The Objectivist Center has announced a policy forum entitled: What Are Western Values And Should We Return to Them?
The forum, to be held June 3, 2004 in Washington, D.C., will explore the conservative, the Left, old and new, and the Objectivist perspectives on Western Values and Western civilization.
Speakers include:
David Kelley, The Objectivist Center
Edward Hudgins, The Objectivist Center
Lee Edwards,The Heritage Foundation
Marcus Raskin, The Institute for Policy Studies
Christopher Hitchens, author
Berry Latzner, American Council of Trustees and Alumni
For more information, visit The Objectivist Center website.
Author: s1e2t3u4p5
Excellent Interview with T.J. Rodgers
Declan McCullagh (writing for CNet’s News.com) has published an excellent interview with Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers.
Some noteworthy excerpts:
Q: John Kerry is denouncing “Benedict Arnold” CEOs who send jobs overseas. Is it moral for American companies to increase their overseas outsourcing?
A: It is immoral for any CEO not to run his company in the best possible financial way for his shareholders. I used to hold Kerry’s naive view of the “all American” company, meaning all jobs in America. That was a foolish mistake on my part, and it cost my shareholders a lot of money, until I moved our entire assembly and test operation and several hundred jobs offshore in 1992. […]
Some AFL-CIO activists are pledging to make the offshoring of technology jobs a campaign issue this fall.
The AFL-CIO has been promoting losing economics causes for years. Other than the government members of the union, the AFL-CIO has lost pretty much all of its membership over the last few decades. The AFL-CIO consistently promotes economic policies that harm its own members. […]
Why not [expand your company in California]?
The wage rate is one problem, but it’s surmountable, because the cost of a wafer is only 15 percent labor. So if I paid a 20 percent premium for labor, the wafer would only cost 3 percent more. The killer factor in California for a manufacturer to create, say, a thousand blue-collar jobs is a hostile government that doesn’t want you there and demonstrates it in thousands of ways, through bureaucrats and regulations.
Ayn Rand said no society can jail an honest man. So if you want to use the power of society on citizens, you have to make normal behavior illegal. The zoning ordinances and environmental ordinances are a classic example. I guarantee you that nobody truly understands them, and no plant can meet all of them simultaneously. So you end up with a dynamic that there are no laws, and there are no rules, and you’re completely at the mercy of the local government, and they don’t want you there. And they tell you that. So you go away. That’s why there’s no silicon left in Silicon Valley.
See the full interview with T.J. Rodgers for more gems of insight and wit from this prominent admirer of Atlas Shrugged.
PS. For some video footage, check out this EE Times interview with T.J. Rodgers.
Bush Reappoints Alan Greenspan
Reuters reports that today George W. Bush reappointed Alan Greenspan to a fifth term as chairman of the Federal Reserve:
Alan Greenspan will take the helm of the U.S. Federal Reserve for a fifth term with his reputation as the world’s top central banker intact, though a little less gilded than it was during the golden 1990s.
With the White House’s blessing on Tuesday, the 78-year-old Greenspan will stay on in the role he has held since August 1987.
President George W. Bush wants him “to serve as long as possible,” a White House spokesman said. His current term as chairman is scheduled to end June 20. […]
His tenure could make history even without a full four-year stretch. If he holds the Fed chair until June 2006, Greenspan will be the longest-serving chairman in the U.S. central bank’s 91-year history.
The article provides some interesting background, as well, for those who have not yet read Greenspan’s bio:
A longtime Republican, Greenspan in his youth was a friend and associate of late novelist Ayn Rand, who espoused the supremacy of the free markets and the profit motive in books such as “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”
When President Ronald Reagan named him to succeed the legendary Volcker in 1987, Greenspan was the favored candidate on Wall Street. But some were worried about whether he could live up to the reputation of the tough-minded Volcker.
Greenspan quickly proved his mettle. The “Black Monday” stock market crash of October 1987 came just two months after he took office.
In what is now seen as a textbook example of how to handle crises, Greenspan opened up the monetary spigots to keep the financial system from seizing up.
The move was widely seen as having staved off a recession in the U.S. economy. While a recession did later ensue a few years later, it was not a result of the market crash.
See the full article for further details.
Nick Gaetano Giclee Prints
Quent Cordair Fine Art has announced the release of Nick Gaetano’s Ayn Rand cover art in limited edition Giclee prints on canvas:
Over the past decade, Nick Gaetano’s artwork has graced the covers of Ayn Rand’s daringly original novels and non-fiction works, including the 50th Anniversary Edition of The Fountainhead and the 35th Anniversary Edition of Atlas Shrugged, with millions of copies sold in the U.S. and around the world. Quent Cordair Fine Art and Nick Gaetano are very pleased to announce the release of the Ayn Rand Cover Art in special Limited-Edition, signed and numbered, brilliantly colored Giclee prints on canvas. Special prices are available for orders of three or more Gaetano cover art prints.
See Cordair’s Nick Gaetano page for additional information and the full selection of available prints.
Atlas shrugged and so, maybe, will Koreans
Writing for Korea’s JoongAng Daily, Lee Se-jung posts a paean to Atlas Shrugged and its relevance to Korea:
Lately, Korean entrepreneurs say doing business in Korea is increasingly hard. Growing anti-business sentiment is another concern. This might be the moment to remember the lessons of “Atlas Shrugged.”
See the full editorial.
Chat with Yaron Brook and Onkar Ghate
The Objectivism Online web site has published a transcript of their recent live chat with Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), and Dr. Onkar Ghate, a senior fellow at ARI.
The conversation includes interesting information, including an update on the Objectivist Academic Center, their plans for the future, and this information about the popularity of ARI’s essay contests and the current sales of Ayn Rand’s books:
Let’s start with essay contests. This year, for the second time, we will have received 14,000 essays from high school students competing in our essay contests. This probably makes ours the largest essay contest in the country. In addition, this year we shipped over 50,000 copies of The Fountainhead and Anthem to high school teachers committed to teaching these books in their classrooms. Imagine a day when we are shipping 500,000 copies a year to such teachers, thus ensuring that millions of college freshmen are exposed to Ayn Rand’s ideas in high school. That day is coming.
The 50,000 books were sent to over 1,000 teachers. Book sales of Ayn Rand exceded 500,000 copies for the second year in 2003. Five years ago there was no formal program at a university in which Objectivism was taught. Today we have such programs at the University of Texas, University of Pittsburgh, and at Ashland University.
In addition, there are programs in which Ayn Rand is significantly featured and taught by Objectivists at Duke University, and next year, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Add to that, starting this fall, the business schools at the Universities of Kentucky and South Carolina will be handing out copies of Atlas Shrugged to all incoming undergraduate and graduate business students.
See the full transcript for additional information from Drs. Brook & Ghate.
Regina Ayn Weiler
In the might-make-you-smile category, this article about a 15-year-old college graduate is inspirational:
Note to the person handing Regina Ayn Weiler a diploma at Brevard Community College this afternoon: The petite 15-year-old offers an alarmingly strong hand shake.
And, adds her mom, “She’ll put you on the floor in a second.”
Weiler, known by friends, family and teachers as “Rocket,” is a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo.
After speaking for a few minutes to BCC’s youngest graduate this year, who will earn an associate’s degree, it no longer seems surprising.
For pleasure last summer, Rocket read dictionaries.
“Webster’s,” she said. “Unabridged.”
And…
When she was 8 or 9, Rocket checked 66 books out of Merritt Island Library in one visit. She said she read them within a week.
Perhaps such precocity was destined for a girl named after philosopher and author Ayn Rand, known for her celebration of individuality.
See the full article.
Oliver Stone and Brad Pitt on Remaking the Fountainhead
The purpose of “Media Citings” and “Culture” categories on this blog is to bring some attention to the ways in which Ayn Rand’s work has become a part of the cultural vernacular. As I point out here, in an Atlasphere article (which I have expanded considerably for publication in a Fall 2004 Centenary Culture Symposium in The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies), Rand’s cultural impact is growing at an almost exponential rate. To merely cite the positive and negative cultural references to Rand, however, does not imply a “sanction” of any of the said references. On this blog, I’m mostly playing the role of “messenger”: My posts are more “reportage,” rather than Op-Ed.
So, for example, my comments on “John Galt,” radio pirate, are not a sanction of his radio piracy or even a championing of his battle against the FCC. It is simply a post that illustrates the possible Randian influence on a small group of people. These people invoke the Robin Hood legend in a way that recalls Rand’s own invocation and inversion of that legend; she notes in her description of Ragnar Danneskjold, in Atlas Shrugged, that he is a pirate “Robin Hood who robs the [parasitic] humanitarians and gives to the [productive] rich.” The radio pirates in Denver claim they are “taking radio back from the rich,” but their struggle is against a system of government licensure that enriches those privileged enough to secure the licenses. My post includes no assessment of the legitimacy of their struggle; such an assessment would be well beyond my scope, in this context.
I provide this long prefatory note because what I’m about to report to my Atlasphere readers is that Brad Pitt, mega-star of the new film, Troy, which opens nationwide today, told interviewer Charlie Rose that Oliver Stone?yes, he, of the left, who admires Fidel Castro?was still interested in directing a new version of The Fountainhead.
As he has done on other occasions, Pitt talked glowingly of the science and aesthetics of architecture. Rose asked him if he knew of any way to combine his passion for architecture with his passion for acting; he wondered if there was any “story of a great architect” that might inspire Pitt. “That would go back to The Fountainhead,” Pitt replied. Rose wondered if Pitt would even consider re-making it. Pitt said that the book is “so dense and complex, it would have to be a six-hour movie … I don’t know how you do it under four, and not lose, really lose, what Ayn Rand was after.” But he affirmed his profound interest to star in a re-make, and cited Oliver Stone’s own interest in directing it as a feature film.
Whether you revel in or revile the possibility of a Stone-Pitt collaboration, the fact is that Rand’s work is still inspiring a generation of admirers?left, right, and center?who have been deeply impressed with her paean to individual integrity and authenticity. And in an age that has seen the devastation of the New York City skyline, a skyline that Rand worshiped as “the will of man made visible,” I can think of few novels more in need of a modern re-telling.
So… let the arguments begin over who should direct and who should star in any big-screen adaptation. I’m just a reporter here.
Hudgins on Iraqi Abuse Scandal
Edward Hudgins, TOC Washington Director, raises an interesting twist on the Iraqi abuse scandal. Writing for TOC’s Media Center, Hudgins asks, Why are we outraged at the abuse?
We react the way we do because we are a civilized country based on certain universal principles of morality and justice: that human beings possess an inherent dignity and autonomy as individuals and should not be subjected to the arbitrary use of force, either by other individuals or by government.
Governments should protect the life, liberty and property of individuals, and thus their powers must be limited and checked lest they become our masters rather than our servants. Even suspected criminals and terrorists should be protected by some form of due process; they are not the playthings for the whims of their guards. If we punish them, it is in order to administer justice, not to satisfy sadistic urges.
Our military violated those principles, but we have a system that allows us to expose and correct such violations—a mark of our system’s political health. And our revulsion at the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison is a mark of the moral health of our culture.
Hudgins then goes on to critize the the values and cultures of most Middle East countries.
Consider attitudes in the Middle East toward arbitrary violence. The Pew Research Center found that of those surveyed in Morocco and Jordan, two moderate Arab countries, 66 percent and 70 percent respectively believe that suicide bombings against Americans in Iraq are justified, and 74 percent and 86 percent believe such bombings by Palestinians against Israelis are acceptable. Consider attitudes in the region toward government. A survey taken last year in Iraq by Zogby International found that 37 percent of respondents thought that the United States would be the best model for a new government. But 28 percent favored Saudi Arabia and the remainder favored Syria, Iran or Egypt. That is, 63 percent favored dictatorships.
President Bush is correct that every individual deserves freedom. He is right that a tolerant and peaceful Iraqi government and culture would be beneficial for the citizens of that country, a model for the region and a bulwark against terrorism. But we must ask a more basic question: Are the people of Iraq and other countries in the region fit for freedom?
Read the full article…
Barbara Amiel and Ayn Rand
Writing for the Guardian, Catherine Bennett thoughtfully reviews the public life and writings of Barbara Amiel, who was recently fired by the Telegraph over a financial dispute.
The article begins:
It is not difficult to imagine what the Telegraph columnist Barbara Amiel would write about the suspension of the Telegraph columnist Barbara Amiel. In fact she wrote it two months ago when Martha Stewart, another very rich “tall poppy”, was felled by accusations of financial impropriety. “Corporate scandals have created an atmosphere where all public companies are potential wearers of the scarlet letter. Any hint of wrongdoing gets the elders out, solemn and judgmental.”
Ayn Rand is mentioned in passing, and at times Amiel sounds herself like a character befitting Atlas Shrugged.
See the full article for further reading.