ARI Defends Business in New Forbes.Com Column Expanded Internship Program Brings Ten Interns To
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Volume 16, Number 9, September 2010 ARI Defends Expanded Internship Program Business in New Brings Ten Interns to ARI Forbes.com Column or the past six years, of Michigan who FARI’s Academic will begin medi- By ARI executive director Yaron Brook division has invited one cal school in the or two student interns fall. The degrees n August the popular business website Forbes to study and work in they are pursuing I .com began carrying a regular column written by the Irvine, California, include economics, me and ARI analyst Don Watkins. This is an impor- office during the sum- philosophy, com- tant landmark in the Institute’s efforts to inject mer. The success of that parative literature Ayn Rand’s ideas into the culture. program led this year to and neuroscience. The biweekly column will focus on issues in a substantial expansion Interns also came business and the free market. One of our principle of it, when ten students from Amherst Col- aims is to offer businessmen a moral defense of were brought to Irvine to Yaron Brook and Onkar Ghate in a Q&A session with ARI’s interns lege, George Mason their pursuit of profit and happiness. participate in an inten- University, Rice In our first column, “The U.S. Anti-Business sive, three-week paid internship involving in-depth University, St. John’s College, University of Cali- Epidemic,” Mr. Watkins and I entered the debate seminars, one-on-one tutorials, Q&As with Objec- fornia at Berkeley, University of Rochester and the over whether President Obama is anti-business. But tivist intellectuals and businessmen, and office work University of Texas at Austin. we went deeper than other commentators, asking supporting ARI’s Academic and Policy divisions. “The ARI internship was a tremendously ben- what it means to be pro-business. Our answer: The upgraded program was a success, said ARI eficial experience,” said one intern. “The instructors “Today ‘pro-business’ often gets equated with vice president of Academic programs Debi Ghate. managed to educate without indoctrinating, pushing assuaging the desires of the business lobby. But “In recent years the number of qualified applicants us to think for ourselves about the core of Objectiv- Atlas excoriates those ‘businessmen’ who spend to our internship program far exceeded the number ism. The internship gave me a better understanding their time liquoring up politicians to coax favors or of positions available, so the time was right to of Rand’s philosophy as well as a grasp on what I crush competitors. What it celebrates is the activity expand. We conceived the idea of centering the still have to learn. I would recommend it to any per- of business—the process of production and trade internship on daily seminars investigating Ayn Rand’s son serious about ideas and their application to life.” that has taken us from mud huts to Manhattan. The life, literature and philosophy. The educational portion of the program was true producer, Rand shows, makes just one demand “In contrast to our old format, in which the led by Onkar Ghate, ARI senior fellow and dean of Washington: ‘Get the hell out of my way!’” interns engaged in independent study guided by of the Objectivist Academic Center (OAC). He The Institute aims to change the terms of the staff intellectuals, the seminar format lets us reach was joined by instructors Eric Daniels (Clemson debate in the culture; we want to present funda- more students and provides them with an intimate University), Keith Lockitch (ARI fellow and OAC mental ideas that will encourage the public to start classroom experience rich in discussion. It worked professor) and Greg Salmieri (University of North thinking in terms of a truly free market versus out extremely well. On the whole our interns, who Carolina at Chapel Hill). Seminar topics included today’s regulatory-welfare state. Through the in general were new to Ayn Rand, were able to philosophy and religion, Ayn Rand qua novelist Forbes.com column, we are reaching a readership delve into the range of ideas and issues contained in and philosopher, selfishness and the basis of moral- which generally values business and economic Rand’s works under the guidance of ARI intellectu- ity, the separation of church and state, free speech, freedom. By presenting them again and again with als and guest instructors.” and the role of government in environmental an uncompromisng defense of genuine free-market The ten promising students came from top issues. Each intern also had a one-on-one tutorial principles, we have a unique opportunity to dif- schools across the country and were chosen from with one of the seminar instructors, at which time ferentiate ourselves from today’s libertarians and one hundred applicants. They ranged from an they were able to raise questions on intellectual conservatives, and help make sure that when people incoming freshman at the University of Penn- topics of special interest to them. In addition, the talk about capitalism in the future, it is Ayn Rand’s sylvania to a recent graduate of the University Continued on page 4 concept of capitalism they’ll be discussing. In the past, I wrote a number of individual pieces for Forbes.com as a contributor; this new Winning Essay Selected in the arrangement will offer even more visibility for our views. Now Forbes.com readers will see our work First Former-Participant’s Contest regularly, allowing us to build a relationship with them and develop our positions over time. People ori Thomas, from Chris- that often enough. will keep coming across our viewpoint—a defense L tiana, Tennessee, is the “I want to thank ARI and all of the donors of capitalism in Objectivism’s fundamental, moral $2,000 grand-prize winner of who fund the Institute’s efforts. Without the essay terms—and eventually more of them will begin to a new Ayn Rand Institute contests, I never would have read her work. I know understand what we’re arguing for. essay contest for prior par- there are many young people who have serious The opportunity for a regular column in a ticipants of other ARI essay philosophical questions about the world, just as I high-profile, widely read news outlet came about contests. Ms. Thomas was did at their age. It’s important to let them know that as a consequence of the prolonged efforts of our eligible for the new contest Objectivism has the answers. ARI can count on my fellows, analysts and media team. Through the because she had previously continuing financial support, and I encourage every- commentary we’ve published and media appear- Lori Thomas entered the Fountainhead one to support ARI in any way you can. Thank you ances we’ve made in recent years, more and more essay contest as a high school student . some again for this honor.” people are realizing that ARI writers have some- twenty years ago. Impact is pleased to reprint Ms. Thomas’s thing new, interesting and controversial to say. “I entered the contest simply for the joy winning essay (see page 2). Winners of the 2010 Each achievement has a snowball effect, leading to of writing about how much Miss Rand’s work Anthem and Fountainhead essay contests will be even more opportunities for exposure. Other recent means to me,” said Ms. Thomas, whose touch- highlighted in the next Impact. The deadline to examples include ARI analyst Tom Bowden’s July ing essay describes how seeing an advertisement enter the 2010 Atlas Shrugged essay contest, open Christian Science Monitor op-ed, “Elena Kagan: for the Fountainhead essay contest on a school to high school seniors and college students, is Could She Defend the Constitution’s Purpose?” bulletin board turned into a life-changing experi- September 17. Visit aynrandnovels.com for more Continued on page 3 ence. “I don’t get the opportunity to acknowledge information. The Winning Essay Selected in the First Former-Participant’s Contest What was your initial response to the novel(s)? in school. Even though I was an A student who and that selflessness destroys the mind. Atlas In what ways has reading Ayn Rand inspired knew the answers, part of me always doubted Shrugged showed all of society collapsing you and the choices you have made in your that I was right. I wouldn’t stand up for myself because of altruism. I would have collapsed, life? when people hurt me, particularly when the too. Without Objectivism, I may well have ones hurting me were people who were sup- ended up like Catherine in The Fountain- I first encountered Ayn Rand’s work almost posed to care about me. I felt like maybe I head—unable to desire anything. I may have twenty years ago as a high school student. I deserved the pain and I just didn’t understand been Cherryl in Atlas Shrugged, whom the noticed an advertisement for an essay con- love. If I didn’t understand who created God or world so overwhelmed that she killed herself. I test on a school bulletin board. In search of why I should repeatedly forgive those who hurt didn’t want either of those ends. scholarship money, I decided to enter, even me, maybe it was because I just wasn’t smart Slowly, I started making different deci- though I had never heard of a book called The enough to understand religion. I blamed myself sions. Because of the examples of Roark and Fountainhead. I remember thinking two things for things that weren’t my fault. I spent most of the Atlas heroes, I felt capable of handling during that initial reading: this book is differ- my childhood feeling stupid and overwhelmed.