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An Interview with Leonard Peikoff UCLA Conference on Freedom

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An Interview with Leonard Peikoff UCLA Conference on Freedom Volume 16, Number 3, March 2010 UCLA Conference on We the Living and the World Today: Freedom An Interview with Leonard Peikoff RI intellectuals participated in a two-day Dr. Leonard Peikoff was a stu- see the government’s aban- A conference on the philosophic foundations dent and friend of Ayn Rand’s donment in many areas even of freedom at the University of California, Los for more than thirty years. He of the pretense that it respects Angeles, the weekend of January 30–31. The is the author of The Ominous private property or individual conference was put on by LOGIC, the UCLA Parallels and Objectivism: rights. Washington gave its Objectivist club (with financial and material The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, all in the effort to socialize support from ARI), and featured ten talks by the definitive presentation medicine—to be financed eight speakers, as well as a panel discussion and of Ayn Rand’s philosophy. in part through the unprec- a student-led presentation on activism. It was Dr. Peikoff is the featured edented mandating of invol- free and open to the public, and attendees were speaker at Objectivist Summer Conference 2010 untary purchases by Ameri- treated to lunch. in Las Vegas (July 2–11), where he will present cans out of their after-tax money. The proposed six general-session lectures on his forthcoming new environmentalist legislation is a huge blow to book, The DIM Hypothesis. the productive ability of industry, and also to the Impact recently sat down with Dr. Peikoff ability of business to defend its own rights against to discuss Ayn Rand’s first novel, We the Living the politicians’; even if, as it seems at the moment, (1936), and its relevance to America today. these laws do not pass this year, the fact that such Dr. Peikoff worked with the publisher New things have been thought of and widely touted tells American Library on the design of the new you where we are. All of the bailouts are a signal trade edition of We the Living and authored a to all of the big incompetents (the Orren Boyles* new introduction to the novel. of the world) that they need not worry any more Here we present part two of this two-part inter- about failure because the government will run view. Part one may be found in the January Impact. things for them, decide when a venture is too risky, Onkar Ghate during his lecture on individual rights and provide a new squad of overseers and even a The talks were chosen to be both independent Impact: Would you elaborate on the totalitarian special czar to set “fair salaries.” And, of course, of and integrated with each other: no talk required aspects you see in the United States today? as for the multitrillion-dollar deficit, the govern- another as a prerequisite, but those who had LP: With Obama, there are a few clear signs ment’s attitude is: après moi le deluge (which came attended prior courses would be able to see the rela- not yet of totalitarianism, but of ominous steps in to Weimar Germany in 1933, ten years after its tion between them. The range of topics included the its direction—signs, in action or as trial balloons, runaway inflation). revolutionary idea of individual rights, the separa- that I’ve not seen before in so unmistakable a form. There’s also a few “little” things: the talk about tion of state and economics, objective law, and Atlas The obvious area is the economy, where we subsidizing “important” newspapers, including of Shrugged and the morality of freedom. “LOGIC had wanted to host a weekend continued on page 4 event like this involving ARI for some time, and this year the conditions were right to do it,” said Debi Ghate, ARI vice president of Academic Keith Lockitch Challenges Views at continued on page 2 Energy and Environment Conference n February ARC fellow cally, for not imposing a massive regime of gov- I Keith Lockitch spoke out ernment controls, regulations or market interven- ARI Benefit in Los Angeles against government environ- tions aimed at restricting greenhouse gases in the mental policies at the Energy name of allegedly fighting climate change. and Environment Conference, “Mine was definitely the most controversial one of the largest events in talk on my panel session. I was even attacked as a The the United States devoted to ‘denier’ by one of my co-panelists, the executive Atlas Shrugged Revolution energy and environmental director of the American Solar Energy Society. issues. The conference, which But there were a number of people in the audience April 7, 2010 took place in Phoenix, Arizona, February 1–3, who came up afterwards to thank me for present- Los Angeles attracted 650 speakers and 2,300 attendees. ing a contrarian view that they felt was badly Dr. Lockitch was one of only a handful of needed at this conference.” speakers at the conference to challenge the fun- Audio and/or video of the panel may be made damental assumptions of green-energy advocates. available on the Energy and Environment Confer- ho can raise more funds for ARI’s pro- While the other panelists on the Tuesday morning ence Web site. Dr. Lockitch was also interviewed Wgrams, the East Coast or the West? Fol- panel presented their ideas for transforming the by the Heartland Institute before and after his lowing last September’s wildly successful benefit United States into a green economy, Dr. Lockitch appearance. The pre-panel Heartland Institute dinner and silent auction in New York City, which challenged the foundations of their vision. As he podcast is available at www.heartland.org. The attracted 125 attendees and raised more than wrote in a Voices for Reason blog post: post-panel video interview can be found at $400,000, ARI will host a second Atlas Shrugged “[The conference marketing slogan was:] www.arc-tv.com. Revolution benefit in Los Angeles on April 7. As ‘650 speakers tackle solutions for USA’s energy The Energy and Environment panel presenta- in New York, the headline speakers will be BB&T independence and reducing carbon emissions.’ tion was one of five public talks on energy and chairman John Allison and ARI executive director Well, make that 649, because the gist of my pre- climate given by Dr. Lockitch in five days, from Yaron Brook. Other presentations will be part of sentation was to argue against the ‘solutions’ that January 31 through February 4. The others were the evening’s program. every other speaker had to offer. appearances at the University of California, Los The benefit dinner will be held at the luxuri- “As I told the audience attending my panel Angeles (see “UCLA Conference on Freedom,” ous Beverly Hilton Hotel, the annual home of the session, I was there to make the case for not doing this page), Arizona State University, University of continued on page 3 anything about climate change—or, more specifi- Michigan and Penn State University. TM the nature of the universe in which he acts— Why Man Needs i.e., he needs metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, ARI Speakers and Events which means: philosophy. He cannot escape from at Objectivist Summer Philosophy this need; his only alternative is whether the phi- losophy guiding him is to be chosen by his mind Conference 2010 Each month Impact suggests readings and other or by chance.” (“Philosophy and Sense of Life,” resources for fans of Ayn Rand’s fiction who wish The Romantic Manifesto) to learn more about her philosophy, Objectivism. he 2010 Objectivist summer conference in And elsewhere: “As a human being, you have TLas Vegas is only months away. This year’s no choice about the fact that you need a philoso- conference includes two general sessions and two ne of the most striking facets of Ayn Rand’s phy. Your only choice is whether you define your optional courses led by ARI speakers, as well as O thought is the tremendous range of topics philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined a number of special informational events. The on which she had something unique to say. The process of thought and scrupulously logical conference will be held at the Red Rock Casino, Ayn Rand Lexicon, available online at www deliberation—or let your subconscious accumulate Resort and Spa from July 2 through 10. .aynrandlexicon.com, offers a sample of this a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false gen- Presentations include: a general session scope. This compilation of excerpts from the eralizations, undefined contradictions, undigested Q & A about ARI’s 25th anniversary with works of Ayn Rand (and from a few other autho- slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, Michael S. Berliner and Yaron Brook, the first rized Objectivist texts) covers hundreds of topics, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your and current executive directors of the Institute, such as “free will,” “independence,” “love,” subconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy respectively; “Defending Capitalism,” a gen- “sex,” “reason,” “logic,” “cynicism,” “altruism,” and fused into a single, solid weight: self-doubt, eral session with Dr. Brook; “Writing Objec- “selfishness,” “government,” “physical force,” like a ball and chain in the place where your tively,” an optional course taught by ARI fel- “objective law,” “art” and “happiness.” mind’s wings should have grown.” (“Philosophy: low Keith Lockitch; and “The Distinctiveness This incredible variety is a comment not only Who Needs It,” Philosophy: Who Needs It) of an Egoistic Foreign Policy,” an optional on the genius of Ayn Rand, but on the nature of For more on this topic, see, in addition to the course taught by ARI fellow Elan Journo.
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