The Incredibles - Ayn Rand and Objectivism | Renegade Cut

oh hey looks like everyone's talking about The Incredibles again what with the sequel coming out and all well I've been meaning to do this for about six years so part one film studies and the wrong question the hot takes on the incredible is about 14 years ago and the microwaved leftover hot takes soon to come are that Brad Birds 2004 superhero film is Pro Objectivist propaganda and that bird himself is a dyed-in-the-wool apostle of 20th century philosopher eine Rand in the film American superheroes are at first beloved but the public turns against them inexplicably and forces them to go into hiding critics have noted that this fable about the genetic superiority of some people collides with Rand's ideas about rational self-interest and the fantasy of a merit based ruling class mediocre people meaning poor people and the middle class are takers and looters and those who have risen to the top are naturally superior and therefore must have earned their position in life there are special people and everyone else who should just stay out of their way especially anyone who enforces safety regulations and protects the working class the big problem with a lot of these hot takes fan theory articles and listicles about this topic is that it does not come from a place of textual analysis meaning an examination of the text of the film outside of the realm of authorial intention usually this take comes from a place of tinfoil hat at conspiracy an examination of Brad Bird himself writer and director of this film and also the voice of admah mode seriously this has some validity though Tomorrowland a 2015 film directed and co-written by bird borrows a major plot point from mine Rand's Atlas Shrugged a hidden land outside of the reach of normal people where all of the world's alleged best and brightest but in the books case really just richest live away from government bureaucracy because safety regulations and paying your workers a living wage is destroying America in the Iron Giant which is a great movie don't at me a person with extraordinary abilities is attacked by government forces who want to either destroy him or use this technology for their own there is also a you choose who you are theme that while seemingly innocent feeds into right wing talking points that ignore sociological consequences for why some people end up in bad circumstances in life and admittedly this is a bigger stretch than Tomorrowland anyway by reverse-engineering interpretations of birds movies as a search for evidence that he is an adherent of eine Rand or at least a fan we can actually find a lot of examples but again the problem with this take is that it does not appear to be a search for meaning in these films especially The Incredibles but a search for Brad Birds secret political leanings Brad Bird describes himself as a centrist which in 2018 is a mood and he rejects Randy and interpretations of his films and in himself of course an interpretation of a film has a lot of plasticity and Byrd himself cannot shut down discussion of the text of the film outside of the realm of authorial intention to me whether or not Byrd is an Objectivist is not interesting and unlike some directors who are actually problematic IRL I'm not prepared to write a polemic on this person the real question is whether or not his most famous work can be credibly viewed and criticized through a Randian lens people sometimes ask the wrong question when trying to put on their thinking caps and determine what a movie is all caps about as if a film is a puzzle that needs to be put together you usually find this in the discourse when perusing YouTube channels that aim to divulge the so-called secret meaning to a movie they're easy to spot because they usually have a thumbnail that has a red circle or red arrow pointing to something obvious film studies on the other hand is an academic discipline that deals with theoretical historical and critical approaches to film a theoretical reading of a film contextualizes the work of art example is Mad Max fury road a feminist movie you could say yeah and I'm sure I have in the past but it might be far more appropriate to say that you could give a feminist reading of the film meaning you can apply feminist theory to this work of art and explain it through that lens you can also apply feminist theory to everyone's favorite good but not as good as you remember it movie Fight Club a film in which women are few and far between because that alone is something worth discussing as it relates to portrayal of women in film not to mention how the film relates to men feeling so feminized that they become hourly violent to compensate you can also apply Marxist theory to Fight Club and others film studies isn't a zero-sum game and in addition to these theoretical readings being valid in discussing a movie they also mesh often with one informing the other an example of this misunderstanding an essayist applies say critical race theory to a movie that does not handle the topic of racism well and someone shouts this movie isn't about racism it's a movie about something else the director said so it doesn't matter if the director meant for the movie to be about race it's irrelevant when applying critical race Theory toward explaining an aspect of the film trying to determine whether or not the Incredibles and birds other films contain his personal politics is auteur theory because it's a discussion of his body of work in which he is the common denominator more than a study of the contents and texts of an individual film and while it is a recognized lens in which to view a work it is also in my humble opinion the least fascinating due to how limiting it can be and the manner in which it is applied in this case is generally lacking so is the incredibles a Randian film it might matter if you are applying auteur theory to your critical essay but I'm applying the Randian lens itself and aim to see how this film does and does not work within an rands worldview and philosophy not to mention the consequences of her writings both on art and politics so my question instead is this what does The Incredibles look like when applying a lens made up of the philosophy of eine Rand oh and without in mind what did Iran even believe anyway part to Iran's philosophy is mean and dumb rands guide to living a worthwhile life is called objectivism a philosophy in which the main components are capitalism atheism radical self-interest a condemnation of altruism and the idea that some people are innately superior to others and a good barometer for this is how wealthy they are it's based on a naturalistic Aristotelian conception of human nature leading to a Nietzschean critique of altruistic judeo-christian ethics in favor of egoism self-interest as primary or even only concern in Iran's most famous work Atlas Shrugged a mysterious figure named John Galt calls for a strike among the world's top thinkers and businessmen who in the face of the dangers of safety regulations and workers rights must be allowed to do and create whatever they please regardless of the consequences or infringement on the rights of those who are actually tasked with physically laboring their creation the government and non special people are portrayed as looters stealing from the wealthy and powerful by leaving the rest of the world and living in Galt's Gulch this shuts down the industrial world in reality if the owner of a company up and disappeared someone else would simply take over but this fact does not fit in with rands narrative or philosophy so whatever R and believed that radical self-interest is not wrong working-class laborers who want a greater share of the profits are only parasites feasting on the CEO Objectivists might claim that self-interest eventually trickles down to create prosperity for others but history has shown that self-interest is what it looks like on face value pick a giant corporation at random and chances are a lot of its employees make minimum wage chances are also good that said corporation is involved in lobbying for its rights and limiting its workers agency objectivism posits that the super-rich always deserve their wealth regardless of the exploitation in which it was achieved charity a value held dear by many of the world's religions he not seen as virtuous 2r and who was skeptical of religious belief though Tyrande even secular charity was seen as less important than the importance she placed on selfishness and that's not an exaggeration she literally wrote a book called the virtue of selfishness brand believed that altruism the abstract value placed on helping others does not exist in the superior man even the average businessman might find rands views egregious and radical Rand believed that the government should only exist to protect the rights of the people and nothing more which almost sounds reasonable until you dig deeper and realize that the rights she actually wanted to protect were those of the wealthy the laborers rights to a living wage and safety were not paramount so what's even her justification for all of this she said an organism's life is its standard of value that which furthers its life is the good and that which threatens it is the evil that is how Objectivists argue for radical self-interest but again this ignores that radical self-interest of some threatens the lives and well-being of many others also you can further your life a lot of different ways that do not include radical self-interest Rand believed in a night watchman state meaning that the government can use force when it benefits the rich but not use force when it benefits the poor everything Rand says as it relates to ethics is always contradicted by her own words everything is a contradiction that favors the rich let's go through Objectivist beliefs one by one laissez-faire capitalism is a utopian fantasy Objectivists claim to believe in objective truth so using their own beliefs here it should be justified only on how it is implemented in the real world in other words not well Rand believed that all who attained their wealth are more deserving than others because the system in which they attained it was rational and therefore fair but laissez-faire capitalism by definition sides with some and not others anti-regulation Objectivists regulations are anti-human but regulations are generally for reasons of human safety and environmental safety which subsequently is necessary for human safety to radical individualism this obviously has some value but objectivism ignores the fact that every successful person stands on the shoulders of those who have come before in many cases due to generational wealth nothing comes from nothing selfishness Rand herself said that if generosity for others were good then we would all sacrifice ourselves in the most extreme way Rand tried to make generosity and kindness sound abhorrent by redefining the words as meaning literally sacrificing our lives as in leaping into a volcano or dying on the cross and since we're not all doing that she claimed generosity must be wrong in other words her rationalization is a huge exaggeration built on nonsense radical self-interest look human beings evolved as communal creatures with bonds of family friendship and community being tightly tied to health happiness and longevity objectivism contradicts this to monsterbowl scientific fact there is strength in numbers Objectivists will always claim rationality as exclusively their own but when confronted with these observable facts they will ignore them and instead quote rands Maxim's louder and louder until you're sick of talking to them objectivism is a mass of contradictions and is widely discredited everywhere in philosophical circles except among certain businessmen who want their actions justified and certain clueless politicians part3 Randi and philosophy in The Incredibles all right so The Incredibles remember this video is about The Incredibles how can we see this superhero film through a Randian lens film critic Dana Stevens once wrote The Incredibles for all its kinetic energy and warm endearing characters is also a barely disguised libertarian parable about the natural superiority of some individuals over others a film in which the comic book notions of super nests with Randian ideas about rational self-interest and the emergence of a merit-based ruling class it's possible to watch and enjoy the Incredibles without engaging with any of these themes especially if you're under 12 and blissfully unschooled in the tenants of Objectivism but once you've started noticing the film's libertarian bent there's no unnotice it bear in mind that in America libertarian is usually in reference to the right leaning small-government anti-regulation movement sometimes associated with objectivism whereas elsewhere in the world it means something else entirely Stephens is an American so that bit of housecleaning out of the way let's jump in with both feet in the beginning of the film superheroes are gifted individuals who have superpowers either from birth or through some other inherent means nobody's origin story is told they simply are super and better than the rest mr. incredible saves a man from suicide and is successfully sued by the survivor this frivolous lawsuit sparks other legal challenges to superheroes from the government and from regular people this is how Atlas Shrugged basically starts Midas mulligan is sued by people he denied an investment loan and a federal judge dedicated to people being treated fairly rules against him Objectivists don't like everyone being treated like equals and the incredibles goes out of its way to reinforce this idea special everyone special - which is another way of saying no everyone can be super and with everyone super [Laughter] no one will be in The Incredibles equality is a synonym for mediocrity rather than being associated with fairness decency and human rights syndrome wishes to sell off his science to the world's governments in hopes of creating an entire race of super-powered citizens that are equal to the current superheroes in other words he wants to make everyone have powers that sounds pretty cool honestly but because the film conflates equality with mediocrity and everyone being special with nobody being special syndrome is the villain in Objectivist terms syndrome is a looter and parasite he steals from those more powerful than himself he is a villain whose philosophy and goals would fit in nicely as an antagonist in a nine Rand novel in fact all of the villains exhibit mechanical powers or no powers rather than innate powers Mirage syndrome bomb voyage and the Underminer at the end of the film the family embraces their superiority syndrome a grown man is defeated by a baby with inherent gifts now any superhero film with a character with powers will showcase this on some level I know it is a staple of the genre and related adventure and fantasy genres that the protagonist is in some way special but in The Incredibles a lot of time is spent towards hammering in the dual Randian concepts of some people being superior to others and superior people should not have to deal with such trivial things as government regulations and the wishes of the unwashed masses who want to just steal from the powerful look claiming The Incredibles contains no Randian themes because the writer director says he genuinely did not intend for it to strike that chord is not enough for these themes intentional or accidental to be ignored the text of the film is the text of the film and it can be easily viewed and explained not only through a Randian lens but also as a work of that makes aspects of Rand's philosophy appealing to the audience the protagonists are literally superheroes that is how some Objectivists see themselves not as heroic in the modernist sense of that word because they don't really believe in that but heroic in the Greek mythological sense powerful beings doing powerful acts irrespective of morality the real movers and shakers among the no bodies but there are explicitly anti-capitalist and anti Objectivist points in the film as well mr. incredible and Elastigirl are not selfish they are altruists they dedicated their entire lives towards helping people it is their primary objective in life and that is not something objectivism espouses at all mr. incredible might be partially motivated by his denied potential but he clearly has actual moral standards and becomes visibly upset when he sees injustice also the most loathsome character in the film is Gilbert huff a weaselly arch capitalist and manager at an insurance company a man who puts the corporation's wealth over the needs of the people huffs intentions are unambiguous because he is a cookie cutter character who we are meant to despise he is more concerned with money and stockholders than with the safety and well-being of other people he perhaps more than anyone else in the film including the alleged uber mensches is the Randian ideal the Objectivist hero Objectivists don't really see themselves that way though they picture their greed as might holding up the world oh and because I know everyone wants me to defend the Iron Giant that movie pokes fun at the anti-communist American Red Scare that saw commies hiding in every closet and Iran herself was famously anti-communist and helped perpetuate this paranoia during the Cold War anyway claiming The Incredibles is transparently Objectivist or categorically altruistic does not take into account the ways in which these claims contradict one another in the very text of the film it's a melange of ideas some less terrible than others hi everyone if you like what I do please click on the orange patreon link below that's how this show happens it's also the only way to request an episode also please like share subscribe and click on the notification bell so that you never miss an episode I'll see you next week

Channel: Renegade Cut

Views: 271,552

Keywords: the incredibles, the incredibles movie, the incredibles review, the incredibles analysis, incredibles 2, the incredibles 2, renegade cut, incredibles ayn rand, incredibles objectivism, philosophy of the incredibles, the incredibles soundtrack, the incredibles scene, the incredibles ending, the incredibles theme song, the incredibles best moments, hidden meaning in the incredibles, the incredibles trailer, great lines from the incredibles, theories the incredibles, disney, pixar

Id: XPBOfW7ocK0

Length: 20min 0sec (1200 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 15 2018

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[u/TheBroodian]

Love your channel. Have you ever reached out to do any collaborative work with Folding Ideas or Lindsay Ellis?