Jon Hersey's Articles
Announcements
From the Editor: Winter 2023
Jon Hersey November 23, 2023
Welcome to the Winter 2023 issue of The Objective Standard, which caps the journal’s eighteenth year in print, providing clarity on all manner of important issues.
Education & Parenting
Hannah Frankman: Rebel Educator
Jon Hersey November 23, 2023
In one way or another, Hannah Frankman has spent most of her life in the alternative education sphere: She was homeschooled, then worked for the college-alternative bootstrapping program Praxis before starting her own alternative education company, Rebel Educator. Here’s how and why she’s helping parents take their children out of government schools.
Ayn Rand & Objectivism, Economics
Who Is John Galt Mortgage Company?
Jon Hersey November 23, 2023
When I heard that two friends and highly successful businessmen—Tim Chermak and Mitchell Broderick—had launched a new venture called John Galt Mortgage Company, I immediately thought, Brilliant! But I didn’t realize then how brilliant their idea really is.
Arts & Culture, Noteworthy
The Musical Time Machine of Julian Lage
Jon Hersey November 16, 2023
Much jazz revels in the obscure, eschewing the pleasing consonances of more popular music. But in Lage’s hands, the genre’s extended harmonic palette is instead used to milk maximum expressiveness from more familiar sonic territory.
Arts & Culture, Noteworthy
A Parting Message from The Beatles, and More
Jon Hersey November 8, 2023
Hear the Beatles' last song, Tom Bukovac's Plexi Soul (now on vinyl), a new Van Morrison record that makes sitting still impossible, and more.
Arts & Culture, Noteworthy
New Music from Alice Sara Ott, Duran Duran, Carter Faith, and More
Jon Hersey October 31, 2023
Alice Sara Ott releases a deluxe edition of her Echoes of Life, Duran Duran unearths a Halloween-themed dance-party soundtrack perfect for zombies, werewolves, and witches—and more.
Arts & Culture, Noteworthy
New Music From The Rolling Stones, Robbie Robertson, Glen Hansard, and More
Jon Hersey October 27, 2023
Robbie Robertson comes around full circle, The Rolling Stones show some new colors, Glen Hansard stares melancholy firmly in the face, and Dave Barnes wields old tricks for new delights.
Arts & Culture, Noteworthy
The Dueling Philosophies of Two New Guitar Albums
Jon Hersey October 19, 2023
Two widely celebrated guitarists recently released new records. They represent not merely different musical approaches appropriate to their different genres, but two divergent worldviews.
Arts & Culture, Noteworthy
Noteworthy: New Music from Joe Bonamassa, Vikingur Ólafsson, and More
Jon Hersey October 13, 2023
Welcome to “Noteworthy,” a periodic update on new music and related news. This week’s noteworthy picks span the musical universe.
Ayn Rand & Objectivism
Ayn Rand on ‘Moral Sanction’: What Bryan Caplan Gets Wrong
Jon Hersey September 22, 2023
Practicing what Rand advocated requires not only having (and, when appropriate, providing) valid reasons for one’s views and values, but also raising one’s standards of evaluation and refraining from “unprovoked moral denunciations or debates.”
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.