Any Writers, Screenwiters, Comics, Novelists, Actors in GG??
Maybe I am alone here, a dreamer. My dream is not just complaining that the masses of people are sleeping. They have no idea what is happening in their world. Listen to the man on the street interviews. Asking them why they voted, why they chose the person they did... Most do not have a clue.
With all the talented people here we should do more than complain and post articles. We are preaching to the choir. I think we could produce a quality TV series using our thousands of voices. The people are here to edit and keep the message on topic, the writers to put very entertaining and educational stories. All the GG members could help the writers by suggesting storylines to the writers. I am sure there are more than a few people here that are or would like to be screenwriters. I know this is a major project but I think the time is now. With AS III coming out in mid September, there should be lots of people looking for GG soon.
I see GG as more than a place to come and complain, more than a place to sell gifts and tee shirts. All the products will happen and grow as we grow. Commercial success is necessary and I am sure that we will appeal to a large audience.
In the past, we would have to pitch our series to a liberal media, I am sure that once they saw our product, they would throw us out. Times have changed. The success of Netflix Original, The Blaze Network, Amazon Prime...will give us a choice of providers. We will not need advertisers to support our series.
We are not limited to our topics or content. The stories can be very controversial or as racy as we feel they need.
As you can see, I am not a writer. I am looking to get people talking, hopefully to pull together some framework to make this happen.
I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions.
With all the talented people here we should do more than complain and post articles. We are preaching to the choir. I think we could produce a quality TV series using our thousands of voices. The people are here to edit and keep the message on topic, the writers to put very entertaining and educational stories. All the GG members could help the writers by suggesting storylines to the writers. I am sure there are more than a few people here that are or would like to be screenwriters. I know this is a major project but I think the time is now. With AS III coming out in mid September, there should be lots of people looking for GG soon.
I see GG as more than a place to come and complain, more than a place to sell gifts and tee shirts. All the products will happen and grow as we grow. Commercial success is necessary and I am sure that we will appeal to a large audience.
In the past, we would have to pitch our series to a liberal media, I am sure that once they saw our product, they would throw us out. Times have changed. The success of Netflix Original, The Blaze Network, Amazon Prime...will give us a choice of providers. We will not need advertisers to support our series.
We are not limited to our topics or content. The stories can be very controversial or as racy as we feel they need.
As you can see, I am not a writer. I am looking to get people talking, hopefully to pull together some framework to make this happen.
I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions.
The very existence of this group is a sign of hope, a sign that there is still a core that is ready for change and growth. I’m not talking the Hope and Change of the Obama campaign, but the hope and change of a dynamic, growing country dedicated to reason and achievement.
For lack of a better term, we are the Objectivists that have the capability and drive to make a difference. There are many more people like us in this country and around the world. The gulch could and should at as a beacon for them.
Light the light and hold it high. Let other see what can be so they will make what will be.
+1 fir you
The talent we have here is amazing, we just need to communicate and spread the word. The AS III will do a lot to activate more people. We should be ready.
Password protected.
Bill
So do I. You could password-protect it and allow in only those who agree uncritically with everything in ITOE.
(Rigorous criticism = "hatred of Ayn Rand", or "hatred of the Good for being the Good", or any number of excuses for not testing Rand's ideas as stringently as possible.)
I agree. A chatroom is an excellent idea.
Two points:
1) If you continue to close yourselves off to criticism, you will simply become even more factionalized than you are already. The current frail state of Objectivism is the fault of Rand herself, the Brandens, Peikoff, and later acolytes such as Binswanger. Rather than engaging opposition and publicly defending their ideas, they resort to childish ad hominems. That sort of intellectual cowardice is not going to attract all those people in this country and around the world who, you claim, implicitly agree with Objectivism, or are "sense of life" Objectivists. In fact, it will probably have the opposite effect and turn them off to Objectivism entirely.
2) Most writers who claim to be Objectivists seem more concerned with "complying" with the philosophy, and copying Rand's style of writing, rather than the more difficult task of *finding their own unique voice* and simply telling good stories.
The abominable screenwriting in the first two parts of the Atlas Shrugged trilogy are just one example.
I don't understand what an "Objectivist movie" is. Could you explain?
Also, compelling screenwriting is not a skill typically practiced by professors, especially not professors of philosophy. In fact — as I have long contended — a philosophy professor (such as David Kelley) would probably have a deadening effect on the imaginative efforts of a talented screenwriter, since the latter might be tasked with the burden of forcing character traits and plot twists in the writing to comply explicitly with a particular philosophy.
Since every story has an implied moral parable, a writer need not (and should not) start with a theory of morality and then try to find some story that illustrates it. Specifically, you start with character and extract the plot-events out of that: each plot-event (generally, one event per scene) illustrates the protagonist's main trait by challenging it (or "testing" it), and the trait becomes clearer and more sharply drawn each time the character attempts to meet the challenge and overcome it.
There are only two kinds of stories:
1) The Story of Accomplishment (in which some concrete goal is either achieved or not achieved, as the case may be. Think of the summer camp game "Capture the Flag": once a team captures the opposing team's flag, the game is over. Same with these kinds of stories. This category mainly applies to action-adventure type of stories. Once the "secret formula" (or weapon, or cure, etc.) is retrieved from the antagonist, that's it: story over.)
2) Stories of Decision (in which the protagonist changes his mind about some important issue that makes him or her a very different kind of person from what the reader or viewer was led to believe. These are classic "character-driven" stories, in which the main struggle is psychological — having often to do with the character's basic values — i.e., between one part of the protagonist's mind and another part — and in which the outside world (physical nature, the social world of politics, wartime, etc.) can certainly play a part, but interestingly, in these kinds of stories, often the antagonist is something originally friendly to the protagonist, tying him (against his increasingly better judgment) to some value he had accepted in the past. Atlas Shrugged, despite its action-adventure twists, is clearly a Story of Decision, in which the person undergoing the biggest change of mind — with the most at stake for doing or not doing so — is Dagny. That's why I've always said that Atlas Shrugged is Dagny's story.
The point of all this is that if you start with a character congenial to Objectivism, and derive the plot events from him or her, you will end up with an "Objectivist story" or "Objectivist movie." But you cannot do it the other way around: you cannot start with a philosophical system and then force a story and some characters into that, because at best it will be "allegory"; at worst, preachy and lecturing.
Moviegoers buy tickets to be entertained, not lectured to.
Are you interested in writing stories most people can learn, understand and enjoy.
Have you written any best sellers, movies?
(LOL. That's an old military expression.)
What do you not understand? I'd be happy to explain.
I am a simple old door hardware sales guy. Just getting interested in the subject and see the need for more. But talk like "Objectivism is the fault of Rand herself, the Brandens, Peikoff, and later acolytes such as Binswanger." will send most like me running. This is why we need writers to make interesting stories with a mix, then have the experts tweak their works. The mix of people here should be able to produce a very attractive appealing product.
We do not need another place to complain about all the problems, we need a place to show what proper governing and working together can do. As you can see, I am not a writer, but I can see a interesting product, I can see where it can light a fire under me, make me as questions and want clear answers. The media has edited what we all have seen on 3 networks since before I was born. Now we are free to grow and search for new ideas, to see where corruption is growing. Sorry but I need the executive summery from the great ones like yourself. I have no time to go back to college and study "Brandens, Peikoff, and later acolytes such as Binswanger". Your overseeing guidence is priceless, but let me know if you need an door access control system with interlocking doors to the bacteria control shower timing system. What can we do to spread the word to the masses, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, the Olympics, Football... are nice distractions while we are being robbed.
WE need your help to make entertainment that will educate.
"But talk like "Objectivism is the fault of Rand herself, the Brandens, Peikoff, and later acolytes such as Binswanger." will send most like me running."
I believe the exact quote from EconomicFreedom was, "The current frail state of Objectivism is the fault of Rand herself, the Brandens, Peikoff, and later acolytes such as Binswanger. Rather than engaging opposition and publicly defending their ideas, they resort to childish ad hominems."
I suppose he was referring to the great number of factions today, each one calling itself Objectivist, along with the fact that there's no debate with Objectivist skeptics when Rand's ideas are subjected to close scrutiny. To do so puts the Objectivist skeptic at risk of being accused of some moral crime or psycho-epistemological aberration by committed followers of her philosophy.
Such an attitude weakens the philosophy — not to mention any intellectual movement that might be associated with it — not strengthens it.
Haven't you found that to be the case?
Regarding entertainment that educates:
All entertainment educates. It educates well or it educates poorly; it educates for the better or it educates for the worse. But it always educates.
The best entertainment educates by not explicitly trying to educate.
Don't you think so?