Category: Essays

Opening her first lecture at the historic Ford Hall Forum in 1961, Ayn Rand saw her audience as consisting mainly of her “antagonists” — liberals. Why did she choose to engage them? The briefest explanation is to tell you that in the 1930s I envied the “liberals” for the fact that their leaders entered political … Continue reading Ayn Rand’s Devastating Critique of ‘Liberals’

By Ben Bayer and Elan Journo “Ukraine has made nationalism cool again” — “Nationalism’s finest hour” — “Ukraine shows we live in a nationalist world.” Articles with these provocative titles began to appear shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. All were authored by prominent advocates of “national conservatism.” They continued to press the theme in … Continue reading Putin’s War Embodies National Conservatism’s Ideology

The international response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been extraordinary. Rarely have so many nations united so quickly to impose such heavy economic and diplomatic sanctions on Russia. Even Switzerland, a byword for studied neutrality, saw fit to levy sanctions on Putin’s regime. Millions of Ukrainians who fled their homes have been welcomed as … Continue reading Why John Mearsheimer Gets Ukraine Wrong

By Yaron Brook and Elan Journo No death toll can truly capture the devastation that Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, and their ilk inflicted upon the world. Think of the engineered Great Famine in Ukraine (Holodomor), the Holocaust, the Cultural Revolution, the Killing Fields of Cambodia. Though today we recognize these leaders as monsters, we … Continue reading The Banality of Putin and Xi

“I was seconds from turning my car keys into some sort of fist weapon and gouging out his Adam’s apple for the accusation,“ said Jonah Goldberg on his podcast. What low, unsavory, insulting accusation could have driven Goldberg, a leading conservative intellectual, to such violent indignation: Dishonesty? Theft? Murder? No, it was the merest suggestion that … Continue reading Jonah Goldberg, Ayn Rand and Conservative Religiosity

Where did defenders of Roe v. Wade go wrong? Why did they lose the moral high ground? What does it take to defend abortion rights in the United States? To defend abortion as an inviolable right, it has to be understood as a claim of uncompromising justice. That’s the case my colleague Ben Bayer lays out in … Continue reading ARI’s New Broadside in Defense of Abortion Rights

Imagine a newborn fringe movement preaching that what diminishes and undermines life must be embraced; that what makes human life safer, longer, richer must be renounced; and that however much you sacrifice, it is never enough. Imagine that this movement’s leaders crusade to transform the world — from our laws and economic system, down to … Continue reading The Anti-Industrial Crusade: A Special Earth Day Podcast Series