Announcing the Winner of the 2010 Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest
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Volume 17, Number 1, January 2011 Objectivist Summer New York Friends New Format for Conference 2011 of ARI Sponsors Forbes.com Column Objectivist he Objectivist Sum- ast September Impact announced that Forbes Summer Debate Series Conference 2011 Tmer Conference L .com had started featuring a biweekly 2011 is set to take place column by ARI’s Yaron Brook and Don Watkins. he New York July 2–8 at the Marriott We are pleased to announce that Forbes has Friends of Harbor Beach Resort and New York T made it easier for readers to follow Dr. Brook TM ARI, a charitable Objectivist Conferences Spa on the beach in Fort Friends of ArI ® and Mr. Watkins’s work; their columns will now organization dedi- July 2–8, 2011 Marriott Harbor Beach Resort Lauderdale, Florida. The be accessible at http://blogs.forbes.com/objectivist/ Fort Lauderdale, Florida General Session Lectures (see page 4) cated to spreading Events Barry Colvin, President under the title “The Objectivist.” The new page (see page 5) schedule is still in devel- Optional Courses (see pages 6–9) awareness of Ayn Rand in the New York area, is Conferences for the rational mindTM opment, but most coursesTel: 914-661-3600 • e-mail: [email protected] includes an RSS feed and other tools for tracking ® launching a debate series this February titled “First and special events have the column. Principles: The Moral Debates That Drive Today’s been set, and Impact is excited to share with you The first column in the new format Politics.”Ayn rand Partnering Institute (A rwithI) New York Friends of some highlights. www.aynrand.org addresses the health-care individual mandate, ARI in sponsoring the debate are Demos, a public The conference will feature seven general and was published shortly after the news hit that policy research and advocacy organization, and sessions. Individual speakers, so far, include: a Federal district judge in Virginia struck down itsafreecountry.org, which is a program/forum of John Allison (speaking on teamwork and inde- the mandate as unconstitutional. “Although the New York public radio station WNYC. The pendent thinking), Yaron Brook (topic to be deter- most analysts focused on the legal issues NY_Friends_of ARI_COLVIN_Barry-Business_Card.indddebates will 1be recorded and the well-known6/23/2010 1:18:23 PM mined), Andrew Lewis (speaking on spaceflight) involved,” said Dr. Brook, “we looked at the WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer will moderate. and John David Lewis (speaking on health care deeper question of whether the mandate had any The debate series is still being finalized. from the patient’s perspective). Two sessions will moral validity. We argued that it didn’t.” be panels: one with Onkar Ghate, Robert Mayhew Speaking about new format, Dr. Brook • First debate: “Government: How Much Do and Shoshana Milgram discussing new essays in commented, “ARI’s goal is to inject Ayn Rand’s We Need?”—a debate between ARI’s Yaron a forthcoming revised and expanded edition of ideas into the cultural debate. A regular slot Brook and Demos’s Miles Rapoport Essays on Ayn Rand’s “We the Living,” and the with a highly visible and respected publication other a discussion on the status of Objectivism in • Second debate:“The Social Safety Net: Are like Forbes.com gives us an unprecedented academia moderated by Debi Ghate, with other We Our Brother’s Keeper?” opportunity to do just that.” participants to be named later. • Third debate: “Capitalism: Virtue or Vice?” Signs that the effort is paying off are Optional-course speakers thus far include already visible. Andrew Bernstein, Harry Binswanger, Tore Tentative dates are March 10, April 7 and In August Dr. Brook and Mr. Watkins Boeckmann, Robert Knapp, Andrew Lewis, John May 5, 2011. Impact will have more informa- released a column titled “The Un-American David Lewis, Shoshana Milgram, Adam Mossoff, tion about these debates once plans are set, Dream,” a withering critique of government Jason Rheins, Greg Salmieri, Thomas Shoebotham and will cover the events as they occur. If you housing policy. Two widely read bloggers, Will and Tara Smith. Courses cover topics in history, haven’t already, sign up for the e-mail list of the Wilkinson and Ezra Klein, took issue with the philosophy, art, law, music and Ayn Rand’s life Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights at www piece, and Mr. Watkins followed with a rejoin- and works. There will be numerous special events, .aynrandcenter.org to keep abreast of develop- der on the Ayn Rand Center’s blog, Voices for such as opening and closing banquets, special ments in the debate series, as well as other ARC Reason. “If we are going to change the debate lunches and a Q&A with interviewees in 100 activities. Details will also be made available on in the culture,” Mr. Watkins told Impact, “it is Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand. the ARC website. absolutely essential that mainstream intellectuals The beautiful oceanfront conference hotel has continued on page 4 recently undergone a $50 million renovation, with dramatic additions throughout the resort. It boasts oceanfront terraces, a 10,000-square-foot ballroom with a wall of glass overlooking the ocean, a spa and fitness center, an 8,000-square-foot lagoon Announcing the Winner of the 2010 pool, and the largest private beach in South Florida, replete with tiki bar. Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest Former attendees may notice that this year’s conference is slightly shorter than in past years. lizabeth L. Winkler, a captured me in order see what kind of criti- ARI executive director Yaron Brook explained E senior at Princeton Uni- cism has been written on them. The Ayn Rand the change. “The Objectivist summer conference versity, is the winner of the Institute’s essay contest turned up in one of my is a major undertaking for the Institute, requiring 2010 Atlas Shrugged essay searches, and I was pretty immediately interested yearlong planning and much expense,” he said. contest! The $10,000-prize- in seeing how my own vision of the novel would “Moreover, it is a major event for conference winning essay was selected hold up in a serious competition. Of course, the attendees, and time and financial constraints have from more than 2,500 entries, monetary offer was also very motivating, espe- meant that in past years many of our supporters and answered the topic ques- cially when I’m looking at several years of gradu- have only been able to attend part of the conference. tion that asked entrants to ate school ahead of me and my summers have “After last year’s conference, we took a explain, with examples from been mostly overtaken by unpaid internships.” hard look at the schedule and decided that we the novel dramatizing the point, what it means for Asked why she chose the essay topic that she could offer the same great experience in a more selfishness to be both moral and practical. did, Ms. Winkler replied, “For me, the notion that condensed package—lessening the time and Atlas Shrugged was Ms. Winkler’s first self-interest is an essentially productive societal economic cost for everyone without diluting the Ayn Rand novel, and she discovered the ARI force and that it has long been wrongly demonized conference content. With the shorter time frame, essay contest when researching literary criticisms is at the heart of understanding Rand’s philosophy. we hope that more of our attendees will be able to of the novel after completing it. She recalled, “I It’s really the fundamental premise you have to experience the whole of this year’s conference. As read Atlas Shrugged for my own enjoyment last accept before you can move into any of the eco- the schedule attests, there will be plenty to take in.” summer and (being an English student) I usually nomic implications. The necessary overturning of continued on page 4 do some searches on books that have particularly continued on page 4 “The Irresponsible Individual Mandate” have health insurance go to the hospital if they to pass them on to paying customers, if they can, get a serious illness, and they get treated for free or to go out of business, if they can’t. In other by government. My plan says no, they can’t do news, an alarming number of emergency rooms that. No more free riders. People have to take have had to shut their doors in recent years.) personal responsibility.” Anyone genuinely concerned with elimi- Personal responsibility? Forcing people to nating free rides would advocate repealing the buy insurance they may neither want nor need EMTALA, and phasing out programs like Medi- has nothing to do with personal responsibility. care, Medicaid and S-CHIP, which allow people Real personal responsibility would mean that a to pawn off their health care costs on others. But This is the first post by ARI executive director healthy 24-year-old struggling to buy his first that is not what really concerns supporters of the Yaron Brook and analyst Don Watkins in the new home or start his first business would be free to individual mandate. Just as the whole point of format at blogs.forbes.com/objectivist. It was decide that he is better off putting money aside the EMTALA (and Medicare, and Medicaid) is originally published on December 15, 2010. for possible medical bills and foregoing health to enable some people to “get treated for free” by insurance (or buying a relatively cheap plan to having “other people carrying the burdens,” so it federal district judge has struck down Obama- cover only catastrophic care—something gener- goes for ObamaCare’s individual mandate.