New Ideal, from the Ayn Rand Institute Ayn Rand Institute
-
- Society & Culture
-
A curated selection of content from the pages of New Ideal, the journal of the Ayn Rand Institute. At New Ideal, we explore pressing cultural issues from the perspective of Rand's philosophy, Objectivism, which upholds the ideals of reason, individualism, and capitalism. https://newideal.aynrand.org
-
The Divestment Crusade Against Israel
https://youtu.be/RGhQLpYXo6Y
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo discuss the ongoing anti-Israel campus protests and analyze the demand that universities divest from Israel.
Among the topics covered:
* How the divestment crusade is animated by hatred of Israel, not concern for the Palestinians;
* The dishonest claim that Israel practices apartheid;
* How the protesters whitewash Hamas' vicious treatment of homosexuals;
* Why Christianity is the root of the celebration of Palestinian weakness and the hatred of Israeli prosperity;
* The US government's outrageous financial support for corrupt organizations;
* Why the violation of Palestinians’ rights by some fanatical Jews doesn’t amount to apartheid.
Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and her essays “For the New Intellectual” and “The Age of Envy,” Peter Schwartz’s “Hamas and the Tyranny of Need,” and Journo’s book What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
The podcast was recorded on May 8, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.
Image credit: KelseyJ/Shutterstock.com. -
Milton Friedman vs Ayn Rand: How to Change the World
https://youtu.be/Bg9BFE1-49Y
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss Milton Friedman’s impact as a public intellectual and how his advocacy of the free market differed from Ayn Rand’s radical philosophical case for capitalism.
Among the topics covered:
* Why Milton Friedman is an essentially positive influence on free market thought;
* How Friedman’s moral conventionality reinforced the ideas he tried to oppose;
* The importance of stating the ideal when advocating for gradual reform;
* Why questions of morality are at the root of economic issues;
* How Friedman’s amoralism and pragmatism blinded him to the statists’ motivation;
* Ayn Rand’s critical evaluation of Friedman;
* Why the abolitionist movement is a model for moving the world toward freedom.
Mentioned in this podcast is Onkar Ghate and Yaron Brook’s course “Cultural Movements: Creating Change” and Ayn Rand’s essay “Tax Credits for Education.”
The podcast was recorded on May 2, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
The Outrageous Public Support for the Pro-Hamas Protests
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O0HkJbbj4E
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Ben Bayer discuss the protests on university campuses against Israel’s war of self-defense and what they say about the state of our culture.
Among the topics covered:
* Why the anti-Israeli campus protests are rightly labelled as being pro-Hamas;
* How there is a double standard in the public’s response to mass protests in general;
* How the anti-Israeli protests are motivated by altruism and hatred of Israel’s success;
* Why the campus protests are a crisis of education rather than of free speech;
* How the mass occupation of public spaces violate our rights.
Mentioned in this podcast is Ayn Rand’s 1968 radio talk “The Student “Rebellion” at Columbia University.”
The podcast was recorded on April 24, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
Why Do Philosophers Keep Getting Ayn Rand Wrong?
https://youtu.be/FjsC7I-Qa4A
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Mike Mazza and Aaron Smith discuss Mazza’s recently published article about why academic philosophers tend to get Rand’s ideas wrong so frequently and the parochialism involved in many of their critiques.
Among the topics covered:
* What Mazza aimed to explain in this article;
* Why responding to academic critics is important;
* What it means for philosophers to engage in parochialism;
* How the methods of academic philosophers are poorly suited to understanding Rand;
* The inductive structure of Rand’s arguments;
* The multiple factors behind philosophers’ dismissal of Rand’s ideas;
* Why the parochialism issue is particularly important to identify;
* Why historians of philosophy tend not to make the mistake of parochialism;
* How even Objectivists can be parochial and what they should do to avoid it.
Mentioned in this podcast are the New Ideal articles “Why Can’t Professional Philosophers Get Rand Right?” by Mazza and “Why Massimo Pigliucci Gets Ayn Rand Wrong” by Smith, plus the book A Companion to Ayn Rand edited by Allan Gotthelf and Gregory Salmieri (specifically Chapter 1, “An Introduction to the Study of Ayn Rand”). The podcast was recorded on April 18, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
Iran attacks Israel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5Lm2YpZvyI
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo offers initial commentary on Iran’s April 13 attack on Israel.
Among the topics covered:
* How Iran’s attack on Israel is a consequence of its Islamic and imperial nature;
* How America’s failure to recognise and confront Iran’s nature emboldens it;
* Why America and Israel are morally justified in replacing Iran’s evil regime.
Mentioned in this podcast are Elan Journo’s book What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo’s edited collection of essays Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: from George W. Bush to Barrack Obama and Beyond, and Leonard Peikoff’s article “’End States Who Sponsor Terrorism’.”
The podcast was recorded on April 13, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here. -
The 2024 Elections
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeuU6AbIDOo
Podcast audio:
In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo give a preview of ARI’s 2024 presidential election coverage and comment on some of the major political issues at stake in the election.
Among the topics covered:
* How ARI uses Objectivism to analyze elections and the wider political culture;
* What the Trump phenomenon says about the state of our political culture;
* The unprincipled nature of the political responses to recent domestic and foreign crises;
* Symptoms of growing political tribalism, such as people’s increasing willingness to protest;
* How bipartisan attacks on tech companies reveal a deeper turn against producers.
Mentioned in this podcast is Onkar Ghate’s New Ideal article “One Small Step for Dictatorship."
The podcast was recorded on April 11, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.
Customer Reviews
Rich exchange of relevant ideas
I look forward to these podcasts every week. They always offer a highly professional analysis, discussion, and application of rational ideas to many of today’s ethical and political issues. The intellectuals who appear on this program are well schooled in philosophical thought at large and in Ayn Rand’s radical philosophy of Objectivism in particular. I know. I’ve been studying these ideas for thirty years and yet I get so much out of these sessions. They also allow time for questions on YouTube. Anyone can learn something new from this experience. The discussion leads always offer references for further study at the end of the show.
A Podcast That Keeps You Connected to Current Objectivist Intellectuals
I was a part of the Objectivist Academic Center (OAC) while in college a while ago. Since then I had felt somewhat cut off from ARI, but then I found these new and improved podcasts. It’s like being right back in the classroom hearing the familiar and current intellectual voices of Onkar, Elan, Aaron, Ben, Keith, Yaron, Tara, Greg, and so many more. Even if you are like me and have read everything you could get your hands on that was written by Ayn Rand, continuously hearing about how current events are interpreted and understanding what these intellectuals are focusing on now is extremely important to better yourself as an Objectivist thinker. I found myself already knowing the basic “answer” to a question in a podcast, but then I learned some more subtle ways of approaching the problem or a different way of executing the solution through an Objectivist lens.
I can tell that a lot of effort goes into each podcast and I just want to express my gratitude. I always come away from each episode inspired.
When I first heard Tal discuss the plan of creating Ayn Rand University, I got so excited that I stayed uncomfortably jittery for the rest of the day. I truly hope that someday students can learn what to do and believe in as opposed to what not to do and believe in as myself and so many others have gone through in our schooling. I want a moral education for myself and anyone else that desires a path forward to truly live a happier life on earth.
Please keep these podcasts up ARI and I look forward to enjoying 2022 with you as one of your dedicated listeners.
-Kaitlyn
Frauds
These people are pretentious hedonists, and their movement is a cargo cult.