The Objective Standard Blog
The Objective Standard Blog
Thursday, March 11, 2010
The Spring Issue of TOS
The print edition of the Spring issue of TOS is at press and will be mailed shortly; the online version will be accessible to subscribers beginning March 20; and the Kindle edition will be delivered to Kindle subscribers on March 30. For promotional purposes, we are making Steve Simpson’s article “Citizens United and the Battle for Free Speech in America” available on our website early and for free.
The contents of the Spring issue are:
ARTICLES
Citizens United and the Battle for Free Speech in America by Steve Simpson
Government-Run Health Care vs. the Hippocratic Oath
by Paul HsiehThe Virtue of Treating People Like Animals: Why Human Health Care Should Mirror Veterinary Health Care
by Sarah GelbergThe Practicality of Private Waterways
by J. Brian Phillips and Alan GermaniNorman Borlaug: The Man Who Taught People To Feed Themselves
by Audra HilseMaking Life Meaningful: Living Purposefully
by Craig BiddleBOOKS REVIEWED
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Reviewed by Heike LarsonWinning the Unwinnable War edited by Elan Journo
Reviewed by Grant W. JonesWhy Are Jews Liberals? by Norman Podhoretz
Reviewed by Gideon ReichCapitalism Unbound by Andrew Bernstein
Reviewed by Ari ArmstrongEssays on Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged edited by Robert Mayhew
Reviewed by Daniel WahlThe Sparrowhawk Series by Edward Cline
Reviewed by Dina Schein FedermanBorn to Run by Christopher McDougall
Reviewed by Daniel WahlYour Inner Fish by Neil Shubin
Reviewed by David H. MirmanNewton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson
Reviewed by Daniel Wahl
If you have not yet subscribed to TOS, why not do so today? You can subscribe online or by calling 800-423-6151.
Labels: Announcements, Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Business and Economics, Foreign Policy and War, Healthcare, History, Individual Rights and Law, Philosophy, Religion, Science and Technology, The Arts
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Don't Say Grace, Say Justice
The religious tradition of saying grace before meals becomes especially popular around the holidays, when we all are reminded of how fortunate we are to have an abundance of life-sustaining goods and services at our disposal. But there is a grave injustice involved in this tradition. It is the injustice of thanking an alleged God for the productive accomplishments of actual men.
Where do the ideas, principles, constitutions, governments, and laws that protect our rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness come from? What is the source of the meals, medicines, homes, automobiles, and fighter jets that keep us alive and enable us to flourish? Who is responsible for our freedom, prosperity, and well-being?
Is freedom a gift from God? It is not. Freedom, the absence of physical coercion, is a political condition resulting from the rational, principled thought and action of men—men such as Aristotle, John Locke, the Founding Fathers, Frederick Douglass, and American soldiers.
Did God make the ambrosia that melts in your mouth, or the asthma medicine that keeps your child alive, or the plush recliner in which you relax, or the big-screen TV on which you watch your favorite show? Did God create the jetliners that bring friends and family from afar, or the stealth bombers that keep the barbarians at bay, or the music that warms your heart and fuels your soul?
Since God is responsible for none of the goods on which human life and happiness depend, why thank him for any such goods? More to the point: Why not thank those who actually are responsible for them? What would a just man do?
Justice is the virtue of judging people rationally—according to what they say, do, and produce—and treating them accordingly, granting to each man that which he deserves. If someone spends the day preparing a wonderful meal, justice demands that he, not God, be thanked for doing so. If someone provides his family with a warm, safe, comfortable home, justice demands that he, not God, be thanked for providing it. If a policeman or fireman or doctor saves someone’s life, justice demands that he, not God, be thanked. If a loving spouse or child or parent or friend provides you with great joy, justice demands that he, not God, be acknowledged accordingly. If a philosopher discovers the principles on which freedom depends—and if others put those principles into practice—justice demands that they, not God, be given credit.
To say grace is to give credit where none is due—and, worse, it is to withhold credit where it is due. To say grace is to commit an act of injustice.
Rational, productive people—whether philosophers, scientists, inventors, artists, businessmen, military strategists, friends, family, or yourself—are who deserve to be thanked for the goods on which your life, liberty, and happiness depend. This holiday season—and from now on—don’t say grace; say justice. Thank or acknowledge the people who actually provide the goods. Some of them may be sitting right there at the table with you. And if you find yourself at a table where people insist on saying grace, politely insist on saying justice when they’re through. It’s the right thing to do.
Labels: Business and Economics, Foreign Policy and War, Philosophy, Religion, Science and Technology, The Arts
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
'Atlas Shrugged' Survey Delivers Surprising Results
A recent Zogby national online survey indicates that 24.8 percent of the 2,232 respondents have read Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.”
When asked why they chose to read “Atlas Shrugged,” 37.6 percent of respondents in the online survey said it was recommended by a friend or colleague, 18.4 percent had it assigned or recommended in school, 9.9 percent read or heard about it in a print/Internet article or radio/TV program, 8.4 percent saw it in a library, and 1.9 percent noticed it in a bookstore.
The survey also indicated that 19.8 percent of respondents have read Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead,” 6.9 percent “Anthem,” 4 percent “We the Living,” and 3 percent “The Virtue of Selfishness.”
In the past two years, national telephone surveys of about 1,100 people have indicated that 8.1 percent of respondents had read “Atlas Shrugged.” The latest online survey was randomly drawn from a pool of several hundred thousand people while the telephone surveys were drawn at random from larger lists of people who own telephones.
Copyright © 2009 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.
Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, The Arts
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Explore Atlas Shrugged
Diana Hsieh, of NoodleFood and Rationally Selfish Radio fame, has created a new website dedicated to Exploring Atlas Shrugged. The purpose of the site is to help readers deepen their understanding of Ayn Rand’s epic novel and to provide a resource for those interested in creating Atlas Shrugged reading groups. Diana has divided the novel into 20 parts, each covering about 65 pages, and for each part she plans to post a podcast along with discussion questions. Session 1, in which she discusses chapters 1–3, has been posted and is superb. I expect the next 19 sessions will be as well. Listen and see.
Labels: Announcements, Ayn Rand and Objectivism, The Arts
Monday, August 03, 2009
Invitation: Upcoming Ayn Rand Institute Event—The Atlas Shrugged Revolution
While Washington rapidly expands its control over our lives—exacerbating an economic crisis that was caused by government control in the first place—a hopeful countertrend is underway.
Ayn Rand’s classic best-selling novel Atlas Shrugged is flying off bookstore shelves at an unprecedented rate.
Hundreds of thousands of concerned Americans are turning to Atlas Shrugged—and discovering Ayn Rand’s morality of rational egoism and her uncompromising defense of laissez-faire capitalism.
Why is this happening? And what can those of us who uphold reason, individual rights and capitalism do to encourage and support this trend?
For an evening devoted to the discussion of these questions, we invite you to join us in New York City on September 15, 2009, for a special dinner event, The Atlas Shrugged Revolution.
At this benefit dinner event, Yaron Brook, president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, and John Allison, chairman of BB&T Corporation, will discuss why Americans are turning to Rand’s magnum opus—and why the novel’s revolutionary ideas are crucial to the future of freedom in America. You’ll also learn what the Ayn Rand Institute is doing right now to promote even greater public interest in Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand’s philosophy.
We hope you’ll be able to join us on September 15th for The Atlas Shrugged Revolution!
Sincerely,
Mark Chapman
Vice President of Development
The Ayn Rand Institute
P.S. In addition, a number of rare Ayn Rand books and manuscripts will be auctioned at the event. Images and descriptions of the items are available for viewing on the Web site for this event at www.arievents.com.
Copyright © 2009 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.
Labels: Announcements, Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Business and Economics, Events, Individual Rights and Law, The Arts
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
New Blog by Dianne Durante
TOS contributor Dianne Durante has a new blog called Principles, History and Philosophy for Today’s News. “So far,” says Dianne, “there are essays on pirates (provoked by the Somali pirates) and on Cuban-American relations. This is a trial run for a website I'd like to produce that would offer short essays on major events in American history, with suggested readings from Ayn Rand and Objectivist scholars. If you're interested in using such a site or advertising on it, let me know.”
Labels: Announcements, History, The Arts
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Atlas Shrugged Tops Amazon's Bestseller List
Washington, D.C., March 18, 2009—Earlier this year Ayn Rand’s prophetic novel Atlas Shrugged was selling at triple the rate it sold at in the beginning of 2008. Now the novel is soaring to even greater heights, and its trade paperback edition is currently in first place in the Classics category on Amazon.com’s best-seller list for sales in the United States. The 50th anniversary mass-market paperback edition of Atlas Shrugged ranks as #2 and the trade paperback Centennial edition ranks as #3. For several weeks Atlas Shrugged has been holding steady in the top 10 best-sellers in the broader United States Literature and Fiction category, and as of the writing of this release, different editions of the novel stand at #3, #5 and #6 in Amazon’s ranking.
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, explained the parallels between Atlas Shrugged and today’s events.
“In Atlas Shrugged, Rand tells the story of the U.S. economy crumbling under the weight of crushing government interventions and regulations. Meanwhile, blaming greed and the free market, Washington responds with more controls that only deepen the crisis. Sound familiar?”
Brook also stressed the importance today of the book’s often overlooked message that capitalism cannot be properly defended without morally defending profit and self-interest: “. . . only an ethic of rational selfishness can justify the pursuit of profit that is the basis of capitalism—and that as long as self-interest is tainted by moral suspicion, the profit motive will continue to take the rap for every imaginable (or imagined) social ill and economic disaster. Just look how our present crisis has been attributed to the free market instead of government intervention--and how proposed solutions inevitably involve yet more government intervention to rein in the pursuit of self-interest.”
Those interested in understanding the morality of capitalism can learn more in Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness—which, at #12 in the Classics category, is setting records of its own.
Copyright © 2009 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.
Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Business and Economics, The Arts
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Atlas Shrugged and the Financial Crisis
A radio interview with Alex Epstein on the Morning Magazine show, recorded on January 14, is now available online.
Copyright © 2009 Ayn Rand® Center for Individual Rights. All rights reserved.
Labels: Announcements, Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Business and Economics, The Arts
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: Celebrating the Best Within Us
What: A symposium offering contemporary perspectives on Ayn Rand's magnum opus, both as philosophy and as literature. All sessions will include question periods, and an open reception with the speakers will be held immediately afterwards.
Who: Speakers include Dr. Allan Gotthelf (University of Pittsburgh), Dr. Shoshana Milgram (Virginia Tech), Dr. Onkar Ghate (Ayn Rand Institute), and Jeff Britting (Associate Producer of the Academy Award-nominated documentary "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life").
When: Date: March 4, 2009, 4:00–6:30pm (reception follows)
Where: The University of Texas at Austin, ACES Auditorium (ACES 2.302)
Admission is FREE and open to the public.
For details, visit http://www.UTBBTChairObjectivism.com/ or email objectivism@austin.utexas.edu.
Labels: Announcements, Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Events, The Arts
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Don't Say Grace, Say Justice
The religious tradition of saying grace before meals becomes especially popular around the holidays, when we all are reminded of how fortunate we are to have an abundance of life-sustaining goods and services at our disposal. But there is a grave injustice involved in this tradition. It is the injustice of thanking an alleged God for the productive accomplishments of actual men.
Where do the ideas, principles, constitutions, governments, and laws that protect our rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness come from? What is the source of the meals, medicines, homes, automobiles, and fighter jets that keep us alive and enable us to flourish? Who is responsible for our freedom, prosperity, and well-being?
Is freedom a gift from God? It is not. Freedom, the absence of physical coercion, is a political condition resulting from the rational, principled thought and action of men—men such as Aristotle, John Locke, the Founding Fathers, Frederick Douglass, and American soldiers.
Did God make the ambrosia that melts in your mouth, or the asthma medicine that keeps your child alive, or the plush recliner in which you relax, or the big-screen TV on which you watch your favorite show? Did God create the jetliners that bring friends and family from afar, or the stealth bombers that keep the barbarians at bay, or the music that warms your heart and fuels your soul?
Since God is responsible for none of the goods on which human life and happiness depend, why thank him for any such goods? More to the point: Why not thank those who actually are responsible for them? What would a just man do?
Justice is the virtue of judging people rationally—according to what they say, do, and produce—and treating them accordingly, granting to each man that which he deserves. If someone spends the day preparing a wonderful meal, justice demands that he, not God, be thanked for doing so. If someone provides his family with a warm, safe, comfortable home, justice demands that he, not God, be thanked for providing it. If a policeman or fireman or doctor saves someone’s life, justice demands that he, not God, be thanked. If a loving spouse or child or parent or friend provides you with great joy, justice demands that he, not God, be acknowledged accordingly. If a philosopher discovers the principles on which freedom depends—and if others put those principles into practice—justice demands that they, not God, be given credit.
To say grace is to give credit where none is due—and, worse, it is to withhold credit where it is due. To say grace is to commit an act of injustice.
Rational, productive people—whether philosophers, scientists, inventors, artists, businessmen, military strategists, friends, family, or yourself—are who deserve to be thanked for the goods on which your life, liberty, and happiness depend. This holiday season—and from now on—don’t say grace; say justice. Thank or acknowledge the people who actually provide the goods. Some of them may be sitting right there at the table with you. And if you find yourself at a table where people insist on saying grace, politely insist on saying justice when they’re through. It’s the right thing to do.
Labels: Business and Economics, Foreign Policy and War, Philosophy, Religion, Science and Technology, The Arts
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
National Surveys Show Atlas Shrugged Is Widely Read
Washington, D.C.—For the second year in a row, a question included in a Zogby International omnibus telephone survey of American adults indicated that 8.1 percent of respondents have read Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged. The surveys conducted in October 2007 and again in October 2008 indicated that more than 17 percent of U.S. college graduates have read the novel. That is a remarkable number for a serious, intellectual novel of more than 1100 pages whose theme is the role of the mind in man’s existence.
Sales of Atlas Shrugged since its publication have reached a total of 6,500,000, with a record annual sale of 180,000 copies in 2007—the 50th anniversary year of the novel. The numbers indicated in the Zogby surveys implies three or more readers of each copy sold.
These millions of readers of Atlas Shrugged must recognize recent political and economic events as a disconcerting echo of scenes from the novel. The novel records a future society gradually collapsing from the cumulative effect of ever-increasing government intervention in the economy and in the individual lives of citizens—with catastrophic consequences. Each step in the disintegration of society becomes a justification for further government intervention and suppression of freedom until the economy is abandoned by its few remaining productive citizens.
In her 1964 lecture “Is Atlas Shrugging?” Ayn Rand described writing Atlas Shrugged “with a brief rule I had set for myself: The purpose of this book is to prevent itself from becoming prophetic.” The commitment of the Ayn Rand Center is to serve that purpose in two ways, by insuring an ever-increasing readership for Atlas Shrugged, and by the application of her ideas as the best antidote to contemporary economic folly and threats to individual rights.
### ### ###
Ayn Rand Center experts are available for interviews on this topic.
Contact:
Larry Benson
949-222-6550, ext. 213
media@aynrandcenter.org
For more information on Objectivism’s unique point of view, go to ARC’s Web site. The Ayn Rand Center is a division of the Ayn Rand Institute and promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Center for Individual Rights. All rights reserved.
Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Business and Economics, Individual Rights and Law, The Arts
Monday, April 28, 2008
Rational Egoism in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead
Who: Andrew Bernstein, professor of philosophy and speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute
What: A talk and Q & A examining The Fountainhead and explaining Ayn Rand's morality of rational egoism
Where: University of Maryland, Arts Building, Room 2309, College Park, MD
When: May 1, 2008, at 8 pm
Admission is FREE and open to the public.
Hosted by: the Terrapin Objectivists
Club Contact: anyborgh@umd.edu
Description: In The Fountainhead, novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand fully dramatizes the moral theory of rational egoism—the theory which holds that it is each person's responsibility to choose his goals and values by use of his independent reasoning mind; and that it is his right to pursue these goals in quest of his own selfish, personal happiness. Put another way, conscientious adherence to one's best rational judgment is the only appropriate means by which to live a fully human life—and success, creative achievement and personal happiness are its proper goals and ends. The theme of the novel is the virtue of independence in thought and action: the crucial importance of deriving your values and standards by the exercise of your own best judgment, as opposed to blindly following the judgment of others; and then pursuing these values consistently and indefatigably, as opposed to betraying or compromising them in practice. Dr. Bernstein explores how the plot and conflict of The Fountainhead convey this theme, including a detailed, in-depth analysis of the five major characters in the story—Peter Keating, Ellsworth Toohey, Gail Wynand, Dominique Francon, and the hero Howard Roark.
Bio: Dr. Bernstein is a visiting professor of philosophy at Marist College; he also teaches at SUNY Purchase (which selected him Outstanding Teacher for 2004) and formerly at Pace University and at Marymount College (which selected him Outstanding Teacher for 1995). Dr. Bernstein lectures regularly at American universities and appears frequently on radio talk shows. His op-eds have been published in such newspapers as The San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington Times, Los Angeles Daily News and The Houston Chronicle. Dr. Bernstein is the author of three Ayn Rand titles for CliffsNotes: Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead and Anthem. He also authored Penguin's Teacher's Guide to "The Fountainhead," and The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire.
### ### ###
Andrew Bernstein is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: media@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213
For more information on this talk, please e-mail media@aynrand.org.
For more information on this event and on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site. Founded in 1985 the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Please Note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI.
Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.
Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Events, The Arts
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Expelled Gets an F
Irvine, CA—Today Ben Stein's anti-evolution documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, opens in theaters. The film claims that advocates of "intelligent design"—the view that life is so complex it must be the product of a "higher intelligence"—are the persecuted victims of a "scientific establishment" dogmatically committed to evolution.
"The premise of Expelled is that proponents of 'intelligent design' have been shunned, denied tenure, and even fired because of a conspiracy to quash the scientific evidence supporting their theory," said Dr. Keith Lockitch, resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. "But the truth is: there is no evidence supporting their theory. Intelligent design is completely devoid of any positive scientific content, and consists of nothing more than a religiously motivated attack on evolution. To the extent intelligent design advocates are facing obstacles in academia it is because they are not doing real science: they haven't been 'expelled' they have flunked out of the scientific community, just as a faith healer would flunk out of medical school.
"Observe that intelligent design advocates have pumped millions into publicity-seeking, rather than appealing to scientists with facts and logical arguments. They have spent more time at Christian 'apologetics seminars' than scientific conferences, and have attempted to use the courts to force schools to teach their ideas. Now they are hoping to dupe the movie-going public with a film that misrepresents Darwin's theory and the array of facts that support it—just as the makers of Expelled misrepresented the nature of the film in order to bamboozle respected evolutionary scientists into participating in it.
"Intelligent design advocates will do anything to advance their views—except science.
"The reason for that is simple: doing science has never been their goal. Their goal is to make biblical creationism appear scientific in order to skirt the constitutional ban on religion in public schools. Contrary to the film's claims, the real dogmatists are not the defenders of Darwin, but the religiously motivated advocates of intelligent design."
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Dr. Lockitch has a PhD in Physics from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and is a resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI). He writes and edits for ARI and is a professor in the Objectivist Academic Center, where he teaches undergraduate writing and a graduate course on the history of physics. His writings have appeared in publications such as the Orange County Register and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Dr. Keith Lockitch is available for interviews. To book him for your show, please contact Larry Benson: 800-365-6552 ext. 213 (office) 949-838-5137 (cell) larryb@aynrand.org
For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site. Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.
Labels: Religion, Science and Technology, The Arts
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Heidi Moore's Argument from Intimidation
On the website of the Wall Street Journal, under the heading “Capitalism Shrugged: Should Ayn Rand Be Required Reading?”—and after stating a few uncontroversial facts, several inaccuracies, and some inconsequential fluff—Heidi Moore gets to her point:
Rand has a bit of a reputation problem among those who have not drunk the Kool-Aid. . . . Deal Journal readers, we put the question to you: Should there be more Ayn Rand to instruct young, impressionable minds? Or is the problem with capitalism today too much Rand already?
Gosh, Ms. Moore, since you put it that way, how could readers of the Wall Street Journal possibly answer in the affirmative? How could self-respecting, independent thinkers bear the prospect of being regarded as Kool-Aid–drinking cultists for holding that reality, reason, self-interest, individual rights, freedom, and the like deserve the attention of college students?
I’ve said enough here and here about the absurdity of the ongoing attacks against John Allison and BB&T for taking a rationally principled approach to educational grants, so I won’t address that issue again here. But I cannot resist pointing out that if Heidi Moore had read and understood Ayn Rand’s works, she might have thought twice about so brazenly and publicly engaging in one of the irrational tactics identified by Ayn Rand: The Argument from Intimidation.
The Argument from Intimidation is the attempt to substitute psychological pressure for rational argument. In Rand’s words:
It is a method of bypassing logic by means of psychological pressure . . . [It] consists of threatening to impeach an opponent’s character by means of his argument, thus impeaching the argument without debate. Example: “Only the immoral can fail to see that Candidate X’s argument is false.” . . . The falsehood of his argument is asserted arbitrarily and offered as proof of his immorality.
In today’s epistemological jungle, [this] method is used more frequently than any other type of irrational argument. It should be classified as a logical fallacy and may be designated as “The Argument from Intimidation.”
The essential characteristic of the Argument from Intimidation is its appeal to moral self-doubt and its reliance on the fear, guilt or ignorance of the victim. It is used in the form of an ultimatum demanding that the victim renounce a given idea without discussion, under threat of being considered morally unworthy. The pattern is always: “Only those who are evil (dishonest, heartless, insensitive, ignorant, etc.) can hold such an idea.”
God forbid that college students encounter such ideas; they might commit suicide and catch a comet.
If Ms. Moore has a rational argument against Rand’s ideas—whether against the importance of recognizing facts, or against the principle that reason is man’s means of knowledge, or against the principle that acting in one’s best interest is in one’s best interest, or against the principle that initiating force or committing fraud is immoral, or against the principle that freedom is a requirement of a proper human life, or against the principle that one should think for oneself—Ms. Moore should set forth her argument. If not, she should consider actually reading and understanding Ayn Rand. Philosophic education is more fruitful, and less embarrassing, than journalistic intimidation.
Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Philosophy, The Arts
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Announcing AtlasShrugged.com
The Ayn Rand Institute is very pleased to announce AtlasShrugged.com, a major new Web site dedicated to Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's great novel about the mysterious disappearance of the world's greatest innovators and industrialists.
AtlasShrugged.com has been created to be the Web's most comprehensive and insightful companion site to the novel. For new readers, it offers an introduction to the book and its themes; and for those already familiar with Atlas Shrugged, the site offers an unprecedented wealth of analysis and commentary to help them understand the book better, along with background information about Ayn Rand and her life.
Now in print for more than fifty years, Atlas Shrugged today sells well over 125,000 copies each year, even more than it sold at the peak of its initial publication run when it was a best-seller. More and more people are reporting the book's profound influence on their lives. Visit atlasshrugged.com to see why!
Browse AtlasShrugged.com.
Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.
Labels: Announcements, Ayn Rand and Objectivism, The Arts
Friday, March 28, 2008
The Originality of 'Atlas Shrugged'
What: A talk analyzing the theme and content of "Atlas Shrugged." A Q&A will follow.
Who: Tore Boeckmann, speaker for the Ayn Rand Institute
Where: Tufts University, Barnum Hall, Room 104, Medford, MA
When: Monday, March 31, 2008, at 8 pm
Admission is FREE.
Description: Ayn Rand said that "creating a new, original abstraction and translating it through new, original means" is "my kind of fiction writing." Tore Boeckmann tests the originality of "Atlas Shrugged" in regard to both abstract theme and concrete means by comparing the character of Francisco and the event of the tunnel disaster with similar concretes from Friedrich Schiller's plays ("Fiesco" and "Mary Stuart"). The comparison highlights non-obvious ways in which "Atlas Shrugged" concretizes its theme.
Bio: Tore Boeckmann's mystery short stories have been published and anthologized in several languages. He edited Ayn Rand's "The Art of Fiction," and has lectured at Objectivist conferences in America and Europe. Recent publications include " 'The Fountainhead' as a Romantic Novel" and "What Might Be and Ought to Be: Aristotle's 'Poetics' and 'The Fountainhead' " in "Essays on Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead,' " edited by Robert Mayhew.
For more information: e-mail media@aynrand.org
### ### ###
Tore Boeckmann is available for interviews now and after his talk.
Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: larryb@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213
For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site at http://www.aynrand.org/site/R?i=Uz8MXSJNZ6-mFClefvkVyA... Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.
Please note: The above event is organized, hosted and sponsored by an individual campus club. Although ARI provides financial support, educational materials and speakers for eligible student clubs, campus clubs are organizations independent of ARI. ARI does not necessarily endorse the content of the lectures and sessions offered.
Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.
Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Events, The Arts
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Atlas Shrugged and Today's Healthcare Controversy
Irvine, CA—This month is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's novel about a group of high achievers who rebel against a society that shackles and condemns them. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, heralded the book's relevance to today's cultural-political debate. "While Atlas is 50 years old, it contains many timeless truths that are just as relevant today as they were when it was first published.
"Take the realm of health care. Most Republicans and Democrats are proposing forms of socialized medicine—under euphemisms like 'universal health care,' 'national health insurance,' etc. Everyone talks about how to protect patient's 'right' to health care—but no one talks about the rights of the doctors that create this value. This is a deadly evasion that one of the characters in Ayn Rand's novel, Dr. Thomas Hendricks, an eminent surgeon who quits the field, eloquently explains in describing his decision:
'Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything—except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the "welfare" of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only "to serve." . . . I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind—yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands?'
"Countless outstanding doctors have already fled the field because of the sort of government coercion Dr. Hendricks describes," said Dr. Brook. "Anyone who truly cares about the state of American medicine should learn from Ayn Rand's character: we must liberate the providers of medical services and protect their right to practice medicine on their own terms and as they judge best."
Copyright © 2007 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.
Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Healthcare, The Arts
Friday, October 12, 2007
Should Businessmen Go on Strike?
Irvine, CA—In a week characterized by important labor stoppages, Chrysler workers went out on strike in Michigan, British postal workers returned to work while threatening further walkouts, and registered nurses started a 48-hour strike in Northern California.
"Job actions by employees are commonplace, yet we never see similar protests by the individuals who create jobs in the first place," said Thomas Bowden, an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute. "In her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, published 50 years ago this week, Rand's fictional hero, John Galt, gave voice to the undeserved suffering of businessmen when he said:
"There is only one kind of men who have never been on strike in human history. Every other kind and class have stopped, when they so wished, and have presented demands to the world, claiming to be indispensable—except the men who have carried the world on their shoulders, have kept it alive, have endured torture as sole payment, but have never walked out on the human race."
"John Galt was defending the businessmen who create and operate the companies that generate steel, oil, medicine, computers, and all the other goods and services on which our lives and happiness depend,"
Bowden said. "The entrepreneurs, the executives, the investors and bankers, the top-level managers—these are truly indispensable men and women on whose creativity all other workers depend for their jobs."
"Why," Bowden asked, "do so many of these capitalist heroes continue to toil away, creating jobs for a society that morally condemns their desire for personal profit as selfish and materialistic, and subjects them to government control as if they were beasts of burden? What keeps those individuals from going on strike? In Atlas Shrugged, Rand answers these questions, showing why nothing less than a moral revolution is needed to set businessmen free from the shackles of unearned guilt."
Copyright © 2007 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.
Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Business and Economics, The Arts
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Why Businessmen Love Atlas Shrugged by Alex Epstein
If you ask any hundred successful businessmen chosen at random to name the book that has most inspired them, you will undoubtedly hear one title repeated over and over: Atlas Shrugged—Ayn Rand's epic novel, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. Why do businessmen love Atlas Shrugged?
Because, in the form of a thrilling novel with inspiring heroes, it does something no other book has ever done: it presents the pursuit of profit, the essence of business, as a profoundly moral activity.
Observe that while profit-seeking is widely recognized as economically indispensable, it is also widely regarded as morally tainted, if not outright immoral. This applies, not just to attempts to "profit" via theft or fraud, but to the pursuit of profit as such. For example, pharmaceutical companies who successfully develop and sell life-saving drugs, oil companies who explore the ends of the earth to extract a vital resource, and financiers who efficiently invest wealth through our dynamic financial markets are all routinely castigated for their high profits. And those who defend profit-seeking do so, not on moral grounds, but as an amoral means to a noble end: the "public good"—i.e., the good of everyone besides businessmen themselves.
To the extent honest, productive businessmen absorb this view of their profession—and most do, to some extent—they experience unearned guilt over their work, and are unable to morally challenge the ever-increasing taxes and regulations foisted on them for the "public good." Atlas Shrugged rocks their world.
The heroes of Atlas Shrugged are a group of great achievers, mostly businessmen, who, like businessmen today, live in a world that damns, shackles, and drains them. But these achievers refuse to accept this treatment; they fight back. They go on strike, refusing to work in a society that at once depends on their achievements but brands them immoral for seeking to profit from those achievements. They let the world see what happens when their "immorality" is removed. "We are evil, according to your morality," the leader of the strike, John Galt, tells the world in a radio address, "We have chosen not to harm you any longer. . . . We are dangerous and to be shackled, according to your politics. We have chosen not to endanger you, nor to wear the shackles any longer."
Without the great, profit-seeking industrialists, what remains is, as Galt puts it, "a world without mind"—a world without the thinker-creators who forge steel by the megaton, direct intricate transcontinental train networks, and bring new inventions to the masses—a world that quickly spirals downward into poverty and destruction.
As readers witness how the world treats the Atlases who carry it on their shoulders, and what happens when Atlas shrugs, they gain a new appreciation for these "dollar chasers," and begin to question the premise that the profit motive is immoral. Readers are joined in this moral-intellectual journey by one of the leading characters in the story, metal magnate Hank Rearden, who is one of the last to learn about the strike.
We meet Rearden at the triumphant culmination of his 10-year-quest to revolutionize the industrial world with Rearden Metal: an alloy far lighter, stronger, and cheaper than steel. When he succeeds, he expects to profit handsomely from sales to grateful customers eager to buy his magnificent new product. Instead, he is punished for his efforts—first by slander and denunciation from a society that damns Rearden Metal as a fraud ("a lethal product of greed")—then by the destruction of his profits by regulations that dictate, in the name of the "public good," how much he can produce and whom he must sell to—and finally by outright nationalization of his product. As his business is destroyed, the world suffers destruction with him—yet his critics still mindlessly damn his pursuit of profit, and demand "wider powers" for the government to curb it.
As Rearden suffers through all this for the sin of trying to make money by creating incredible value, he is led, with the help of the strike's leaders, to a profound moral realization. The selfish pursuit of profit that he so excels at—pursuing his own well-being by his own independent thought, production, and trade—is the essence of what human life requires, and therefore, the highest of moral virtues. "They had known," says Galt of Rearden and the other strikers, "that theirs was the power. I taught them that theirs was the glory."
Armed with, as Galt puts it, "the knowledge of [his] own moral value," Rearden is able to defend himself from government predations like never before. In response to accusations that he "works for nothing but his own profit," Rearden responds defiantly, "I work for nothing but my own profit—which I make by selling a product they need to men who are willing and able to buy it. . . . I do not sacrifice my interests to them nor do they sacrifice theirs to me; we deal as equals by mutual consent to mutual advantage—and I am proud of every penny that I have earned in this manner. . . . I refuse to apologize for my ability—I refuse to apologize for my success—I refuse to apologize for my money."
Unfortunately, while Rearden experiences a lifelong moral transformation from the story of Atlas, most of the readers of Atlas Shrugged do not. While many businessmen derive lasting inspiration from Atlas, they do not attain or pursue an enduring understanding of the moral virtue of profit—and certainly do not proudly defend their right to practice it freely. Thus, many of Atlas Shrugged's most vocal admirers at once proclaim adoration for the novel, while simultaneously attempting to justify their existence by appealing to some "higher cause" ("the environment," "diversity," "the community")—and certainly do not proudly stand up for their right to pursue profit in a free market. They engage in the same tried-and-failed tactics of behind-the-scenes lobbying and appeals to the "public good" that have led to the shrinking of economic freedom in the last 50 years, just as they did in the 50 years before Atlas Shrugged.
On the 50th anniversary of Atlas Shrugged, businessmen should make a point of rereading the novel. But this time, in addition to being inspired to greatness by its heroes, they should pay special attention to the book's radical moral philosophy—a philosophy that has the potential to truly change how they look at their lives and enable them to fight successfully for their freedom.
Alex Epstein is an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand—author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead."
Copyright © 2007 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.
Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Business and Economics, The Arts
A Foreign-Aid Controversy . . . Reminiscent of Atlas Shrugged
Irvine, CA—What does Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged have to do with a current debate over U.S. foreign aid? More than you might think.
The New York Times reports about the latest dispute over how U.S. foreign aid should be spent. One faction claims that, because the rising cost of food reduces how much can be bought, the government should reserve some money in a "safe box" designated to feed people facing chronic hunger—while others insist that U.S. aid money remain liquid enough to enable us to respond quickly to food emergencies.
But there's one crucial question that no one is asking: While there's much debate over the means of providing aid and while some critics fault our government's aid agency for inefficiencies—no one challenges the basic goal of doling out billions in foreign aid. The notion that Americans have a moral duty to sacrifice their hard-earned wealth to fund such a global welfare schemes is taken as self-evident.
But Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged levels a fundamental challenge to that widely accepted moral premise.
The startling view dramatized in her book is that welfare schemes such as foreign aid are profoundly unjust—and that we have no duty to sacrifice our wealth to feed and clothe the poor, regardless of whether they live across the globe or across the street. On the contrary, on Rand's view as projected in her novel and nonfiction works, those who earn their prosperity by production and trade have an absolute moral right to every penny of their income. Her revolutionary conception of morality holds that self-sacrifice is a vice and that pursuing one's rational self-interest is a virtue.
As for the 'have-nots' in Africa and across the world, their plight is a result of not having freedom and individualism; they are miserably poor because of their bloody tribalism and superstition—ideas that kept the Western world dirt poor for centuries. If Westerners were truly interested in helping them, they would teach them to embrace reason, individualism and capitalism—precisely the values responsible for the West's prosperity, but which are today being eroded through endless altruist policies.
It is high time Americans learned to question not merely the means, but the very goal of foreign aid—and understand the truly destructive nature of the altruist morality that justifies it.
Copyright © 2007 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.
Labels: Ayn Rand and Objectivism, Foreign Policy and War, The Arts
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Dianne Durante's New Blog
TOS contributor Dianne Durante has started a new author's blog for her forthcoming book, Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan. From her first post:
For the next two months (through February 2007) I plan to post a paragraph or two every day about one of the OMOM essays: what's covered in [essay sections] "About the Sculpture" and "About the Subject," why I chose those particular topics, what I found most surprising when doing the research, and/or what I most regretted deleting. Eventually (in March?) I'll upload out-takes, bibliographical references, and intriguing snippets of research that never even made it into an early draft.
If you have enjoyed Mrs. Durante's TOS articles, "Getting More Enjoyment from Art You Love" and "19th-Century French Painting and Philosophy," or have an interest in representational sculpture, or simply appreciate good art analysis, the blog (which includes great photography) is well worth visiting.
Labels: Announcements, The Arts
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Stop!
Don't do it. There's no need to purchase that expensive Jackson Pollock painting. You can make your own for free—and it will be just as good.
Labels: The Arts
Monday, July 17, 2006
God's Word Cast in Plastic
If you want a good laugh—at the expense of a bad book—check out the work of Brendan Powell Smith at www.thebricktestament.com. Smith explains the project and its beginnings in the introduction to his first book, The Brick Testament: Stories from the Book of Genesis:
There I was enjoying a leisurely lunch one evening at the local Taco Bell when suddenly my bean burrito burst into flames and I heard the unmistakable voice of God. "Brendan," it said, "from this day forth you will illustrate for me my most holy of books, The Bible, completely in LEGO®."
"Surely there is someone more qualified than I for this task," I humbly replied. "For I am but a simple man with no special talent for building with plastic bricks."
"Who are you to question the will of God?" the angered voice boomed back. "Was it not I who created the world from nothing and whose hands control the destiny of mankind?
"But I'm an atheist," I protested.
"Then you are especially unqualified to question me!" came the response. "Now get to work!"
Smith has indeed gotten to work. Since his religious experience at Taco Bell, he has published three books and built an extensive website, using hundreds of photographs of cleverly arranged LEGO® bricks and characters to depict—and parody—biblical tales and teachings. In each Brick Testament installment, a straight, unembellished translation of the Bible lets the irrationality of the book speak for itself, while Smith's ingenious LEGO® depictions serve to visually concretize the absurdity and evil that fill its pages.
This is expertly executed humor: While Smith's project illustrates the havoc that religious beliefs wreak on human life and happiness, his treatment appropriately mocks religion, showing it to be what it fundamentally is: metaphysically impotent and utterly laughable.
The three Brick Testament books—Stories from the Book of Genesis, The Ten Commandments, and The Story of Christmas—make great gifts or coffee-table décor and can be purchased here. The vast website contains dozens of additional Bible stories and can consume hours of your time in what seem to be minutes. For a sampling of the hilarious world of The Brick Testament, see two of my favorite sections, The Teachings of Jesus: On Love and The Law: False Prophets.
Note: Due to the nature of the Bible, The Brick Testament contains images of violence and sexual acts.
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