TOS Weekly - Why Is Communism So Poorly Understood?
Plus the antislavery hero America needs to remember, the heroes and villains of Western civilization, remembering the Mythbuster Extraordinaire and the Jurassic Renaissance man, and more.
Why do so many people advocate communism despite its atrocious track record? That’s the question that Aditya Patil (a recent graduate of Objective Standard Institute’s junior fellows program) explores in his review of The White Pill by Michael Malice. Also new this week, Timothy Sandefur shines a light on an under-recognized hero of American abolitionism, Charles Sumner.
From the archive, we revisit Andrew Bernstein’s “Heroes and Villains of Western Philosophy” and Craig Biddle’s accessible introduction to Objectivism. If you’d like to learn about the centerpiece of Objectivism, Ayn Rand’s philosophy of rational self-interest, consider taking Craig’s course, Rational Egoism: The Morality For Loving Life.
I hope you enjoy this week’s articles!
Thomas Walker-Werth
What’s New?
The White Pill: A Tale of Good and Evil by Michael Malice (Review)
The twentieth century’s most destructive ideology is now the least understood. Across Europe, America, and parts of the Global South, support for socialism and communism is making a comeback. A striking number of young people in the West now view these systems favorably, often attributing their past failures to poor implementation.
Charles Sumner: The Antislavery Hero America Needs to Remember
Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner was that rarest of political creatures: a deeply principled man who nevertheless rose to the highest levels of government power. Best remembered today as one of slavery’s most vocal enemies, he was also a leading scholar of international law whose achievements included overseeing the annexation of Alaska.
From the Archive
Heroes and Villains in Western Philosophy
The history of Western philosophy is essentially a struggle of the human mind to discover truth and the method for achieving it, the method of objectivity.
What Is Objectivism?
Objectivism is fully secular and absolutist; it is neither liberal nor conservative nor anywhere in between. It recognizes and upholds the secular (this-worldly) source and nature of moral principles and the secular moral foundations of a fully free, fully civilized society.
Birthdays and Anniversaries
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