Today , Ayn Rand is perhaps well bed as your virgin cousin ’s best-loved writer to fawn over during Thanksgiving dinner . But back in the 1940s , Rand was good known for helping root out Communists in Hollywood . Shetestified to Congressand even wrote an full folder about how to make their movies as pro - America as possible that was send to movie producers . Or at least , Rand ’s version of “ America . ”
During his great communistic enchantress hunt of the forties and 50s , Congressman Joseph McCarthy infamously turned his eye to Hollywood . McCarthy seek to purge Tinseltown of any possible speck of pinko influence . And an establishment of button-down activist known as the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals was more than glad to name names of alleged Communists working in Hollywood and provide any other assistance necessary . They even had Rand write up a guide for the movie industry .
style the “ Screen Guide for Americans , ” the pamphlet was administer in 1947 . Michigan State University has acopy of the guide , which advise manufacturer on everything from descry Communist corruption in their writer to the practical advice of how to avoid celebrating “ the common piece . ” As Rand explain , extol “ the common man ” is “ communistic doctrine ” which “ preaches the sovereignty of mediocrity . ” I ’m not make this stuff up , I depone .
Below I ’ve pulled some of the most interesting quote from the document . The emphasis in bluff is entirely Rand ’s .
The function of the Communists in Hollywood is not the production of political movies openly urge Communism . Their role is to corrupt our moral assumption by debase non - political flick — by enter small , everyday bits of propaganda into unacquainted stories — thus make people absorb the introductory assumption of Collectivism by indirection and entailment .
Do n’t preach the superiority of public possession as such over secret possession . Do n’t prophesy or imply that all publicly - owned projects are imposing , human-centred labor by grace of the simple fact that they are publically - owned — while preaching , at same time , that individual place or the defence of private property right is the reflection of some form of vicious avarice , of anti - societal selfishness or evil .
While motion pictures have a hard-and-fast codification that forbids us to offend or diss any group or Carry Amelia Moore Nation — while we dare not present in an unfavourable light the tiniest Balkan kingdom — we permit ourselves to slander and defame American businessman in the most irresponsibly bribable manner .
It is true that there are poisonous man of affairs — just as there are vicious manpower in any other course of study or profession . But we have been exercise an outrageous kind of double standard : we do not lash out case-by-case illustration of any other group , class or country , in parliamentary law not to incriminate an attack on the whole group ; yet when we deliver case-by-case businessmen as monsters , we claim that no reflection on the whole class of business human race was intended .
“ The common world ” is one of the high-risk slogan of Communism — and too many of us have fall for it , without intend .
[ … ]
Under the American system , all men are equal before the law . Therefore , if anyone is classified as “ common”—he can be call “ common ” only in regard to his personal qualities . It then means that he has no outstanding abilities , no outstanding merit , no striking intelligence information . Is that an objective of idealization ?
In the communistic philosophical system , it is . Communism preaches the sovereignty of mediocrity , the wipeout of all individuality and all personal distinction , the turning of men into “ masses , ” which means an undivided , uniform , impersonal , average , vernacular herd .
In the American doctrine , no man is common .
America is establish on the paragon of gentleman’s gentleman ’s self-respect and self- regard . Dignity and self - respect are unimaginable without a mother wit of personal achievement . When you defame achiever , you defame human self-regard .
America is the land of the self - made mankind . Say so on the screen .
Only savages and Communists get fertile by force — that is , by strip the attribute of others . It is a basic American principle that each military man is free to work for his own benefit and to go as far as his ability will carry him ; and his property is his — whether he has made one dollar or one million dollars .
If the baddie in your story happens to be ample — don’t permission lines of negotiation suggest that he is the typical congressman of a whole social class , the symbol of all the rich . Keep it clear in your idea and in your book that his villainy is due to his own personal character — not to his wealthiness or class .
Do n’t excuse turpitude . Do n’t drool over weaklings as conditioned “ victim of circumstances ” ( or of “ background ” or of “ high society ” ) who “ could n’t help it . ” You are actually supply an excuse and an alibi for the high-risk instincts in the weakest phallus of your audiences .
Do n’t tell mass that man is a helpless , twisted , drooling , sniveling , neurotic weakling . Show the world an American variety of man , for a variety .
Do n’t make every form of loneliness a sin , and every form of the herd spirit a chastity .
Remember that America is the state of the pioneer , the non - conforming , the inventor , the originator , the innovator . recollect that all the great thinker , artist , scientists were individual , private , sovereign humanity who stood alone , and discovered new directions of achievement — alone .
Do n’t let yourself be fooled when the Reds tell you that what they want to destroy are military personnel like Hitler or Mussolini . What they want to ruin are men like Shakespeare , Chopin and Edison .
Do n’t discredit our courts by exhibit them as corrupt . If you do that — you lead multitude to believe that they have no resort except to violence , since passive justice can not be obtained .
It is lawful that there have been vicious representative and judges , and politician who have steal election , just as there are vicious military personnel in any profession . But if you give them in a report , be certain to make it clear that you are criticizing peculiar men — not the system . The American organisation , as such , is the best ever devised in history . If some human being do not live up to it — let us damn these men , not the system which they denounce .
There is no obligation on you to make political pictures — if you do not wish to take a firm base . You are free to throttle your work to good , honest , non - political moving-picture show . But there is a moral debt instrument on you to demonstrate the political ideas of Americanism strongly and honestly — if you undertake picture with political themes .
And when you make pictures with political composition and implication — DON’T charter Communists to write , verbatim or produce them . you may not expect Communists to remain “ neutral ” and not to insert their own ideas into their work . Take them at their word , not ours . They have hold openly and repeatedly that their first obligation is to the Communist Party , that their first duty is to overspread Party propaganda , and that their work in pictures is only a agency to an end , the end being the Dictator- ship of the Proletariat . You had better think them about their own state intentions . Remember that Hitler , too , had stated openly that his aim was humanity conquest , but nobody think him or have it seriously until it was too late .
The section on extol putrefaction is particularly interesting give Rand ’s own obsession with and glorification of sequential killer William Edward Hickman . In the 1920s , after Hickman had pop and dismember a 12 - class - old girl , Rand wrotethat the murderer was a “ genuinely beautiful mortal ” who had “ the true , innate psychological science of a Superman . ” But that ’s a discussion for another sentence . The entire pamphlet is a fascinating artefact of the Cold War .
It ’s unclear precisely how many Hollywood producer receive this pamphlet , get alone how many actually take it . But whether they read it or not , we certainly see the movement in over - chastening by Hollywood in the 1950s , each producer attempting to prove he was more patriotic ( read : anti - communistic ) than the last .
Rand has had an enduring legacy on American political thinking . But one expanse that stay to be studied soundly in the popular press is Rand ’s direct and indirect influence on Hollywood .
Curiously , as far as I can tell , she did n’t ratify her name to this pamphlet . The only credit is afford to The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals in Beverly Hills , California . corporate credit for the work of one woman ? Sounds a lot like Communism to me .
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