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…
Category: Objectivism
This section of my blog is for Objectivists and those interested in Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. You may repost and/or translate anything found here, provided you do so a) without editing the content in any way and b) link back to the original source.
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,…
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…
ARI and the Use of “Ayn Rand”
Prometheus Foundation affiliates (i.e., the Prometheus Network) are working worldwide to promote Ayn Rand and advance Objectivism. Here’s an indication of what they’ve done in just the last few months: Kalin Manolov republished the following books in Bulgarian: Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, For the New Intellectual, and The Virtue of Selfishness. In addition to republishing…
ARI is Failing: Follow-Up
I’ve received many responses to my post, “ARI Is Failing and Needs Our Help,” and I appreciate them all. Some have been private emails, and some have been comments under the post. The emails and comments have been thoughtful, illuminating, and respectful of the importance of this matter. People are deeply concerned about the state…
John Allison’s Fundraising Efforts for ARI
A few days after I posted “ARI Is Failing and Needs Our Help,” the Ayn Rand Institute sent out a letter from John Allison insisting that “we [at ARI] are doing our job” and making several claims attempting to show this. I’ll address those claims below. I have great respect for John Allison as an…
ARI Is Failing and Needs Our Help
(If you are not an Objectivist, please ignore this.) The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) is failing, and I have struggled over whether to make a statement about how and why it is failing. I understand things that Objectivists, and particularly major contributors to ARI, need to know and have a right to know. If ARI…
More Context about Craig Biddle and ARI
(If you are not an Objectivist, please ignore this.) For about 10 years, on and off, certain people at the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), most notably Onkar Ghate and Yaron Brook, have been publicly and covertly (through phone calls, emails, and social media) denouncing and blacklisting Craig Biddle and The Objective Standard (TOS). They did…
Response to ARI
I recently wrote an article, The Truth about Craig Biddle vs. Smears by Some at ARI. Rather than respond to the article, ARI issued a statement attacking it as “riddled with errors and distortions.” What errors and distortions? They don’t say. Surely they could have spent a few minutes out of respect for readers to…