A.V. Club: Atlas Shrugged producers turn to Kickstarter for help warning others against moochers
In an effort to further Ayn Rands message critiquing altruism and promoting the virtue of selfishness, rejecting all moochers who would dare claim your money by tears, the producers of the third Atlas Shrugged movie have launched a Kickstarter campaign asking for donations, predicated on reminding supporters of the critics who have hurt it. As reported earlier this year, despite the free market repeatedly determining it would rather not have any Atlas Shrugged movies, producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro boldly refused to relinquish their rational self-interests to a world that would dare take their ideas from them, chiefly by not paying to see them. And because of their indefatigable commitment to film Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt? by the falland thus propagate its titular characters manifesto to never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mineKaslow and Aglialoro have turned to asking other men to give them $250,000.
Of courseusing the same foresight thats convinced them its the third Atlas Shrugged movie that will finally reach the masses, despite the first two earning less than $8 million combinedboth have already anticipated that certain people may find something ironic about their asking others to give, all to create a movie thats little more than one long speech decrying the act of asking others to give. Isnt asking for charity antithetical to Ayn Rands philosophy? reads the FAQ, to which the answer is an obvious no, because Rands philosophy just had a problem with being forced to give through some absolute moral authority, which Kickstarter definitely isnt (yet).
The Atlas Shrugged Kickstarter campaign is of course a voluntary value-for-value exchange. You are not obligated to contribute, it says, reassuring you that donating your money to a wealthy Hollywood producer and fitness equipment magnate who definitely don't need it still qualifies as supporting rugged individualism, because you ruggedly, individually made the choice to do so, rather than out of some sense of subservience to a larger ideology.
In fact, as with the world-stopping action that youre being asked to pay to hear John Galt talk smugly about for an hour, their call to arms is less about the value of money or even entertainment than it is the value of pure spite. The movie is actually already fully funded, the FAQ says right up front, adding that the whole, give-$250,000-to-a-movie-about-self-reliance campaign is really just a marketing technique aimed at wringing negative publicity out of those who would mock it, apparently by giving them all the ammo they would ever need.
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http://www.avclub.com/articles/atlas-shrugged-producers-turn-to-kickstarter-for-h,103253/