public good?? that nobody's good
can be achieved at the price of human sacrifices ?? that when you violate the rights of one man, you
have violated the rights of all, and a public of rightless creatures is doomed to destruction. I could say to
yout hat you will and can achieve nothing but universal devastation? as any looter must, when he runs
out of victims.  I could say it, but I won't.  It is not your particular policy that I challenge, it is your moral
premise. If it were true that men could achieve their good by turning some men into sacrificial animals,
and I were asked to immolate myself for the sake of creatures who wanted to survive at the price of my
blood, if I were asked to serve the interests of society apart from , above and against my own ? I would
refuse, I would reject it as the most contemptible evil, I would fight it with every power I possess, I
would fight the whole of mankind, if one minute were all I could last before I were murdered, I would
fight with full confidence of the justice of my battle and of a living being's right to exist. Let there be nomisunderstanding about me. If it is now the belief of my fellow men, who call themselves the public,
that their good requires victims, than I say: The public good be damned, I will have no part of it."

[Pandora]

Thanks Weisshaupt.  I forgot how good much of that was, the length and redundancies notwithstanding.