Chris Colin has published a column at the San Francisco Chronicle called “No Offense, but You Don’t Deserve Your Salary.” Kudos to him for interviewing Yaron Brook on the subject — making his article much more thought-provoking than it would be otherwise.
Category: The Atlasphere
All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.
Kelley to Speak in NYC on "Is Islam Compatible with Capitalism?"
This announcement from The Atlas Society:
On Tuesday, March 18, Atlas Society founder and senior fellow David Kelley will debate Mustafa Akyol, editor of Turkish Daily News, on the question “Is Islam compatible with capitalism?” The event will be hosted by The Donald and Paula Smith Family Foundation, one of a series it has sponsored since 2001.
The debate will be at 6:30 p.m., at the Donnell Public Library, 20 West 53rd St., in New York City. Attendance is free. For more information and to register, go to http://w ww.thesmithfamilyfoundation.org/.
For Kelley’s related articles and lectures, hyperlinked below, see:
The Assault on Civilization
The War against Modernity
The Ideas That Promote Terrorism
Islamic Philosophy: The Good, the Bad, and the Dangerous, on MP3.
Atlas Society on Spitzer Scandal
Edward Hudgins of the Atlas Society wrote the following about the Eliot Spitzer prostitute scandal:
It is ironic that New York Democrat Governor Eliot Spitzer has had his undeserved reputation for high moral standards tarnished by his sexual escapades which, while perhaps sleazy, did not harm any of us. In fact he deserved our moral scorn for his assault on productive individuals and flouting of the rule of law when he was New York attorney general, done arrogantly in the name of “morality.”
Hudgins also directs readers to Roger Donway’s article,”Eliot Spitzer: Ayatollah General,” in the April/May 2005 issue of The New Individualist.
Bloomberg News: "John Galt Plan Might Save U.S. Financial System"
Thanks to Johann Gevers for forwarding this fantastic citing of Ayn Rand in the media:
John Galt Plan Might Save U.S. Financial System
Commentary by Caroline Baum
March 10 (Bloomberg) — Let’s face it: The Federal Reserve must be scared to death as it watches the financial system unravel.
Unravel would appear to be the operative word as leverage proves to be as toxic on the way down as it was intoxicating on the way up.
And later:
Galt’s Solution
The following day, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke encouraged mortgage servicers to write down a portion of the principal on home loans, which would give owners some equity and discourage foreclosure. He advocated a bigger role for the Federal Housing Administration, a Depression-era agency that insures mortgages. Congress envisions an even larger role for the federal government.
Any day, I expect some government official to unveil the John Galt plan to save the economy.
Galt, the hero of Ayn Rand’s magnum opus “Atlas Shrugged,” stops the world by going on strike. He and the “men of the mind” literally withdraw from the world after watching their wealth confiscated by the looters (the government).
Toward the end of Rand’s 1,000-plus page novel (or polemic), the economy is in shambles. Desperate, the looters kidnap Galt and prod him to “tell us what to do.”
Galt refuses, or rather tells them “to get out of the way.”
Road Is Cleared
You probably can sense where I’m going. Today’s economic and financial crisis would resolve itself more quickly and efficiently if the government got out of the way. Yes, there would be pain. Some banks would fail. Others would clamp down on credit to atone for the years of lax lending standards. Homeowners-in-name-only would become renters. Housing prices would fall until speculators found value.
That’s not going to happen. The bigger the mess, the more urgent the calls for a government solution, the more willing government is to oblige.
We want laissez-faire capitalism in good times and a government backstop against losses in bad times. It’s a tough way to run an economy.
See Baum’s full commentary for more.
Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller): "I think I believe in Objectivism"
From Atlasphere member Stuart Hayashi:
Lately the famous humorous magician Penn Jillette, from “Penn & Teller,” has been lauding Ayn Rand quite a bit. He positively alluded to Atlas Shrugged on his Showtime series Bullshit!, for instance. The allusion was humorous, but still sounded sincere.
But most impressive, he says at the end of his interview with Glenn Beck that he thinks he believes in Objectivism.
His remarks begin at the 01:28 mark. He says, “You can go into that Ayn Rand stuff, that Objectivist stuff, and believe in it completely, and I think I do…”
Thanks for the heads-up!
Ed Cline: Remember William F. Buckley as He Was
Erika Holzer points us to a very insightful article by Ed Cline, titled “The Philosophic Postmortem of William F. Buckley, Jr.“:
William F. Buckley, Jr. died in Connecticut on February 27. Most Western newspapers and news media have bid adieu to the intellectual major-domo of American conservatism with glowing, admiring salutations.
And every one of those salutations has missed the point: That Buckley was a vile man who rescued the Republican Party from the self-destruction of irrelevancy and a just demise. Because of him, the Party was saved the task of rethinking or at least remembering the meaning of its name, republican, that is, of the Party which in the late 18th and early 19th centuries struggled to preserve a government charged with protecting and upholding individual rights to life, liberty, property, and happiness.
Read the whole thing.
"Atlas Shrugged Is the Book on That Subject"
For still more about the controversy (among liberal professors, at least) over BB&T’s grants to teach courses on capitalism, see the new article “MU divided on BB&T grant conditions” in the Charleston Gazette.
You gotta love this quote:
In 2007, WVU’s College of Business and Economics accepted a $1.7 million grant from BB&T, with an expectation Rand’s work would be included in the course.
“I don’t think there is business course or an ethics course that didn’t include [“Atlas Shrugged”], that is the book on that subject,” said Russell Sobel, professor of economics and chairman of entrepreneurial studies at [West Virginia University].
Sounds about right to me. Many successful entrepreneurs cite Atlas Shrugged as a significant influence on their work and, in some cases, their choice to become a businessman or -woman.
In that regard, Atlas Shrugged has become to the business world what The Fountainhead has long been to the world of architecture — certainly not the last word in the field, but often enough the first, when it comes to inspiring students and setting them on a path toward success.
With that in mind, it certainly makes sense to me that a business program would require students to read the novel, as an intrinsic part of the curriculum.
Buying a Spot on the Syllabus … for Atlas Shrugged
Inside Higher Ed Editor Scott Jaschik kindly sent a link to his new story “Buying a Spot on the Syllabus,” which is indeed very interesting. He begins:
Some professors at Marshall University believe that the institution has crossed an ethical line by accepting a gift that requires that a specific book â?? Ayn Randâ??s Atlas Shrugged â?? be taught in a course.
While the criticisms have come from professors who are not fans of Randâ??s philosophy, they stress that their objection has nothing to do with this particular book, and that they would have no problem with a professor making the choice to include it on a syllabus. Their concern, they said, is a university accepting a gift that requires any book to be taught â?? when book selection should be a faculty prerogative.
â??Atlas Shrugged can be taught. Itâ??s the required part that is problematic,â? said Jamie Warner, director of undergraduate studies in political science. Under this precedent, she said, â??you could see neo-Nazis giving money and saying that you have to teach Mein Kampf.â??
Boy, she didn’t waste any time raising the specter of Hitler, did she? Cause, you know, it would never occur to universities themselves to distinguish between gifts from neo-Nazis and gifts from advocates of the free society. That would be a difficult decision for them, no?
Wonder if she even knows it was public — rather than privately-funded — education that constituted a major cornerstone of Hitler’s strategy for brainwashing young minds. (…And I’m just getting started with the liberal fascism analogies. Imagine if we really studied the dynamics at work, here.)
In any case, see the full article for more about this controversy, which we’ve actually seen here before.
In any case, Kudos to Jaschik for including this perspective in his article:
Calvin A. Kent is a vice president for business and economic research and distinguished professor of business at Marshall, and he will be teaching the course with Atlas Shrugged in the fall. Kent argued that the gift provides a great opportunity for the university, and that there are no academic freedom issues. Kent noted that there is no requirement that Marshall students take the course, and that he will include material beyond Rand.
â??The expectation is that this book will be used. I donâ??t think that is an unreasonable expectation,â? he said.
Kent said that he is a fan, having first read Atlas Shrugged in college, where he found it â??pretty profound,â? and said that he still views the book that way.
The threat to academic freedom, Kent suggested, isnâ??t from accepting a gift but from discouraging it. â??I would not go around telling the history department or the English department that they have no business using a particular novel or a particular historian,â? he said. â??For someone to tell us that we should or should not include something smacks of censorship.â? Asked about the argument that some professors would reject a gift requiring any book to be taught, Kent said heâ??s skeptical.
â??I think thatâ??s the way they are trying to spin it,â? he said. â??There are a lot of people out there who donâ??t agree with her philosophy. I happen to agree with most of it, but not all of it. The thing that has really got people upset is that they donâ??t like the book.â?
The bottom line? Universities are free to reject gifts from neo-Nazis, just as they’re free to reject gifts from wealthy entrepreneurs who want to see more students exposed to the pro-reason, pro-freedom principles in Atlas Shrugged.
By making spurious comparisons between such donors, however, liberal professors are revealing just how much they need to read — or re-read — Atlas Shrugged and understand its lessons about the role of consensual relationships in a free society.
These gifts from BB&T force no professor to teach Atlas Shrugged and force no student to take a course on Atlas Shrugged. The gifts simply provide educational options for each that did not exist before.
The bottom line: Offering someone money to do something is, in no way, fascistic. Taking money from the public treasury to fund politically-correct government school curricula, on the other hand….
Pot, kettle. Kettle, pot.
Atlas Shrugged Movie Update: Interview with Executive Producer John Aglialoro
For the latest scoop on the Atlas Shrugged movie, see Susan Paris’s interview with Aglialoro in our new column “John Aglialoro on the Atlas Shrugged Movie.”
Tasty excerpt:
SP: When will filming begin?
Aglialoro: Fourth quarter of 2008 or 1st quarter of 2009.
SP: When would it open in theaters?
Aglialoro: You got to figure an editing process of at least six months. Probably youâ??re talking about the Fall of 2009.
SP: Do you think the final script will adequately convey the message of Rand’s book?
Aglialoro: The essence of the message will be there. We canâ??t include every detail from the book.
We want people to be driven to the book by the movie.
In fact, when we do the DVD we want to include something on the disc to promote the book. I expect to include a feature on the making of the movie.
See the full article for more.
OCON 2008: Newport Beach, CA – June 28 to Jul 6
From the announcement:
The Ayn Rand Institute is pleased to announce Objectivist Summer Conference 2008, taking place from June 28 to July 6, 2008. We have assembled an exciting lineup of lectures and events for this year’s conference, set in the remarkable coastal environment of Southern California.
Changing the culture will be a recurring theme of this summer’s conference. Yaron Brook and Onkar Ghate have made this the topic of their three-part lecture series, “Cultural Movements: Creating Change”; Tara Smith will give a talk titled “The Menace of Pragmatism”; Dina Schein Federman discusses Ayn Rand’s approach to activism in “Ayn Rand as Intellectual Activist”; and Lin Zinser will give the talk “Health-Care Activism: Saving the Life Savers,” based on her own experiences as an activist. There will also be a cultural change workshop, “How to Be an Agent of Cultural Change,” held in ARI’s Irvine offices, delivered by Debi Ghate and Tom Bowden, as part of an ARI Open House on July 2.
Our other lectures and courses will show the power of Ayn Rand’s ideas in areas such as economics (“Philosophic Issues in Economics,” by Harry Binswanger); intellectual history (“Ayn Rand Contra Friedrich Nietzsche,” by John Ridpath); philosophy (“Altruism vs. Principles,” by Peter Schwartz); history (“Freedom of Speech in American History,” by Eric Daniels); and literature (“Russian Short Stories,” by Lisa VanDamme).
There will be a variety of events and social opportunities for conference attendees as well, with dance lessons, opening and closing receptions, and a special Independence Day celebration on July 4.
The location of this year’s conference is Newport Beach, California, offering the beautiful scenery, coastal climate, shopping and dining of Orange County. You won’t want to miss it!
We are looking forward to an inspiring and memorable conferenceâ??we hope to see you there!
Register by March 31 to take advantage of discount pricing.
For more information visit the Objectivist Conferences Web site.