Jon Hersey's Articles
Announcements, Ayn Rand & Objectivism
From the Editor, Fall 2022
Jon Hersey August 19, 2022
Welcome to the Fall 2022 issue of The Objective Standard, packed with articles building on the foundation of rational philosophy identified by Ayn Rand.
Arts & Culture, Good Living
Music, Mind, and Morality
Jon Hersey August 19, 2022
Most of us don’t know how or why music affects us the way it does, why we like the songs that we do. It’s the closest thing that we rational 21st-century people have to alchemy. But knowledge is power.
Arts & Culture
John Williams’s ‘Love Affair with Orchestra’ Continues
Jon Hersey May 10, 2022
No single recording could exhaustively capture even just the highlights of Williams’s career, spanning six decades, but Deutsche Grammophon’s latest culls a varied set of gems, from the uplifting Olympic theme, to the sinister sounds of Close Encounters, to anthems from the beloved Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars franchises.
Science & Technology
Washington Post ‘Journalist’ Tries to Smear Alex Epstein
Jon Hersey March 30, 2022
Justice requires that the Washington Post fire Maxine Joselow for journalistic malpractice and publicly commit to honest journalism, free of smearing.
Economics, Politics & Rights
Star Trek, Marx, Maezawa, and the Moneyless Dream: Utopian or Dystopian?
“Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort.” —Ayn Rand
Politics & Rights
Australia Double Faults in Djokovic Fiasco
Jon Hersey January 13, 2022
Love him or hate him, Djokovic served Aussies a valuable opportunity—to pause, reflect, and reconsider the implications of individual rights for pandemic policy. Unfortunately, they’ve double-faulted.
Good Living
Cal Newport on Mission, Mastery, and Flourishing at Work
Jon Hersey December 23, 2021
I recently spoke with Cal Newport about living the “deep life,” how our standard operating procedures are diminishing our ability to do meaningful work and what to do about it, and about what he’s learned from heroes such as Lincoln and Socrates about building a better world.
Arts & Culture, Ayn Rand & Objectivism, Philosophy
Which Ayn Rand Novel to Read First
Jon Hersey November 26, 2021
Where in Rand’s corpus should a curious reader begin? As someone who’s read it all, I would say that, for most people, there’s no better place to start than with one of Rand’s major works of fiction—Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, We the Living, or Anthem—and I suspect Rand would agree.
Education & Parenting, Politics & Rights
Public School Pandemonium Teaches a Valuable Lesson
Jon Hersey November 3, 2021
When parents are free to vote with their feet and their dollars, they will flock to the schools that best satisfy their standards. Schools that don’t will, instead of teaching, be taught a valuable lesson: Satisfy customers or close your doors.
Politics & Rights
The Case for Vaccine Mandates—Refuted
Jon Hersey October 25, 2021
The COVID vaccines currently available are marvels of human ingenuity. But the decision to get vaccinated or not is one every individual morally must be left free to make for himself.
Economics, Politics & Rights
Why California’s Move to Ban Gas-Powered Generators (and Lawn Equipment) Could Leave Californians in the Dark
Jon Hersey October 6, 2021
California legislators have not only cut ties with reality—failing to see that they’re heading for ever more blackouts—they also want to cut their citizens’ last lifeline to reliable power when blackouts inevitably occur.
Education & Parenting, Philosophy, Politics & Rights
Why I Left America’s Failing Universities: An Interview with Carrie-Ann Biondi
Jon Hersey October 1, 2021
Carrie-Ann Biondi, a philosophy PhD and Aristotle scholar, taught in universities for twenty-five years, becoming associate professor of philosophy at Marymount Manhattan College and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. But in mid-2020, she jumped ship. Here, she shares why.
Ayn Rand & Objectivism, Politics & Rights
Why Universities Should Teach Ayn Rand Alongside Karl Marx
Jon Hersey September 6, 2021
If college professors want to prepare students for the real world, they should continue teaching The Communist Manifesto, but they should teach it alongside Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
Announcements
From the Editor, Fall 2021
Jon Hersey August 25, 2021
Hola from Colombia! Your support of this journal is helping to stimulate exciting developments, and I’d like to tell you about a few of these.
Good Living, Philosophy
How to Think More Clearly—and Improve Your Life
Jon Hersey August 25, 2021
With this simple practice, you’ll achieve a new level of clarity, the positive effects of which will reverberate throughout your life.
