Here’s a postscript to my new piece at The Hill today, where I argue that U.S. policy toward Egypt needs to be put on an honest footing. Instead of playing down its authoritarianism, we need confront Egypt about its violation of individual rights.
After the attack outside Parliament in London on March 22, four people died and more than 40 were injured. Heading toward the Parliament buildings, the assailant drove at high speed on the sidewalk of Westminster Bridge, mowing down pedestrians. Then he got out of the car wielding a knife, sprinted inside the Parliament gates, and managed to stab to death one policeman, before being overpowered. The Islamic State has praised the 52-year-old killer, who was born and raised in England, as one of its soldiers.
Occasionally, in a blog post, we will highlight important parts of the Ayn Rand Institute’s Annual Report. For 2016, our focus is on the Institute’s Free Books to Teachers program from the perspective of Shoshana Milgram, associate professor of English at Virginia Tech and long-time supporter of the program.
You’ve heard the stories. Charles Murray was attacked by a mob after giving a talk at Middlebury College. Not long after that, a riot broke out at U.C. Berkeley over a scheduled appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos. Berkeley’s student newspaper later published a series of essays justifying the violence as “self-defense.”
In a PragerU video, Dennis Prager claims that if God does not exist, then there is no objective basis for morality. Prager, and those who agree with him, should listen to Objectivist philosopher Onkar Ghate’s talk “Religion and Morality,” in which he argues that it is the belief in God that undermines objective morality. If God is the source of morality, Ghate points out, then murder is good — whenever God says it is.
Follow Elan Journo on Twitter @elanjourno and you have a chance to win one of fifteen copies of Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: From George W. Bush to Barack Obama and Beyond.
Over the weekend, The Undercurrent published an extensive interview with ARI’s Elan Journo on Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: From George W. Bush to Barack Obama and Beyond.
Paul Ryan has claimed that the American Health Care Act (also known as Ryancare), which is intended to replace the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), is a return to a “free market” in health care. And various commentators and politicians are suggesting that Ryan’s plan is inspired by Ayn Rand’s philosophy. For example, Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., went on CNBC’s Squawk Box to say that “It’s not really a health-care bill. This is an ideological exercise to basically satisfy Paul Ryan’s Ayn Rand tendencies.”
College used to be grounded in the inviolate principle that each of us should confront new ideas, speak our minds and learn. Has that time passed? This year alone we have seen a riot at U.C. Berkeley and violence at Middlebury College over controversial speakers. Instead of “express yourself,” a new view seems to be taking hold: “Suppress yourself — or I’ll do it for you.”
Today, March 23, BBC Witness broadcast an interview with Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand’s foremost student and today’s leading expert on Objectivism, on Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged.
