January 2002 -- In recent decades, friends of liberty have celebrated the new economy not only for the tangible benefits it brings but also for its promise of liberation. Technology has dramatically increased the mobility of people, capital, and information, and thus provided them with escape routes from the heavy hand of government. In a global capital market, for example, where a mouse-click can send money across borders in a microsecond, central bankers in Washington, London, Tokyo, and elsewhere can no longer impose onerous controls with impunity. E-commerce with strong encryption, some have argued, will prove impossible for governments to tax, and the Internet will undermine governments' power to censor information. Some theorists have confidently predicted that the nation-state will become obsolete. How can you rule people and things that won't stay put?

Oct 13, 2010

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3 min

In the medieval list of deadly sins, lust and greed were the two characterized by an excessive appetite for worldly pleasure. After the Renaissance and Enlightenment, attachment to this world was no longer considered sinful, but it took time for the guilt-ridden morality to wear off. By the 19th century, the pursuit of profit and wealth had become respectable, but sex was still encrusted with Victorian morality. The 20th century brought sexual liberation, especially since the '60s, but it also brought anti-capitalism. So we now have the inverted situation in which sexual desire is fine and open, but the profit motive is the dirty secret: everyone does it but no one wants to say so. Perhaps you will find this “Facts of Life” conversation a helpful guide for navigating this sensitive topic.

7. September 2010

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3 min

October 24, 2003 -- The crackle of small-arms fire that you hear about General William Boykin is the sound of the latest skirmish in America’s culture wars. Boykin is the Pentagon’s head of intelligence in the war on terrorism. He is also an evangelical Christian who has told church groups that Muslim terrorists hate the United States because it is a “Christian nation,” that our real enemy is not Osama bin Laden but Satan, and that we will prevail only if “we come against them in the name of Jesus.” It gets worse. According to the Los Angeles Times reporter who broke the story, Boykin would show audiences a picture he took in Somalia after the “Blackhawk Down” fiasco in Mogadishu. Pointing to an unnatural-looking dark streak in the sky, he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your enemy. It is the principalities of darkness. It is a demonic presence in that city that God revealed to me as the enemy.”

Apr 4, 2010

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3 min

January 30, 2002 -- In his powerful State of the Union address, President Bush gave voice to the two deepest truths of a free society: that the essential function of its government is to provide security, and that it depends on a culture of responsibility. On the first of these themes, his words were as clear and forceful as his actions have been in waging the war on terrorism. Looking beyond the immediate threat, he set a long-term goal of eliminating terrorist networks and the regimes that sponsor them. And looking beyond the physical threat, he identified the underlying conflict of values: “They embrace tyranny and death as a cause and a creed….We choose freedom and the dignity of every life.”

Apr 4, 2010

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3 min

Ten years ago the media were full of alarming stories about the number of Americans who did not have health care insurance. That "crisis" was used to whip up support for the Clinton administration's comprehensive health care plan, which would have essentially nationalized the $1 trillion health-care industry. The plan was defeated in Congress. A decade later, however, it seems that nothing was learned. The federal government, along with the states, has continued to expand the regulations and subsidies that created the problems in the first place. And once again the number of people without insurance is on the public agenda. On November 19, the National Academy of Sciences released a report claiming: "The American health care system is confronting a crisis. The cost of private health insurance is increasing at an annual rate of 12 percent. Individuals are paying more out of pocket and receiving fewer benefits. One in seven Americans is uninsured, and the number of uninsured is on the rise." Many newspapers followed up with stories of individuals losing benefits. The health insurance "crisis," like other problems of the health care industry, is the product of government interventions in the market. Tax policies still push most people into employer-based health plans, so that losing a job means losing coverage—a matter of renewed anxiety with the economic downturn. Price controls on insurers—and doctors, hospitals, and drug companies—are lowering the quality of service available to consumers. The cost of malpractice insurance, driven up by courts that have allowed outlandish awards to plaintiffs, are driving doctors out of business. States continue to increase the number of conditions that insurers must cover, driving up the cost of insurance. Over the last half century, layer upon layer of government interventions have so distorted the health-care industry that it can hardly be called a marketplace any longer.

Nov 1, 2002

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3 min

February 1, 1998 -- This god, this one word: ''I'' With the sentence quoted above, Ayn Rand's novella Anthem projected the rediscovery of self amid a totally collectivist world. On February 3, an ABC News special, "Greed With John Stossel," offered Objectivists the inspiring sight of a brilliant counteroffensive against the anti-individualist attitudes that have been leading us toward such a collectivist hell for the last several centuries. Providing the philosophical basis for the counterattack was IOS's executive director, David Kelley. In the next issue of Navigator, we will look at reaction to the show. But for this issue, Navigator asked Kelley to recall how the program came about and how the show that he saw on television appeared from his perspective. Read an excerpt from the show

Feb 1, 1998

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3 min

Editor's Note: This article, from 1991, references "The institute." The Atlas Society was orginially founded as the Institute for Objectivist Studies. And not by eastern windows only, When daylight comes, comes in the light, In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly, But westward, look, the land is bright. -Arthur Hugh Clough June 1, 1991 -- Ideas are the primary source of a society's culture and political life, and we look to intellectual change as the path to freedom, individualism, and a culture in which our values will be honored. History throws this connection into bold relief. With the accuracy of hindsight, and a vantage point that lets us take in centuries at a sweep, we observe how the ideas that flourished in the Renaissance and Age of Reason led to the Enlightenment and its political reforms, and then to the Industrial Revolution.

Jun 1, 1991

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3 min