The Summer 2006 issue of The Objective Standard is out, and is now available on their web site. I’ve not read the issue, but the premise behind Dianne Durante’s article on “Getting More Enjoyment from Art You Love” looked particularly interesting.
Category: The Atlasphere
All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.
Monika Kovacs Places 2nd in Canadian Provincials
I just received word that Atlasphere member Monika Kovacs (pictured below, at left) has won second place (in “medium class figure”) at this year’s Canadian Provincials female bodybuilding competition.
Congratulations, Monika! And… WOW. 🙂
“What makes this event especially amazing to me is what led up to it,” she writes. “I attended the first Provincials two years ago as a spectator and looked at the stage full of graceful beauties like a child looks at a window of a candy store, with eyes sparkling and wide open, wishing they could indulge.
“I went back last year. Then and there my passions and love of competing intensified, and I knew I wanted to be back, and I had to be there!
“I am soooo happy and at the same time so tired now! I am taking a little break as my body and mind are very exhausted. I cannot wait to be back on track again and set out to achieve my next goals.”
Keeping my fingers crossed that she can fit us in for a full interview at the Atlasphere one day soon.
UPDATE: I just learned that Monika also won the Northern Ontario Championship on June 10th. And she has agreed to do an interview with the Atlasphere, so hopefully we’ll have that ready within a couple weeks!
TOC's Summer Seminar Registration Deadline
Friday, June 16th is the registration deadline for The Objectivist Center’s Summer Seminar. The following is from a reminder email sent out by TOC:
The Summer Seminar will be held from July 1 through July 7 at Chapman University in beautiful, sunny Orange, California!
As we told you earlier, we’ve changed the schedule, adding Howard and Karen Baldwin, who are producing the movie of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged. They’ve agreed to speak at 2:15 on the afternoon of Friday, July 7. We have rearranged the schedule to accommodate them and you can find out where the other speakers scheduled for that time slot have ended up by going to the day-by-day schedule on our website.
As most of you know, Lionsgate has taken an option to finance and distribute “Atlas.” Atlas Society/Objectivist Center Trustee John Aglialoro owns the movie rights and is executive producer on the film with Howard Baldwin.
For registration and seminar information, visit TOC’s website.
Has Google Peaked?
Anyone following Google’s adventures (and misadventures) in China may be interested in Glenn Reynolds’s latest opinion editorial:
Google has been a huge deal â?? its founders have become rich, its name has become a verb, and its influence is international.
Lately, though, I’ve been wondering if Google has peaked. The reason is that, for lots of different groups of people, Google’s reputation as good guys has been stained. And I’m not sure what Google really has to bank on, besides a good reputation.
Google has come under criticism from people on the left â?? and right â?? for its cave-in to Chinese demands for censorship. From “don’t be evil,” Google’s motto has seemed to be “don’t be evil unless there’s a really big market at stake.”
"The Atlas Society" Becomes TOC's Official Name
Today The Objectivist Center announced that it will begin using “The Atlas Society” as its official name:
As you know we’ve had an Atlas Society since 1999. That name and the special part of our website were meant to appeal to those who read Ayn Rand novels and are taken — as so many of us are — by the excitement, romance and vision of a benevolent society of productive individuals. Rand’s books sell hundreds of thousands of copies a year. Thus there is a potentially huge audience for our organization. And now that an Atlas Shrugged movie is seriously in the works, that audience is likely to grow.
Indeed it is.
Keep reading for more information about The Objectivist Center Atlas Society’s decision.
Will the Internet Help Do Away with Entrenched Two-party Politics?
From an excellent article at Newsweek by Jonathan Alter, updating us all on the age in which we live and why it’s going to prove significant during the next presidential election:
Bob Schieffer of CBS News made a good point on “The Charlie Rose Show” last week. He said that successful presidents have all skillfully exploited the dominant medium of their times. The Founders were eloquent writers in the age of pamphleteering. Franklin D. Roosevelt restored hope in 1933 by mastering radio. And John F. Kennedy was the first president elected because of his understanding of television.
Will 2008 bring the first Internet president? Last time, Howard Dean and later John Kerry showed that the whole idea of “early money” is now obsolete in presidential politics. The Internet lets candidates who catch fire raise millions in small donations practically overnight. That’s why all the talk of Hillary Clinton’s “war chest” making her the front runner for 2008 is the most hackneyed punditry around.
[…] To begin busting up the dumb system we have for selecting presidents, a bipartisan group will open shop this week at Unity08.com. This Internet-based third party is spearheaded by three veterans of the antique 1976 campaign: Democrats Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon helped get Jimmy Carter elected; Republican Doug Bailey did media for Gerald Ford before launching the political TIP SHEET Hotline. They are joined by the independent former governor of Maine, Angus King, and a collection of idealistic young people who are also tired of a nominating process that pulls the major party candidates to the extremes. Their hope: to get even a fraction of the 50 million who voted for the next American Idol to nominate a third-party candidate for president online and use this new army to get him or her on the ballot in all 50 states. The idea is to go viralâ??or die. “The worst thing that could happen would be for a bunch of old white guys like us to run this,” Jordan says.
[…] But funny things happen in election years. With an issue as eye-glazing as the deficit, a wacky, jug-eared Texan named Ross Perot received 19 percent of the vote in 1992 and 7 percent in 1996. He did it with “Larry King Live” and an 800 number. In a country where more than 40 percent of voters now self-identify as independents, it’s no longer a question of whether the Internet will revolutionize American politics, but when.
This is a very exciting possibility for those of us who are perennially frustrated by the current two-party dynamics in the United States.
See the full article for more.
UPDATE (6/1/06) – Peggy Noonan has a timely article in the WSJ on a related topic, namely, the continued crisis of two-party politics, and the increasing likelihood that only a third-party candidate could deliver the kinds of reform that American needs in order to stay safe, free, and fiscally responsible.
UPDATE (6/2/06) – And today, more on this topic from Instapundit.
Spring 2006 Journal of Ayn Rand Studies
The Spring 2006 issues of the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies has been published. From the announcement on Chris Sciabarra’s site:
It gives me great pleasure to announce the publication of the Spring 2006 issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. The issue features a dialogue on Ayn Rand’s ethics, with contributions from Tibor R. Machan, Frank Bubb, Eric Mack, Douglas B. Rasmussen, Robert H. Bass, Chris Cathcart, and Robert L. Campbell. In addition, there are articles covering topics in epistemology (Merlin Jetton) and literature (Kurt Keefner and Peter Saint-Andre). Other contributors include Sheldon Richman on Thomas Szasz and Ayn Rand; Max Hocutt on postmodernism; Steven Yates on capitalism and commerce; and David M. Brown on the new Ayn Rand Q&A book.
The issue opens with my own tribute to R. W. Bradford, without whom The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies would never have been founded. This Spring 2006 issue is dedicated to the memory of Bradford, Joan Kennedy Taylor, and Chris Tame. A PDF of my tribute piece is available here.
For subscription information, see here.
The Soda Fountainhead
A couple of our members have sent me the link to this whimsical story (one part fun, two parts pun) in New York Magazine about a NYC juice bar with an Objectivist twist.
Check it out if you like the sound of a fresh-squeezed carrot/ginger drink called the “Howard Roark.”
I guess as long as there are no ripe orange rinds….
Lecture on Passing Judgement Available Online
Tara Smith’s lecture “Passing Judgement: Ayn Rand’s View of Justice” is available online on the Registered User Page of the Ayn Rand Institute (the registration and the video are free). The lecture was delivered on May 9th in Irvine, CA. Tara Smith is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas and the author of the recently published Moral Rights & Political Freedom.
From the lecture summary:
In “Passing Judgment: Ayn Rand’s View of Justice,” Dr. Tara Smith will explore Ayn Rand’s unique conception of justice. After explaining why it is in one’s self-interest to be a just person, Dr. Smith will explore several related topics, including: the emphatic need to judge other people; how today’s pervasive egalitarianism is completely anti-justice; and when, if ever, forgiveness and mercy are justified.ÂÂ
Ayn Rand Society to Discuss Tara Smith's 2006 Book
The topic of the Ayn Rand Society this year will be Tara Smith’s new book “Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist.” The ARS meeting will be held in conjunction with the APA Eastern Division meetings in Washington DC, at the Marriott Wardman Hotel, Dec. 27-30, 2006.
Book description:
Ayn Rand is well known for advocating egoism, but the substance of that instruction is rarely understood. Far from representing the rejection of morality, selfishness, in Rand’s view, actually demands the practice of a systematic code of ethics. This book explains the fundamental virtues that Rand considers vital for a person to achieve their objective well-being: rationality, honesty, independence, justice, integrity, productiveness, and pride. Tracing Rand’s account of the value and harmony of human beings’ rational interests, Smith examines what each of these virtues consists of, why it is a virtue, and what it demands of people in practice. Along the way she addresses the status of several conventional virtues within Rand’s theory, considering traits such as kindness, charity, generosity, temperance, courage, forgiveness, and humility. Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics thus offers an in-depth exploration of several specific virtues and an illuminating integration of these with the broader theory of egoism.