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In this issue:
Departments
The Fall 2026 Issue of The Objective Standard Is Released!
Welcome to the Fall 2026 issue of The Objective Standard, the rational alternative to conservatism and regressivism.
Cover Article
Seeing People Clearly: Lessons from Jane Austen
Novels, according to Jane Austen, can contain “the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties.”
Philosophy and Politics
The Morning of Acmeism: The Forgotten School of Reality-Affirming Poetry
Osip Mandelstam’s “The Morning of Acmeism” (1913) is a brief yet ambitious manifesto attempting to articulate the aesthetic principles of one of the most distinctive poetic movements of early-twentieth-century Russia: Acmeism.
The Liberating Absolutism of Objectivism
Objectivism is often misrepresented as a rigid set of ideas issued by Ayn Rand that you must accept and uphold to be a “good Objectivist.” But it is not. And understanding the difference is essential to understanding Objectivism.
Understanding the Declaration of Independence (Part 2)
This is the second part of a serialized republication of a chapter from Timothy Sandefur’s book Proclaiming Liberty: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the Declaration of Independence.
Science and Technology
Project Sunrise: The Future of Intercontinental Travel
On July 28, 2026, a brand-new Airbus A350 broke the record for the longest uninterrupted flight by a commercial jet: twenty-four hours and twenty-four minutes. The 14,338-mile flight demonstrated the viability of Project Sunrise, a joint effort by Airbus and Australian airline Qantas.
The Volunteers Who Turned Failed Transport Links into Thriving Tourist Attractions
Passionate volunteers have turned thousands of miles of abandoned rails across the world into thriving tourist attractions that celebrate industry, technology, and innovation.
Film and Literature
Angel Down Makes a Mockery of Pulitzer Prize’s Celebration of Excellence
Angel Down won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for fiction—and yet the book is poison to its readers’ lives and minds.
Nolan’s Odyssey (2026) Fails on All Levels: As an Adaptation, as a Film, and as a Story
Only Odysseus’s quest itself is grander in scope than the catastrophic failure of Nolan’s film. Its redeeming qualities are nearly nonexistent, and it fails not only as an adaptation of one of the greatest stories of all time but also as a film, and these two failure modes often overlap considerably.
Odysseus and the Limits of Ancient Heroism
Although Homer's Odyssey is a deeply heroic work that pioneered the idea of centering a story on a rational, proactive character, it also depends upon a premise fundamentally opposed to the conditions that make heroism possible.
Citizen Vigilante Is Exactly What It Looks Like—and That’s Not a Good Thing
Citizen Vigilante is not merely a bad movie; it's the kind that tries and fails to take a moral stand against a severe, real-world problem—and then proceeds to dump jet fuel on the fire from a bucket labeled “water.”
I Write Vigilante Thrillers—But Citizen Vigilante Disgusts Me
The disturbing, highly popular new film Citizen Vigilante rests on a terrific story premise: a vigilante who doesn’t merely hold to account predatory criminals but also their ideologically motivated criminal sympathizers. Unfortunately, its protagonist, Michael Sanders, is the polar opposite of the traditional vigilante hero, psychologically, stylistically, and, above all, morally.
Mickey 17: The Importance of Valuing Life—Especially Your Own
Mickey 17, written and directed by Bong Joon Ho, is a comedic, dystopic techno-futurist film that shows starkly how easily people can lose respect for life.