Alisa Rosenbaum (stage name: Ayn Rand)'s "Philosophy" for the Dumb Goyim Gets a Boost

Atlas Shrugs Again

Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak 09.28.07, 6:00 AM ET

... The autobiography of former Rand acolyte Alan Greenspan, in which he credits her for his development, just got published with big fanfare. In recent weeks, both The New York Times and The L.A. Times have run articles about her work. Atlas Shrugged has been featured prominently in a recent episode of AMC's hit series Mad Men. A movie version of the book, starring Angelina Jolie in the main role, is slated for release next year.

Meanwhile, sales of Ayn Rand titles have tripled since the early 1990s--in fact, more are being sold now than at any time in history. Atlas Shrugged sales on Amazon in the first nine months of this year are already almost double the total for 2006. As of this writing, Atlas ranks 124th on Amazon's sales charts. Compare that to The Da Vinci Code at 2,587.

Objectivism is also making inroads in education and academia. Under the leadership of Executive Director Yaron Brook, the Ayn Rand Institute budget has more than tripled since 2000, to over $7 million. Thanks in large part to book donations by ARI, next school year more than a million kids will be reading Ayn Rand in high school.

Rand, an ardent advocate of rational egoism and capitalism, might have been the bane of academics in her lifetime, but now objectivism is taught at more than 30 universities, with fellowships at several leading philosophy departments. Next year, ARI plans to enter the Washington, D.C., think tank world with a center devoted to the advocacy of individual freedom and capitalism ...

http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2007/09/27/unsolicited-advice-aynrand-oped_meb_0928unsolicited.html

Angelina Jolie to Star in Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged'
September 22, 2006

Angelina Jolie will star in the movie adaptation of Atlas Shrugged, the ambitious 1,100-page novel by Russian-born [Judaic] American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand [Alisa Rosenbaum], Variety reported yesterday.

Rand, who also wrote the novels Anthem and The Fountainhead , which was made into a movie in 1949, was also known for her Objectivist philosophies, which she developed and included in many of her books, including Atlas Shrugged.

According to the website for the Ayn Rand Institute, the basis of Objectivism is “Existence exists—and the act of grasping that statement implies two corollary axioms: that something exists which one perceives and that one exists possessing consciousness, consciousness being the faculty of perceiving that which exists.” “The Collective” was a group of close confidants, students, and proponents of Rand and Objectivism. Members of The Collective established the Ayn Rand Institute and continue to spread Objectivism, the way Rand did in the ‘60s and ‘70s with her own monthly magazine, The Objectivist, in which she published essays about her beliefs.

http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/hollywood/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003155760