Image: Wikipedia Commons

Image: Wikipedia Commons

What:

Where: Students for Liberty Dallas Regional Conference, University of North Texas

When: Saturday, November 12, 2011

Admission: FREE and open to the public (but space is limited, so register early)

Description: What are rights? Where do they come from? How do we know it? And what does this imply? Ayn Rand’s answers to these questions form the indispensible foundation of a fully free, fully civilized society. In this talk, Craig Biddle elucidates Rand’s theory of rights, examining its essential principles, showing why it is true, and differentiating it from traditional theories, including “God-given” rights, “government-granted” rights, and “natural” rights. Attendees will expand or fortify their understanding of the source, nature, and meaning of rights, thus enhancing their ability to engage in intellectual activism toward pure, laissez-faire capitalism.

What:

Where: Medford Oregon, at the Rogue Valley Country Club, 2660 Hillcrest Rd.

When: September 3, cocktails & hors d’oeuvres 5:00-7:00pm, lecture with Q&A 7:00-9:00pm

Admission: $35

Description: What are rights? Where do they come from? How do we know it? And what does this imply? Ayn Rand’s answers to these questions form the indispensible foundation of a fully free, fully civilized society. In this talk, Craig Biddle elucidates Rand’s theory of rights, examining its essential principles, showing why it is true, and differentiating it from traditional theories, including “man-made” rights, “God-given” rights, and “natural” rights. Attendees will expand or fortify their understanding of the source, nature, and meaning of rights, thus enhancing their ability to engage in intellectual activism toward pure, laissez-faire capitalism.

Register online

Because Earth Day is intended to further the cause of environmentalism—and because environmentalism is an anti-human ideology—on April 22, those who care about human life should not celebrate Earth Day; they should celebrate Exploit-the-Earth Day.

Exploiting the Earth—using the raw materials of nature for one’s life-serving purposes—is a basic requirement of human life. Either man takes the Earth’s raw materials—such as trees, petroleum, aluminum, and atoms—and transforms them into the requirements of his life, or he dies. To live, man must produce the goods on which his life depends; he must produce homes, automobiles, computers, electricity, and the like; he must seize nature and use it to his advantage. There is no escaping this fact. Even the allegedly “noble” savage must pick or perish. Indeed, even if a person produces nothing, insofar as he remains alive he indirectly exploits the Earth by parasitically surviving off the exploitative efforts of others.

According to environmentalism, however, man should not use nature for his needs; he should keep his hands off “the goods”; he should leave nature alone, come what may. Environmentalism is not concerned with human health and wellbeing—neither ours nor that of generations to come. If it were, it would advocate the one social system that ensures that the Earth and its elements are used in the most productive, life-serving manner possible: capitalism.

Capitalism is the only social system that recognizes and protects each individual’s right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. Under capitalism, people are fully free to choose their goals, to identify the means of attaining them, and to act on their best judgment. Accordingly, those who recognize that in order to live well they and their loved ones need abundant energy, clean air, clean water, and the like tend to use the available resources rationally, with an eye to the distant future. Further, under capitalism, if a person (or corporation) spews toxins onto someone’s land, or poisons his water supply, or in any other way violates his property rights, the offender is held accountable in a court of law. But, so long as a person does not violate anyone’s rights, he is free to act in accordance with his basic means of living: the judgment of his mind.

Environmentalism, of course, does not and cannot advocate capitalism, because if people are free to act on their judgment, they will strive to produce and prosper; they will transform the raw materials of nature into the requirements of human life; they will exploit the Earth and live.

Environmentalism rejects the basic moral premise of capitalism—the idea that people should be free to act on their judgment—because it rejects a more fundamental idea on which capitalism rests: the idea that the requirements of human life constitute the standard of moral value. While the standard of value underlying capitalism is human life (meaning, that which is necessary for human beings to live and prosper), the standard of value underlying environmentalism is nature untouched by man.

The basic principle of environmentalism is that nature (i.e., “the environment”) has intrinsic value—value in and of itself, value apart from and irrespective of the requirements of human life—and that this value must be protected from its only adversary: man. Rivers must be left free to flow unimpeded by human dams, which divert natural flows, alter natural landscapes, and disrupt wildlife habitats. Glaciers must be left free to grow or shrink according to natural causes, but any human activity that might affect their size must be prohibited. Naturally generated carbon dioxide (such as that emitted by oceans and volcanoes) and naturally generated methane (such as that emitted by swamps and termites) may contribute to the greenhouse effect, but such gasses must not be produced by man. The globe may warm or cool naturally (e.g., via increases or decreases in sunspot activity), but man must not do anything to affect its temperature.

In short, according to environmentalism, if nature affects nature, the effect is good; if man affects nature, the effect is evil.

Stating the essence of environmentalism in such stark terms raises some illuminating questions: If the good is nature untouched by man, how is man to live? What is he to eat? What is he to wear? Where is he to reside? How can man do anything his life requires without altering, harming, or destroying some aspect of nature? In order to nourish himself, man must consume meats, fruits, and vegetables. In order to make clothing, he must skin animals, pick cotton, manufacture polyester, and the like. In order to build a house—or even a hut—he must cut down trees, dig up clay, make fires, bake bricks, and so forth. Each and every action man takes to support or sustain his life entails the exploitation of nature. Thus, on the premise of environmentalism, man has no right to exist.

It comes down to this: Each of us has a choice to make. Will I recognize that man’s life is the standard of moral value—that the good is that which sustains and furthers human life—and thus that people have a moral right to use the Earth and its elements for their life-serving needs? Or will I accept that nature has “intrinsic” value—value in and of itself, value apart from and irrespective of human needs—and thus that people have no right to exist?

There is no middle ground here. Either human life is the standard of moral value, or it is not. Either nature has intrinsic value, or it does not.

On April 22, make clear where you stand. Don’t celebrate Earth Day; celebrate Exploit-the-Earth Day—and let your friends, family, and associates know why.

What:

Who: Craig Biddle, editor of The Objective Standard

Where: UCLA, Kinsey Pavillion 1240B

When: Wednesday, January 26, 7:00pm

Admission is FREE and open to the public.

Description: America was founded on the principle of individual rights–the idea that each person has a right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. Since the country’s founding, however, Americans have increasingly accepted a morality that is incompatible with rights, namely, altruism: the notion that being moral consists in self-sacrificially serving others. In this talk, Craig Biddle examines the nature and source of altruism, shows what the morality means in theory and practice, and demonstrates its stark opposition to the principle of individual rights. He then indicates the nature and objectivity of the only morality that is compatible with individual rights: rational egoism, the morality developed and defined by Ayn Rand.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

UPCOMING AYN RAND INSTITUTE EVENT—THE ATLAS SHRUGGED REVOLUTION, SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

I am very pleased to announce that on Tuesday, September 14, 2010, in New York City we will hold our second annual Atlas Shrugged Revolution fundraising dinner event.

Last year’s event attracted 125 attendees and raised more than $400,000—and we hope that this year’s event will be an even greater success.

Here are the details for this year’s dinner:

Tuesday, September 14, 2010
6:00 p.m.
W New York
541 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10022

John Allison of BB&T Corporation will again join me to discuss the public’s continuing interest in Atlas Shrugged—and the ideas behind it. We will also update attendees on the work being done by ARI to promote Ayn Rand’s philosophy at this critical time in our nation’s history.

For more details and to register, please visit our event Web site.

We hope you’ll be able to join us in Manhattan on September 14, for ARI’s second annual Atlas Shrugged Revolution event!

Sincerely,

Yaron Brook
President and Executive Director

P.S. At this year’s event we will again hold an auction of rare Ayn Rand books and manuscripts. Images and descriptions of the items are available for viewing on the Web.

Copyright © 2010 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.