Sightings, November 2003

Duncan Scott, restorer and distributor of the film classic We the Living, which is based on Ayn Rand's first novel, has announced that the movie will be released to theaters across North America throughout the winter of 2003 and the spring of 2004. It will be the first theatrical reissue of the film in fifteen years. "Thousands of people have discovered Ayn Rand since we last released We the Living," Scott said. "We know they won't want to miss an opportunity to see this unforgettable film on the big screen."

The re-release will begin with a showing at the 600-seat Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles on December 3, 2003. Scott will introduce the film and participate in the question-and-answer session with the audience after the screening. Following the Los Angeles event, We the Living will be shown in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and as many as twenty other U.S. and Canadian cities, according to Scott. Dates for future screening will be announced in November and will be available at the distributor's Web site, www.duncanscott.com.

Robert James Bidinotto, a contributing editor to Navigator and the editor of TOC's "Atlas Society" Web site, has started a Web site of his own, called ecoNOT.com, with the slogan "Individualism, not Environmentalism." His introduction to the site states: "Most people think of themselves as 'environmentalists.' But by that term, they mean something far different—and far more innocent—than do the most prominent philosophers, founders, and leaders of the modern environmentalist movement.

"Typically, the person who calls himself an "environmentalist" is really just a nature-loving "conservationist." Appreciating the earth's natural beauty and bounty, he is understandably concerned about trash, noise, pollution, and poisons. Still, he sees the earth and its bounty as resources--resources for intelligent human use, development, and enjoyment. At root, then, his concern for the earth is human-centered: he believes that this is our environment, to be used by people to enhance their lives, well-being, and happiness.

"But the leaders of the organized environmentalist movement have a very different attitude and agenda.

"Their basic premise is that human activities to develop natural resources constitute a desecration of nature--that, in fact, nature exists for its own sake, not for human use and enjoyment. By their theory of ecology, they see man not as the crowning glory of nature, nor even as just another part of 'the web of life'--but rather as a blight upon the earth, as the enemy of the natural world. And they see man's works as a growing menace to all that exists."