Yaron Brook was back in Colombia at Elite University for his third visit in three years and this tour did not disappoint. ARI has found a dedicated partner in Elite, a university focused on engineering and business. Brook describes Dr. Carlos Felipe Escobar, the school’s president, as a “big fan of Ayn Rand who, in his own words, ‘would love to create a university John Galt would be proud to attend.’” Brook looks forward to these visits and loves to engage with these intellectually oriented students about the crucial principles of freedom.
This year, 2017, marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Atlas Shrugged. Start the celebration with this fascinating commemoration from ARI’s eStore: Ayn Rand and the Atlas Shrugged Years: Reminiscences and Recollections.
Michael Paxton, writer, producer, director and author, will be speaking at Objectivist Summer Conference 2017 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This year, OCON will include a screening of his Academy Award-nominated Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, a documentary on Ayn Rand’s life, in celebration of the film’s 20th anniversary. This will be an opportunity for those who have never had the chance to “see it on a big screen with an audience,” says Paxton.
Is Ayn Rand primarily a novelist or a philosopher? In response to one such questioner, Rand answered: “I am primarily both.” What did she mean by that? And why do you have to pay attention to both Rand’s fiction and nonfiction to learn Objectivism? In this session, Onkar Ghate explores the relationship between Rand’s philosophy and her literary goals.
“In view of what they hear from the experts, the people cannot be blamed for their ignorance and their helpless confusion. If an average housewife struggles with her incomprehensibly shrinking budget and sees a tycoon in a resplendent limousine, she might well think that just one of his diamond cuff links would solve all her problems. . .”
This week at the Ayn Rand Institute, employees got a sneak peek at a new Atlas Shrugged banner, created in celebration of the novel’s 60th anniversary. The banner features various Atlas Shrugged book covers from around the world. “These are graphically interesting covers from Japan to Russia,” according to Ayn Rand Archives curator Jeff Britting.
Over a period of six days last month, Yaron Brook, ARI’s executive chairman, spoke to more than 700 students at seven of the most prestigious schools in Great Britain. This speaking tour comes on the heels of the announcement in February that the 2017 UK curriculum for A-Level Politics taught in secondary and pre-university schools includes Ayn Rand as a key thinker. In the schools that adopt the new curriculum, students will study Rand and her ideas for the first time.
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.
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.”
