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.”
Fresh from the success of “Building a Future of Reason and Capitalism” in New York City last month, Fox News contributor and hedge fund manager Jonathan Hoenig is looking forward to emceeing the event on March 11 in his hometown of Chicago.
In the two years since Islamic terrorists murdered five cartoonists and seven others associated with the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, the Ayn Rand Institute has vocally and consistently upheld freedom of speech against its attackers. In public lectures, interviews, blog posts and a recent book — plus upcoming events on the same theme — the Institute has challenged individuals around the world to join in defending the right to free speech.
Voices for Reason is a blog that covers a wide range of topics, including philosophy and its application to current events, programs of the Ayn Rand Institute and the ideas of Objectivism. Looking back on the year, here are 2016’s most-read blog posts (along with edited versions of the introductions that accompanied them at time of publication).
The Institute’s focus remains unwavering. We, in partnership with our contributors, are striving to implement fundamental, philosophical change in the culture. In the wake of the elections, what the next four years holds is uncertain. But whatever occurs, it will not be as important as the four years after that — and the years beyond.
What is the state of freedom of speech in America today? In this special-edition episode of The Yaron Brook Show, Steve Simpson, director of Legal Studies at ARI, takes on threats to free speech such as campaign finance laws, the culture of sensitivity on campus and government abuses of our right to speak.
