Category: The Atlasphere

All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.

Celebrity Rand Fan: David Duval

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Ranked No. 1 in the world at one time, celebrity golfer David Duval has ended a seven-month layoff to play in this year’s U.S. Open.
From a new profile of Duval in the Detroit News:

He craves a simple life, but being in the spotlight, being scrutinized, being a high-profile professional athlete and being famous isn?t always simple. It can be, but only if you make it so.
There?s the rub. For Duval, life is a maze. His thoughts are deep. He thinks and uses words such as existentialist. His favorite book is Ayn Rand?s ?Atlas Shrugged.? Duval deals with questions such as, ?Who is John Galt?? Not, ?How many birdies you make today, Double-D??
Duval returns to the PGA Tour today when he tees it up at Shinnecock Hills after a seven-month layoff. He didn?t play competitive golf because he didn?t want to. He?s playing here because he wants to play. He?s not here to think about winning or to win, only to play.
?I didn?t really know when I would play again,? Duval said. ?I just felt like at some point I would feel like I was ready to go, just play and have some fun.?

See Duval’s full profile for additional information.
(Thanks to Atlasphere member Scott Croom for this media citing.)

Ayn Rand Tour in New York City

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

From NYTimes.com:
CENTURY WALKING TOURS. Tomorrow [June 12th, 2004] at 11 a.m., “Ayn Rand’s Park Avenue” discusses sites associated with the writer, meeting at the Met Life Building, East 45th Street, between Vanderbilt and Lexington Avenues. Sunday at 11 a.m., “Newspaper Row” covers the historic newspaper district in Lower Manhattan, meeting on the southeast corner of Broadway and Fulton Street. Fee for each, $15. Information: (917) 607-9019.

Reagan: Less John Wayne, More John Galt

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Atlasphere member Gordon Wood forwards a commentary by Canadian columnist Charles Adler addressing the liberal claim that Ronald Reagan “seduced his nation and many others overseas through the power of his personality.”
Adler points out that it was the strength of Reagan’s principles, not his personality, that drove world change under the late president’s watch:

Come Friday, “Freedom’s Champion” will receive a state funeral. But unfortunately the mythology manufactured by his critics won’t be buried. Many of them who live in our own country will continue to say that Ronald Reagan was a just a “B” actor who brought his John Wayne act to Washington and got lucky because Communism just happened to start imploding on his watch.
Truth is, Reagan was no John Wayne. He was more like John Galt, the man in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, who is willing to speak hard truths in behalf of individual freedom and the creativity it inspires.

See the full article (scroll down) for further analysis.

Ronald Reagan's Legacy

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

In honor of the late President Ronald Reagan, The Objectivist Center‘s Ed Hudgins examines Reagan’s moral legacy:

First, he offered an optimistic vision of America and the world, knowing that there is no limit to the achievements of free individuals.
Second, he understood that government is the problem, not the solution, and its powers should be limited.
And third, he understood that communism was truly evil and more than any single individual was responsble for its demise.

For a further tribute, read Hudgins’s “Happy Birthday Ronald Reagan” from earlier this year.
PS. Reagan considered himself an admirer of Ayn Rand.

New Issue – Journal of Ayn Rand Studies

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Volume 5, Number 2 of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies has just been published. The issue features the following contributions:

The Magnificent Progress Achieved by Capitalism:
Is the Evidence Incontrovertible? (by Hendrik Van den Berg)
Universals and Measurement (by Stephen Boydstun)
Art as Microcosm (by Roger E. Bissell)
Ayn Rand in the Scholarly Literature IV: Ayn Rand in England (by Nicholas Dykes)
An Economist Reads Philosophy: Review of Leland Yeager’s book Ethics as Social Science (by William Thomas)
Capitalism and Virtue: Review of Dinesh D’Souza’s book The Virtue of Prosperity (by Will Wilkinson)
A Direct Realist’s Challenge to Skepticism: Review of Michael Huemer’s book Skepticism and the Veil of Perception (by Ari Armstrong)
Discussion
Reply to Huemer: Egoism and Predatory Behavior (by Michael Young)
Rejoinder to Young: Egoism and Prudent Predation (by Michael Huemer)
Objectivism: On Stage and Self Destructive: Review of Sky Gilbert’s play, The Emotionalists (by Karen Michalson)
Reply to Michalson: Rand as Guru: Will it Never End? (by Sky Gilbert)
Rejoinder to Gilbert: Rand as What? (by Karen Michalson)

Visit the JARS web site for article abstracts, contributor biographies, and information on subscriptions.
Watch for Volume 6 in 2004-2005, which will consist of two special symposium issues in honor of the Ayn Rand centenary. The first will deal with Ayn Rand’s cultural and literary impact, and the second will deal with “Ayn Rand Among the Austrians.”

Ayn Rand in South Korea

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In his remarks to the Annual Liberty Forum of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Chicago this April, Lawrence Reed reports on a new initiative called the Atlas International Freedom Corps (IFC):

The vision of the IFC is to develop a new generation of highly skilled and intellectually-savvy individuals who are committed to changing the world by spreading the ideas of the free society worldwide through cross-cultural exchanges of talent. It will develop the next generation of human capital for liberty by discovering, attracting, and nurturing individuals for potential careers within think tanks and other organizations.

Describing his own trip to South Korea on behalf of the IFC, Reed notes the role of Ayn Rand’s writings in spreading free market ideas in this part of the world:

The offices of the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE) in Seoul, South Korea, were my first stop on this three-country mission. Founded by Korean entrepreneur and business consultant Dr. Byoung-Ho Gong in April 1997, CFE?s staff of 10 disseminates a wealth of policy papers and commentary to Korean media and opinion leaders. Among CFE?s voluminous output are no fewer than 55 books. Both Dr. Gong and CFE president Dr. Chung-Ho Kim have translated into Korean numerous classics of free market literature and Austrian economics, including the writings of Frederic Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand and F.A. Hayek.

See Reed’s full remarks for additional information.

Alex Epstein: Forget About World Opinion

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Writing for the Ayn Rand Institute, Alex Epstein has published an article at FrontPageMag taking issue with the “perverse priorities of our politicians and journalists” over “world opinion” about Abu Ghraib.
His original title put it more frankly: “World Opinion Be Damned.”
From his commentary:

The alleged solution to this alleged crisis of “world opinion” is to show more deference toward the rest of the world. Otherwise, we are told, the world’s anger will bring more terrorist attacks and less “international cooperation” against terrorism.
All of this evades one blatant truth: the hatred being heaped on America over Abu Ghraib is undeserved. Throughout the Middle East, torture–real torture, with electric drills and vats of acid–is official policy and daily practice. Yet there are no worldwide condemnations of the dictatorships that practice such atrocities–let alone the Arab-Islamic culture that produces so many torturers. But when, during a war, a handful of American prison guards subject a handful of Iraqi POWs to comparatively mild humiliation–which the U.S. government denounces and promptly investigates–“world opinion” proclaims itself offended and condemns America.
Abu Ghraib is just the latest example of the injustice of “world opinion.” Since September 11, the United States–the freest nation on Earth–has been ceaselessly denounced for any step in the direction of self-defense against terrorism, while terrorist regimes Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian Authority get a moral free pass.

See the full article for further analysis.

Ayn Rand and Academic Philosophers

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

University of Texas philosophy professor Keith Burgess-Jackson, blogging at Anal Philosopher, has posted a considerate and fair-minded response to the question “Why do so many academic philosophers dismiss Ayn Rand?”
(As he later clarifies, these comments explore philosophers’ nonrational grounds for dismissing Rand. And a later thread notes our interview with Mimi Reisel Gladstein touching on this same subject.)
One interesting excerpt:

Deep down, philosophers, like other writers, want to be read. Ayn Rand is read. Many more people have read her work than that of John Rawls, W. V. O. Quine, and other darlings of academic philosophy. I?m only speculating, but I think philosophers envy Rand?s literary success. People despise and belittle those they envy. Rand also had (and has) disciples. Many of them. Philosophers, like other scholars, want disciples to carry on their work and to disseminate their views, but most have only a few, if any. No self-respecting philosopher would admit it, but there is a great deal of envy of Rand in the discipline.

See Burgess-Jackson’s full commentary for additional illumination.

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