Peter Schwartz, distinguished fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, reflects in this 2014 Washington Post op-ed, on why platitudes like “give back” or “remember the needy,” don’t represent his perspective on the Christmas season.
In this op-ed, “ARI’s Onkar Ghate explains why Christmas is “a spiritual holiday whose leitmotif is personal, selfish pleasure and joy” and why the commercialism of the season, “far from detracting from this celebration, as we’re often told, is integral to it.”
In this classic Christmas article, “Why Christmas Should Be More Commercial,” Leonard Peikoff argues that, “It is time to take the Christ out of Christmas, and turn the holiday into a guiltlessly egoistic, pro-reason, this-worldly, commercial celebration.”
To celebrate Christmas, we asked Jeff Britting, curator of the Ayn Rand Archives, to supply us with images and text from an article he wrote that originally appeared in the Ayn Rand Institute’s newsletter, Impact, in 2010. The article was devoted to anecdotes about Christmas visits, letters from Ayn Rand’s family in Russia about Christmas, images of Rand and her husband, Frank O’Connor, at Christmas and Christmas cards she and Frank gave and received.
Rise & Fall: How Ideas Move the World, a podcast hosted by ARI’s Amanda Maxham, looks at the power of ideas to shape human affairs. Here are some of our favorite moments from the show so far.
Merion West’s Alex Baltzegar interviews Steve Simpson, director of Legal Studies at the Ayn Rand Institute, on Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, how it applies to free speech and foreign policy, and whether one can reconcile Christianity with her philosophy.
Philosopher Robert Mayhew discusses the inability of a New York Times drama critic to appreciate Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead: “The sound perception of an ant does not include thunder.”
Following the recent Ivo Van Hove international production of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Gilman Opera House, a panel discussion appeared on Facebook Live. The panelists were Gregory Salmieri, philosophy fellow at the Anthem Foundation; Shoshana Milgram, associate professor of English at Virginia Tech; and Ann Ciccolella, artistic director at Austin Shakespeare.
