  The Laramie Project:Fighting Gay Panic and The Culture of Hate
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
I recently saw a theater production called The Laramie Project. The play has toured the United States, and is currently running off-Broadway in New York City. It is produced by the Tectonic Theater Project. Eight men and women portray about thirty or so characters in a two-and-a-half hour drama on a minimalist stage. The characters are distillations of about 200 people whom the theater company interviewed over a one-year period in Laramie, Wyoming. It centers on the small town's reaction to the ghastly 1998 murder of a young gay student named Matthew Shepard. Shepard's murder has become a rallying cry of sorts by those who embrace so-called ‘hate crimes’ legislation. (Read more...)
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 The Politics of Culture and the Culture of Politics
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Living in New York City, it is totally impossible not to be caught up in the various tribal battles that take place on an almost daily basis. In fact, the tribalism affects every aspect of life, especially politics. (Read more...)
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The Paradox of Eminem: Will the Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up?
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
It was a warm August afternoon, and all of the windows of my apartment were wide open. I could hear the playful screams of several young kids in the alleyway below. I had decided to listen to the newly purchased "Marshall Mathers LP" as I prepared my lunch in the kitchen, so I had to pump up the volume on my audio system in order to hear it. A voice bellowed: "This is another public service announcement brought to you in part by Slim Shady. Slim Shady does not give a fuck what you think. If you don’t like it, you can suck his fucking cock. Little did you know upon purchasing this album, you have just kissed his ass. Slim Shady is fed up with your shit. Anything else? Yeah, sue me." (Read more...)
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 Dialectics & The Art of Nonfiction
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Discussion of Ayn Rand: The Art of Nonfiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers and his own Total Freedom: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism. (Read more...)
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Objectivism and Homosexuality - Again
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
I have been especially impressed with SOLO's credo that "acknowledge[s] that Ayn Rand made mistakes; that she did not address some philosophical questions needing to be addressed; that she was wrong about some matters of considerable existential moment, such as homosexuality." It is this last issue, in particular, that has always provoked some of the most virulent responses I have ever witnessed in Objectivist circles (Read more...)
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Objectivism and Homosexuality: Part 2 in a Series - The Rattigan Society
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
"The Rattigan Society is named after the Romantic British playwright, Sir Terence Rattigan, who in a nonstrident, consistent and courageous way, lived honestly as a gay man." So says the Society's home page at www.rattigan.net. And any discussion of the history of Objectivism and its treatment of homosexuality cannot ignore the existence of this organization. (Read more...)
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 Golf, Guilt, and Capitalism
by Larry Sechrest
Pro golfers should feel no guilt about their high incomes; they earn every penny. Very few humans are capable of playing this demanding game with such consummate skill. And the touring pros should reject every suggestion that they must give something back to society at large. They took nothing in the first place. There is nothing to give back. Indeed, their athletic achievements represent a net gain, for they provide us "duffers" with precious and unforgettable memories. We should applaud their triumphs, not accost them like beggars. (Read more...)
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 A Libertarian Dream of America
by Larry Sechrest
In 1963 Martin Luther King electrified the nation with his "I have a dream" speech. His words that day constituted superb oratory, but questionable philosophy. On this anniversary of Reverend King’s birth I wish to say that I have a rather different dream for this nation. (Read more...)
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 The Greatest of Handicaps
by Larry Sechrest
I would like to tell you about one of the most remarkable, and most lovable, persons I have ever known. His name was Mike Mazero, and I hope the quality of his character will touch you as deeply as it has me. (Read more...)
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Thirty Questions About the Bible
by Larry Sechrest
30 questions. (Read more...)
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 Trafficking with the Brain-Dead
by Larry Sechrest
What is the single biggest problem I have encountered? The students. (Read more...)
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Nautical Paradox
by Larry Sechrest
I have been passionately attracted to all manner of sailing ships and sailboats virtually as long as I can remember. I have always wanted to know how they performed, how they were designed and constructed, how they were sailed, and what roles they had played in history. Sailing vessels are, to me, the most interesting of all machines. (Read more...)
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Violence, Virtue and Vice
by Larry Sechrest
In and of itself, violence is, and can only be, morally neutral. What imbues violent acts with the glory of morality or the taint of immorality is the motive of the acting person in the given situation. (Read more...)
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In Praise of Aristocratic Attributes
by Larry Sechrest
Without good taste and refinement, how are we to appreciate beauty? Without dignity and honour, how can we recognize grandeur? Without benevolence and sentimentality, how will we ever find love? Our lives need the richness, the texture that these "aristocratic attributes" can bring. (Read more...)
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Fascism Triumphant
by Larry Sechrest
Fascist sentiments and policies motivated the Axis powers - Germany, Italy, and Japan - during the Second World War. And everyone knows that the Allies won the war. Therefore, fascism was soundly defeated and, for all practical purposes, disappeared from the world stage, right? Wrong, tragically wrong. (Read more...)
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Nourishing The Best Within
by Cameron Pritchard
As a seventeen-year-old observing the ways of the world it often saddens me to see the jaded view of life held by many older people. Any hot-headed and idealistic teenager will find his passionate convictions about the way the world should be dismissed as youthful naiveté. Apparently ideas are something you are supposed to just "grow out of" when you enter the "real" world. (Read more...)
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From Washington to Weasels
by Cameron Pritchard
Close your eyes and think of Thomas Jefferson. Open them and look at George W. Bush or any other weasel-worded, compromising, pragmatic, mainstream politician anywhere in the world. What has happened? What has gone wrong? Gone are the days when politicians were philosophers, with ideas of grand political scope. Gone are the days when concepts such as truth, justice and liberty were the political catchwords. Today, these terms have been replaced by such almost ridiculous notions as "consensus politics," "the third way" or "the knowledge economy" — not the sort of stuff that stirs the blood and starts revolutions. Can lovers of liberty do anything but despair? (Read more...)
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Why Conservatives Like to Keep it in the Family
by Cameron Pritchard
Throughout history would-be advocates of liberty have tried to base freedom on dangerous foundations. God, utilitarianism, the protestant ethic – you name it, it has been trumpeted as a would-be defence for capitalism. Whether capitalism is based on serving the Almighty, or being your ‘brother's keeper’ - or both - all too often its advocates fall over themselves to reassure the socialists that they too support altruism. It is unsurprising then that many conservatives (‘radical’ or otherwise) have a pet form of altruistic dogma to be used whenever they actually feel like trying to defend liberty. They base their support for capitalism on one particular kind of altruism - the notion of ‘family values’. (Read more...)
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In Praise of Egoism
by Cameron Pritchard
This is a tribute to the egoist. Since the birth of history he has been maligned and despised. Misrepresented as the epitome of immorality, he has been tortured, burnt at the stake, censored and regulated. For the crime of thinking and acting on his own, he has been thrown to the mercy of the very masses whose existence he made possible. He was judged by those who were envious of his mind and of his talent. He was judged by God, by the state, by the people. But although the names of his jurors changed, their verdict never altered. Guilty. Guilty of the sin of facing the universe alone. Guilty of possessing a confidence in his own judgment as absolute as his love of truth and beauty. (Read more...)
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The Fouling of Philosophy
by Cameron Pritchard
Two millennia ago the Ancient Greeks established the discipline of philosophy and began man's ascent to the stars. Today, their legacy lies all but forgotten, a twisted, disintegrating remnant of what it once was, a meaningless game at the very time humanity seeks wisdom and direction for its uncertain future. Philosophy's contemporary practitioners are in the process of destroying the very purpose of their discipline, tearing it down by declaring that certainty can never be attained, and offering nothing but an array of absurd word games in its place. On some campuses in this country, these academics are expunging from philosophy curricula any mention of philosophic history, in an attempt to make philosophy appear isolated from any relevancy to life, mankind's past, or its future. Worse, at a time when my generation is directionless for lack of an uplifting view of life, professional philosophers are stealing philosophy - and ethics - from those who are in dire need of it. (Read more...)
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Of Wright and Renaissance
by Cameron Pritchard
Upon entering Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York one is immediately struck with awe. This is a building like no other, an organic entity rising from the ground and taking you on its spiral ascent to the heavens - the heavens that only a man of Wright's brilliance could reach. The spirit of Wright's heroic vision and the material substance of the building are thrust together to create an experience at once intellectual and emotional. The Guggenheim boasts an "extended, expansive, well-proportioned floor space from bottom to top … no stops anywhere … gloriously lit from above." The building is a temple to life on earth - and yet one feels as if one is truly in the presence of a god. The god is Wright - whose gigantic presence haunts the building and makes one realize what we Objectivists might call "the total passion for the total height." (Read more...)
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Headbanging Caterwaulers
by Derek McGovern
It was one of Lindsay’s editorials on the Politically Incorrect Show that set me off. The subject was quintessential Perigo: the mindlessness of contemporary popular music. Dismissing many of today’s musical fads as "unmitigated garbage," he went on to question how supposedly rational people could embrace such "caterwauling." (Read more...)
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Fire In The Groin
by Derek McGovern
Now be honest! How many of you looked at the cover of the last Free Radical and thought to yourselves: Oh no, not Mario Lanza again! What is it with Perigo and that guy? Why does he have to keep ramming him down our throats? I mean, it’s not like Lanza was a libertarian! (Read more...)
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Voice in the night
by Derek McGovern
Overhead the moon is beaming
White as blossoms on the bough
Nothing is heard but the song of a bird
Filling all the air with dreaming... (Read more...)
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Libertarianism, Kiwi-Style
by Tim Sturm
New Zealand’s economy is often viewed by libertarians elsewhere as having been the free market envy of the world, at least until recently, thanks to the reform process of the 1980s and 90s. This is an unfortunate view, firstly, because it is wrong, and secondly, because it distracts attention from recent events going on in New Zealand that libertarians should know about. The New Zealand example is fairly unique in a variety of ways that, while not necessarily making libertarian success much more likely, at least make it an interesting case study. The ultimate goal of New Zealand libertarianism is to establish New Freeland, a full libertarian society built on the consent axiom with individual rights protected in a constitution. The strategy for getting there has been an attack on all fronts, from the intellectual and philosophical fundamentals through to direct political agitation. Its biggest success so far has been firstly in establishing itself as what seems to be a permanent fixture, and secondly in raising the general level of awareness and understanding of libertarian thought. (Read more...)
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