Atlas Shrugged

I saw the movie Atlas Shrugged with some friends tonight. Not a bad movie, but a bit too black and white for me. It is strange that movies today seem incapable of portraying nuance. Characters lack complexity on the big screen these days. It is as if the audience can't possibly be trusted to judge who is good and bad-- we have to be hit over the head with it over and over in movie plots, which makes the story so less believable.

I guess that's my problem. To really enjoy a movie like Atlas Shrugged, I've got to think that its characters are believable. The movie fell short of that. It didn't have that real-world feel for me-- it was too contrived.

That said, here are my questions after watching the movie:

Do Prime Movers exist, as Rand explains/creates them?

If so, who are they today? And from where do they come?

Do real-life Prime Movers exist more as teams, rather than as individuals?

Is there any redeeming quality to a bureaucrat?

Is Rand's story an exploration into the 80-20 rule?

Is it possible to be both entrepreneurial and altruistic?

Can one be a free-market Christian? A free-market Rotarian?

Are there non-profit endeavors that need Prime Movers too? Driven not by profits, but by some other measure of success?

And for that matter, is profit the only form of success in the Rand worldview?

Is Rand seeking a science-based, reason-based second Enlightenment? And why would anyone have a problem with that?

How do we treat merit in society? How should we treat merit?

And do we know the difference between merit and privilege?

These are abstract questions.