From the Objectivist Center:
Ayn Rand is often mentioned in newspapers, magazines, books, and other publications, but writers don’t always seem to understand her ideas. The Objectivist Center is researching an article on the ways in which Rand and/or Objectivism are misunderstood, misrepresented, or misquoted. We would appreciate any examples you have seen. We’re also interested in examples where the ideas are accurately presented. In either case, what we’re looking for is not simply a reference to her, to her novels and characters, or the name of her philosophy, but a characterization of the ideas. If you would like to contribute an example, please email David Kelley (at dkelley at objectivistcenter.org) — and thanks in advance.
Author: Heather Wagenhals
Ayn Rand Centenary in The OC Register
I just had a long and pleasant chat with Orange County Register Staff Writer Valerie Takahama, who is writing an article about the Ayn Rand Centenary for publication in the next couple weeks. Keep your eyes open for that if you read the Register. We’ll post an announcement here on the meta-blog as well, as soon as we receive notice of its publication.
Robert Toth Completes Bust of Ayn Rand
We noted last year that North Carolina sculptor Robert Toth (whose bust of Sigmund Freud was featured on Fox News’ sitcom “Cracking Up”) was starting a bust of Ayn Rand.
His bust of Ayn Rand is now complete, and available for view on Robert Toth’s web site.
What Do You Mean You're Not Thirty-Five?
Some of you may have noticed that an inordinate number of new members of the dating service in recent weeks have been listed as thirty-five years old. This was a minor bug in our code and has now been fixed. (Thank you to the person who brought it to our attention.) Sorry for the temporary inconvenience!
Putin Demotes Economic Advisor Andrei Illarionov
We’ve noted previously that Putin economic advisor Andrei N. Illarionov has been a vocal admirer of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged. It sounds like Putin has suddenly noticed that the principles in Atlas are, uh, incompatible with dictatorship.
From an article in the New York Times:
President Vladimir V. Putin on Monday abruptly reduced the responsibilities of a senior adviser who last week issued a sweeping criticism of the Kremlin’s leadership and expressed deep misgivings about the direction in which Russia was headed.
In a presidential decree released without further comment, Mr. Putin relieved the adviser, Andrei N. Illarionov, of his duties as Russia’s envoy to the Group of 8, comprising the world’s major industrialized nations and Russia. Mr. Putin reassigned those duties to a presidential aide who is seemingly a more loyal Kremlin insider, Igor I. Shuvalov.
Mr. Illarionov, 43, has been an economics adviser to Mr. Putin since 2000, and at times a vocal critic of the Kremlin’s course. Both the Kremlin and Mr. Illarionov’s spokeswoman said that for the moment he would retain his principal post. But his sudden removal as envoy to the Group of 8 carried an implicit rebuke.
In a long news conference here last week and then in an interview on an independent radio station, Mr. Illarionov issued a searing and comprehensive assessment of the state of affairs in Russia, saying the country had sharply shifted direction for the worse, and risked becoming a third world state.
See the full article for additional information. (Via Drudge)
Centennial Editions of Ayn Rand's Novels
An announcement via the Ayn Rand Bookstore:
Marking the 100th anniversary of Ayn Rand’s birth, the publisher of her works has issued centennial editions of Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead and Anthem, featuring newly designed cover illustrations. The covers of the centennial trade paperbacks (softcovers) are slightly modified replicas of the original artwork from the first editions of each book, and will be printed on high quality paper with rough edges. The covers of the standard paperbacks are the work of the publisher’s staff designers.
Availability: Expected shipment date from the publisher is January 2005.
TOC Moves to DC, Names Hudgins Executive Director
An announcement from The Objectivist Center Founder David Kelley:
Next February will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ayn Rand, the writer and thinker who gave us Objectivism, and the 15th anniversary of the Objectivist Center, which I created to promote that philosophy through independent thought and open debate?a promise we have carried through our seminars, conferences and publications, thanks to our dedicated staff and supporters.
In this anniversary year, we will take our organization to a new level of impact in the marketplace of ideas by making major changes in the Center?s location and management.
First, we will move our headquarters to Washington, D.C. Washington is the center of the think-tank world, where cultural as well as political issues are actively debated?and covered in the media. The Center is already well known?and well respected?within the network of pro-freedom organizations in the capital, which can help us leverage our efforts. With several major universities, Washington is an academic center as well. This move will also allow us to explore new fundraising sources.
Second, the current Washington director, Edward Hudgins, will assume the responsibilities of executive director. I will continue at the Center as ?chief intellectual officer? as well as a member of the board. With Ed as executive director, I will able to devote most of my time to my strengths writing, research, and working with students and other scholars. Ed shares my commitment to Objectivism, and as a veteran of Capitol Hill, the Heritage Foundation, and the Cato Institute, he knows what it takes to succeed as an intellectual advocate. In the past two years he has shown tremendous energy and entrepreneurial vision in promoting our ideas through his writing, TV and radio appearances, and the conferences he?s organized.
With these changes, the Center will be better able to integrate its scholarly, academic and advocacy functions and focus on its strong comparative advantages in today?s intellectual battles.
One program focus will be the defense of capitalism as a moral ideal, not merely an economic one. Ed has received a good response using unique Objectivist arguments in defense of capitalism: the moral right of individuals to their own lives; entrepreneurs as creators who should take pride in their creations; the moral virtues manifested by entrepreneurs; and the need for them to stop apologizing for creating the richest country on Earth.
A second focus will be the culture wars over religion, values, and the clash of civilizations. We will continue to expose the false dichotomies between the religious values of cultural conservatives and the secular but socialistic values of the left. We will promote our distinctive cultural values?reason, individualism, and achievement?by applying to them to the issues of public debate.
We will continue the programs that have served our members well over the years, including publications and the Summer Seminar. We have also strengthened our student-training programs during the past year, and we?ll continue to make that investment in talent.
With our move and management changes we will be able to promote Objectivism more aggressively in the larger marketplace of ideas.
Why We Want to Make Money
Writing for the business section of London’s Telegraph, Luke Johnson provides an even-handed discussion of the need for an intellectual framework to guide one’s business endeavors:
It seems odd that there are so few intellectual works that deal with the philosophy of capitalism. Millions of words are written annually on the mechanics of business, but virtually none on the ultimate purpose of it all.
Where is the true justification for the sacrifice and effort? Is the rat race an exercise in futility? In the past 100 years, the profit motive has become the dominant creed, replacing religion, Marxism and the like ? yet there are almost no texts that rationalise why man strives so hard to build enterprises.
Why is it important for those engaged in accumulating wealth to think about the deeper principles underlying their daily work? I believe an understanding of their motivations, and the meaning of our economic and social systems, helps expand the mind and gives a sense of moral value.
After exploring a few other intellectual justifications for the pursuit of success (including those from Christian traditions), he notes Ayn Rand’s contributions:
Ayn Rand, the author of The Fountainhead and inventor of objectivism, was perhaps the foremost exponent of the unfettered philosophy of laissez-faire capitalism. She originated “the concept of man as a heroic being” with “productive achievement as his noblest activity”. Her books and beliefs remain popular today. Eddie Lampert, the Wunderkind behind the recent merger of retailers Sears and Kmart, is apparently an advocate.
See the full article for additional commentary.
Michael Milken, Privatizing Medical Research
Michael Milken, whose prosecution for violation of insider trading laws in the early 90s was condemned by many Objectivist commentators, is featured in a terrific cover article in this month’s Fortune magazine.
The article (available to subscribers of that magazine) begins:
The image on the oversized screen behind the podium was of a giant malignant tumor. The discussion was about prognostic indicators?doctorspeak for how much longer people with such tumors had to live. The prognosis wasn’t good, with life expectancy measured in months, not years. The presenter’s manner was cold, but it didn’t matter: This was no hospital bedside but a roomful of physicians, gathered for a seminar on prostate cancer at Houston’s prestigious M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. In the third row sat a tall, slight, unimposing man. The top of his middle-aged head no longer had hair; his eyebrows were thin. His nametag read dr. robert hackel, and all he could think about was how enormous the tumor looked onscreen. A tumor just like his own.
When the speaker, Donald Coffey, an esteemed prostate cancer expert from Johns Hopkins, was finished, Hackel made his way to the front. For 25 minutes he grilled Coffey on his presentation, asking technical questions about the research and its therapeutic implications. At what should have been the end of a friendly exchange between colleagues, Hackel turned to Coffey and said, “I am Mike Milken. I want to be cured.”
Coffey knew the name. It was 1993, and Michael Milken, the once-highflying junk-bond wizard had, a few years earlier, been a familiar face in the newspapers because of his high-profile indictment on securities violations. Only two weeks before, in fact, Milken?now wearing a phony ID badge with his middle name and father-in-law’s surname?had been released from prison, having served 22 months. Coffey was surprised not just by who his questioner was, but by the fact that he wasn’t a doctor. His toupee gone and his toothy grin somewhat modulated, Milken seemed more like a veteran lab scientist than a desperate patient. He knew much about the biology of cancer.
It was only when Milken began to speak rapturously about turning prostate cancer research on its head and starting “a Manhattan Project for cancer” that the financier sounded a bit naive. A real physician would have known better, thought Coffey. “The truth was, at the time, there was so little research?or anything else?going on in the field [of prostate cancer], it was as if Milken was speaking in tongues,” he says. Still, the good doctor listened politely.
Eleven years later many others are listening too. That’s because Milken has, in fact, turned the cancer establishment upside down.
How did he do this? In a word: privatization. Together with other high-profile entrepreneurs such as Intel’s Andy Grove, Milken started a private foundation to aggressively fund innovative research to cure prostate cancer. (Not to “understand” or “promote awareness” of prostate cancer ? to cure it.)
At first, establishment researchers were wary of the funding requirements, which include sharing the results of their research with other researchers before it goes through the lengthy process of getting published in peer-reviewed journals. But prostate cancer research had been mired in bureaucratic red tape for many years, and the prospect of receiving $100,000 in funding within 90 days ? rather than the 2-3 years required for government-funded research ? eventually won the researchers over to the merits of private funding.
Today Milken’s institution has funded so many new treatments and drug therapies that, had it sought to retain ownership of such treatments, it would be the world’s third-largest biotechnology company. (I’m paraphrasing from memory, here; I read the full story this morning but don’t have it handy.)
The result? Deaths from prostate cancer are declining steeply, and Milken himself is in seemingly full remission.
See the full story in Fortune for additional information.
More on Ayn Rand and The Incredibles
The new movie The Incredibles received a terrific write-up in yesterday’s Washington Times. The review begins:
For decades, kids have enjoyed following the out-of-this-world exploits of comic-book heroes, learning along the way about courage and the need for good to triumph over the plots of those possessed by evil. Every generation must learn its own duty to sacrifice and fight for the good.
But lately, ever since the first “Spiderman” live-action movie roared at the box office, fans of the long-lasting Marvel Comics stable of superheroes have been inundated with big, noisy, expensive blockbusters bringing these two-dimensional pen-and-ink heroes to life. Unfortunately, in attempting to dramatize Marvel honcho Stan Lee’s formula ? paper heroes deepened on the page by troubled private lives in their worlds of secret identity ? these films have all suffered in varying degrees, growing ever more dark and gloomy, almost hopeless.
While the “Spiderman” films have retained a fraction of whimsy, movies like “Daredevil” and “The Incredible Hulk” have left many fans wishing they had seen more righteous heroism and less sulky realism. In the final analysis, superhero comics work best when the reader is inspired, not left seeking Dr. Phil. Complex superheroes can make for a nice, dramatic storyline, but when they’re so tortured by personal demons, they can’t be very super, can they?
For those who like their heroes a little less super-serious than the superhuman characters of old, there is a surprisingly mature option: Pixar’s new cartoon “The Incredibles.” This film unfolds like a comic book, with lots of action. But between its animated lines, it offers real lessons about heroism, the use of talents and commitment to family. It’s not often a cartoon carries a line where a child worries, “Mom and Dad’s life could be in jeopardy … or even worse … their marriage.”
See the full review for additional information about this apparently-terrific, and refreshing, film.