In a culture in which algorithms control the content we consume—what movies to watch, what goods to buy, what news to listen to—the choice to read a book whose philosophy opposes our own and questions our sacred assumptions is nothing short of revolutionary. “I choose novels that let me turn my brain off,” a student [...]
After returning home from 20 years of warring and wandering, the Greek hero Odysseus was confronted by his long-suffering wife, Penelope, who could not accept the homecoming of her husband without personal reassurance, so tested she had been by the gods and the years. So she called for their bed to be dragged from the [...]
Since the 2012 election, a wide-ranging and helpful debate about the direction of conservatism has broken out among conservative commentators seeking to re-brand the movement. Key in this debate is how far conservatism should transform itself into libertarianism. Ben Domenech championed what he calls “populist libertarianism,” echoing Peter Suderman’s generous appraisal of what libertarianism can offer. [...]
I believe video games are art. I don’t think that’s a very controversial thing to say anymore, but it bears repeating. It’s true that Lord of the Flies comes to mind now and again if I play a cooperative game with my friends. It’s also true that video games can be dangerously addictive. But in moderation, [...]
Does God underwrite our freedom, or undermine it? There are thousands of self-styled “libertarians” who would argue the latter. They actively oppose the religious commitments of most social conservatives, many of them convinced that materialism is the best metaphysical home for what we might call “libertarian values”—individual rights, freedom and personal responsibility, reason, and moral [...]
We all know the arguments against the notion, but somewhat reluctantly I conclude that libertarians are indeed human. After all, our species contains the incontinent, the mentally disabled, the incurably giddy, and Mr. Walter Block. Mr. Block is an elderly academician inspired by Ayn Rand, Nathanial Branden and Murray Rothbard. Libertarians find him pleasant and [...]
“The only authentic epochê is . . . victory over desire, victory over Promethean pride.”—René Girard[1] “When the SS torturer becomes the villain of the war film, he is turned into a sacrificial figure, a scapegoat, [he becomes the] structural equivalent of the Jud Süss in Nazi cinema.”—Eric Gans[2] No account of Ayn Rand’s (1905–1982) [...]
How to revive the flagging fortunes of the Republican Party might matter to some people, but it’s not a question that should concern principled conservatives. Crypto-conservatives aplenty stand ready to shoulder that demeaning task. Tune in Fox News or pick up the latest issue of National Review or the Weekly Standard and you’ll find them, [...]
With today’s release of the film of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, its appropriate to consider some of the reasons Bentley Hart gives us in his article “The Trouble with Ayn Rand” (found in the 2011 May edition of First Things) as to why we should avoid seeing this film. It’s especially important to consider these reasons given [...]
Hackensack, NJ—American campuses are hot to trot for the new pop band, Rand and the Randroids, on tour promoting their first album, “Waterheads.” Guys, how did you come up with the concept for the album? Rand: There’s, like, this dead chick named Rand. Just like me except she’s, you know, dead. And she wrote a [...]
In comments on an essay on The Imaginative Conservative (Whittaker Chambers and the Strenuously Sterile World of Atlas Shrugged) the question has been raised as to the value of discussing Ayn Rand and her teachings on a site dedicated to conservative thought. Below, in brief, is my thinking on why this discussion is worthwhile. [...]
Working in the free-market policy world, I’m forced to endure a certain adulation of Ayn Rand and her epic Atlas Shrugged. With only a couple weeks until the much-awaited film version debuts, the email listerves normally teeming with white papers and legislative analysis are now spitting out adverts telling me to get my tickets now [...]
The following 1950 quote from Russell Kirk [“How Dead is Edmund Burke?,” Queen’s Quarterly 57 (1950): 162] made me think of our recent conversation on the power of Ayn Rand to attract strong, young minds, eager for Truth. Men of conservative impulse are numerous in every society; they are among us today, but most of [...]
As I was “calling it a day” last night, my good friend, Carl, over at Ignatius Insight Scoop, posted a note about Dinesh D’souza and his assumption of the presidency of The King’s College. Before I write anything more, I must admit two things. First, I’ve not kept up with D’Souza’s career in the last [...]