Ayn Rand - Screen Guide for Americans

Under the American system, all men are equal before the law. Therefore, if anyone is classified as “common” — he can be called “common” only in regard to his personal qualities. It then means that he has no outstanding abilities, no outstanding virtues, no outstanding intelligence. Is thatan object of glorification?

In the Communist doctrine, it is.Communism preaches the reign of mediocrity, the destruction of all individuality and all personal distinction, the turning of men into “masses”, which means an undivided, undifferentiated, impersonal, average, commonherd.

In the American doctrine, no man is common.Every man’s personality is unique — and it is respected as such. He may have qualities which he shares with others; but his virtue is not gauged by how much he resembles others — thatis the Communist doctrine; his virtue is gauged by his personal distinction, great or small.

In America, no man is scorned or penalized if his ability is small. But neither is he praised, extolled and glorified for the smallnessof his ability.

America is the land of the uncommon man.It is the landwhere man is free to develop his genius — and to get its just rewards. It is the land where each man tries to develop whatever quality he might possess and to rise to whatever degree he can, great or modest. It is notthe land where one is taught that one is small and ought to remain small. It is notthe land where one glories or is taught to glory in one’s mediocrity.

No self-respecting man in America is or thinks of himself as “little”, no matter how poor he might be. That,precisely, is the difference between an American working man and a European serf.

Don’tever use any lines about “the common man” or “the little people”. It is not the American idea to be either “common” or “little”.

This point requires your careful and thoughtful attention.

There is a great difference between free co-operation and forced collectivism. It is the difference between the United States and Soviet Russia. But the Communists are very skillful at hiding the difference and selling you the second under the guise of the first. You might miss it. The audience won’t.

Co-operationis the free association of men who work together by voluntary agreement, each deriving from it his own personal benefit.

Collectivismis the forced herding together of men into a group, with the individual having no choice about it. no personal motive, no personal reward, and subordinating himself blindly to the will of others.

Keep this distinction clearly in mind — in order to judge whether what you are asked to glorify is American co-operation or Soviet Collectivism.

Don’tpreach that everybody should be and act alike.

Don’tfall for such drivel as “I don’t wanna be dif’rent — I wanna be just like ever’body else”. You’ve heard this one in endless variations. If ever there was an un-American attitude, this is it. America is the country where every man wants to be different — and most men succeed at it.

If you preach that it is evil to be different — you teach every particular group of men to hate every other group, every minority, every person, for being different from them; thus you lay the foundation of race hatred.

Don’tpreach that allmass action is good, and allindividual action is evil. It is true that there are vicious individuals; it is also true that there are vicious groups. Both must be judged by their specific actions — and not treated as an issue of “the one” against “the many”, with the many always right and the one always wrong.

Remember that it is the Communists’ aim to preach the supremacy, the superiority, the holy virtue of the group — as opposed to the individual. It is not America’s aim. Nor yours.

This is part of the same issue as the preceding point.

The Communists’ chief purpose is to destroy every form of independence — independent work, independent action, independent property, independent thought, an independent mind, or an independent man.

Conformity, alikeness, servility, submission and obedience are necessary to establish a Communist slave-state. Don’thelp the Communists to teach men to acquire these attitudes.

Don’tfall for the old Communist trick of thinking that an independent man or an individualist is one who crushes and exploits others — such as a dictator. An independent man is one who stands alone and respects the same right of others, who does not rule nor serve, who neither sacrifices himself nor others. A dictator — by definition — is the most complete collectivist of all, because he exists by ruling, crushing and exploiting a huge collective of men.

Don’tpermit the snide little touches which Communists sneak into scripts — all the lines, hints and implications which suggest that something (a person, an attitude, a motive, an emotion) is evil because it is independent (or private, or personal, or single, or individual).

Don’tpreach that everything done for others is good, while everything done for one’s own sake is evil. This damns every form of personal joy and happiness.

Don’tpreach that everything “public-spirited” is good, while everything personal and private is evil.

Don’tmake every form of loneliness a sin, and every form of the herd spirit a virtue.

Remember that America is the country of the pioneer, the non-conformist, the inventor, the originator, the innovator. Remember that all the great thinkers, artists, scientists were single, individual, independent men who stood alone, and discovered new directions of achievement — alone.

Don’tlet yourself be fooled when the Reds tell you that what they want to destroy are men like Hitler or Mussolini. What they want to destroy are men like Shakespeare, Chopin and Edison.

If you doubt this, think of a certain movie, in which a great composer was damned for succumbing, temporarily, to a horrible, vicious, selfish, anti-social sin. What was his sin? That he wanted to sit alone in his room and write music!

A favorite trick of the Communists is to insert into pictures casual lines of dialogue about some important, highly controversial political issue, to insert them as accidental small talk, without any connection to the scene, the plot, or the story.

Don’tpermit such lines. Don’tpermit snide little slurs at any political party — in a picture which is to be released just before election time.

Don’tallow chance remarks of a partisan nature about any current political events.

If you wish to mention politics on the screen, or take sides in a current controversy — then do so fully and openly. Even those who do not agree with you will respect an honest presentation of the side you’ve chosen. But the seemingly accidental remarks, the casual wisecracks, the cowardly little half-hints are the things that arouse the anger and contempt of all those who uphold the opposite side of the issue. In most of the current issues, that opposite side represents half or more than half of your picture audience.

And it is a sad joke on Hollywood that while we shy away from all controversial subjects on the screen, in order not to antagonize anybody — we arouse more antagonism throughout the country and more resentment against ourselves by one cheap little smear line in the midst of some musical comedy than we ever would by a whole political treatise.