Jon Hersey's Articles
Announcements
From the Editor, Summer 2023
Jon Hersey May 24, 2023
Welcome to the Summer 2023 issue of The Objective Standard. I hope you enjoy the issue—and that you’ll join the six hundred or so people coming to Phoenix for 2023’s most life-enhancing conference!
Ayn Rand & Objectivism, Economics, History, Philosophy, Politics & Rights
Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, and the Philosophic Foundation for Freedom
Jon Hersey May 24, 2023
Adam Smith and Ayn Rand are widely considered to offer merely different flavors of pro-capitalist thought. But their differences are greater—and far more consequential—than their similarities.
Education & Parenting, Politics & Rights
Schools Foment Shootings by Undermining Self-Esteem
Jon Hersey April 20, 2023
Not only do many educators and parents fail to encourage and help children learn how to think and become efficacious, they also paint the whole of mankind as incompetent, or worse, self-destructive.
Announcements, Ayn Rand & Objectivism
From the Editor, Spring 2023
Jon Hersey February 21, 2023
Welcome to the Spring 2023 issue of The Objective Standard. This begins the journal’s eighteenth year in publication, and I’d like to extend a tremendous thanks to everyone who subscribes and supports our work.
Philosophy, Politics & Rights
Freedom’s Furies: Timothy Sandefur on the Importance of Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand
Jon Hersey February 21, 2023
Isabel Paterson’s The God of the Machine, Rose Wilder Lane’s The Discovery of Freedom, and Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, all published in 1943, launched the modern American liberty movement. Freedom’s Furies by Timothy Sandefur is the first book-length exploration of these women's relationships and context.
Education & Parenting, Politics & Rights
Bad Schools and What to Do about Them, with Andrew Bernstein
Jon Hersey February 1, 2023
Dr. Andrew Bernstein, author of Why Johnny Still Can’t Read or Write or Understand Math: And What We Can Do About It, recently joined me to discuss the problems with American schools today, along with some inspiring solutions.
Politics & Rights
Why Do Our Political Options Suck?
Jon Hersey January 5, 2023
The stalemate over house speaker brings to mind a question: Isn’t it strange that in a nation of such ambition and inventiveness, our options for political candidates basically range from bad to worse, from senile morons with no understanding of basic economics to ditzy Marxists and outright frauds and crooks?
Politics & Rights
What the Twitter Files Revealed about Power and Censorship
Jon Hersey December 30, 2022
Responses to the Twitter Files display a fundamental misunderstanding of what censorship is—and point us toward “solutions” far more dangerous than the problem.
Politics & Rights
What Americans Can Learn from Brazil’s Chief Censor
Jon Hersey December 15, 2022
Incitement to violence and the spread of “disinformation” are common rationalizations for expanding government powers to restrict speech, but how does such censorship actually pan out?
Announcements, Ayn Rand & Objectivism
From the Editor, Winter 2022
Jon Hersey November 21, 2022
Welcome to the Winter 2022 issue of The Objective Standard, which rounds out the journal’s seventeenth year providing conceptual clarity on the basis of rational philosophy.
Arts & Culture
Declassified: A Low-Key Guide to the High-Strung World of Classical Music, by Arianna Warsaw-Fan Rauch
Jon Hersey October 24, 2022
Declassified tells the stories not only of the loves and losses of Beethoven and Brahms but of the heartbreak of a young musician who built a life for herself atop the expectations of others—and who, in the wake of inevitable disappointment, learned to salvage her love of classical music and spotlight its value for all to see.
History, Politics & Rights
Iranian Freedom Fighters and the Winds of Reason
Jon Hersey October 6, 2022
Ayatollah Khamenei has said that an Islamic revival is spreading through the Middle East, not by conscious intent, but “like the scent of spring flowers that is carried by the breeze.” Maybe so, but a headwind is blowing steadily and insistently from the West.
Announcements, Education & Parenting
Atlas Academy’s Alternative Education Conference
Jon Hersey September 12, 2022
On Friday, September 30, join our friends at Atlas Academy for their Alternative Education Conference, featuring TOS contributing editor Andrew Bernstein and Montessori consultant Susan Mayclin Stephenson.
Ayn Rand & Objectivism, History, Reviews
What Went Right? An Objectivist Theory of History by Robert Tracinski
Jon Hersey September 8, 2022
“Who sets the tone of a culture?,” asked Ayn Rand. “A small handful of men: the philosophers.” According to Robert Tracinski, many of Rand’s followers have taken this to mean that efforts toward a better future should focus on university humanities departments. But, in his latest book, Tracinski argues that this is only part of the story.
Politics & Rights
Why I Changed My Mind on Abortion
Jon Hersey August 26, 2022
Rights pertain to how people may treat one another. They establish a baseline of permissible conduct between individuals. But when we’re talking about a pregnant woman, we’re not talking about two individuals, each with rights, one of whom just happens to reside within the other.