ARI/ARC news — VOICES for REASON

Ayn Rand was born on February 2, 1905. To commemorate the 107th anniversary of her birth, ARC analyst Don Watkins has an op-ed on FoxNews.com today, in which he discusses the controversy over Rand’s influence on today’s politics.

“Rand has clearly inspired millions,” he writes, ”But a debate has emerged over the question of Rand’s political influence, with many commentators claiming her ideas have played a key role in shaping the political landscape. . . . But to gauge Rand’s influence, we need to know more about her views than the sound bites we’re typically offered.”

Why are Tea Partiers, political commentators, and politicians talking about a philosopher almost thirty years after her death? Read the article to find out.

Forbes.com has published the latest column by Yaron Brook and me, “What We Owe Steve Jobs.”

Watching the world mourn Steve Jobs, we are reminded of how massive crowds of Americans used to gather to celebrate the launch of a new bridge or a new railroad. There is a widespread recognition that Jobs was a creative genius who changed our world profoundly and for the better. Even President Obama, not usually given to praising businessmen, said that Jobs “transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.”

All of this raises an important and to-date unasked question: what do we owe Jobs and productive geniuses like him?

You can read the entire column here.

Last month in Washington D.C., ARC hosted a symposium to explore American foreign policy in the post-9/11 decade. For those who were unable to attend live or to watch the live streamed video, below are the videos of the three panel discussions.

Upheavals in the Middle East: Assessing the political landscape

The Islamist Threat: From AfPak to Jyllands-Posten and Times Square

Iran, Israel and the West

Over the next week, ARI speakers will participate in “Capitalism Awareness Week.” Capitalism Awareness Week is being spearheaded by the student publication The Undercurrent, and will feature a series of events at college campuses addressing what capitalism really is and how our country would be far more prosperous and just if markets were free.

• Tonight Yaron Brook will debate Dane Smith, the president of Growth and Justice, on whether regulating capitalism is a moral necessity or moral treason.
• On Thursday, Sept. 29, Don Watkins will tackle America’s entitlement crisis and answer whether the entitlement state and its leading programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—can and should survive.
• On Tuesday, Oct. 4, John Allison, an ARI board member and retired chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation, will discuss the causes, consequences, and cures of the recent financial crisis.

The best part is: all of these events will be streamed live over the web. So be sure to check them out!

More information can be found at capitalismweek.org (which is also where the events can be streamed live).

Earlier this week Penguin, the publisher of Atlas Shrugged, released an application for Apple’s iPad that offers readers an amplified edition of Ayn Rand’s magnum opus. Instead of buying the text-only e-book of the novel, you can purchase this application, which offers many additional features that allow you to learn more about the novel, Ayn Rand, and her ideas.

The app contains four main sections: “The Book,” “The Author,” “The Philosophy” and “Hall of Atlas.”

• “The Book” section offers the full text of Atlas Shrugged. In addition, app users can share their favorite passages from the text on social media sites and see manuscript pages of various sections of the novel.
• “The Author” section features a biography of Ayn Rand, a graphic timeline of her life, a gallery of photos of Rand and key documents related to her work, and recollections of Rand by Leonard Peikoff, her longtime associate and intellectual heir.
• In “The Philosophy” section, users can read about the essentials of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism and listen to an audio lecture by Rand describing her philosophy. Users can also listen to Rand’s 1964 talk “Is Atlas Shrugging?”
• The “Hall of Atlas” section offers users many video and audio interviews of Rand discussing the main themes in Atlas Shrugged and other intellectual topics. Users can also take an interactive quiz that tests whether they can correctly attribute quotes from the novel to their respective characters, access discussion questions, and view further reading resources.

To find out more about the Atlas Shrugged iPad app, and to see a gallery of screen shots, please visit the iTunes App Store. The app sells for $14.99.

Forbes.com has just published the latest column by Yaron Brook and me, “The Entitlement State is Morally Bankrupt.”

The basic principle behind the entitlement state is that a person’s need entitles him to other people’s wealth. It’s that you have a duty to spend some irreplaceable part of your life laboring, not for the sake of your own life and happiness, but for the sake of others. If you are productive and self-supporting, then according to the entitlement state, you are in hock to those who aren’t. In Marx’s memorable phrase: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

As we’ve argued in past columns, no system that treats you as other people’s servant can be called moral. What made America the noblest nation in history was that it was the first country founded on the idea that each of us has a right to live and work for our own sake, that it’s our own job to try to make the most of our life, and that the government’s sole purpose is to protect our freedom to do so.

Some have raised objections to this line of argument, however. Here are three of the most popular objections.

You can read the whole column here.

It has been a decade since the Sept. 11 attacks shocked and angered our nation. What lessons have we learned since then? ARC will be hosting a symposium on this subject, titled “Sept. 11—A Decade Later: Lessons for the Future,” on September 8, in Washington, D.C. The program will feature three panel discussions, presenting a range of viewpoints.

If you can’t make this event, it will also be streamed live over the web starting at 1p.m. ET.

Check out the panel topics and speakers on the event’s site. You can also watch the live stream of the event from there.

On ARC’s Facebook page, you can read, watch, and listen to ARI’s numerous efforts throughout the last decade to push for an egoist foreign policy that puts the lives and individual rights of Americans first.

What lessons have we learned since the horrific 9/11 attacks, ten years ago? With two unresolved wars and a Middle East in upheaval, how should we evaluate America’s policy in that volatile region? How will rebellions and protests across the region—from Tunisia to Syria—impact vital American interests? What lies ahead for U.S. relations with Israel—and with a likely soon-to-be nuclear Iran?

These are among the urgent policy questions to be discussed at a half-day symposium, “Sept. 11—A Decade Later: Lessons for the Future,” on September 8, in Washington, D.C., sponsored by ARC.

The event will feature three panel discussions, presenting a range of viewpoints. Confirmed participants include:

Peter Brookes, Senior Fellow for National Security Affairs, The Heritage Foundation
Efraim Karsh, Director, Middle East Forum
John David Lewis, Visiting Associate Professor, Duke University
Clare Lopez, Senior Fellow, Center for Security Policy
Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Daniel Pipes, President, Middle East Forum
Michael Rubin, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
Yaron Brook and I will also be taking part.

For further details on the event and to RSVP, please visit this site .

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Over on the blog of Why Businessmen Need Philosophy, Debi Ghate, co-author of the expanded collection, reports on the sales of the book.

She writes:

[Co-author] Richard Ralston and I are excited to report that sales for the first three months of the revised and expanded edition of Why Businessmen Need Philosophy are already equal to ten years of sales of the first edition of the book! It seems to be further evidence of the growth in readership of Ayn Rand and related products over the last decade, and in particular in the past few years.

Read the rest of the post at whybusinessmenneedphilosophy.com, where you can also view the contents of the book, read excerpts, and purchase the collection.

Forbes.com has just published the latest column by Yaron Brook and me, “What’s Missing from the Budget Debate.”

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget has come under severe attack for daring to curtail some elements of the entitlement state. Although we are certainly not defenders of the plan’s details–it doesn’t even cut spending–what’s striking is how easily its supporters have been put on the moral defensive, and to how devastating an effect.

You can read the whole column here.