Socialist Idealism leads to death

Rating: 6/10 (14 November 2008)

The six is for the cinematography, the moral of the story gets a one.
I am an Objectivist (philosophy of Ayn Rand). Let me make a few notes here: If the parents were such horrible selfish bastards, they could have just gone on with their lives.
The character, McCandless, has that "forced smile" that I see on everyone that is pretending to be happy in spite of the facts. I see the same look on the faces of Jesus worshippers, that they are DETERMINED to show themselves as happy. I am not talking about optimism, I mean a person that lives on a diet of spiritual poison (idealistic altruism) and smiles to convince themselves its OK.
Objectivists scorn the idea of sacrifice. The term must be properly defined. A sacrifice is choosing something of lesser value over something of greater value. With this clear definition, sacrifice is an immoral act. When he gives the old man his quarter rather than call his sister, that is clearly a sacrifice, and clearly immoral.
Nature may on occasion be beautiful, but it is ruthless. When McCandless is gazing into the sky, he is not seeing the face of god, he is seeing the dispassionate sun and clouds, which will watch him live or die with equanimity. The lesson? Don't count on the sky, except to recognize it is only your mind which is beautiful, with its ability to reason. Your mind is more beautiful and complex than water vapor, or even the sun.
Sean Penn is certainly the guy to create this evil little movie. Surrounded by material things himself, he idealizes the anti-material lifestyle (though not enough to give up his own investment portfolio). He asks "why can't we just love one another?" and then forces Obama on us, so that we can made to sacrifice to the irresponsible at the point of a gun.
For more information, please read 2 short books - The Virtue of Selfishness, and Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal, both by Ayn Rand.
Altruism rots the soul. Socialism kills.