I think many of us love the quote from Francis Bacon: “Knowledge is power.” Clearly, knowledge is a very high value. The road to success and happiness is paved with knowledge. Knowledge is one of the highest values of any reasoning mind. But I realized some years ago that it’s not sufficient. It’s correct and…
Author: Carl Barney
My Upcoming Book on “Prequests”
Some have asked what my book is about and what is a “prequest.” Throughout my life, I’ve received a lot of help and support from many people. When I sat down to write my will, I made a list of close friends, people who had significantly changed my life (Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff are…
Craig Biddle and Dennis Prager Discuss Ayn Rand and God
Craig Biddle, executive director of Prometheus Foundation, recently sat down with Dennis Prager at his home for a Fireside Chat about religion, Objectivism, and American values. To date, the video has been viewed by more than 870,000 people (680,000 on YouTube alone) and is in the top four most viewed Fireside Chats ever. It is…
Good News Regarding Leonard Peikoff
Friends of Leonard Peikoff have been concerned about his health. Over the last few years, he has not been well, and recently he was hospitalized with COVID. Believing that he was still unwell, I was surprised when he asked to have dinner with me. We got together last night, and I was even more surprised….
How Can We Save the Ayn Rand Institute?
I have critiqued the Ayn Rand Institute’s failures to advance Ayn Rand and promote her philosophy. Several people have asked me what I think ARI could do to succeed. I’ll provide some thoughts on that below. But first, some context. Yaron Brook, on his podcast, publicly asked: “While [Carl Barney] was on the Board [of…
Valentine’s Day: The Greatest Love of All
There’s a wonderful song, “The Greatest Love of All,” by Whitney Houston, also sung by Jane Oliver. Here are the lyrics with my comments: Everybody’s searching for a hero (be your own hero).People need someone to look up to (look up to yourself).I never found anyone who fulfilled my needs (fulfill your own needs).A lonely…
Intellectual Dysfunction
I confess, when I first read Objectivism, I was rationalistic and somewhat ultracrepidarian. Okay, I know: “ultracrepidarian” has seven syllables and is a tongue-twister. But if you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, you can say ul tra crep i dar i an; and it’s the only word that really fits. It means: one who expresses opinions, criticism,…
Judging Judges
Three years ago, Eric Juhlin, CEO and Chairman of Center for Excellence in Higher Education (a private nonprofit college group), and I entrusted our reputations, careers, and fortunes to the Colorado judicial system—to the Honorable Ross Buchanan, a Denver district court judge. Libby DeBlasio Webster, a political activist acting as an Assistant Attorney General in…
Capitalism and Its Demise
Capitalism is under a massive attack today from Sanders, Warren, Ocasio-Cortez, Harris, and our new President, Joe Biden, who writes: It’s way past time we put an end to the idea of shareholder capitalism—the idea that the only responsibility a corporation has is with its shareholders. That’s simply not true. That’s an absolute farce. They…
Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s Courses and Lectures
Last year, I announced that Dr. Peikoff had given me permission to publicize and deliver his courses and lectures. At that time, I wrote: “When I studied Dr. Peikoff’s courses almost 40 years ago, I was thrilled by the knowledge and delighted with the clarity, certitude, and wit of his delivery. I had taken hundreds…