Fun and Games on Earth Day 2002

Fun and Games on Earth Day 2002
by Luke Setzer

After learning of a novel theory of physics that rekindled my interest in the subject, I decided to attend University of Central Florida (UCF) to take some classes in January 2002 to learn more. As a passionate Objectivist, I opted to take advantage of this opportunity to form a campus Objectivist Club. I contacted the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) and expressed interest in forming a campus club, and they shared the names of UCF students with me who could help. After enduring months of the usual bureaucratic wickets, we managed to create the first official Objectivist Club at UCF.

Our first project came in April 2002 when we hosted our "Earth Day versus Man" booth. To help us and to help herself, a local high school student completed her "community service" requirement for her senior English class project when she volunteered to help us to run the booth. As her mentor, I later attended her class presentation. She blew away the students with her advocacy of reality, reason, rational egoism, rights and romantic realism. I especially enjoyed reading her project journal, where she documented conversations with our opponents and at one point wrote in exasperation, "Yeah, right, like I am going to sacrifice my life for the sake of some damned tree!"

We actually sponsored the booth over two distantly separate days. The first day came during "Earth Week" the first week of April. During that week, a variety of member clubs of the so-called "Progressive Council" hosted all sorts of propaganda events aimed at spreading the usual environmentalist hysteria about global warming, evil corporations destroying the planet, and so forth. In the midst of this insanity stood our booth, laden with rational flyers from ARI explaining the many benefits of free markets and resource exploitation and exposing the harm wrought by radical environmentalism.

The second day took place on the actual Earth Day later that month. Our booth stood alone on that theme that day and drew various onlookers. The fireworks exploded when a member of "Free the Planet" stormed toward our table and shouted:

"You people suck! You make me sick! If I could get away with it, I would jump on top of your table and drop my pants and crap all over your literature!"

We made the mistake of attempting to reason with this young man when he clearly stood in a state of total unreason.

"What do you mean?" we asked.

"Look at this!" he shouted as he grabbed an ARI flyer and pointed to the footer. "Look what is says here: 'Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism.' This should say, 'The Center for the Advancement of Slavery'!"

By this time, one of his comrades, a young man with dark olive skin and dreadlocks, had joined the foray. He pulled forth a hand-drawn transparency and showed it to us.

"See this flow chart?" explained the student with dreadlocks. "This shows the flow of ecosystems. Man keeps disrupting this delicate system," he stammered.

"You people will destroy the Earth and everyone on it if you have your way," continued the first student.

"Well, what is your proposed alternative?" asked one of my fellow Objectivists.

"We need to start using more wind and solar energy," said the first assailant.

"We need to have the government do more research on alternative energy," said the second.

Back and forth we went for several minutes. Meanwhile, in a side conversation, our young high school student had engaged herself in a debate with yet another onlooker who argued that a proper theory of ethics cannot remain man-centered or "anthropocentric."

"But life is the root of value!" she argued right back. "Luke! Help me!"

"What exactly can I do to help?" I asked.

"You have not stated why man and not some other standard should be adopted," he objected.

I made my best effort to explain why man, as the rational animal, stands as the only animal capable of studying ethics at all. We crossed intellectual swords for a few minutes before he sauntered to a pro-Israel booth to argue with them about why the Palestinians should not be denied a right to form their own state.

I do not know how many minds, if any, we influenced on those days in favor of our view of the environment. But the engagement proved a stimulating value in itself, as did the frontal exposure to the modern campus Left. For those on campus now, if you choose to host a similar booth on Earth Day, prepare for similar frontal attacks.

In closing, let me say that our high school protégé earned a solid "A" in her English course and has since matriculated to UCF to earn a degree on her path to becoming a film critic. Meanwhile, I decided after three physics courses that I did not want the knowledge that badly, and discontinued that course of study. But the experiences I gained from supporting a campus Objectivist Club made the effort worthwhile. That club finally disbanded when the student leaders graduated, but the positive memories linger.

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