"Personification of a Selfishness"
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What You Need To Know:
Nominated for an Academy Award as best feature-length documentary, AYN RAND: A SENSE OF LIFE is an expose on one of the 20th Century’s most influential thinkers and philosophers. Playing out like a full length A&E Biography on TV, it contains archival photos, film footage, animated sequences, interviews with friends and relatives, and interviews with Ayn Rand herself. Though fascinating as a thinker and historical figure, Rand’s words and ideas can hardly be considered compatible with Christianity. She champions the self as god, selfishness as the greatest good and individualism as the highest ideal. The film depicts her life, leading to a screenwriting career and authorship of such widely distributed works as THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED.
As a film, this documentary is clear, direct and well produced, with incisive interviews. One clearly understands Ayn Rand after viewing it. While it is admirable to watch a woman of conviction and discipline, it is grieving to see her so steadfast against anything to do with God. The documentary states that, early in her life, she concluded that she was going to be an atheist because, as a created person under God, she would automatically be inferior and she didn’t want to be inferior. This pride continued throughout her life. It is not a pejorative concept to be a lesser being under God. Indeed, it is a privilege to be created at all and have the gift of life. We should seize our destiny and live as free men, but for the Glory of God, not for ourselves.
Content:
(ABABAB, ACACAC, CapCapCap, V, A, D) Anti-Christian, anti-Communist, Secular Capitalist worldview of selfishness & individualism; no foul language; scenes of aftermath of war; no sex; no nudity; alcohol use; and, smoking.
More Detail:
Nominated for an Academy Award as best feature-length documentary, AYN RAND: A SENSE OF LIFE is an expose on one of the 20th Century’s most influential thinkers and philosophers. Playing out like a full length A&E Biography on TV, it contains archival photos, film footage, animated sequences, interviews with friends and relatives, and interviews with Ayn Rand herself. Though fascinating as a thinker and historical figure, Rand’s words and ideas can hardly be considered compatible with Christianity. She champions the self as god, selfishness as the greatest good and individualism as the highest ideal.
Ayn Rand was born in 1905 in St. Petersburg, Russia. She escaped to America in 1926 amidst the rise of Soviet Communism, which she loathed as an oppressor of individual rights. She remained in the United States for the rest of her life, where she became the author of THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED. Her books continue to sell over 300,000 copies each year.
Arriving in New York, she made her way to the DeMille Studios in Hollywood where she met Mr. DeMille who cast her as an extra on THE KING OF KINGS. She wrote various screenplays, but didn’t receive success until 1936 when she had a Broadway hit, NIGHT OF JANUARY 16TH.
Her first novel WE THE LIVING is about three young people destroyed by dictatorship. She wrote a shorter work entitled ANTHEM and then her major breakthrough came with THE FOUNTAINHEAD. Many publishers rejected the story about a professional architect who chose independence over expectations and standards imposed by others.
In 1951, she returned to New York City where she completed ATLAS SHRUGGED. She considered New York with its vast, grand human creations a “pinnacle of achievement in human terms.” The novel was a sweeping success, and she later turned to non-fiction books penning her exact philosophical views. In her waning years, she made various public appearances, including television, speaking to popular hosts and audiences on topics such as the lack of an afterlife, among other things.
As a film, this documentary is clear, direct and well produced, with incisive interviews. One clearly understands Ayn Rand after viewing it. While it is admirable to watch a woman of conviction and discipline, it is grieving to see her so steadfast against anything to do with God. The documentary states that, early in her life, she concluded that she was going to be an atheist because, as a created person under God, she would automatically be inferior and she didn’t want to be inferior. This pride continued throughout her life, even through tough periods such as the death of her husband, which would have been a natural time to pause and reflect on one’s beliefs about God and the afterlife.
Some might contend that Rand is legitimate because each person has their own destiny to fulfill. Indeed, Rand makes it quite clear that human achievement is best served under no political or bureaucratic encumbrances. God wants us to be all that we can be, but it is He who creates opportunity and He who empowers us to fulfill His good pleasure. It is difficult to reconcile how easily Rand can dismiss the rational order of the Universe which could not come from any source other than a personal, rational Creator God. It is not a pejorative concept to be a lesser being under God. Indeed, it is a privilege to be created at all and have the gift of life. Furthermore, we as Christians have the satisfaction of everlasting life while the best that Rand can and would have experienced is her earthly life. With her work remaining popular, it is scary to know that Rand and her followers are still fueling atheism and prideful thinking. Christians can take heart that the Bible is still the best-selling book of all time.
On a final note, Rand created her ideas partly as a response to the horrors of international Communists, who wish to replace the rights of individuals people with the greater good of the State. We cannot fault her dislike of Communism, nor can we take our freedoms for granted in America, but to dismiss any power over our lives at all is remiss. We should seize our destiny and live as free men, but for the Glory of God, not for ourselves.