Fall 2023 • Vol. 18, No. 3
From the Editor, Fall 2023
Welcome to the Fall 2023 issue of The Objective Standard. I hope you enjoy the issue. Continue »
Cover Article
Politics & Rights, Science & Technology
GMOs: Good, Man-Made Organisms
Contrary to decades-long, well-financed efforts to discredit and prohibit GMOs, gene editing is a profoundly life-enhancing technology. GM crops can and have saved lives, improved health, enhanced the soils they are planted in, freed up land, and increased profits for farmers—especially in the developing world.
Features
Arts & Culture, Science & Technology
Star Trek Inspires People ‘to Boldly Go’
Although its vision for the future is sometimes imperfect, Star Trek has, with its unabashed optimism, celebration of science and technology, and exploration of philosophic and moral questions, inspired countless people to achieve wonderful things.
Arts & Culture, Science & Technology
The Flower of Forest Park: Innovation in Architecture
One Hundred Above the Park has something to teach us about the history of skyscraper design, the future of apartment design, and the philosophy behind great new architecture.
Biographies, History
Robert P. McCulloch: The Man Who Bought London Bridge
Robert P. McCulloch worked constantly to grow his wealth and create new things, even when others couldn’t see the potential in his ideas or dismissed them as impossible. He deserves to be remembered as a productive businessman, a pioneering inventor, and, most of all, a visionary.
Good Living, Philosophy
Helen Keller’s Five Keys to Being Happy
In 1882, when Helen Keller was nineteen months old, an illness left her blind, deaf, and consequently dumb. But she would go on to live a life of success and happiness. How?
Arts & Culture
Writing against Your Life
Richard Mitchell (1929–2002), also known as “the underground grammarian,” was a champion of clarity in thought and communication.
Arts & Culture
Nine Inspiring Poems about the Future
Including works by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, D. H. Lawrence, Edgar Guest, Arthur Hugh Clough, James Oppenheim, Langston Hughes, William Stanley Braithwaite, and Will Allen Dromgoole.
Shorts
Arts & Culture, Philosophy
George Lucas Gets the Moral Meaning of Star Wars Wrong
George Lucas says that selfishness puts one on the dark side, but it’s really the other way around. Selfishness, properly understood, is the rational concern for one’s own interests. It is the light.
Good Living
On Choosing to Be a Younger Son
If you want to be fully alive and fully engaged in living a beautiful life, bear in mind the difference between the older and younger son—and choose to be the latter.
Reviews
Arts & Culture, History, Reviews
Oppenheimer, Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan
Oppenheimer was a key mind behind the invention and development of the bombs that ended World War II. He was also haunted by the question of whether producing these bombs was the right thing to do. This question runs throughout Christopher Nolan’s recent biopic, Oppenheimer, hailed by some as “the most epic WWII film yet."
Arts & Culture, Reviews
Sound of Freedom, Directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde
Although Sound of Freedom is emotionally straining at times, it is nonetheless an excellent and important film about heroic, inspiring people—and a film that hopefully will have a positive impact on real-life efforts to fight child trafficking.
