WHEN: June 29-July 1, 2012

WHERE: Renaissance Hotel, Washington, D.C.

WHO: individuals from all around the world interested in learning Objectivist values and ideas.

FROM: The Atlas Society 

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: Atlas Society Summer Seminar 2012

THEME:  ”Either-Or“. “Either-Or” is an affirmation of Aristotelian logic, particularly the tenets of the Law of identity (A = A; a thing is identical to itself), the Law of excluded middle (either A or not-A; a thing is either something or not that thing, no third option), and the Law of noncontradiction (not both A and not-A; a thing cannot be both true and not true in the same instant).

For this Seminar The Atlas Society will provide seminar scholarships to worthy students.

I am also very pleased to announce that I will have the honor of being part of this excellent group of lecturers (Click here to view entire program).  In the two lectures I will discuss what is the real history of Capitalism. Te goal of my talk is that all attendees will be able of explaining accurately why and how Capitalism is a social system that has never existed in its full, perfect, and unregulated form. In Part 1, we will explore the growth and flourishing of the ideas of free-market capitalism in the 18th and 19th centuries.  In Part 2, we will ook at the assault against capitalism in the 20th century and consider where we find ourselves today.

SEMINAR LECTURERS:

• Ziad Abdelnour
• John Aglialoro
• Steve Davis
• Aaron Day
• Roger Donway
• Marsha Enright
• Amanda Hall
• Stephen Hicks
• Edward Hudgins
• Harmon Kaslow
• David Kelley
• Donald Luskin
• David N. Mayer 
• Guillermo Pineda
• Alexander R. Cohen
• William R Thomas
• Fred Seddon
• John Stossel
• Joel Wade
• Anne Wortham

 VIEW  PROGRAM
To access on your mobile phone, enter www.either-or.sched.org

REGISTER NOW FOR SUMMER SEMINAR 2012

A new blog has been born for those of you interested in learning and discussing the principles of Capitalism.  The title of the blog is “Laissez Faire: The Uncompromised Case for Capitalism” and is going to be written by Don Watkins and Yaron Brook from the Ayn Rand Institute.  The blog aims to discuss the philosophic ideas that shape economic policy.

I invite you start following it and to start commenting their articles.  Indeed, this is great news for the spread of Objectivism, the Philosophy of Ayn Rand!

Social Media of Laissez Faire

Image via Wikipedia

A couple days ago, Otto Perez Molina, recently elected as President of Guatemala; announced that he was willing to decriminalize the commercialization of drugs. According to U.S. authorities, Guatemala has became the transshipment point for more than 75 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States since 2005.  Along with this, the Opium poppy cultivation is already done in large parts of the countryside making the production of Guatemalan heroin a greater and the newest worry for the United States. The country’s elites are already part of this business and the paranoia of crimes that used be a remembrance from Colombia‘s 1990s history seems to be repeating in these Central American countries.

What impresses me the most now is how this news has started spreading around my Facebook contacts (mostly libertarians and liberals). Both groups seem to be happy to hear this announcement by Guatemala’s President.  However, both groups applaud the news for different reasons.  The legalization/decriminalization of drugs will not be the panacea we all are hoping for.  Specially not if started by any of the Central American governments.  The reasons are many and I will begin by listing some of them to open the discussion,

• Corruption, lax enforcement, and judicial impunity levels in Central America are among the highest of the world.
• Drug lords and their new and powerful money have been mentioned by many analysts to be already part of the politic and economic elites of these countries.
• The Central American countries in which this drugs are produced and transported are inhabited by a large majority of people living in the lowest leves of Human Development.
• If legalized, the trade, production and commercialization of drugs (cocaine and heroine mainly) will be regulated by these governments.
• Without any doubt, this regulations will enable and create legalized monopolies ruled with the partnership of previous drug lords and government officials.
• It has not been advocated by any of the political leaders which road would take the legalization of drugs. This is important, because under current legalization procedures it is not the same to get the approval for a new medicine in the market as to get the approval for a new liquor, a new energizing drink or of a new edible product.

The history of the legalization (production, trade and commercialization) of items considered by many as drugs and for others as commodities has shown that for as long as a government elite hold the power to legalize it; it was in their power to take the first steps into the acquisition of a monopoly of its trade and production.

If legalized, the emergence of a coercive monopoly would be inevitable. As noted by Ayn Rand, the governments and their partners in these coercive monopolies “will be able of setting the initial prices and production policies independently of the market, with immunity from competition, from the law of supply and demand. An economy dominated by such monopolies would be rigid and stagnant.”

If we support the complete and absolute free trade of all commodities it is necessary that we do not grant to government an intrinsic right to regulate it.  No compromise should ever be done with a government that requires regulation in order to give us legalization.  Legalization should result in freedom and not in regulation.  The drug trade should be opened to businessmen and entrepreneurs in the freest way possible. The freest way is that of requiring the traders to inform their buyers about all the necessary information about the products they are offering.

We may be taking part in a historical moment in which the most important thing are principles.  Let us remember that one of the most valuable principles of trade is Freedom; and that one of the most valuable principles of government is to seek that i will Protect Individual Rights and not to regulate their lives.

Note: To understand more which are the principles that really matter in this discussion, I invite you to take a look to the video titled: The Drug War in Guatemala: A Conversation with Giancarlo Ibarguen.

Want to find out how individual liberty and economic freedom have shaped the modern world?

Discover the classical liberal ideas that have helped to end slavery, inspire women’s suffrage, and give us religious freedom. What’s in store at an IHS Summer Seminar?

• Plenty of discussion about today’s toughest political and social issues
• Top-tier teaching on principles of liberty
• Fun and purposeful interaction with peers from around the globe

Questions to warm up on:

• What is the proper role of government?
• How can society solve widespread problems while respecting individual liberty?
• What are the unintended consequences of government programs?

The Right Seminar for You: Choose from 12 Options

IHS provides programs tailored to a wide variety of backgrounds. Whether you’re a seasoned libertarian or just getting curious about individual liberty, attending an IHS Summer Seminar geared toward your interests will connect you to rich resources, engaging people, and enriching ideas.

Seminar themes range from liberty fundamentals to challenging advanced topics, to career-specific material focused on public policy, academia, or journalism. Seminar topics include peace, natural rights, individual autonomy, the morality of free enterprise, the role of a free press in society, and more.

Daily Life Snapshot

A typical seminar day is filled with lectures, discussion groups, and time to socialize. Enjoy rewarding discussions that will lead to insights you can apply to your classes, career, and overall approach to life.

“One of the best and purest educational experiences of my life… Also, the most fun.” Anna Thorn

“I have learned more in one week than I do in some semester-long courses. This experience will help me for the rest of my career and schooling.” – Quinn Gribben

Locations

Seminars take place on college campuses located across the United States. All participants receive a full scholarship covering housing, meals, and books. Participants are responsible for travel costs.

Eligibility

Undergraduate students, graduate students, and recent graduates are eligible for most seminars (eligibility requirements vary by seminar; see specific seminar pages for details).

Program Overview 

Schedule of Seminars 

I invite you to watch this video with a musical celebration of the wonders of biology, including evolution, natural selection, DNA, and more. Featuring David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins and Bill Nye. “The Greatest Show on Earth” is the 13th video in the Symphony of Science music videos series. All of which are now studied because of the questions that Charles Darwin dare to ask.

Symphony of Science – The Greatest Show on Earth! A music video about Evolution

Islam to her is Philosophy and Culture at the same time; and unfortunately she refuses to acknowledge the contradictions created by her religion by just ignoring them.  This is an interesting video that could help you identify how is it that philosophical contradictions are the root of our diferences with people that lives in areas of the world in which Islam rules.

As such, unless we want chaos it is necesarry that before “globalizing the local, localizing the global” we understand which are the philosophical contradictions that do not enable us (and them) to coexist in peace.

Here’s the video,

Last night I couldn’t sleep. I choose to read some poetry to go somewhere else for the night.  Now I share with you the poem that moved me the most.  I hope you enjoy it,

This Is the Dream by Norwegian poet Olav H. Hauge

This is the dream we carry through the world
that something fantastic will happen
that it has to happen
that time will open by itself
that doors shall open by themselves
that the heart will find itself open
that mountain springs will jump up
that the dream will open by itself
that we one early morning
will slip into a harbor
that we have never known.

translation by Robert Bly and Robert Hedin

An excerpt from the Introduction to Individual Rights and Government Wrongs.

This book was written for those who love the United States of America and the principles upon which it was founded.

America was founded on an ideology—the right of each individual to his own life, his own liberty, and the pursuit of his own happiness. As philosopher Leonard Peikoff writes: “America is the only country in history created not by meaningless warfare or geographic accident, but deliberately, on the basis of certain fundamental ideas.”[1] The Founding Fathers sought to establish a form of government that, unlike monarchy, theocracy, and the mob rule of democracy, recognizes and protects individual rights.

The Founders were intellectual men, widely read in the ideas of the Enlightenment. They were also practical men, concerned with the problems of life on earth. Their great achievement was transforming the ideas of the Enlightenment into a practical socio-economic system—capitalism.  Read more…

[1] Leonard Peikoff, “Assault from the Ivory Tower: The Professors’ War Against America,” in The Voice of Reason (New York: Meridian, 1989), p. 187.

“one of the things that have always shocked me is how people, whom I would have trust with my pocket book in their private capacity and of whom I would never question their integrity, will in their public capacity -because they believe it is in the best interest of other people- lie to the American People.”

And this is exactly what happens with Social Security in the U.S. and with the immense Nanny State in Europe and with the corrupt welfare systems of Latin America; all of which I have been able of knowing.  I invite you to take a look to this short video of Milton Friedman (1975) explaining how the Social Security taxes are fundamentally a lose-lose option for employees, employers and society.

Picture 1

Picture 2

by by NASA Goddard Photo and Video in Flickr.com